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businesschief.com 

DECEMBER 2020 

M&A 

DEALS 

USAF – MIT’S 

‘AI ACCELERATOR’ 

Michael Kanaan, Director of Operations 

discusses the USAF and MIT’s AI Accelerator, 

and its mission to increase AI capabilities

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FOREWORD 

2020 

– a year like no other. 

As we enter into the 

final month of 2020, our cover features 

Michael Kanaan Director of Operations, 

U.S. Air Force and MIT Artificial Intelligence 

Accelerator, on its mission to use AI to 

increase capabilities while addressing 

societal demands. “Our efforts stretch 

across three main lines [...] It’s all about 

making AI real for our workforce,” 

comments Kanaan. 

With AI continuing to prove its value 

across multiple sectors and business 

functions, Andi Britt, Senior Partner at IBM 

Talent & Transformation, IBM Services 

Europe and Chris Huff, CSO at Kofax, 

take a look at the innovative technology 

from a HR perspective and the ways in 

which it is reinventing processes. 

Other leaders featured include Charlotte 

Bancilhon, Associate Director, BSR on the 

importance of shared value and trust to 

drive effective stakeholder engagement, 

and the impact of COVID-19; and Fuad 

Chapra, Head of Family Business, KPMG 

(Saudi Arabia) provides his expert insight 

on investment management benefits and 

trends. “Similar to other industries, 

technology has become increasingly 

important to enhance customer 

experience,” says Chapra. 

Elsewhere, we discover what it means 

to be a digital brand in today’s world, in our 

roundtable discussions with McKinsey, 

Toluna and Ebiquity. While Vikas Butaney, 

Vice President and General Manager of 

Cisco IoT, explains how companies can 

get the most out of IoT; and Ray Joyce 

and Steve Gill HR Services at EY discuss 

the rise of human and AI collaboration in 

HR operations. 

Finally to end the year, our December Top 

10 ranks – by year – its top mergers and 

acquisitions made by companies in North 

America over the last two decades. 

Do you have a story to share? If you would 

like to be featured in an upcoming issue 

of Business Chief, please get in touch at 

georgia.wilson@bizclikmedia.com 

Enjoy the issue! 

Georgia Wilson 

03 

businesschief.com

Between hope 

and possible 

there’s 

a bridge. 

There from the beginning to where 

we stand today. And to where we will go 

from here. One company. One promise. 

If you can imagine it, we will build 

the bridge to get you there.

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PUBLISHED BY 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

Georgia Wilson 

EDITORAL DIRECTOR 

Scott Birch 

CREATIVE TEAM 

Oscar Hathaway 

Sophia Forte 

Sophie-Ann Pinnell 

Hector Penrose 

Sam Hubbard 

Mimi Gunn 

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS 

Georgia Allen 

Daniela Kianicková 

PRODUCTION MANAGER 

Owen Martin 

Philline Vicente 

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER 

Kieran Waite 

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS 

Sam Kemp 

Evelyn Huang 

DIGITAL MARKETING EXECUTIVE 

Kayleigh Shooter 

Andy Stubbings 

Eve Howat 

Daisy Slater 

MANAGING DIRECTOR 

Lewis Vaughan 

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT 

Jordan Hubbard 

PROJECT MANAGERS 

Karl Green 

Thomas Livermore 

James Richardson 

Michael Banyard 

Jake Megeary 

Kris Palmer 

Mike Sadr 

Ryan Hall 

Ben Maltby 

Craig Killingback 

Stuart Irving 

James Berry 

MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR 

James White 

SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR 

Jason Westgate 

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER 

Stacy Norman 

PRESIDENT & CEO 

Glen White 

businesschief.com

CONTENTS 

10 

36

46 58 

What Does it Mean 

to be a Digital Brand? 

80 

92 

68 

US MERGERS AND 

ACQUISITIONS 

OF THE LAST TWO 

DECADES

110 

Saphyre 

124 

Aligned 

138 

Community 

Health Network 

154 

[24]7.ai 

170 SiteOne 

Landscape 

Supply

182 

T5 Data 

Centers 

198 

Legacy 

Community 

Health 

226 

Nautilus Data 

Technologies 

212 

Protective 

Insurance 

Canada 

Brokerlink Inc. 

240 

254 

Altar’d State

10 

USAF-MIT AI 

ACCELERATOR: 

COLLABORATION 

FOR NEW AI 

SOLUTIONS 

WRITTEN BY 

WILLIAM SMITH 

PRODUCED BY 

MIKE SADR 

DECEMBER 2020

usinesschief.com 

11

USAF-MIT AI ACCELERATOR 

MICHAEL KANAAN ON THE USAF 

AND MIT’S AI ACCELERATOR, AND 

ITS MISSION TO USE AI TO INCREASE 

CAPABILITIES WHILE ADDRESSING 

SOCIETAL DEMANDS 

12 

M 

ichael Kanaan is Director of Operations, 

U.S. Air Force and MIT Artificial Intelligence 

Accelerator, having previously been at the 

Pentagon as the co-chair of AI for the Air Force. 

The USAF-MIT AI Accelerator began in January 

2020. “It’s pursuant to a cooperative agreement 

with MIT, MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the 

Department of the Air Force,” explains Kanaan. 

“Our efforts stretch across three main lines. The 

first is to execute a number of flagship AI projects 

and the related work to bring that into existence. 

The second is developing scalable AI education 

for the workforce – all demographics, all ages, 

and all ranks. And the last is to lead the dialogue 

in AI ethics and safety. It’s all about making AI real 

for our workforce.” 

Aside from the three flagship projects which we 

are covering in depth, the initiatives include such 

things as natural language processing for communication 

with machine and foreign language 

training, swarming unmanned aerial vehicles for 


2019 

Year founded 

50 

Number of 

employees 

13 

businesschief.com


14 

“IT’S ABOUT BEING MORE ACCURATE, 

DELIVERING BETTER LOGISTICS, WORKING 

ON HUMANITARIAN AID MISSIONS WHILE 

ALSO SAVING THE TAXPAYER DOLLARS” 

— 

Michael Kanaan, 

Director of Operations, 

U.S. Air Force and MIT Artificial 

Intelligence Accelerator 

deployment on humanitarian aid missions, 

and using big data to illuminate 

weather circumstances in areas without 

a ground station. The projects 

are linked by a shared focus, as 

Kanaan explains. “The most important 

thing is to ensure that we all have a 

common and shared dialogue and 

understanding of what AI is, what it 

isn’t, how it works, and how to walk 

along that journey.” 

The MIT and Air Force collaboration 

is of a lineage with some of the most 

illustrious projects in the history of the 

United States. “There’s a triangular 

relationship between industry, academia, 

and government in the United 

States, that’s very special and very 

storied throughout our past.” Kanaan 

emphasizes that it stems from a common 

language between government, 

industry, and academia which must be 

nurtured. “We have to reinvigorate the 

relationship that, for instance, brought 

the internet into our homes. Artificial 

intelligence is something that’s going 

to be viewed as equivalent to electricity 

in our lives, because of the way it 

affects us every single day. What could 

be more important than something 

like electricity being shared by the 


Michael Kanaan | USAF-MIT AI Accelerator 

CLICK TO WATCH | 1:14 

15 

greatest minds, by those who build the 

best technologies and by the government 

as representative of its people?” 

The work has been enabled by the 

participation of a number of key partners, 

whose professional experts and 

contractors have worked alongside 

MIT and the USAF. “A lot of work that is 

necessary to bring modern technologies 

like cloud to bear, without which 

you would not have artificial intelligence. 

We want to make sure that it’s as easy 

as possible for our workforce to grasp.” 

Kanaan emphasizes that partners run 

the gamut of sizes, from the smallest to 

the largest. “This is a team sport. It’s a 

whole-of-nation effort, with small business 

innovation and research crucial to 

the success of the United States Air and 

Space Force. Meanwhile, our traditional 

partners understand us better than 

anyone else. They know how to integrate 

technologies with the legacy architectures 

that we must rely upon. We can’t 

buy a new thing every single day, and 

many of those things we can’t put in the 

cockpit of a jet, of course. And then lastly, 

nontraditional partners help to reinvigorate 

the conversations that we need 

to have on AI today.” 

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Ron Keesing,VP 

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challenges of modern 

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Leidos’ mission is to make the world safer, healthier, 

and more secure. We take on some of the world’s most 

interesting, challenging, and data-centric problems,” 

says Ron Keesing, VP of AI and Machine Learning 

at Leidos. 

Among the company’s core technical competencies is the 

development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine 

learning, which it hopes to incorporate into all of 

its solutions. Leidos often begins by adapting technology 

developed in the commercial and academic world to the 

missions and domains of our customers. On the DARPA 

ACE (Air Combat Evolution) program. Keesing says, 

“We’re taking a technology that came from the commercial 

world and using it to transform aerial combat. AI allows 

us to invert traditional battle paradigms, from one where 

many people control a single aircraft into one where a 

single person can control a team of manned and unmanned 

assets to complete complex mission objectives.” 

“We combine humans and machines to be able to perform 

these missions better and faster. Leidos’ role as an 

integrator of AI technology comes from many different 

sources, and we bring them all together into solutions 

that the U.S. Government can use. Currently, we’re using 

AI to transform the processing of veterans’ health benefits 

to make sure they’re receiving improved healthcare 

through natural language processing (NLP). This will 

enable faster claims and benefits processing with much 

higher accuracy and speed than was possible before.” 

Keesing emphasizes the importance of keeping up with 

the latest AI-based research and promoting understanding 

among clients regarding the best way to use it. “Many 

across the community are also starting to appreciate 

what it means for AI systems to be ethical; we wouldn’t 

want systems making crucial mistakes that could put 

human safety at risk or behave in a manner we perceive 

as unfair.” As such, Leidos believes in building trust 

between humans and AI to foster comprehension and 

encourage its more comprehensive application. 

Keesing closes by encouraging everyone, from students 

to senior decision-makers, to invest their attention in 

AI’s development. “This is such an exciting time for 

people thinking about launching careers in AI and 

machine learning, making sure how people understand 

AI will affect their systems and programs. Whether we 

want it or not, this technology is going to transform 

every aspect of our world, and Leidos’ is staying ahead 

to make sure the systems we’re building are safe, secure, 

and can be trusted.


18 

The fruits of the labor being put into 

these projects are not only for the Air 

Force’s benefit, with wider society also 

standing to gain. Kanaan cites humanitarian 

disasters, such as the wildfires 

and hurricanes which have had a 

devastating impact on the US this year, 

as examples of situations that could 

benefit from its work. “Humanitarian 

aid is a huge mission of the United 

States Air Force, as it is of the Army, 

the Navy, Coast Guard, and so on. AI 

has a role to play, and that can stretch 

across swarming drones to using computer 

vision, to predicting fire lines, 

to detecting people in flooded areas, 

and delivering telemedical health.” 

In that spirit, public challenges have 

been established for the two-way 

sharing of information. “The public 

challenges will ultimately help develop 

the associated projects for use in public 

society. And I think what I’m excited 

about is our release of some of these 

public challenges like magnetic navigation 

using earth’s magnetic sphere, 

for which you can find the public 

GitHub repository today.” 

The initiatives are standing the 

Air and Space Forces in good stead 


for the future by embracing digital 

transformation. “Once upon a time in 

the industrial age, you had to make 

trade-offs between speed, accuracy, 

and cost,” says Kanaan. “In the digital 

age, thanks to machine learning, artificial 

intelligence or any of the number 

of other automation techniques that 

are part of digital transformation, you 

can now do all three at once. For the 

Department of the Air Force, it’s about 

being more accurate, delivering better 

logistics, working on humanitarian 

aid missions while also saving the 

taxpayer dollars and making sure that 

we are good stewards of that money.” 

Kanaan views the collaboration 

that has enabled the accelerator as 

key to its success. “I can’t emphasize 

enough how grateful we are to MIT, 

to academia, to industry for being a 

part of this conversation and to our 

airmen and workforce for wanting 

to have the dialogue. What makes us 

special is that, while we are certain 

to make mistakes along the way, we 

hold a dialogue afterwards. It’s all 

about diving in.” 

19 

EXECUTIVE PROFILE: 

Michael Kanaan 

Title: Director of Operations 

Location: United States 

Industry: Academia and Defense 

Captain Michael Kanaan is the Director of Operations to the USAF- 

MIT Artificial Intelligence Accelerator and the former co-chair of 

artificial intelligence for the U.S. Air Force. He was named to the 

Forbes “30 Under 30” list and received the US Government’s 68th 

Arthur S. Flemming Award (an honor shared by past recipients Neil 

Armstrong, Robert Gates, and Elizabeth Dole). Kanaan is a graduate of 

the US Air Force Academy and previously led a National Intelligence 

Campaign for Operation Inherent Resolve in Syria and Iraq. 

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David Jacobs | USAF-MIT AI Accelerator 


22 

MAJ. DAVID JACOBS, US AIR FORCE: 

MAGNETIC NAVIGATION 

Having graduated from Stetson 

University College of Law as a patent 

attorney, Maj. David Jacobs, U.S. Air 

Force, got to ply his trade while stationed 

at an Air Force research lab. “I became 

the only active duty patent attorney, and 

I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to get where 

I am today as both the chief legal counsel 

to work on intellectual property, data 

rights, contracts, industry, and, of course, 

ethics, and then also a program manager 

for the robust neural differential models 

for navigation and beyond.”

Considering his role, Jacobs 

emphasises the focus on ethics that 

pervades the Air Force’s work with 

AI. We embed in all of our projects a 

consideration of artificial intelligence 

ethics and how it’s done. The Air Force 

wants to be a leader in AI, and to do 

that you have to focus on ethics.” He 

gives the example of the possibility 

of human research subjects being 

implicated from AI research based 

upon data. “One of the things we did 

is work with the Air Force 711th Human 

Performance Wing and coordinated 

with the Department of Army to 

develop a simple two-page guide to 

help Air Force and MIT researchers 

understand when something is human 

subject research under AI, and when 

it is not, so that we’re following ethical 

guidelines at all times.” 

In line with this ethical consideration 

are the public challenges. “The 

Air Force can actually be a partner 

in advancing the state of the art for 

everyone, and be leaders in this field. 

While it’s not new for academia to put 

forward challenges for other academics, 

it is new for the Air Force to get 

involved.” That new approach has 

required a number of advancements 

to make possible. “Some of the things 

“THE AIR FORCE 

WANTS TO BE 

A LEADER IN AI, 

AND TO DO THAT 

YOU HAVE TO 

FOCUS ON ETHICS” 

— 

Maj. David Jacobs, 

US Air Force 

23 

businesschief.com


24 

that we’ve had to address include the 

Air Force sharing data at such a public 

level. On the legal side, we’ve developed 

a data sharing agreement which 

enables the Air Force to share data 

publicly with academia and industry.” 

That collaboration is key to the 

Magnetic Navigation project, which 

Jacobs works on, and is aimed at 

developing an alternative to GPS 

systems which are vulnerable to disruption, 

especially in a conflict setting, 

which would create huge problems 

in both a military and civilian setting, 

considering the extent to which the 

technology is embedded in our lives. 

“The government is looking into what 

alternative GPS could look like and 

magnetic navigation is one of the 

possibilities,” says Jacobs. “Magnetic 

navigation takes the earth magnetic 

resonance and a magnetometer reader 

to pinpoint where you are in relation 

to the earth. Because this technique 

doesn’t rely on any external sources, 

it becomes particularly useful in 

areas where other signal sources are 

uncommon, such as over water.” 

The role of AI in the project is 

threefold, as Jacobs explains. “One, 

we’re using AI to reduce excess noise 

on the system. Have the AI cancel 

out what is coming from the plane 

and recognize what is interference 


and what are actual readings. Two, 

determine your position in real time 

with faster speeds. As we go to other 

vehicles like an F-16, we’re breaking 

the sound barrier and so we need to 

determine location at much faster 

speeds. And then finally we’re combining 

that magnetic parameter with 

other systems in the aircraft to create 

a complete picture.” 

The project has attracted a number 

of interested partners, such as the 

Joint Artificial intelligence Center and 

the Department of Defense. “We’ve 

had some talks with DARPA, with 

NASA and of course, academic institutions 

and industry. We’re happy 

to work with small business, large 

business and other academic institutions, 

because the more people that 

tackle this problem, the better. We’re 

approaching it as a chance to provide 

something that is good for the community 

at large.” 


David Jacobs 

25 

Title: Chief Legal Counsel 



Maj. Jacobs is the legal advisor to the USAF-MIT Artificial 

Intelligence Accelerator. In addition to providing advice on 

contracts, intellectual property, fiscal, ethics, and cutting-edge 

AI legal developments to the Accelerator program; he also 

works as the Air Force lead on Robust Neural Differential 

Models for Navigation and Beyond. Jacobs earned a B.S. in 

Biology from Arizona State University and earned his law 

degree from Stetson University College of Law. He 

served as a patent attorney before commissioning 

in the Air Force. 

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Tableau and the USAF: 

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Data analysis and visualisation company 

Tableau offers its customers the capacity 

to make better use of the data they have. 

Michael Parker is VP, Business Development 

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It’s that capability that is behind Tableau’s 

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Force, as Parker explains. “They’re looking 

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TSGT. ARMANDO CABRERA, US AIR 

FORCE: SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR 

“I’m first generation everything,” says 

TSgt. Armando Cabrera, US Air Force. 

“First generation American, first in 

my family to graduate high school, 

college and first to join the military.” 

Having graduated with a Bachelor’s 

in Mechanical Engineering, and 

after some time struggling to find a 

job, Cabrera joined the Air Force for 

Geospatial Intelligence. “I worked 

really hard in the Air Force technical 

school and graduated as a distinguished 

graduate.” 

Having demonstrated his potential, 

Cabrera was eventually selected for 

a program usually reserved for officers 

to be sent to Amazon to learn best 

practices for machine learning. “I was 

there for a year, playing two kinds of 

roles. First, I was a student taking all 

28 


Armando Cabrera 

Title: AI Flight Chief 



Tech. Sgt. Armando Cabrera is the flight chief for the USAF-MIT Artificial 

Intelligence Accelerator’s Multimodal Vision for Synthetic Aperature 

Radar (MV4SAR) project. Carbrera earned his B.S. in Mechanical 

Engineering from the University of Southern California and 

worked as a geospatial intelligence analyst for the Air Force 

before being accepted as one of the first enlisted members 

into the Education with Industry program. Cabrera was 

assigned to Amazon for a year, and was the first DoD 

employee to complete Amazon’s Machine Learning 

Education University. Currently, he is a lead researcher 

for SAR to EO image translation, and is a content 

developer in AI education for MIT Lincoln Lab. 


Armando Cabrera | USAF-MIT AI Accelerator 


29 

their courses, starting from the fundamentals 

of mathematics, machine 

learning, all the way to neural networks. 

And then also I was building training 

guides for how to use their equipment 

and software.” 

That background has led him to 

MIT, where he is now responsible for 

the Multimodal Vision for Synthetic 

Aperture Radar project. “What I bring 

is the operational experience of how 

to use these types of sensors, so I can 

field questions.” The goal of the project 

is to turn the images taken by specialized 

sensors into more human readable 

and interpretable photos. “That way 

businesschief.com

30 

“THE TWO YEARS THAT I WAS ABLE 

TO SPEND WITH A NON-STOP FOCUS 

ON MACHINE LEARNING AND AI HAVE 

MEANT I’VE BEEN ABLE TO BRING 

BACK A LOT OF BENEFITS” 

— 

TSgt. Armando Cabrera, 

US Air Force 

you don’t need experience as an image 

analyst, to understand what the images 

show. SAR sensors can penetrate 

things like weather or smoke, but the 

drawback is it’s hard to interpret the 

image itself. I’m hoping that with this 

capability that we’re creating, it can be 

used during events that usually don’t 

deploy it for. We can automatically use 

the sensor to penetrate through smoke 

or clouds and easily get additional information 

that we normally wouldn’t have.” 

The project uses learning algorithms 

trained on paired SAR and more easily 

understood electro-optical (EO) 

images. “It’s able to learn what a SAR 

image will look like compared with an 

EO image, and over time it will pick up 

the characteristics of the SAR image 

that are equivalent to EO image. That 


31 

way, it can create new images with the 

synthetic EO image attached.” Cabrera 

points to the usefulness of such technology 

in response to disasters such as 

the California wildfires, making previously 

obscured areas visible to build up 

a better picture of what is happening on 

the ground. 

Cabrera hails the open nature of 

machine learning as meaning that it’s 

now accessible to far more people. 

“When I first heard I was going to learn 

machine learning, I didn’t know what 

it was. But AI is so democratized now 

that I could learn a lot of information 

just from searching the internet. The 

two years that I was able to spend with 

a non-stop focus on machine learning 

and AI have meant I’ve been able to 

bring back a lot of benefits.” 

businesschief.com


32 

CAPT. RONISHA CARTER, U.S. 

AIR FORCE: C-17 SCHEDULING 

Having enlisted in the Air Force directly 

out of high school, Capt. Ronisha Carter 

started off in the field of server maintenance 

and boundary protection, before 

becoming an officer and receiving a 

Master’s in Computer Engineering. “I 

was selected for an Education with 

Industry fellowship at VMware, where 

I was able to work within an Artificial 

Intelligence Machine Learning development 

team,” she says. “It was at this time 

when I developed a foundation in artificial 

intelligence and machine learning.” 

Her current role is as a Cyberspace 

Warfare Operations officer. “My career 

field covers the entire communications 

spectrum,” says Carter. “Everything 

from network defense to base communications 

structures, to tactical 

communications. This background along 

with my AI foundation led me to be one 

of 11 selected to collaborate with MIT 

on the integration of artificial intelligence 

technology into Air Force platforms.” 

Under Carter’s remit falls the C-17 

scheduling project, with the intention 

of bettering the lives of pilots and 

airmen using AI to make the process 

of scheduling less time consuming 

while increasing efficiency and minimizing 

errors. “Creating an Air Force 

flight schedule today, the scheduler 

has to account for a multitude of 

variables we identify as constraints. 

This includes qualifications or the 

training a pilot requires for that seat 

and crew rest – the time they must 

take off in between each flight. Also 

the amount of flights that need to 

be scheduled, and the time intervals 

between those flights. This process 

is currently being accomplished through 

various manual channels. Separate 

data systems, phone calls, and even 

whiteboards, which causes scheduling 

to be immensely complex and 

time consuming.” 

The remedy to that involves using AI 

to take up the burden. “What we hope 

to achieve is to create a data driven 


model that can produce the best or 

most optimized schedule for multiple 

objectives and constraints,” says 

Carter. “We provide decision-makers 

with a mathematically aided assessment 

that predicts schedules weeks 

in advance and it gives them back time 

in their day.” 

Wider implications for the project 

involve the gaining of efficiencies 

across the board, from supply chains 

to maintenance. “For instance, the 

work that we’re doing today could 

allow for advancements in scheduling 

for hospital staffing, shift 

workers, cargo and mail distribution, 

logistics operations, and even commercial 

airline crew scheduling or 

flight maintenance.” 

Carter emphasizes the extent to 

which ethical considerations guide 

everything which is done with AI. 

“Within all of our projects we are considering 

the implications of ethics. 


Ronisha Carter 

33 

Title: Artificial Intelligence R&D 



Capt. Carter is the USAF-MIT Artificial Intelligence Accelerator’s 

lead for AI-Assisted Optimization of Training Schedules project. 

Carter has a B.S. in Computer Science from Hawaii Pacific 

University and an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Florida 

International University. Carter worked as a Cyber Operations 

Officer before being selected to the Education with Industry 

program where she was assigned to VMWare to use ML/AI to 

create content driven intelligence platforms. Her technical 

papers on ML/AI during this time helped land her a 

follow-on assignment to MIT to serve as part of the initial 

core of embedded Airmen for the AI Accelerator. 

businesschief.com


34 

“THE WORK THAT WE’RE DOING TODAY COULD 

HELP HOSPITAL STAFFING, SHIFT WORKERS, 

CARGO AND MAIL DISTRIBUTION, LOGISTICS, 

OPERATIONS AND EVEN COMMERCIAL AIRLINE 

CREW SCHEDULING AND FLIGHT MAINTENANCE” 

— 

Capt. Ronisha Carter, 

US Air Force 


Ronisha Carter | USAF-MIT AI Accelerator 


35 

In February, the DoD adopted ethics 

principles for AI based on recommendations 

from the Defense Board 

of Innovation. This mandates that all 

DoD AI capabilities must be responsible, 

equitable, traceable, reliable, and 

governable and meet the same legal, 

ethical, and policy standards across 

the department. 

Partnerships have again made the 

project possible. “Our partnership with 

MIT and Lincoln Lab is essential 

to developing these technologies, 

and we also work hand-in-hand with 

Tron and Airmen Coders, Air Force 

Software development teams that 

vector internal Air Force talent to 

solve and engineer solutions for the 

really tough Air Force problems. Our 

team of MIT principal investigators, 

grad students, software developers, 

human-computer interaction 

designers, and Air Force software 

development teams ensures we create 

better solutions for our Airmen.” 

businesschief.com

LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY 

36 


37 

Stakeholder 

Management 

– the Power 

of Shared 

WRITTEN BY 

GEORGIA WILSON 

Value & Trust 

businesschief.com


Business Chief North America 

gains insight from BSR on the 

importance of shared value 

and trust to drive effective 

stakeholder engagement 

38 

O 

ver the last 10 months, COVID-19 has 

had an exponential impact on industries 

and organisations, regardless of size 

or location. As a result stakeholder management 

has never been more important or come with 

greater challenges. The business and economic 

uncertainty that has come with COVID-19, has 

increased the need for organisations to develop 

robust, defensible and flexible stakeholder 

management strategies and tools in order to 

be effective. “Stakeholder engagement is – and 

will remain – a core element of the sustainability 

toolkit,” comments BSR in its Five Step Approach 

to Stakeholder Management report. 

BSR defines stakeholder management as “a fundamental 

component of materiality assessments, 

which are then used to inform sustainability strategy, 

reporting, and disclosure. Corporations need 

strategies in order to understand and respond to 

existing and emerging societal concerns. Without 

input from key stakeholder groups, any approach 



39

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40 

Learn More

“Stakeholder 

engagement is – 

and will remain – 

a core element of 

the sustainability 

toolkit” 

— 

BSR 

to sustainability will be limited by 

an organisation’s self-interest and 

inward focus.” While stakeholder 

management is an essential part of an 

organisation’s operations, engaging 

with stakeholders is not an easy operation. 

With this in mind, Business Chief 

North America gains insight from BSR 

on why adopting a strategy that creates 

shared value and develops trust 

is the best approach to drive effective 

stakeholder engagement. 

DEVELOPING AN 

ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY 

Prior to engaging in any form of strategy 

development, it is important for organisations 

to develop an understanding of 

what stakeholder engagement means 

to them, as well as what the desired 

achievements are for the operations. 

While often used to describe public 

relations or reputation management, 

it is also important for organisations 

to understand that these types of 

communication are not the same as 

stakeholder engagement. 

In order to be successful when it 

comes to engaging with stakeholders, 

BSR highlights that the corporate 

mindset needs to shift from seeing 

stakeholder concerns as external risks 

to manage, to being serious topics that 

require transparent dialogue and 

a strategic response. “Stakeholders 

that choose to engage with companies 

generally expect this interaction to 

generate change, which is why it is 

a mistake to treat engagement as a 

one-way information dissemination 

process, rather than as a dialogue,” 

adds BSR. 

When done well, the value of stakeholder 

engagement is expected to add 

up over time, providing support during 

times of difficulty, whether it be reputational 

or economical. “Companies that 

are more aware of stakeholder interests 

are more likely to avoid crises because 

they are better able to anticipate risks 

41 

businesschief.com


BSR’s Five-Step Approach 

STEP 5 

ACTION PLAN 

STEP 1 

ENGAGEMENT 

STRATEGY 

42 

Feedback Loop 

STEP 4 

ENGAGEMENT 

Identify opportunities from 

feedback and determine 

actions, revisit goals, and 

plan next steps for follow-up 

and future engagement 

Conduct the 

engagement itself, 

ensuring equitable 

stakeholder 

contributions and 

mitigating tension 

while remaining 

focused on priorities 

FIVE-STEP 

APPROACH TO 

STAKEHOLDER 

ENGAGEMENT 

Focus on long-term goals to 

drive the approach, determine 

logistics for the engagement, 

and set the rules 

STEP 3 

PREPARATION 

Set vision and level 

of ambition for future 

engagement, and review 

past engagements 

Define criteria 

for identifying 

and prioritizing 

stakeholders, and 

select engagement 

mechanisms 

STEP 2 

STAKEHOLDER 

MAPPING 

We have update 

BSR’s five-step g 

stakeholder eng 

to reflect the eve 

stakes at play in 

5 Five-Step Approach to Stakeholder Engagement 

and opportunities,” comments BSR. 

“A number of compelling studies on the 

impacts of good community and stakeholder 

relations across industries and 

countries, have concluded that companies 

that intentionally build stakeholder 

trust are more financially resilient over 

time, across multiple indicators of value.” 

An important element of stakeholder 

engagement is the understanding of 

who the key stakeholders are and where 

they came from, as well as what their 

relationship is to the company. This process 

allows organisations to map their 

stakeholder landscape and determine 

the correct method and approach for 

effective communications. 

Once determined, in order to deliver 

clear, flexible and trusted communication, 

BSR identifies six core principles 

that should govern engagement: 

focused and relevant engagement 


What is stakeholder 

mapping? 

“A collaborative process 

of research, analysis, debate, 

and discussion that draws from 

multiple perspectives to determine 

a key list of stakeholders across 

the entire stakeholder spectrum” 

BSR 

goals; timely engagement that can 

inform outcomes and business decisions; 

providing diverse and inclusive 

perspectives as well as being culturally 

sensitive and accessible; not just sharing 

but ensuring that the stakeholder is 

listened to too; and ensuring transparent 

communication and sharing information. 

It is important to ensure that once an 

engagement with stakeholders is made, 

that the original purpose and aims; the 

methods used; the participants; a summary 

of any concerns, expectations, and 

perceptions; a summary of discussions; 

and a robust list of outputs are documented 

in order to measure the success 

and build upon the efforts made for 

future engagements. “Companies often 

conduct engagements and then fail to 

document the results and act transparently 

on the information gained through 

the exchanges,” comments BSR, who 

explains that adopting this approach 

Charlotte Bancilhon 

43 

“Without input from 

key stakeholder 

groups, any approach 

to sustainability will 

be limited by an 

organisation’s selfinterest 

and inward 

focus” 

— 

BSR 

businesschief.com


44 

will “help hone your message for the 

appropriate audience.” 

Ultimately, BSR states that, “the art 

of stakeholder engagement does not 

actually lie in which format you choose, 

but in how well you match a format to 

the issue, stakeholder(s), and situation. 

The scale, scope, and span of the 

engagement will vary, depending on 

these specifics.” 

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON 

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT 

“The companies we work with all say 

that, if anything, the COVID-19 crisis 

has amplified stakeholder management. 

Companies are getting more 

questions from stakeholders, not less. 

This includes questions from investors, 

clients, and consumers,” comments 

Charlotte Bancilhon, Associate Director, 

BSR, who adds that “In terms of topics, 

the spotlight has shifted to the social 

agenda, in the midst of job losses and 

the economic crisis impacting people’s 

livelihoods worldwide. Marginalized 

populations and women are disproportionately 

impacted by the COVID 

crisis. Executive compensation and tax 

practices are coming under increased 

Building Stakeholder Trust in 2019 



“Companies often conduct engagements 

and then fail to document the results and act 

transparently on the information gained through 

the exchanges” 

— 

BSR 

scrutiny in the US, although this has been 

a topic for stakeholders in Europe for 

a while now.” 

Back in April, BSR looked at what 

stakeholders were discussing online 

and on social media, leveraging its 

partnership with Polecat, which provides 

a big data tool to analyse global 

discourse. BSR found that online media 

focused on some of the topics you 

would expect – procurement of medical 

supplies and the labor market. “The 

social media conversation on the other 

hand was paying acute attention to 

issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion 

and how not all are equal in the face of 

this crisis. One month later, the killing of 

George Floyd sparked the global Black 

Lives Matter movement. 

Of course COVID-19 has affected the 

way we engage as well, shifting from 

in-person to virtual and leveraging technology 

to do so,” commented Charlotte 

Bancilhon, Associate Director, BSR. 

THREE TYPES OF ENGAGEMENT FORMATS 

FOR STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT 

1. Innovate collaborate consult – joint 

venture or partnership; external 

advisory council; collaboration workshop; 

joint research; or stakeholder 

engagement summit 

2. Message advocate – sustainability 

report; survey; town hall meeting; 

mass email or newsletter; social 

media outreach; or conference 

3. Monitor – marketing campaign and 

tracking; online and social media 

monitoring; subscription to stakeholder; 

newsletter; or blog. 

45 

businesschief.com

HUMAN CAPITAL 

46 

Reinventing HR 

Operations with 

Humans and AI 

Collaboration 

WRITTEN BY GEORGIA WILSON 



47

HUMAN CAPITAL 

As AI continues to prove 

its value across multiple 

sectors and business 

function, Business Chief 

looks at how the tech is 

reinventing HR operations 

48 

E 

xpected to be the most significant 

business advantage in the future 

by 72% of executives, artificial 

intelligence (AI) is predicted to be incorporated 

into 47% of organisations’ HR 

functions by 2022. 

While it is feared that employment rates 

will drop as the use of intelligent technologies 

rises, when speaking with Business 

Chief in October, Arun Shenoy, SVP Global 

Sales and Marketing at Serverfarm reflected 

on the best way to deploy technology, 

software and hardware tools. “Most organisations 

find this challenging because they 

are only solving one part of the problem – the 

technology. Simply buying and deploying 

a platform isn’t enough; you have to change 

and refine the processes and ensure that you 

have the right people,” commented Shenoy. 



49

How Artificial Intelligence is Reinventing HR, 

Skills and the Employee Experience 


51 

In fact, speaking with executive 

experts in HR operations, the consensus 

highlights that benefits of AI in HR 

operations come from a collaborative 

approach between AI and humans, 

with a core use case being to provide 

efficiency gains. “It has allowed us to 

do the same thing we always did – but 

faster and more cost effective,” comments 

Andi Britt, Senior Partner at IBM 

Talent & Transformation, IBM Services 

Europe. While the internet brought the 

capability of fast recruitment, both 

Britt and Chris Huff, CSO at Kofax 

identify that AI can apply the same 

speed to the assessment of potential 

candidates, the likelihood of future 

success and the expected timeframe 

to fill a given role. “This is an example 

of the ways in which AI is changing the 

situation so that technology enables 

the HR function to solve critical business 

challenges, building on earlier 

contributions from workforce analytics,” 

added Britt. 

With COVID-19 placing organisation 

and business operations on the edge 

of a pivotal moment when it comes to 

businesschief.com

HUMAN CAPITAL 

52 

innovation and digital transformation, 

AI and automation have transitioned 

from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘necessity 

for survival’. “COVID-19 has created a 

digital awakening that has accelerated 

the adoption of AI and automation 

technologies,” comments Huff. It is 

expected by those in HR that COVID- 

19 will not only accelerate the overall 

digital journey for organisations, but 

the role of HR in the modern workplace. 

This acceleration will ultimately 

move organisations closer to HR 3.0 

with employee experience at its centre. 

“C-Suite leaders surveyed 

expect to see nearly 

tenfold growth with 

regard to automating 

HR processes between 

2018 and 2022 

Andi Britt, 

Senior Partner at IBM Talent & Transformation, 

IBM Services Europe 


The benefits of 

artificial intelligence 

(AI) in HR 

“Today, AI’s capabilities are 

being used to augment business 

operations and consumer 

solutions,” comments Andi Britt, 

Senior Partner at IBM Talent 

& Transformation, IBM Services 

Europe. At IBM, the company 

has identified five reasons for 

implementing AI in HR operations: 

53 

1. To solve pressing business 

challenges 

2. To attract and develop 

new skills 

3. To improve the employee 

experience 

4. To provide strong decision 

support 

5. To use HR budgets as efficiently 

as possible 

businesschief.com

HUMAN CAPITAL 

54 

“CHROs at high performing organisations 

are taking immediate action to 

achieve this vision. They are leveraging 

real-time unstructured data from inside 

and outside organisations, and pairing 

that with analytics and AI to improve 

talent and workforce decisions while 

enabling more personalised employee 

experiences,” says Britt. 

Statistics reported during the 

height of the pandemic, identified 

that many organisations are 

“COVID-19 has created 

a digital awakening that 

has accelerated the 

adoption of AI and 

automation 

technologies” 

Chris Huff, 

CSO at Kofax 


55 

embracing AI tools to attract diverse 

talent and to enhance and personalise 

recruitment. In an IBM HR 

executive survey, the company 

identified that more than half of 

high performing companies are 

using AI to identify behavioral skills 

to build diverse and adaptable teams. 

Currently, “High performing organisations 

are leveraging AI across talent 

acquisition at a rate of 6 times more 

than all other companies.” During the 

pandemic, IBM saw its clients rely 

heavily on AI enabled HR applications 

such as chatbots and skill building 

recommendation platforms. “These 

technologies enable organisations 

to free up HR leaders’ time for more 

meaningful work. C-Suite leaders 

surveyed expect to see nearly 

tenfold growth with regard to automating 

HR processes between 2018 

and 2022,” comments Britt. However, 

while the rate of adoption has 

businesschief.com

HUMAN CAPITAL 

The challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) in HR 

56 

“Current HR and AI trends point to 

a promising Future of Work that’s 

richer in experience, but also brings 

with it the need for strong governance 

to account for unintended 

consequences,” comments Chris Huff, 

CSO at Kofax. When it comes to the 

successful adoption of AI to deliver 

on its promising future, IBM identifies 

four key prevention barriers: 

1. Access to the right data: it is vital 

that organisations develop a complete 

understanding of the data 

involved, by harnessing comprehensive 

metadata libraries. 

2. Access to the right talent and 

skills: with AI skills in high demand, 

organisations should look to 

upskill existing employees, boost 

data and tech literacy and find 

the right partners. 

3. Get the technology right: with 

the adoption of AI, organisations 

often require an update to the 

technology used to collect, store 

and process data. Digitally native 

companies typically have an 

advantage due to their nimble 

and scalable businesses models. 

4. Ethical and governance frameworks: 

while AI can provide huge 

benefits, misused it can have 

negative results, such as bias 

and intrusive AI. To remove bias 

organisations should ensure that 

data privacy and security are at 

the forefront of their approach, 

as well as a clear ethical and 

governance frameworks. 


increased, IBM found that only 30% 

of companies have the skills and 

capabilities in AI in the HR function. 

To be successful in adopting AI in 

HR operations – or any technology 

– culture is identified as an all to often 

underestimated barrier. It is important 

for organisations to ensure that they 

include their employees in the transformation 

journey. When employees 

understand the reasoning for change 

they are more receptive, making it 

“High performing 

organisations are 

leveraging AI across 

talent acquisition 

at a rate of 6 times 

more than all other 

companies” 

Arun Shenoy, 

SVP Global Sales & Marketing, 

ServerFarm 

easier to implement and adopt technology. 

Ultimately, “Progress has to 

start from the top, with good leadership 

and open conversation to dispel 

fears and misunderstandings about 

the technology,” states Britt. Not only 

is it important to engage with employees 

to showcase the business needs, 

it is also important to listen to the 

needs of the employees conducting 

the tasks. 

By combining the best of what AI 

can provide, with employee hopes 

for the technology, Huff explains 

that this approach is ”a win-win that 

will increase adoption of AI and lead 

to a collaborative person-machine 

future to drive productivity for the 

organisation and individual.” With 

this collaborative approach to AI and 

humans, HR is on the cusp of a new 

digital era in which employees adopt 

a more behind-the-scenes role to 

create the scenarios carried out by AI. 

“People will find themselves in more 

creative, strategy, problem defining 

and problem escalation roles as 

opposed to transactional 

activities,” concludes Huff. 

57 

businesschief.com

CORPORATE FINANCE 

58 

KPMG: 

FIVE MINUTE 

EXPERT INSIGHT 

ON INVESTMENT 

MANAGEMENT 




59


BUSINESS CHIEF GAINS EX- 

PERT INSIGHT ON INVEST- 

MENT MANAGEMENT BEN- 

EFITS AND TRENDS FROM 

FUAD CHAPRA, HEAD OF 

FAMILY BUSINESS, KPMG 

(SAUDI ARABIA) 

60 

Fuad Chapra, Head of Family Business at KPMG 

in the Saudi Levant Cluster, and Head of Advisory 

in the western region of Saudi Arabia, started his 

career at KPMG in 2014. Chapra’s responsibilities 

at KPMG include: leading M&A transactions, 

group restructuring assignments and business 

valuations, as well as specialised advisory services 

to the government of Saudi Arabia and leading 

family businesses. Prior to KPMG, Chapra has 

held executive positions at Panda Retail Company 

and the Savola Group. 

WHAT IS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, AND WHAT 

ARE THE BENEFITS OF SUCH SERVICES? 

Investment management is the service provided by 

professionals in the management of financial assets 

and investment assets for an entity or an individual 

based on an agreed upon investment plan. 



61

Unique, open & intelligent 

technology solutions 

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the global 

edge-to-cloud platform-as-a-service company, 

helping organizations accelerate outcomes by 

unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere. 

Visit www.hpe.com

“BLOCKCHAIN COULD 

SAVE INVESTMENT 

MANAGERS 

APPROXIMATELY 

US$2.7BN THROUGH 

THE USE OF 

DISTRIBUTED 

MARKET 

INFRASTRUCTURE”” 

— 

Fuad Chapra, 

Head of Family Business at KPMG 

(Saudi Levant Cluster) and Head of Advisory 

in the western region of Saudi Arabia 

Professional investment management 

services offer a wide array of 

benefits. The primary benefit to investors 

is that this allows them to obtain 

advice and recommendations from 

experts in the field of investment and 

those that specialise in various types 

of investment. 

More importantly for individual 

investors, investment management 

services allow an easier means for 

the investor to achieve diversification 

in their investment that matches their 

risk profile and the desired investment 

horizon, commonly through the investment 

in funds. 

Furthermore, investment management 

service providers would typically 

work to re-balance the investment 

portfolios based on the latest trends 

and analysis, thereby taking this burden 

away from the investor. 

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF INVEST- 

MENT MANAGEMENT SERVICES AND 

WHEN ARE THESE TYPES OF SERVICES 

BENEFICIAL FOR BUSINESSES? 

There are costs associated with 

investments through an investment 

management service provider – the 

fee that is required to be paid to the 

investment manager. This could 

63 

businesschief.com


of the performance of the endowments 

of Yale and Harvard, both of which are 

amongst the largest university endowments 

in the world. With a staff of 30, 

Yale believes in the model of managing 

investment managers. Harvard, on the 

other hand, has had staff up to more 

than 200 individuals and performed a 

hybrid of selecting its own investments 

and managing investor managers. 

64 

either be on the basis of a percentage 

of assets under management and/or a 

percentage of profits over a specified 

amount. This implies that if the investor 

had invested in the same assets by 

themselves, then the investor would 

generate a higher return. 

In addition to the benefits mentioned 

earlier, engaging with an investment 

management firm allows businesses to 

focus their efforts on their core operations. 

Furthermore, it allows the business 

to have flexibility when they want to 

change their investment strategy. A 

good example of this is the comparison 

WHAT ARE THE CURRENT 

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS AND 

INNOVATIONS IN THE SECTOR? 

Similar to other industries, technology 

has become increasingly important to 

enhance customer experience. This 

includes digital onboarding of new customers 

and providing transparent and 

up-to-date information on the status 

of the customers’ investments. 

Furthermore, there has been a significant 

rise of robo-advisors which 

automate investment management 

through the use of algorithms, and 

thereby making investment management 

services more accessible for a wider 

demographic, as well as an increase in 

availability of exchange traded funds that 

aim to mirror performance of a particular 


REDUCING INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT 

COSTS WITH BLOCKCHAIN 

Settlements and contracts 

By harnessing blockchain, investment 

managers can benefit from 

its smart controls and automation 

capabilities. With Blockchain’s business 

rules and computer protocols, 

investment managers can run settlements 

without human interference 

and facilitate, verify, or enforce the 

negotiation or performance of 

a contract. Transaction ledgers 

Conducting transactions on blockchain 

technology, all parties can 

gain transparent access to the 

data via a distributed network. 

This type of transaction can not 

be altered without permission 

from the network, which means 

all activity is verified and accurate. 

Ultimately, this can reduce the time 

and costs associated with conducting 

verifications. 

Audits 

Blockchain technology can eliminate 

human error for investment managers, 

by using real time track and trace 

audit trails. 

Infrastructure 

Adopting blockchain technology 

reduces transaction costs, as well as 

the need for infrastructure and the 

associated costs. 

Source: Accenture and IBM 

65 

businesschief.com


66 

index. The US ETF market is expected 

to continue to be largest. However, the 

European ETF market is projected to 

have more aggressive growth. 

Blockchain is also expected to have 

a significant impact on investment 

management services. As an example, 

Castalone estimated that blockchain 

could save investment managers 

approximately US$2.7bn through the 

use of distributed market infrastructure. 

Last but not least, artificial intelligence 

and machine learning are also anticipated 

to change the way investment 

managers make investment decisions. 

WITH THE WORLD CURRENTLY 

FACING WIDESPREAD DISRUPTION 

DUE TO COVID-19, WHAT HAS BEEN 

THE IMPACT ON INVESTOR MANAGE- 

MENT, AND WHAT DO YOU THINK THE 

FUTURE WILL LOOK LIKE? 

COVID-19 has caused significant market 

volatility, a reduction in deal volume 

and uncertainty in asset valuation. As a 

result, many investors have sought to 

shift towards less risky investments. In 

contrast, sovereign wealth funds have 

seen this as an opportunity to acquire 

equity investments at attractive valuations. 

COVID-19 has also accelerated 

AI & Manufacturing in Asia — Opportunities, 

Challenges and Solutions: Microsoft Asia 



67 

digital transformation across all industry 

segments, thereby warranting renewed 

diligence on investment recommendations. 

In particular, equity investments in 

companies that may have traditionally 

performed well may not necessarily be 

a good investment if they fail to digitise 

their business model and adjust to the 

new normal. 

Similarly, investment management 

companies should seek an accelerated 

pace of digitisation for themselves 

as well. This includes opening and 

enhancing channels for digital wealth 

and robo-advisory in addition to leveraging 

digital to enhance the overall 

customer experience. It is important to 

note that the move towards digital will 

also increase the importance of cybersecurity 

and ensuring the protection of 

customer data. In terms of investment 

strategy, post COVID-19, investment 

management service providers are likely 

going to seek out undervalued assets. 

businesschief.com

DIGITAL STRATEGY 

What Does it Mean 

to be a Digital Brand? 

WRITTEN BY 


68 


Business Chief speaks with 

leaders from McKinsey, Toluna 

and Ebiquity on what it means 

to be a digital brand and the 

best strategy to drive value 

There are a number of definitions for what 

constitutes a digital brand. In this roundtable, 

leading experts look at the difference 

between digitally native companies and how traditional 

companies are becoming digital. Business 

Chief also gains insight into what it means to be a 

digital brand in today’s world, as well as the ways 

in which companies can drive the most value out 

of their digital brand strategy. 

69 

THOSE PARTICIPATING 

IN THE ROUNDTABLE INCLUDE: 

JP: Jesko Perrey, Senior Partner at McKinsey 

& Company 

MM: Michele Morelli, EVP, Global Marketing 

Strategy, Toluna 

AM: Angus McLean, Director at Ebiquity 

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the impossible 

Bring together people, data, and processes to transform 

your organization. 

With the latest in AI technologies, you can engage your customers 

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optimize operations to become an industry leader. Start your digital 

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“It is virtually impossible to segment a traditional 

brand from a digital brand today because social 

media and the internet are ubiquitous” 

— 

Michele Morelli, 

EVP, Global Marketing Strategy, Toluna 

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 

Thanks to COVID-19, the adoption 

of digital that would have 

happened across all industries 

in a five to 10-year period 

happened in six months. 

Essentially, COVID-19 has 

stolen companies’ time to 

prepare for this development. 

Combine that with the latest 

and greatest trends which are 

personalisation, being human 

and being socially responsive 

and my advice would be: be 

yourself and don’t try to play 

an artificial game. 

Jesko Perrey, 

Senior Partner at McKinsey 

& Company 

WHAT IS A DIGITAL BRAND? 

JP: ‘Digital brand’ can often be misleading 

because too many companies 

think that it’s simply doing what you 

already do but using digital channels. 

This is much more about a mindset. A 

digital brand is a brand that anticipates 

and is responsive to their customers’ 

needs. To do this at scale, companies 

rely on flexible technologies, comprehensive 

data sets, and advanced 

analytics. Given the profound shift to 

digital during COVID-19, every brand 

needs to be a digital brand. 

MM: There are two ways to look 

at digital brands. One is a brand that 

exists solely within the ecosystem of 

the digital environment. Huffington 

Post and Twitter are both digital 

brands. The other, and more interesting, 

perspective is digital brand as 

part of a ‘traditional’ brand’s identity 

and strategy that acknowledges 

and leads with the importance of its 

online presence, user experience and 

71 

businesschief.com


72 

engagement. It is virtually impossible 

to segment a traditional brand from 

a digital brand today because social 

media and the internet are ubiquitous. 

WHAT ARE THE CURRENT TRENDS 

AND INNOVATIONS WHEN IT COMES 

TO DIGITAL BRANDS? 

MM: One trend we are seeing is 

the continued blurring of brand and 

acquisition marketing. The standard 

customer journey path taught 

35 years ago has been completely 

disrupted. The path to purchase is 

not linear; today it’s more a jumbled 

mess. People are consuming content 

for entertainment and the ‘time-topurchase’ 

window has been greatly 

reduced across the board. In social 

media, shoppable posts are now 

being developed in a productive way. 

Influencer marketing, for better or 

worse, is also part of digital marketing. 

The steps from an unboxing video viewing 

to purchase are much shorter than 

in a non-digital world. 

Another trend is the greater need 

for personalisation in messaging and 

communications. Especially in the 

current environment, digital brands 

are expected to not only adapt their 

communications messaging and 

tone to reflect the circumstances, 

but to change their product and services 

offering. This is where market 

research – especially platform-based, 

agile research – is key. 

JP: Two stand out. One is personalisation, 

which is the ability to tailor 

offers, products, services, and communications 

to individual customers 

wherever they are in their decision 

journey. These brands harness 

technology and insights to always be 

relevant to their customers. The other 

is the ability to continually pivot and 

innovate. That requires an operating 

model that constantly looks for new 

opportunities and develops new ways 

to tap those opportunities so they can 


FoRfest2020 - Brand Building by Responding 

to Shifting Consumer Needs in Real-Time 


73 

stay ahead of competitors wherever 

they emerge. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE FOR 

DIGITAL BRANDS WILL LOOK LIKE? 

AM: The future was always bright for 

digital brands, a growing and highly 

connected customer base, easily 

accessible target audiences through 

major digital platforms, being able to 

move faster than larger more traditional 

competitors and not being restricted 

by geography or physical retail. As 

the world moves evermore online, the 

barriers to entry for new digital brands 

will fall and the friction for consumers 

to purchase from these brands will 

erode away. We have already seen the 

introduction of seamless, one-touch, 

end-to-end ecommerce with Facebook 

stores and Amazon marketplace. 

However, COVID has accelerated 

digital transformation among almost all 

companies to varying degrees, including 

traditional incumbents. 

JP: The human touch is becoming 

hugely important. In response, digital 

brands will get more human and more 

personal. They will be much smarter in 

terms of spending and more diligent in 

businesschief.com


74 

measurement and optimisation. The 

variety of channels is so huge now, and 

the ways that customers use them 

change so often, that brands have to 

be much more diligent about how they 

spend. Across all countries measured in 

our global consumer sentiment surveys, 

consumers revealed that they are turning 

to digital and reduced-contact ways 

of accessing products and services. In 

the UK, 71% of consumers stated that 

they had tried a new shopping behaviour, 

with 16% stating that they had tried a 

new digital shopping method. As these 

habits further evolve, granular data 

analysis and disciplined marketing-performance 

management will be essential 

for brands to stay in touch with their customers 

and drive MROI. 

In addition, we’re seeing corporate 

purpose, environmental considerations, 

the balance of individual time and all 

social topics (such as Black Lives Matter 

and diversity) driving the consumer 

agenda. As such, there are many potential 

areas for getting it wrong. Again, this 

is really about developing deep and 

meaningful connections with customers 

based on a deep understanding of what 

they care about, want, and need. 

“The human touch 

is becoming hugely 

important. In response, 

digital brands will get 

more human and more 

personal” 

— 

Jesko Perrey, 

Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company 


75 

MM: Voice and audio will be the next 

frontier for digital brands. It’s important 

to note that digital brands evolve 

as consumer behaviour evolves. And 

now, digital brands need to understand 

what their presence looks like in a more 

non-visual world. Right now, UX, UI and 

design are an integral part of a digital 

brand, but brands must think about what 

interactions will look like when people 

aren’t using a click to engage. Audio 

branding and sound logos will become 

increasingly important. 

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS AND 

CHALLENGES OF A DIGITAL BRAND? 

JP: The basics still hold: you need to 

provide something that your customers 

value. But with ‘digital’ at the core, 

you can react more quickly, test new 

businesschief.com


76 

opportunities cheaply, be much 

more precise about how you connect 

with customers, and go after a 

much more granular and widespread 

set of opportunities. Is it even possible 

to be a ‘non-digital’ brand in today’s 

environment? 

The challenges are huge. On the 

one hand, it requires a new order of 

collaborative leadership to manage 

the complexity of technology and 

data-driven marketing at an unprecedented 

degree of granularity. 

Marketers have to work closely with IT, 

sales, operations, finance, etc, to make 

digital work. On the other hand, just 

because digital gives you the opportunity 

to do more doesn’t mean that 

you should do it. Privacy, security and 

purpose are all issues that consumers 

care deeply about, and brands need to 

continually balance how they want to 

connect with customers with the need 

to maintain trust with them. 

MM: All brands are now digital 

brands. The differentiators are; 


“Is it even possible to be 

a ‘non-digital’ brand in 

today’s environment?” 

— 

Jesko Perrey, 

Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company 

prioritisation of digital, emphasis on 

the UX and UI and integration of digital 

platforms in customer service and 

products. This all equates to simplicity 

for the consumer. For instance, with 

digital, you can open a bank account 

quickly to secure the best interest 

rate online. The offline method seems 

obsolete and laborious. The benefit 

is clear: the better and easier it is for 

consumers to do business with you, 

the more market share you gain. 

However, for all digital brands, 

customer service is challenging and 

must be a top priority. If you need to 

reach an actual person at Facebook 

or Google to fix a problem or answer a 

question, good luck! Customer service 

doesn’t exist for some of these large 

digital brands. Amazon got this right. 

AM: A major benefit is the ability to 

compete against well-established 

brands in reaching potential customers 

on digital platforms. Another benefit 

of being a digital brand is the ability to 

turn on, turn off and change strategy 

quickly based on data and insights 

gathered through digital channels. 

Being able to dynamically and at 

reasonably low cost produce and 

iterate creative, product messaging 

to what works is a huge advantage. 

However, building consumer confidence 

and brand credibility without a 

physical retail presence is a challenge. 

Can your brand be trusted to deliver? 

Does it actually exist or is there risk of 

an online scam? 

Many small businesses establishing 

themselves as digital first brands 

are bootstrapping and don’t have the 

deep pockets to compete with more 

established brands. As with any small 

business, people are wearing many 

hats and might be the HR, marketing 

and logistics person in one. However 

the ability to find talented contractors 

and online tools to help has never 

been easier. Many online brands outsource 

key functions like shipping and 

logistics and never actually house the 

physical product. 

77 

businesschief.com


WHEN IT COMES TO DIGITAL BRANDS 

WHAT IS THE BEST STRATEGY AND 

APPROACH TO DRIVE THE MOST VALUE? 

JP: You need to pull it back to the principle 

of good marketing/branding. The 

rules of good marketing and branding 

are being distinctive and being differentiated. 

That’s particularly important to 

revisit now as consumers are re-evaluating 

what’s important to them and their 

families. Even more important is the rule, 

‘learn to walk before you run.’ A good 

digital strategy, therefore, is a strategy 

that focuses on the core elements (differentiation) 

and which really focuses on 

what your brand stands for. In addition, 

one of the key features for an effective 

strategy is the right people. Key people 

are the core differentiator and make 

the magic happen. They are the scarcest 

resource in digital and non-digital 

brands. Another is to combine creativity 

78 


(often an element that is underplayed in 

digital brands) and match it with superior 

advanced analytics to ensure long-term 

success. Advanced analytics allow you 

to personalise, select elements that are 

appropriate, and allow you to spend efficiently. 

When companies get that right, 

their investments generate value quickly 

and they develop strong relationships 

based on trust with their customers. 

MM: Put the customer at the centre of 

your strategy. Understand: how do they 

engage online, where they are going, and 

what content are they consuming? As a 

digital brand, these questions are paramount. 

Digital tracking is an effective 

way to spot changes in digital search and 

buying behavior. With access to in-app 

buying behaviour and mobile search, our 

clients use digital tracking to understand 

when and how consumers shop. Brands 

should also focus on user centric design. 

A good UX designer always has the consumer 

at the centre of their design. With 

this approach, users are at the centre of 

every step of the design process. 

Digital is not only about the external, 

it’s about the internal. Employing digital 

technology in areas like research speeds 

up decision-making and creates agility 

“The ability to find 

talented contractors 

and online tools to help 

has never been easier” 

— 

Angus McLean, 

Director at Ebiquity 

within an organisation. Moving offline 

research processes online allows you 

to keep the customer close while also 

maintaining the integrity and quality of 

your research. 

AM: The most effective strategy is one 

that gets implemented, which generally 

means keeping it simple. Defining the 

vision and setting goals, establishing a 

timeline and clearly communicating the 

strategy to everyone who needs to be 

involved. A strategy cannot be effective 

if people are not aware of it and have not 

bought into the vision. 

Management support is also key to 

any digital initiative. They require investment 

in tools and people but progress 

is better than standing still so don’t over 

complicate it. Set goals, use data, test, 

iterate, support successes and learn 

from failures. 

79 

businesschief.com

TECHNOLOGY 

80 


Cisco:How to 

Get the Most 

Value Out of IoT 

81 

WRITTEN BY 


businesschief.com

TECHNOLOGY 

Business Chief speaks with 

Vikas Butaney, Vice President 

& General Manager, Cisco IoT on 

how to get the most value out of 

the internet of things (IoT) 

82 

TAKING IT BACK TO BASICS, WHAT IS IOT? 

Vikas Butaney, Vice President and General 

Manager of Cisco IoT, defines the internet of 

things (IoT) as a set of technologies that extends 

connectivity to edge devices and a wide range 

of ‘things’ to extract value from business data 

and accelerate digitalisation. An example of IoT 

powered devices in an operational setting include 

automated robots that need to work 24/7 with no 

interruption in their communications in a pick and 

pack distribution centre or manufacturing facility. 

In all cases where IoT is deployed, Butaney 

emphasises the importance of a secure and reliable 

communication system as foundational to 

success with this technology. 

“Securely connecting IoT 

devices is paramount” 

— 

Vikas Butaney, 

Vice President & General Manager, Cisco IoT 


61% 

of enterprises show a high 

level of IoT maturity, 

Gartner 

75bn 

of enterprises show a high 

level of IoT maturity, 

Gartner 

127 

new devices are connect to 

the Internet every second, 

McKinsey 

83 

businesschief.com

ericsson.com/ 

5g-switch 

Move towards 

zero touch, cut 

down on time 

Ericsson. 

The 5G switch made easy. 

With automated provisioning and insight-driven 

service assurance, Ericsson Dynamic Orchestration 

simplifies operations, moving you closer to the 

zero-touch experience. 

This means greater savings and shorter time to 

market.

TOP FIVE TIPS FOR SUCCESSFULLY 

IMPLEMENTING AN IOT STRATEGY 

3. Establish cross-functional teams 

that have shared business objectives. 

85 

1. Be strategic and maintain focus. 

It is important to understand the 

objectives and use cases before 

designing IoT connectivity and 

solutions. 

2. Avoid having a site by site, custom 

deployment of IoT. Instead, define 

company-wide standards, which 

are deployed step by step across 

the company as facilities are 

built or refreshed. “This standard 

approach will drive the greatest 

amount of efficiency at all levels 

of the organisation.” 

4. Ensure that technology partners 

have a high level of experience in 

your industry and the market power 

to maintain business operations for 

decades. Butaney notes that “these 

types of operational settings have a 

long shelf life. It is important to make 

sure that IoT solutions do too.” 

5. In addition to ensuring technology 

partners have a high level of industry 

experience, it is also important to 

engage IoT partners at every stage 

to accelerate learning and overcome 

challenges. 

businesschief.com

TECHNOLOGY 

86 

“Video and mission critical communications 

over wireless are exploding edge bandwidth 

requirements and requiring new wireless 

technologies to support near-zero latency 

connectivity” 

— 


Vice President & General Manager, Cisco IoT 

THE BENEFITS IOT 

Productivity improvements: the 

capabilities of IoT are enabling 

improved operational efficiency such 

as: reduced downtime, improved 

resilience and efficiency, as well as 

improved output and speed. 

New customer experiences: 

Cisco’s Control Center connects 

over 60 million cars, enabling new 

driver experiences, shile machine 

builders and device makers use 

Cisco Control Center to connect 

100 million devices offering their 

customers new capabilities. 

Improving the way people work: 

improving workplace safety, produtivity, 

efficiency and revenue. 

THE CHALLENGES IOT 

Complexity: frequently operational 

settings across industries are legacy 

systems that have been around for 

decades. As a result rolling out new 

solutions with IoT can be complex. 

Security: when deploying IoT solutions, 

organisations need visibility 

on what is connected and potential 

threats. It is important for organisations 

to leverage IoT security tools 

to ensure that they are not vulnerable 

to cyberattacks. 

Scalability: With IoT being complex 

to deploy and manage at scale. 

Butaney explains that IoT projects 

require a strong partnership between 

IT and OT in order to build scalable 

and secure projects for lower lifetime 

TCO. “Bespoke projects are hard to 

sustain over time.” 


Vikas Butaney, Cisco | 

Cisco Live EU Barcelona 2020 


87 

IOT TRENDS TO KEEP AN EYE ON 

AS WE COME TO THE END OF 2020 

With 75 billion IoT devices expected 

to be connected by 2025, Butaney 

details that “securely connecting IoT 

devices is paramount,” but requires 

a new level of security vigilance than 

before. As a result it is important to 

implement IoT security solutions outside 

of traditional network firewalls. 

In doing this, IoT devices can be connected 

securely and continuously 

monitored for potential threats. 

Another key trend highlighted by 

Butaney is the increased demand 

for high bandwidth, low latency wireless. 

With the increase in connected 

devices on the move, “this wireless 

connectivity to ‘things’ in motion is 

frequently much more demanding 

than connecting data to people over 

wireless. Video and mission critical 

communications over wireless in mining, 

ports, manufacturing, trains and 

roadways are exploding edge bandwidth 

requirements and requiring new 

wireless technologies to support nearzero 

latency connectivity.” 

In addition to security and high bandwidth, 

low latency wireless, Butaney 

businesschief.com

TECHNOLOGY 

EMERGING IOT TRENDS AS A RESULT OF COVID-19 

88 

IoT has become a CXO-level 

conversation again: IoT’s value 

proposition is rapidly expanding 

from productivity, efficiency, 

and new services to enabling the 

board-level topic of 2020 - business 

resiliency. Businesses need to rapidly 

adjust operations based upon 

the workforce availability, supply 

chain interruptions, and changing 

customer expectations – exactly 

the places where IoT now sits. 

IoT is delivering secure remote 

operations: over the last few years, 

the focus for IoT was on connecting 

devices to tap into new data 

for analytics. Now, in response to 

COVID, there is an added requirement 

to enable remote operations 

for both business resiliency and 

cost efficiency. This will fundamentally 

change how IoT devices will 

be connected. 

IoT is now accelerating the 

move to a new class of networking: 

companies need secure 

remote access to IoT devices for 

diagnostics and remote technicians, 

in addition to remote 

controlling and operating IoT 

devices. This new dependence on 

IoT raises the bar on secure remote 

access requirements, including: 

• Connectivity for IoT devices 

requiring increased bandwidth 

• Extremely low latency wireless 

connectivity for applications at 

high speed 

• Cybersecurity to protect expansion 

of the threat surface 

• Network automation to make 

deploying and managing IoT 

devices at scale doable with finite 

resources 

• Edge computing for when going 

to the cloud is too slow to support 

real-time edge processes and 

analysis is needed closer to the 

IoT device 


89 

highlights the role 5G will play in the 

future of IoT. “Wireless technologies 

are a key pillar of IoT and 5G has 

huge promise,” comments Butaney, 

who also states that, by 2023, 34% 

of all mobile connections will be IoT 

connections, up from 13% in 2018. 

However, he does emphasise that 

there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. 

“Think of your mobile phone: one type 

of wireless technology doesn’t meet 

all your needs. You have LTE/5G 

cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 

NFC - at least five wireless technologies 

- each with their strengths and 

weaknesses that address specific 

goals. The same is true for connectivity 

needs in IoT deployments.” 

With organisations needing a 

cohesive strategy that doesn’t result 

in costs, complexity and security 

risks, particularly in a post COVID-19 

world, Butaney explains that there is 

an increased need for business resiliency 

and remote operations. “These 

needs are driving an evolution of 

automation systems to be more endto-end 

connected, more autonomous, 

and able to be remotely supervised 

via IoT connectivity.” 

businesschief.com

TECHNOLOGY 

90 

“This wireless connectivity to ‘things’ in motion 

is frequently much more demanding than 

connecting data to people over wireless” 

— 


Vice President & General Manager, 

Cisco IoT 


Butaney recommends a four-step 

process for picking the right IoT 

wireless technology to reduce costs, 

complexity and security risks: 

1. Decide what IoT device you are 

going to connect 

2. Decide the application requirements 

- latency, reliability, cost, thrupu, etc 

3. Decide the deployment scope - 

indoors or outdoors, over miles or 

a few hundred feet 

4. Assess the technology options 

against those requirements 

91 

Combined, businesses, 

governments and consumers 

will invest nearly 

US$1.6trn 

to install IoT solutions in 2020, 

PwC 

Overall, Butaney expects IoT to 

continue to deliver radical transformation 

across industries. “In a sense, the 

future is now. IoT is already critical 

today for many businesses. This will 

only become more pervasive.” Just 

a few examples of the future and 

current impacts of IoT include: connecting 

intersections to reduce traffic 

and improve road safety; connecting 

robots to reduce machine downtime 

through predictive maintenance; and 

connecting workers to improve worker 

safety ( measuring worker proximity in 

an age of pandemics). 

businesschief.com

TOP 10 

92 

US Mergers and 

Acquisitions 

of the Last Two 

Decades 

Business Chief ranks – by year – its top 10 mergers 

and acquisitions made by companies in 

North America over the past two decades 


WRITTEN BY WILL GIRLING 



93

TOP 10 

2/9/20 

DATE OF MERGER 

N/A 

VALUE (US DOLLARS) 

94 

10 NerdWallet & 

Know Your Money 

Announced back in September 2020, NerdWallet announced its 

plans to acquire Norwich-based company Know Your Money. While 

negotiations for the acquisition began prior to the outbreak of 

COVID-19, the company highlighted that the pandemic has created 

a surge in demand for financial guidance and products. 

“Expansion to the UK is an important step towards our vision of a world 

where every consumer makes financial decisions with confidence,” 

commented Tim Chen, co-founder and CEO of NerdWallet. 


09 Salesforce 

& Tableau 

In a US$25.7bn deal, Salesforce made its biggest acquisition of the 

decade. The acquisition made by Saleforce was designed to further 

drive the company’s ambition to help organisations’ digital transformations, 

and enable companies around the world to tap into data 

to produce deeper insights and make smarter decisions. 

“Tableau will make Salesforce Customer 360, including Salesforce’s 

analytics capabilities, stronger than ever, enabling our customers to 

accelerate innovation and make smarter decisions across every part 

of their business,” commented Marc Benioff, Chairman of Salesforce. 

1/8/19 


$25.7bn 


95 

businesschief.com

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$34bn 


08 IBM 

& Red Hat 

97 

July 2019 saw IBM complete a landmark deal to acquire Red Hat for 

US$34bn. Designed to accelerate innovation for their customers, the 

acquisition was aims to provide a next-generation hybrid multi-cloud 

platform for secure deployment, running, and management of data 

and applications. 

“Businesses are starting the next chapter of their digital reinventions, 

modernising infrastructure and moving mission-critical workloads across 

private clouds and multiple clouds from multiple vendors,” commented 

Ginni Rometty, chairman, president and CEO of IBM. “IBM and Red Hat are 

uniquely suited to meet these needs. As the leading hybrid cloud provider, 

we will help clients forge the technology foundations of their business for 

decades to come.” 

businesschief.com

TOP 10 

07 Amazon 

& Whole Foods Market 

98 

With a vision to make Whole Foods Market’s high-quality, natural and 

organic food affordable for everyone, Amazon closed its acquisition 

of Whole Foods Market on August 28, 2017. While the company was 

acquired by Amazon, Whole Foods Market retained its name for 

conducting operations, and continues to grow its team and create 

jobs in local communities. 

“We’re determined to make healthy and organic food affordable for 

everyone. Everybody should be able to eat Whole Foods Market 

quality – we will lower prices without compromising Whole Foods 

Market’s long-held commitment to the highest standards,” commented 

Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer. 

28/8/17 


$13.7bn 



6/9/16 


N/A 


06 Dell 

& EMC Corporation 

99 

While the value of the acquisition of EMC Corporation by Dell is 

unknown, the merger, which took place in September 2016, resulted 

in a market value of US$74bn (2016). The merger provided Dell with 

the infrastructure to allow organisations to “build their digital future, 

transform IT and protect their most important asset – information.” 

Commenting on the merger Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of 

Dell Technologies, said: 

“We are at the dawn of the next industrial revolution. Our world is 

becoming more intelligent and more connected by the minute, and 

ultimately will become intertwined with a vast Internet of Things, 

paving the way for our customers to do incredible things. This is why 

we created Dell Technologies.” 

businesschief.com

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14/2/14 


$16bn 


05 Facebook 

& WhatsApp 

101 

February 2014 saw Facebook acquire popular cross-platform mobile 

messaging company WhatsApp for US$16bn and US$3bn in restricted 

stock units. The acquisition was reported to support the two companies’ 

mission to increase connectivity and utility across the world by 

providing efficient and affordable core internet services. 

“WhatsApp is on a path to connect one billion people. The services 

that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable. I’ve known 

Jan for a long time and I’m excited to partner with him and his team 

to make the world more open and connected,” commented Mark 

Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. 

businesschief.com

TOP 10 

04 

Verizon & Vodafone’s 

45% in Verizon Wireless 

Valued at US$130bn, in September 2013, Vodafone sold its 45% stake 

in Verizon Wireless to the US telecommunication company Verizon 

Communications. It was reported that, as part of the transaction, 

Vodafone returned US$70.6bn to its shareholders, US$28.7bn of which 

was expected to go to shareholders in the UK. “We think we have a 

balanced approach here. We are reducing our debt level which will 

enable the company to be very robust and take opportunities if they 

arise,” commented Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone. 

102 

2/9/13 


$130bn 



13/10/11 


$8.5bn 


103 

03 Microsoft 

& Skype 

October 2011 saw Microsoft enter into a US$8.5bn deal to acquire 

Skype. Marking a new business division in Microsoft, the acquisition was 

designed to focus on the two companies’ shared ambition to connect 

all people across all devices and accelerate real-time communications. 

“Skype is a phenomenal product and brand that is loved by hundreds 

of millions of people around the world. We look forward to working with 

the Skype team to create new ways for people to stay connected 

to family, friends, clients and colleagues — anytime, anywhere,” 

commented Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft. 

businesschief.com

Adaptability is not 

an aspiration. 

It’s a business asset. 

TOGETHER 

WE GOT 

THIS

“Applying Industry 4.0 

processes has improved 

production decision 

making at 85% of 

manufacturers.” 

MPI Group study 2020 – read the 

study to learn more 

To survive in an era of volatile demand, uncertain supply, 

and constrained capacity, your organisation must be 

adaptable. 

Now is the time to commit to a new way of working that 

can help you adapt to supply chain disruptions, react to 

changes in demand, and capitalize on new opportunities. 

SAP will work with you as you move towards digitalization 

and Industry 4.0 in a company-wide, business strategy 

that focusses on data-driven customer attention and 

• Build intelligent, individualized products by connecting 

each customer’s voice to everything from product 

planning to delivery. 

• Meet the demands of customers looking for 

sustainability. 

• Create the kind of production process that adapts 

• Use intelligence and networks to integrate every machine, 

partner, and employee. 

• Connect the entire company, bringing together logistics, 

sales, and service, so every step is orchestrated. 

The SAP Digital Supply Chain portfolio supports 

industry 4.0, enables the digitalization of engineering, 

manufacturing, and asset operation processes, connects 

and automates machines and devices, and brings 

intelligence via AI and advanced analytics to an entire 

production process. This can help to continuously improve 

production performance, lower cost, and increase the 

agility and resiliency of your supply chain. 

Adaptability is no longer an aspiration, it’s a business 

asset that can help you stay connected to your customers, 

integrated with your partners, and ahead in your industry.

TOP 10 

106 

Disney Plus | Announcement Trailer 



31/8/09 


$4bn 


02 

Walt Disney Company 

& Marvel Entertainment 

107 

In August 2009, two of the oldest entertainment companies – 

Walt Disney Company and Marvel Entertainment – entered into 

a US$4bn acquisition deal, in which Walt Disney Company acquired 

Marvel Entertainment. 

“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and worldrenowned 

library of characters with Disney’s creative skills, 

unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a 

business structure that maximises the value of creative properties 

across multiple platforms and territories,” commented Robert A. Iger, 

president and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. 

“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of 

brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and 

value creation.” 

businesschief.com

TOP 10 

01Google 

& YouTube 

108 

Founded just one year prior in 2005, Google was quick to snap up 

YouTube in 2006, acquiring the company for US$1.65bn. Today 

YouTube has a market value of US$160bn. 

“The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform 

that complements Google’s mission to organise the world’s information 

and make it universally accessible and useful,” commented Eric Schmidt, 

Chief Executive Officer of Google. “By joining forces with Google, we can 

benefit from its global reach and technology leadership to deliver a 

more comprehensive entertainment experience for our users and to 

create new opportunities for our partners,” added Chad Hurley, 

co-founder of YouTube. 


Google YouTube Merger 


109 

10/10/06 


$1.65bn 


businesschief.com

110 

SOPHISTICATED 

YET SIMPLE PRE-TRADE 

ONBOARDING 

WRITTEN BY 

WILL GIRLING 

PRODUCED BY 

MICHAEL BANYARD 



111

SAPHYRE 

Stephen and Gabino Roche, President 

and CEO, discuss overcoming risk-aversion 

in finance and how Saphyre is disrupting 

an inefficient system 

112 

I 

n an era of increasing digital sophistication, 

the extent to which out-dated 

technologies, techniques and processes 

continue to weigh down even the largest companies 

in finance is surprising. Not content with 

simply disrupting the pre-trade space with an 

integrated onboarding platform, Saphyre offers 

clients an intuitive, easy-to-use experience that 

belies its sophistication. Founded in 2017, it is 

an iconoclastic company that desires to break 

down barriers in a sector easily siloed and fundamentally 

believes in creating a streamlined and 

user-friendly alternative that enables customers 

to generate revenue faster. 

“I’ve always built technology products from 

scratch; that’s always been kind of my thing,” 

states Gabino Roche, CEO. An experienced and 

successful business-technology leader with 20 

years of expertise gained from executive roles at 

some of the world’s most prestigious organisations, 

he says that the knowledge gained from these 

companies regarding product R&D has been invaluable 

to the development of Saphyre. “I learned 



113

SAPHYRE 

114 

“I’ve always built 

technology products 

from scratch; that’s 

always been kind 

of my thing” 

— 

Gabino Roche, 

CEO, Saphyre 

what five of the major US banks were 

doing in this space and then also what 

their clients in the arena needed.” 

The process of mapping these two 

aspects together would prove crucial 

to the company’s development. Also 

adding to Saphyre’s strong leadership 

is Gabino’s brother, Stephen Roche, 

President. With a background focusing 

on business development and emerging 

communications tech, Stephen 

says that new innovation has always 

“enthralled” him. “I’ve worked with a 

lot of Fortune 1000 entities and it’s 

always been a challenge to introduce 

new technology: companies always 

view it and the associated operations 

as an expense. However, it’s also been 

a good learning experience because 

I would help them realize a successful 

model, and that has allowed me to 

advise the Saphyre team on how best 

to allocate resources and grow.” 

Allowing clients to digitise their 

emails, faxes and spreadsheets 

through an accessible platform and 

powered by ATTOM ((AI Tracking 

of Transactions and Operational 

Metadata), its patented artificial intelligence 

(AI) workflow management 


Speed Your Onboardings 


115 

technology, Saphyre integrates data 

sharing, real-time messaging and 

transparency. Developing a successful 

product for pre-trade was an integral 

part of Saphyre’s development. 

However, as Gabino explains, this 

was only half the battle in establishing 

the company’s place in the market. 

“The other half was actually planning 

the adoption strategy; how do you 

get clients, individual users, or even 

institutions to adopt a new technology 

that’s never existed before?” 

A believer in appealing to the “selfish 

interests of the client”, he relates that, 

by focusing on both cost-reduction 

and increased revenue, the company 

has been able to gain attention quickly. 

“Clients can start trading and making 

money straight away, meanwhile the 

custodians are also making money 

by collecting interest and fees. Our 

overall strategy is to digitize the pretrade 

space, not just for the benefit 

of trading, but also for trading and 

post-trade.” 

Core to Saphyre’s ethos is the idea 

of ‘levelling the playing field’ or, in 

the company’s own words, “disrupting 

a broken system”; it is adamantly 

businesschief.com

SAPHYRE 

116 

opposed to the innovation-stifling 

bureaucracy that permeates so many 

aspects of finance. “We chose to 

take on this endeavor because the 

status quo wasn’t serving people’s 

best interests,” explains Stephen. 

Wary that some firms were initially 

reticent to take notice at first because 

of (unrelated) unfruitful tech initiatives 

that spawned risk-aversiveness, 

Saphyre’s first mission was to prove 

that it could outperform expectations, 


which, Stephen continues, it soon did. 

“I started with the company in May of 

2017. We released our first product in 

the fall of 2017 and we went live with 

our first client in March of 2018. We 

just cut through the bureaucracy and 

deliver what the client actually needs.” 

Maintaining a spirit of innovation 

among its staff is also highly important 

at Saphyre, which it achieves through 

genuine employee empowerment and 

a dual-layered workforce dynamic: one 

team consisting of product managers, 

industry experts and user experience 

designers, and a second team of 

coders, to whom the middle and backoffice 

operations are taught in order to 

establish the appropriate context as 

they work. “What that does is structure 

things so that the technology team 

is uninterrupted, and they know what 

we give them is solid because we’ve 

already validated it several times with 

our innovation team,” Gabino explains. 

“Working at some other financial 

institutions three and a half years ago, 

you would never have seen those two 

things combined together.” 

117 


Gabino Roche 

Title: CEO & Co-Founder 


Industry: Financial Services 

Gabino is an experienced and successful business-technology leader with 

20 years of expertise gained from executive roles at some of the world’s most 

prestigious organisations, including McKinsey, AT&T and JP Morgan Chase. 

“I’ve always built technology products from scratch; that’s always been 

kind of my thing.” Holding a BSc in Business Management Information 

Systems from Seton Hall University (1993 to 1998) and an MBA in 

Global Management from the University of Phoenix (2000 to 2003), 

he is highly knowledgeable on industry trends, industry-leading 

approaches and the contemporary needs of clients. 

businesschief.com

SAPHYRE 

118 


Stephen Roche 

Title: President & Co-Founder 


Industry: Financial Services 

Stephen has a background focusing on business development and emerging 

communications tech. He has acquired a large amount of experience working 

for AT&T prior to co-founding Saphyre with his brother. “I’ve worked with 

a lot of Fortune 1000 entities and it’s always been a challenge to introduce 

new technology. However, it’s also been a good learning experience because 

I would help them realize a successful model, and that has allowed me to 

advise the Saphyre team on how best to allocate resources and grow.” 


Boosting Saphyre’s standing in a 

cautious industry has been one of its 

key challenges, particularly when other 

companies in the space compound the 

issue by over-promising and underdelivering. 

“And then, when you have 

a fintech startup saying, ‘We can do all 

these things too,’ people might look at 

our size and question it,” says Stephen. 

“However, we’re bringing a phenomenal 

user experience,” Gabino adds, 

“If we needed to hire armies of people 

to support a business, that would 

undermine how advanced our platform 

really is.” In some respects, market 

differentiation hasn’t been difficult for 

Saphyre at all: possessing a portfolio 

of 48 patents and a unique offering in 

the pre-trade market, Gabino states 

that, prior to the company’s formation, 

there was no competition at all. 

Therefore, Saphyre’s team has been 

able to instead focus on raising the 

digital transformation of pre-trade to 

a higher standard. “When institutions 

in the finance space make investments, 

they invest in trading and post-trade 

because that’s where the money’s 

to be made. I’m not suggesting that 

pre-trade gets ignored, but you’d be 

surprised by the amount of Windows 

95 and legacy infrastructure that still 

exists out there.” 

“We chose to take on this 

endeavor because the status 

quo wasn’t serving people’s 

best interests” 

— 

Stephen Roche, 

President, Saphyre 

119 

businesschief.com

SAPHYRE 

“Our overall strategy is to 

digitize the pre-trade space, 

not just for the benefit of 

trading, but also for trading 

and post-trade” 

— 

Gabino Roche, 

CEO, Saphyre 

120 

Any ‘glass ceiling’ that might have 

impeded Saphyre has been countenanced 

by the announcement in 

mid-September that it had struck 

a partnership with JP Morgan and 

BlackRock. Deployed to digitize their 

account opening workflow, produce 

improved scalability and remove 

manual processes, the two companies’ 

choice to leverage Saphyre’s technology 

has given it a significant credibility 

boost. “We were selected because 

Saphyre is the only one in this space, 

and [JP Morgan and Blackrock] were 

tired of pseudo-monopoly financial 

firms dealing with 1980s technology or 

faxing data information,” says Stephen. 

“It’s our reputation and consistency 

of execution that has led to this great 

news.” Indeed, the partnership can be 

viewed as simultaneously a validation 

of Saphyre’s value and an illustration 

of the importance of collaboration, no 

matter how large a financial institution 

might be, a conclusion that Gabino 

concurs with: “If you try to be the 

master of many things, you’ll be the 

master of none. Saphyre has opted to 

be the master of one thing, which we 

do extremely well.” 

Emerging from the COVID-19 

pandemic relatively unfazed, owing 


121 

SAPHYRE’S SUPPORT 

Saphyre’s new partners have 

been vocal in their support for 

the company: 

“Saphyre has been instrumental 

in transforming the account 

opening experience for our 

clients. J.P. Morgan was an early 

adopter of Saphyre and is now live 

in production after successfully 

testing its value proposition for 

over 6 months,” said Naveen TV, 

Managing Director, JP Morgan’s 

Securities Services. 

“With powerful workflow features 

and enhanced visibility into the 

account opening lifecycle, Saphyre 

has enabled BlackRock to eliminate 

manual processes to support the 

account opening workflow across 

custodians and broker-dealers,” 

commented Liliane Ancona, 

Managing Director, BlackRock. 

The full details of Saphyre’s 

momentous partnership with 

JP Morgan and BlackRock can 

be found here. 

businesschief.com

SAPHYRE 

122 

to its high-tech operational infrastructure, 

Gabino even posits that certain 

aspects of the business, such as setting 

up meetings, may have become 

easier. “Traditionally, I would have to 

fly across the world, go to people’s 

offices, make pitches, etc. Now, relying 

on Zoom and Microsoft Teams, I’m 

actually more busy because I don’t 

have to allocate that additional travel 

“If you try to be the master 

of many things, you’ll be 

the master of none. Saphyre 

has opted to be the master 

of one thing, which we do 

extremely well” 

— 

Gabino Roche, 

CEO, Saphyre 


123 

time; I’ve got meetings back-to-back.” 

Subsequently, Saphyre has been 

able to concentrate on its mission 

for 2021: eliminating 70% of manual 

post-trade activities, a complement to 

its uncontested work in the pre-trade 

space and demonstrating its holistic, 

end-to-end grasp of the trade process. 

“Our model is sophisticated yet simple; 

we’re constantly exploring how to 

streamline the entire experience and 

make it more user friendly,” concludes 

Gabino. “In the world today everything 

is siloed, but we’re breaking down 

those walls and bringing it all together.” 

businesschief.com

Adaptive Data Centers 

124 


Putting Sustainability 

at the Heart of Data 

Management 

WRITTEN BY 

PADDY SMITH 

PRODUCED BY 

LEWIS VAUGHAN 

125 

businesschief.com

ALIGNED 

126 


Aligned has completed a 

historic billion-dollar round 

of financing specifically 

linked to sustainability. CEO 

Andrew Schaap is eyeing 

the possibilities it opens up 

I 

t’s a mark of Andrew Schaap’s modesty 

that he says of the Covid-19 pandemic, 

“We’re weathering it well.” While other 

companies were diving for cover in the second 

quarter of 2020, Aligned – where Schaap is CEO 

– “saw a very big uptick in February, March, April, 

and May”. 

“The pandemic has proven to be somewhat of a 

use case study in capacity planning for our big customers,” 

he explains. “All of them run analysis on 

what they can get out of a server, what they can 

get out of a CPU, what they can get out of a storage 

device or networking device. But the ones that are 

really born on web technologies are being pushed to 

the limit of what they can do. And so, our customers 

have been able to see just how effective adaptive 

infrastructure and our Delta 3 cooling technology 

are when it comes to seamlessly addressing those 

peaks in demand.” 

As well as higher headroom capacity, data patterns 

have changed. Schaap points to a gaming 

127 

businesschief.com

ALIGNED 

128 

“This is a capital-intensive business. You 

need capital partners that understand 

the business” 

— 

Andrew Schaap, 

CEO, Aligned 

client using Aligned’s data centres 

which saw its traditional 6pm to 3am 

peak capacity shift as schools closed 

and the workforce headed home. 

For Aligned’s customers, its modular, 

dynamic and highly scalable data 

solutions came into their own. And 

its finance partners have allowed the 

Dallas-based company to innovate its 

supply chain to meet the accelerated 

delivery needs of customers, specifically 

in the hyperscale space. 

Another sunny day in Aligned’s 

fair-weathered pandemic came 

in September, when it closed a 

billion-dollar sustainability-linked 

financing led predominantly by ING. 

This is the first U.S. data center sustainability-linked 

financing and also 

one of the largest private debt raises 

in data center history. 

Previously, after joining Aligned 

in 2017, Schaap struck a deal with 

Macquarie Infrastructure and Real 

Assets (MIRA) (“not your traditional 

private equity”) to recapitalise the 

business. “This is a capital-intensive 

business. So, you have to have capital 

partners that are highly capable of 

understanding what the business 

looks like.” 

Traditionally, MIRA invests in infrastructure 

such as roads, bridges and 


CEO Andrew Schaap Discusses 

Aligned’s Adaptive Data Centers 


129 

highways. Aligned was the operating 

group’s first foray into infrastructure 

of the digital kind. The entity saw 

a clear understanding that in order 

to compete with the buying power 

afforded to publicly traded Fortune 

500 data brands, Aligned needs to be 

able to work the angles. Schaap and 

his team laser-focused the business, 

including flipping the traditional data 

center supply chain / vendor-managed 

inventory (VMI) on its head. 

“We did it essentially to counteract 

scale. Those [Fortune 500] guys have 

buying power with scale and they 

leverage that buying power to get 

the best outcome out of the suppliers. 

What we did, essentially, was 

approach the supply chain differently 

by deploying capital and committing 

to capacity.” 

“Not everybody can do this. The publicly 

traded providers have to explain 

every dollar they spend to Wall Street, 

and get a return on it within a set period 

of time – or they get penalised.” 

“But because of Macquarie, our other 

capital partners and our business 

model, we were able to essentially 

look at the supply chain and be bullish 

businesschief.com

Munters brings 

over six decades 

of innovation to 

its partnership with 

Aligned Energy 

Munters has been developing innovative, 

energy efficient climate control solutions 

for over 60 years, and Data Center 

cooling is a market segment that is 

very active right now. DC President 

Michael Gantert explains why as the 

industry leader in energy efficient 

climate control solutions, Munters 

expertise in data center cooling helps 

Aligned Energy meet growth demands 

Munters has a long history in delivering innovative, 

energy efficient climate control solutions. Started 

in Sweden over 60 years ago, Munters has 

deployed its technologies in a host of industries. 

Munters Data Centers (DC) business, managed 

by President Michael Gantert, is a key partner for 

Aligned Energy. Munters has worked closely with 

Aligned Energy to manufacture and advance the 

development of their unique cooling solution. 

Munters entered the data center cooling market 

12 years ago and has developed a number of 

cooling solutions that have been widely adopted 

and are critical to the efficient operation of many 

data centers. 

When Aligned Energy got in touch to discuss a 

partnership, it wasn’t to purchase an existing 

solution, but rather to further develop their own 

cooling solution and manufacture a product that 

would reduce equipment lead time and cost, while 

also improving reliability. 

“For a data center company to come to us with 

a pre-designed cooling solution and ask us to 

manufacture it, while also making it better and 

easier to install, that was a bit unique from what 

we’ve experienced over the past 12 years.” 

Michael Gantert, 

Munters 

“Aligned Energy recognized in Munters our history 

of innovation, engineering expertise, and flexible 

manufacturing capabilities. They saw those aspects 

of Munters as key to support their growing business. 

Our relationship is a true partnership. We share 

a lot of information including technical engineering 

details and manufacturing techniques for their 

cooling solutions.” 

“There has certainly been a lot of collaboration 

between the two companies over the past few 

years. They have a great cooling technology. 

We have embraced that, and we really feel 

Munters has provided value to Aligned Energy 

by understanding the technology and continuing 

to develop and enhance it for them.” 

“We’ve worked very closely with Aligned Energy 

and we’ve been provided selective visibility 

into their pipeline, which allows us to plan and 

prepare to best meet their needs. We continuously 

assess equipment inventory and component stock 

levels as well as things we can do within our 

manufacturing footprint to shorten lead times 

to support Aligned Energy’s growth.” 

LEARN MORE TODAY

ALIGNED 

132 

on where the market is going, where 

we think the market’s going and have 

manufacturers hold on to the inventory 

inside their warehouse or factory 

before shipping it on a just-in-time 

basis. We’ve done very well with that 

over the years; and it has proven effective 

during the pandemic. We had a 

handful of transactions that we were 

able to win on speed of delivery and 

our ability to get a customer moved 

in faster than the competition.” 

“We didn’t start the VMI because of 

the pandemic, but It worked in our favor 

“Our customers have 

been able to see 

just how effective 

adaptive infrastructure 

and our Delta 3 cooling 

technology are when 

it comes to seamlessly 

addressing those 

peaks in demand” 

— 


CEO, Aligned 


in a big, big way because we already 

had that gear forward committed.” 

By ordering before equipment was 

needed, Aligned was able to offer 

manufacturers flexibility over their 

throughput. Rather than a lumpy 

work-to-order production schedule, 

with workers on triple overtime when 

demand surges, the company’s preordering 

allowed manufacturers to 

allocate manufacturing to quieter periods, 

keeping productivity stable, and 

workers off furlough. 

“What we try to do is to stabilize 

the throughput in the factory. 

Everyone we’ve spoken to has had 

phenomenal feedback about what 

we’re doing because it solves a 

big problem for them – removing 

the lumpiness.” 


Andrew Schaap 

133 

Title: CEO 


Industry: Information Technology & Services 

Andrew Schaap is CEO of Aligned, dedicated to accelerating business growth 

by delivering data center solutions with industry-leading technology and 

adaptive infrastructure. Since beginning his tenure, Schaap has exponentially 

grown revenues, completed several successful capital raisings, and cultivated 

an ecosystem of innovation that advances Aligned’s 

commitment to reducing the social, economic and 

environmental impact of the digital era. He is a data centre, 

IT, private equity and real estate executive with more than 

20 years of complex transactional experience and multidisciplinary 

senior leadership. Prior to joining 

Aligned, he held numerous leadership 

positions over an 11-year period with 

Digital Realty Trust. 

businesschief.com

We are Franklin-Griffith, 

a USESI Company 

Project management and vendor managed inventory experts 

dedicated to exceeding the goals of our customers. 

www.franklinelectric.net | www.usesi.com | 

: Franklin-Griffith Co. | email Matt Venancio, VP of Sales: M.Venancio@frankelec.com 

It’s just one example of Schaap’s 

approach to partnerships, which 

revolves around listening to partners, 

understanding their challenges, and 

earning their respect. “Sometimes 

2013 

Year founded 

90 

Number of 

employees 

their problem is our problem. So, we 

have to be mindful of their problem.” 

While Macquarie’s financing allows 

Aligned to game the supply chain, its 

debt financing with ING has beefed 

up its efforts to continue pursuing a 

strategic vision in sustainability. 

“On the debt side, we’re very pleased 

with the first sustainability-linked 

financing done in the United States. 

And ING really drove that with us and 

has just been a great partner.” 

“We can be sustainable, have great 

uptime and reliability, and provide 

great service and support to our 


“Because of Macquarie, 

our other capital 

partners and our 

business model, 

we were able to 

essentially look at the 

supply chain and be 

bullish on where the 

market is going” 

— 


CEO, Aligned 

customers. We do all three and we 

do them in a thoughtful, meaningful 

way. So, we’re delighted with it and 

looking forward to showcasing our 

sustainability even more. We’re doing 

it because our customers care about 

it and it’s part of our DNA.” 

Schaap gesticulates towards a 

40-inch monitor on the wall where he 

can survey the top line performance 

metrics in real time. Unsurprisingly, he’s 

big on data, and Aligned is keen to pass 

on its data to help clients. “If we sell 

a customer a megawatt, let’s give them 

135 

Aligned IAD-01 Build Timelapse 


businesschief.com

ALIGNED 

136 

“We had a handful of transactions that we 

were able to win on speed of delivery and 

our ability to get a customer moved in faster 

than the competition” 

— 


CEO, Aligned 

the tools to figure out how to use as 

much of that megawatt as possible 

because that’s the most sustainable 

thing to do. No stranded capacity; that’s 

the best thing for the environment.” 

For someone who is always “skating 

to where the puck is going to 

be versus where it is now,” asking 

Schaap to gaze into his crystal ball is 


137 

to open a window to a new generation 

of data technology. 

“Everybody is thinking about energy 

storage right now. How do you get 

as creative as you possibly can on 

energy storage? That’s the number 

one problem with green energy: it’s 

cyclical. The sun, wind, hydro, all 

those things are somewhat cyclical. 

And so, you’ve got to find ways to 

store the energy. And so, the amount 

of dollars – or Euros or Yen – that 

are being put into it is incredibly high 

because that’s the new gold rush, to 

figure out how to store energy. And 

on the data side, we use a lot, so we’re 

really paying attention to what’s next.” 

Adaptive Data Centers 

businesschief.com

Driving Healthcare 

Innovation Through 

Data and Analytics 

WRITTEN BY 

LEILA HAWKINS 

PRODUCED BY 

THOMAS LIVERMORE 

138 



139

COMMUNITY HEALTH NETWORK 

Community Health Network 

(CHNw) provides convenient 

access to exceptional healthcare 

services, driving innovation 

through data and analytics 

140 

C 

ommunity Health Network, headquartered 

in Indianapolis, can truly call itself a 

leader in healthcare services. Their Chief 

Analytics Officer, Patrick McGill, MD tells us they 

have one of the highest physician engagement 

scores in the region, and their patient satisfaction 

scores also rank amongst the top. 

Another key aspect that sets them apart from 

other healthcare providers is their strategic focus 

on data analytics. Whereas many healthcare 

organisations are lagging in this area, McGill says 

they believe this is the pathway to future success. 

McGill first came to work here as a family doctor 

around 10 years ago. When the organisation 

installed Epic as their electronic medical record 

(EMR), he was asked to work on some of its optimization. 

This led to a series of roles including 

Medical Director of Physician Informatics, leading 

training and strategic initiatives around Epic; Senior 

VP for Clinical Strategy, and two years ago he 

stepped into the position of Chief Analytics Officer. 



141


142 

“One of the decisions the Board of 

Directors made when they created 

the role of Chief Analytics Officer was 

that it had to be a physician,” says 

McGill. “When you try and make data 

analytics a strategic asset, having a 

physician lead the analytics and information 

technology departments really 

puts a different focus on these areas.” 

With his background as a physician, 

McGill understands the need to drive 

the digital transformation of the business 

as a way of ultimately improving 

patient outcomes while reducing 

costs. But, as with any big change, 

it’s not an easy process. 

Community took the approach of 

transforming just two areas initially. 

“One is the patient-facing area 

to allow patients to have the same 

experience with healthcare as if 

they were shopping or paying bills 

online,” McGill explains. “We focused 

on things like receiving appointment 

reminders, scheduling appointments 

online and communications between 

providers and patients. Secondly, 

we focused on operational areas 



Patrick McGill, MD 

Title: EVP, Chief Analytics Officer 

Company: Community Health Network 

Industry: Healthcare 

Location: Indiana 

Dr. Patrick McGill serves as the Executive Vice President and Chief Analytics 

Officer for Community Health Network. In addition to serving on the 

Network Executive Leadership Team, he leads the Office of Network 

Analytics, Information Technology, Business Process Management and 

Clinical Informatics. Most recently, he served as the Senior Vice President 

for Clinical Strategy, overseeing programs to reduce clinical variation, 

strategies for growth and the transition towards value-based care. Prior, he 

served as the Vice President of Clinical Transformation. Additionally, Dr. 

McGill has special interests in clinical data and analytics, 

patient safety, population health, office workflow 

efficiency and waste reduction. Dr. McGill is a certified 

Green belt in Lean/Six Sigma. Born and raised outside of 

Atlanta, GA, Dr. McGill attended the University of Georgia 

in Athens, GA graduating Magna Cum Laude with a 

Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. He received his 

medical degree from the Medical College of 

Georgia in Augusta, GA and completed his 

Family Medicine residency at Ball Memorial 

Hospital in Muncie, IN. Prior to joining 

Community Physician Network in 2010, he 

practiced Family Medicine in Pendleton, IN. 

He is board certified in Family Medicine and 

continues to see patients at South Indy 

Family Practice. 

143 

businesschief.com

Providing 

medication 

access solutions 

for your patients 

We connect the healthcare industry 

with comprehensive technological solutions 

to help patients get the medication they 

need to live healthy lives. 

To date, we’ve done that more 

than 200 million times. 

Healthcare is complicated. 

Our mission isn’t. 

Visit covermymeds.com to see 

how technology can improve 

medication access.

“Our brand promise is 

exceptional care, simply 

delivered, and one of our 

values is patients first” 

— 

Patrick McGill, 

EVP, Chief Analytics Officer 

that don’t directly impact patient 

care which we could align our business 

processes. Things like billing, 

IT operations, and, moving forward, 

some HR functions like the onboarding 

of new employees, which we can 

streamline and automate. 

“If we can show people that 

we’re moving forward as a digital 

enterprise, it’ll drive the organization 

forward and achieve the goals 

that we want, but still preserve that 

doctor-patient and provider-patient 

relationship that’s so sacred. We 

don’t want to disrupt that relationship 

– we want to enhance it.” 

The organization has been deploying 

state-of-the-art technology to 

assist the workforce for a number of 

years. A good example is the da Vinci 

Surgical System, a robot-assisted 

system that helps surgeons perform 

delicate procedures. 

“They’ve been very successful,” 

says McGill. “They have been found 

to reduce surgery time, improve 

outcomes, shorten the length of 

a hospital stay after surgery, and 

patients recover faster.” 

McGill explains that there is still a 

degree of suspicion of AI in healthcare. 

“A lot of the time I feel that AI 

is slow to be adopted in the care of 

145 

businesschief.com


146 

“We’re building the analytic 

platform to understand 

the patient journey and 

the clinical journey” 

— 



patients because physicians, nurses 

and pharmacists really want to 

understand what’s in the black box of 

AI,” he says. “If they don’t understand 

it and they can’t explain it, then they 

don’t want to adopt it. 

“While easing into the realm of 

digitalization, we’ve tried to leverage 

AI tools to help augment their knowledge, 

so servicing algorithms where 

patients might be at a higher risk of a 

fall, to alert the clinician to take some 

extra precautions with this patient, or 

in areas where the patient might be 


CHNw Safety Message 


147 

faster to deteriorate, to alert the clinician 

that they’re at risk of becoming 

sicker. It’s about using AI to augment 

their decision-making versus telling 

them what they need to do. We’ve had 

some success leveraging predictive 

models and AI in that fashion, versus 

being more prescriptive.” 

In terms of how analytics and AI 

can benefit patients, McGill explains 

that they provide ease of use and 

convenience. “We’re trying to drive 

a patient-centric frictionless experience, 

whether that’s to schedule 

appointments or consultations, to 

receive test results or to pay their 

bills, it’s about achieving a true consumer-driven 

experience. 

“Leveraging things like Mychart 

within Epic as a communications 

platform, and our partnership with 

CipherHealth that helps us provide 

text-based outreach or post-discharge 

follow ups when patients leave 

hospital, these types of partnerships 

are key in creating this kind of patientcentric, 

frictionless experience.” 

As well as Epic and CipherHealth, 

CHNw has several other important 

strategic partners. Health Catalyst 

businesschief.com

has been a key clinical partner for six 

years, helping to drive them towards 

being a data-led organization, while 

guiding them on an improvement 

methodology, reducing unnecessary 

clinical variation and improving patient 

safety. By using the Health Catalyst 

DOS operating system enterprise data 

warehouse, CHNw has made tremendous 

gains in operational and clinical 

efficiency. Over the last three years, 

they have removed more than than 

$35mn of waste from the system. 

Additionally, software created 

by CoverMyMeds improves the 

prescribing process, and automates 

insurance authorization within the EMR 

workflow. CHNw has piloted and will 

be launching CoverMyMed’s Real-time 

Benefit solution across the enterprise. 

This tool allows providers to see patient 

cost at the point of prescribing. 

They are also partners with pharmaceutical 

company Eli Lilly, who 

they work with on patient education 

specifically for diabetes, and 

Stanson Health (part of Premier, 

Inc), who have provided a tool that’s 

embedded into the EMR that ensures 

appropriate care is given. 

DECEMBER 2019

“A lot of the time I feel that 

AI is slow to be adopted 

in the care of patients 

because physicians, nurses 

and pharmacists really 

want to understand what’s 

in the black box of AI” 

— 



“It delivers curated content and 

rules into the EMR silently, searches 

through the algorithms, and can 

actually look through the patient 

chart, searching their history, medications, 

problem lists and past visits,” 

explains McGill. “It can make recommendations, 

for example, if a patient 

comes in with acute back pain, and 

the recommendation is don’t have an 

MRI, when I try to order an MRI it will 

give me an alert to maybe refer them 

to physical therapy instead. Better 

quality outcomes with lower costs.” 

149 

businesschief.com


1956 

Year founded 

$2.5bn+ 

Revenue in 

US dollars 

150 

15,000 

Number of 

employees 



151


152 

He says a particular area of success 

with this tool has been with 

reducing unnecessary lab testing. 

“We really strive for partners to help 

solve some of our problems” he says. 

In terms of looking ahead, McGill 

explains that they’ve paused looking 

at their five-year strategy given 

the disruption and pace of change 

caused by Covid-19, and instead look 

at their more immediate future. 

“I see us continuing to accelerate. 

Along with our partners, we’ve 

built the foundation for a true digital 

transformation,” says McGill. “We’re 

building the analytics to understand 

“We’re trying to drive a patient-centric 

frictionless experience, whether that’s to 

schedule appointments, to receive test results 

or to pay their bills, it’s about achieving a true 

consumer-driven experience” 

— 




153 

the patient journey and the caregiver 

journey, so we will have the ability to 

understand that and strive for a frictionless 

experience.” 

“I’m not sure you ever get to where 

you want to be because there’s 

always continuous process improvement. 

But I do think that our goal is to 

continue to focus on the patient and 

on our caregivers, on equity, whether 

that’s race and social equity, health 

equity, outcomes, social determinants 

of health like food insecurity and 

reliable housing, continuing to focus 

on those things, and leveraging digital 

tools as much as we possibly can to 

achieve those goals and outcomes. 

“Our brand promise is Exceptional 

Care, Simply Delivered, and one of our 

values is Patients First,” McGill adds. 

“When you put those two together, 

along with the culture at Community, 

that’s what drives people to come to 

work here every day.” 

businesschief.com

154 


Leading the 

AI-powered 

CX Journey 

155 

WRITTEN BY 

DAN BRIGHTMORE 

PRODUCED BY 

RYAN HALL 

businesschief.com

[24]7.AI 

Against the backdrop of a 

growing cyber war, [24]7.ai 

is providing a safe platform 

for businesses to communicate 

with their customers 

156 

[24]7.ai co-founder and CEO PV Kannan realised, 

back in 2000, that the key to forward-thinking 

customer engagement was reaching beyond 

customers calling up companies to talk to call 

centre representatives to get answers to queries 

and moving quickly towards a digital standpoint. 

“Today, customers want real-time responses to 

their questions,” says [24]7.ai’s Global CISO & 

Chief Privacy Officer, Dr Rebecca Wynn. 

CONVERSATIONAL AI 

Conversational AI is redefining customer experience 

(CX) across business messaging, voice and 

everywhere else. The journey for [24]7.ai towards 

meeting the need for more efficient customer 

interactions is allied to the rise of the chat bot triggering 

database responses; this inspired Kannan’s 

team to develop [24]7.ai’s NLP (Natural Language 

Processing) to build the business globally. 

“Companies partner with [24]7.ai because we’re 

pioneers in the industry,” maintains Dr Wynn. 

“We’re able to harness strong analytics to provide 

a seamless transition when customers need to 


“Today, customers 

want real-time responses 

to their questions” 

— 

Dr Rebecca Wynn, 

Global CISO & Chief Privacy Officer, 

[24]7.ai 

157 

businesschief.com

[24]7.AI 

158 

“A paradigm shift was already coming, and now it’s 

here companies like [24]7.ai, with our expertise 

through offerings like the Engagement Cloud, can 

support the global roll out of secure customer 

communications across a range of devices, at 

work or at home” 

— 



[24]7.ai 

graduate to a human response but 

don’t want to repeat all of the information 

they’ve already given via a 

chatbot. We’ve created a unified digital 

customer experience across channels 

from websites and tablets to social 

media and smartphones to suit the 

needs of businesses across sectors, 

from banking to retail. We’re confident 

that positive customer experiences 

will increase our clients’ net promoter 

scores (NPS), lower operating costs 

and help drive revenues.” 

Dr Wynn believes it’s vital for her 

team to work to the mantra “How can 

we be better tomorrow?” She notes 

that recruiting the right personnel is 

vital to drive excellence. “We need 

to be equipped to analyse customer 

journeys and make them more efficient 

and secure, not only for the company 

that hires us but for the consumers 

that access them and want answers 

in real-time.” 

COMPLIANCE, RISK MANAGEMENT 

& SECURITY 

During a year where the pressures of 

the global Covid-19 pandemic have hastened 

many companies shift towards 

digital transformation, how is [24]7. 

ai offering support? “Businesses are 

moving decisively towards enabling 


Welcome to [24]7.ai 


159 

a remote workforce,” notes Dr Wynn 

of a process [24]7.ai has over a decade 

experience in delivering. “We’re 

mindful of the pressures that puts on 

bandwidth so we regularly communicate 

with our customers to analyse 

business continuity and how they are 

able to move their workforce quickly 

and offer an instant response to their 

customers, even when faced with 

disaster scenarios like this pandemic. 

It’s something we were well prepared 

for and are able to make key decisions 

quickly to mitigate risk in moving 

agents to work from home.” 

Dr Wynn sees the company’s customers 

as partners – a vital alliance 

when facing up to the enemies beyond 

the keyboard… “We’re in this cyberwar 

together,” she pledges. “We’re not only 

driving a positive customer experience 

but also working with privacy, compliance 

and security teams because we 

need to be cybersecurity warriors 

together. It’s an ecosystem that needs 

to be protected. If anyone on our 

platform is being attacked we need 

to let each other know and act accordingly 

to stay secure. That’s why when 

I look at key vendors it’s not just a box 

businesschief.com

[24]7.AI 

160 

checking exercise; we’re investing in 

good partnerships that protect ours 

and our customers futures to better 

protect consumers at large worldwide.” 

PARTNERING TO INNOVATE 

WITH PROOFPOINT, TANIUM 

& SUMO LOGIC CROWDSTRIKE 

In its quest for cybersecurity innovation 

[24]7.ai partners with Proofpoint, taking 

advantage of a raft of compliance 

solutions to protect customers across 

every channel from email, web and 

cloud to social media and mobile 

messaging. “Proofpoint are able to help 

us with our top layer of security, to see 

where active threats are coming from 

before those attempts start trickling 

down into our architecture,” explains 

Dr Wynn. “It means we don’t have to 

spend time training our personnel 

because we have their specialists on 

board providing real-time dashboards 

for threat analysis of our firewalls.” 

She applauds Proofpoint’s ability to 

carry out deep dives that ensure 

a company is equipped to deal with 

constantly morphing phishing attacks 


and ransomware, dealing with issues 

effectively in real-time with a turnaround 

time of less than 45 seconds. 

Gaining an overview of the cybersecurity 

posture of a firewall and 

enabling real-time filtering is vital for 

[24]7.ai. “You’re going to need patch 

management but it’s not the old 

school approach anymore,” says Dr 

Wynn. “I tell people when you have 

so many patches to go ahead and 

apply, they’re all important. But which 

one on what system do you patch 

first? And then which server of that 

system do you patch? First you have 

to be able to know the risk that you’re 

carrying on each server or each 

system; then you can know the order 

of precedence on that. That’s why we 

work with companies like Tanium who 


Dr Rebecca Wynn 

161 

Title: Global CISO & Chief Privacy Officer 

Industry: Computer Software 

Location: Greater Phoenix Area 

Dr Rebecca Wynn is lauded as a “game-changer who is ten steps ahead in 

developing and enforcing cybersecurity and privacy best practices 

and policies.” She is a “big picture” thinker who brings 

nearly 20 years of experience in Privacy, Compliance, 

Risk Management, Information Security, Assurance & 

Technology. She led the information security, privacy, 

and compliance pre-acquisition, acquisition and postacquisition 

of LearnVest, Inc. to Northwestern Mutual 

Life Insurance Company – a Fortune 100 company. 

She is well known for being a gifted polymath, 

having deep understanding of current cyber 

security challenges and privacy issues, and 

is always open to new opportunities. 

businesschief.com

Call-Center Automation Leader [24]7.ai Enlists 

Proofpoint for People-Centric Cybersecurity

If you’ve ever felt trapped in a telephone menu 

tree, a nonsensical exchange with a chatbot, 

or even a call with a human customer-support 

rep who won’t go off-script, [24]7.ai feels 

your pain. 

The 20-year-old Silicon Valley company is on 

a quest to make customer service easier and 

more enjoyable—a mission that has grown 

ever more urgent amid a major shift to digital 

commerce and remote work. 

“If you have clients who go to your website 

and they can’t fi nd information very quickly 

and effi ciently, they usually go away,” says 

Rebecca Wynn, [24]7.ai’s global CISO and 

chief privacy offi cer. “People don’t have any 

patience anymore with that.” 

Two critical aspects of [24]7.ai’s business are 

protecting its intellectual property and keeping 

clients’ information private. 

[24]7.ai’s customer base runs the gamut of 

industry sectors. Many of those—such as 

healthcare fi nance and government—are 

highly regulated. [24]7.ai must keep customer 

data out of the hands of cyber criminals 

and compliant with a growing myriad of 

regulations. 

“Cybersecurity plays a big, big role in what we 

do,” Wynn said. “We’re fi ghting a cyber war 

with people who are behind another 

keyboard and who are trying to harm us all.” 

In any war, you need allies. Wynn enlisted the 

help of Proofpoint, a cybersecurity vendor she 

calls a strong partner in her fi ght against cyber 

threats and compliance risks. 

“Proofpoint allows me to sleep 

at night because of what they 

are doing for me.” 

Rebecca Wynn 

Global and CISO Chief Privacy Offi cer, [24]7.ai 

Today’s threats target people, not technology. 

That’s why Proofpoint takes a unique peoplecentric 

approach to cybersecurity. It offers a 

complete portfolio of security and compliance 

solutions designed to protect today’s “people 

perimeter.” 

Proofpoint protects against a wide range of 

email and cloud threats. It helps customers 

control access to sensitive data and prevent 

data loss. And it trains users to be more 

resilient against the threats that target them. 

“One of the things that I look for is who can be 

a good partner with me,” she said. “We are in 

a cyber war and I need people who can be in 

that cyber war with me.” 

With Proofpoint, [24]7.ai can easily scale up its 

cyber defenses, using Proofpoint to augment 

its internal security team. 

Having a trusted partner such as Proofpoint 

helps [24]7.ai identify which cybersecurity 

functions it does not need to duplicate 

because Proofpoint already provides them. 

Learn more 

For more information visit proofpoint.com

[24]7.AI 

ENGAGEMENT CLOUD 

164 

[24]7.ai Engagement Cloud is the 

industry’s first integrated suite 

of conversational AI services 

designed to power both virtual 

and human agent interactions 

seamlessly across voice and 

digital channels. With Engagement 

Cloud, IT and CX leaders are able 

to rapidly diagnose customer 

intents and build, automate, 

monitor and optimise customer 

service and sales journeys. The 

intuitive, self-serve interfaces 

in Engagement Cloud empower 

both experts and non-technical 

users to make quick decisions. 

Powered by [24]7.ai’s AIVA 

conversational AI technology, 

informed by decades of contact 

centre operations excellence, 

and combined with expert human 

insight, Engagement Cloud 

anticipates your customers’ needs 

to streamline resolutions and 

strengthen relationships. 

Engagement Cloud supports 

a consistent, branded customer 

experience while making every 

interaction more cost efficient 

and satisfying for customers and 

agents alike. Offering a single 

point of control for creating 

and managing human and bot 

interactions across digital and 

voice channels, its self-service 

tools can be used to set up 

intent selections and build 

conversational bots, business 

logic, conversation flows, user 

interfaces, and more. 


“Proofpoint are able to help us with our top layer 

of security, to see where active The Total threats Economic are coming Impac 

from before those attempts Of start [24]7.ai trickling Engagement down Cl 

into our architecture” 

— 



[24]7.ai 

are more than just a vendor, they’re 

a trusted partner thinking beyond the 

security space into risk management, 

compliance and privacy to help us win 

the cyberwar. Because, again, it’s not 

only the return on investment, it’s a 

return on the efficiency of an investment 

that really counts.” 

Completing a trio of trusted 

partners, CrowdStrike empowers 

world-class intelligence to [24]7.ai to 

provide a full picture of attacks and 

the context needed to pivot to a protective 

security posture. Described 

by Dr Wynn as a “next gen endpoint 

security on steroids”, it combines 

next gen anti-virus protection, endpoint 

detection and response (EDR), 

and proactive threat hunting in 

one platform. 

Through customer interviews and data aggregation, Forrester concl 

[24]7.ai Engagement Cloud has the following three-year financial im 

“Being able to consolidate our 

endpoint SUMMARY agents OF BENEFITS with an extensive 

platform Three-year risk-adjusted that grows and adapts to our 

company’s $22.3M needs without complexity 

has been great,” says Dr Wynn. 

She explains that “having systems 

in place that use machine learning 

to ensure that breaches stop $1.9Mbefore 

they occur is paramount is today’s 

Live phone agent 

$8.2M 

Live chat agent 

Decomissioned 

productivity productivity legacy system 

fast-pace technology world. That 

is especially true when you add on 

[24]7.AI ENGAGEMENT CLOUD BY THE NUMBERS 

25% NPS score increase 

42% IVR containment 

improvement 

50%+ live agent 

productivity increase 

165 

businesschief.com 

This document is an abridged version of a case study commissione

[24]7.AI 

166 

fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks 

and how fast malware, botnet attacks, 

and other cyber-attacks can move 

through a network. 

“Without a EDR and threat hunting 

platform, it might take dozens of 

analysts to do those correlations, but 

CrowdStrike’s use of machine learning 

and real-time response capabilities 

speeds up investigations and remediations 

in our environment. It’s not just 

correlating the data, it’s about being 

able to correlate and stop an attack 

as quickly as possible.” 

FUTURE PROOFING CX 

Dr Wynn highlights a growing trend 

for businesses, particularly retail, 

moving online; something which has 

been accelerated by the global 

pandemic. “We’re supporting new 

customers as they develop communication 

channels to be able to 

manage this shift,” she says. “With 

our full web presence, we can manage 

their transition seamlessly. We’re also 

being approached by the education 

and healthcare sectors to help them 

meet the challenge of keeping their 

people connected.” 


2000 

Year founded 

1.3bn 

Self-service 

interactions/year 

10,000 

Number of 

employees 

167 

businesschief.com

[24]7.AI 

168 

“We’ve created a unified digital 

customer experience across 

channels from websites and 

tablets to social media and 

smartphones to suit the needs 

of businesses across sectors, 

from banking to retail” 

— 



[24]7.ai 

Recognised as a leader in The 

Forrester New Wave: Digital-First 

Customer Service 2020, and working 

with a host of Fortune 500 companies, 

organisations across multiple sectors 

can trust [24]7.ai to deliver. 

Dr Wynn believes a global paradigm 

shift that has seen millions 

working remotely has offered an 

opportunity to move forward in a 

better way. “Businesses are looking 


169 

at their physical footprint and asking 

if they need so much real estate, can 

they find ways to be more efficient? 

Startups have been operating via this 

model for years, leasing space that 

allows them to expand and contract. 

A paradigm shift was already coming, 

and now it’s here companies like [24]7. 

ai, with our expertise through offerings 

like the Engagement Cloud, can 

support the global roll out of secure 

customer communications across a 

range of devices to securely manage 

that change to a hybrid way of working 

between office and home. We’re pioneers 

for strategic thinking with much 

more to come.” 

businesschief.com

170 

WRITTEN BY 


PRODUCED BY 

GLEN WHITE 


171 

SiteOne’s 

Strategy Driven 

by CX and 

Operational 

Efficiency 

businesschief.com

SITEONE 

Sean Kramer, Chief 

Information Officer (CIO) at 

SiteOne Landscape Supply 

on the company’s approach 

to digitalisation, industry 

trends and COVID-19 

172 

S 

ean Kramer, Chief Information Officer 

(CIO) at SiteOne Landscape Supply, 

started his career at the company in 2014. 

“I have been with the company for six years. I joined 

the company when it was John Deere Landscapes. 

John Deere Landscapes was sold to a private 

equity firm in 2013. As part of the transaction the 

company needed to rebrand, and so SiteOne 

Landscape Supply was officially established in 

2015. Today, we are a publicly traded company 

with a billion dollars in revenue and 550 locations.” 

Prior to his career at SiteOne Landscape Supply, 

Kramer worked for eight years at Fiat Chrysler 

(FCA) supporting the company’s public websites 

and its technology infrastructure. After leaving 

FCA, Kramer joined Volkswagen Group of 

America, where he worked for six years supporting 

enterprise applications, internal software systems, 

infrastructure and operations. 


173 

“It is very 

important that 

we keep our 

customers and 

associates as 

safe as possible” 

— 

Sean Kramer, 

Chief Information Officer (CIO), 


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SITEONE’S APPROACH TO DIGITAL 

INNOVATION AND TRANSFORMATION 

When it comes to digital innovation 

and transformation, Kramer says 

the company’s core focuses include 

customer experience, operational 

excellence, systems efficiency 

and security. 

“The first is around customer experience 

and operational excellence 

in the branch and how we achieve 

those,” says Kramer. “First and 

foremost it’s safety, especially in the 

current climate, and ensuring that 

we have the inventory on hand that 

the customers need.” 


Sean Kramer 

Title: CIO 

Industry: Wholesale Distribution 

Company: SiteOne 

Location: Atlanta Metropolitan 

175 

Sean Kramer began his career at SiteOne Landscape Supply in 2014 

and is the current Chief Information Officer (CIO). 

From a technology perspective, Kramer explains that the landscape 

industry has been a unique challenge. “When I joined, I came from the 

automotive industry where the technology was more prominent. They 

had technology in vehicles and online experiences for several 

years. At the time I joined SiteOne, the technology in place 

was to support the back office. Almost all the ways of 

interfacing with a customer was coming into the branch, 

looking at the products and buying while in the branch. 

We didn’t have any customer facing technology that we 

used to interact with customers regularly. But the industry 

is changing, customers are looking for new ways to 

interact with the wholesale distributor. 

businesschief.com

SITEONE 

176 

Kramer adds that when it comes to 

digital innovation and transformation, 

“it’s about how we can use technology 

to achieve this. We have developed a 

new application called Mobile Pro – a 

mobile point of sale – with our partner 

Stratix. Recently, this application 

has been vital in maintaining social 

distancing. Customers work with our 

associates to place their orders via 

Mobile Pro and wait in their vehicle for 

an associate to bring them their order.” 

Kramer adds that when it comes to 

digital innovation and transformation, 

“it’s about how we can use technology 

to achieve this. We have developed a 

new mobile point of sale application 

with our partner Stratix. Recently, this 

application has been vital in maintaining 

social distancing. With our new 

mobile point of sale, customers arrive 

at our branches and our associates 

can greet them as they pull up. Our 

SiteOne associates can open an order 

on this system, adding the products 

they need, pull the order and send the 

customer on their way to the job. It’s 

done safely and efficiently.” 

While this application has been a 

vital tool for the company, Kramer 

explains that the company still has 

plans to improve it further. “While 

the application has several enhancements 

planned for future use, it has 

played a vital role in keeping our associates 

safe,” he says. 

In addition to mobile point of sale, 

the company also has plans in the 

pipeline for siteone.com. Kramer 

says they will look to continue to 

evolve and develop the system to 

make it easier to search for products 

and place an order online, as well as 

develop a recommendation engine 


177 

2001 

Year founded 

$2.4b+ 

Revenue in 

US dollars 

4,600 

Number of 

employees 

for customers based on their location 

and purchase history. 

“We also want to make the system 

easier to transact online, especially 

for our customer’s back-office processes 

through enabling them to pay 

their bills online seamlessly and with 

clear visibility over their transaction 

history,” he adds. 

In addition to customer experience 

and its mobile application, SiteOne 

Landscape Supply is looking to further 

improve its systems efficiency, operations 

and security. 

businesschief.com

SITEONE 

SiteOne Online 


178 

“We continuously work on developing 

internal security training programs 

and increasing the technology footprint 

to stay ahead of the threats that 

are out there in the market,” states 

Kramer. “But we are also trying to 

make it easier for our suppliers to do 

business with us. Here at SiteOne, 

we want to be the distributor of choice 

for all the suppliers in the landscape 

industry. Right now, our team is working 

to introduce new solutions, such 

as ramping up robotic process automation 

(RPA), enhancing our optical 

character recognition (OCR) and 


“We have developed 

a new mobile point 

of sale application 

called Mobile Pro. 

In the recent climate, 

this application has 

been vital to adhering 

to social distancing 

guidelines” 

— 

Sean Kramer, 



launching a vendor portal. The aim 

of these initiatives is to increase the 

efficiency and transparency of doing 

business with SiteOne.” 

When working to drive such innovation 

and transformation in an 

organization, Kramer explains the 

importance of having the right culture 

in order to be successful. 

“It’s very important,” he states. “The 

team of leaders that we have bring 

experience implementing these types 

of new solutions from their experience 

in other organizations and know 

the potential pitfalls and successes. I 

believe that the culture they bring 

to our company has been critical for 

us to support our growing business. 

My leadership team consistently goes 

above and beyond.” 

Historically, Kramer highlights 

that technology is starting to take 

a foothold in the landscape industry. 

“We see more and more customers 

use technology to run their business 

and SiteOne is working to offer a 

constantly improving customer experience. 

Technology is at the core of that. 

In the last few years we have seen 

technology usage from our customers 

179 

businesschief.com

SITEONE 

“Most of my team 

has been at the 

company for a few 

years, and we have 

the right leaders in 

place to keep an 

eye on innovations” 

— 

Sean Kramer, 



YOU’RE A PART 

OF THE TEAM 

EVEN WHEN 

YOU’RE APART 

FU Z E P U T S YOU 

I N THE R OOM 

fuze.com

amp up quite a bit. With our technology 

know-how and our team of innovators, 

I think we can offer new solutions that 

can help our customers. We are reaching 

out and collaborating with many 

different companies in the technology 

space to make this possible and discuss 

the changes in the industry.” 

Over the years, SiteOne has 

become an analytical company, putting 

more emphasis on understanding 

market trends. “As we continue to 

grow, we look at our customers by 

their specialty so that we can better 

understand how to support them 

with product needs, replacements 

and recommendations,” says Kramer. 

“We evaluate the line of business they 

operate within and geographic location 

closely to better understand how 

we can continue to help our customers 

grow in the industry.” 

Kramer explains that the team values 

and philosophy is a key to the success 

of his technology group. “We take pride 

in our company culture. We are very 

collaborative, conduct our operations 

with high integrity, and are very humble. 

As we continue to grow our team, it’s 

important that new team members we 

bring on share the same vision.” 

In addition to working with Stratix for 

its Mobile mobile point of sale application, 

SiteOne is collaborating with Fuze 

and V2 Soft. “Fuze is currently the phone 

system for all of our branches, while V2 

Soft helped us to redesign our support 

platform for our project services application. 

This system is used to help our 

customers submit a design and take-off 

of materials for a job they are bidding. 

V2Soft has also helped as we have 

grown our QA service offering.” 

181 

businesschief.com

182 

THE COMPLETE DATA 

CENTER SOLUTIONS 

COMPANY 


183 

WRITTEN BY 

DAN BRIGHTMORE 

PRODUCED BY 

GLEN WHITE 

businesschief.com

T5 

Meet a company at the 

cutting edge of customized 

turnkey development, facility 

management and mission 

critical services; keeping 

your business ‘on’ forever 

184 

N 

ow in its 13th year, T5 evolved out of 

the services sector representing data 

center users. Back in 2008 T5 started 

out as a development company before growing 

a full lifecycle of services geared towards hyperscale 

and enterprise customers. These extend 

across the lifecycle of the core data center 

ranging from customised turnkey development 

and facility management to data hall operations, 

mission critical construction services and sustainable 

approaches to power genera-tion. T5 is 

serving the needs of the hyperscale and enterprise 

data center user across North America and at strategic 

international locations. 

“Our roots in the development of cutting-edge 

data centers for leading corporations gave us a 

platform to evolve,” remembers President & CEO 

Pete Marin. “Those same customers looked to us 

to operate those DCs. There have been numerous 

changes inside these structures that required construction 

activity which drove us to create T5CS (T5 

Construction Services). Everything we do revolves 

around that discerning data center customer in 



185

T5 

186 

“We advise our customers 

on lowering the cost of 

their operations going 

forward by evaluating 

power and cooling 

systems and helping 

them design and 

procure the best system 

that’s going to use the 

least amount of energy 

throughout a data hall’s 

lifecycle” 

— 

Pete Marin, 

President & CEO, T5 

two different sectors of the business 

cycle - hyperscale and enterprise. We’ll 

continue to grow with those strategic 

customers and the markets they want 

to be in, and we will continue to add the 

services they need as we evolve our 

assets to support them.” 

A DATA CENTER LIFECYCLE PARTNER 

Marin highlights that T5 is the only 

company across the sector offering 

a full lifecycle combination of assets 

and services in strategic markets. 

From delivering a fully functioning data 

center building at a competitive cost to 

producing the lowest possible cost of 

occupancy and then going on to operate 

it for the customer, T5 can utilize 

a build to suit approach delivering 

tailor made specs - for everything from 

power to cooling - inside the data hall. 

Evolving assets through the data 

center lifecycle is a big part of the 

philosophy that drives T5 explains 

Marin: “We advise our customers on 

lowering the cost of their operations 

going forward by evaluating power 

and cooling systems and helping them 

design and procure the best system 

that’s going to use the least amount of 


energy throughout a data hall’s lifecycle. 

With that comes a big focus on the 

reduction of carbon footprint. We’re 

very supportive of that and have developed 

the capabilities to construct 

solar installations and we’ll continue to 

expand that expertise as the technology 

evolves for the hyperscalers.” 

Marin notes that, as electrical densities 

across data centers increase, 

these developments are all intertwined. 

“We’re making sure we have 

the right cooling methodologies to 

meet future needs. Simple things like 

having water at the rack for our cooling 

systems which allows a deeper life 

cycle for that asset. And of course, 

we’re agnostic to networks, but we’re 

very supportive of having a robust 

network in all of our buildings.” 


Pete Marin 

187 

Title: President & CEO 

Industry: IT 

Company: T5 Data Centers 

Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States 

As President and Chief Executive Officer of T5 Data Centers, 

Pete is responsible for setting the overall strategy of the firm, 

maintaining client relationships, capital management, and 

creating and executing the firm’s vision for growth. Pete has 

more than 20 years of experience in the data center sector 

ranging from development, securing debt and equity capital, to 

tenant representation including site selection and incentives. 

Pete’s understanding of end-user needs has enabled T5 Data 

Centers to reduce project cycle-time and cost, which 

leads to successful relationships, and repeat business. 

Pete received a B.S. in Finance from the Pamplin 

College of Business at Virginia Tech. 

businesschief.com

T5 

188 

T5 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT 

• 400+ FM FTEs 

• 500 MW IT load currently managed 

in over 55 data centers 

• 100% data center focused 

• Battle-tested leadership 

experience 

• Award-winning operations 

platform 

• Multiple recipient of uptime 

institute’s continuous availability 

award and M&O 

certification 

• Commitment to military veterans 

and diversity 

A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE 

T5’s commitment to greener ways to 

power data centers has seen it extend 

its construction services to include 

solar and renewable energy. “We got 

into the delivery of solar projects a 

few years ago, and we’ve had a lot of 

repeat business,” reveals Marin. “The 

technology continues to improve and 

evolve, and it really comes down to the 

battery technology which I think will 

bring us to a point where we will see 

a huge reduction in traditional power 

sources. It’s going to be interesting 

to see how this develops because 

you’ve got some competing forces… 


T5 Atlanta Hyperscale Data Center 


189 

“We have the 

ability to give 

visibility to as many 

touch points as a 

customer wants all 

the way down to 

the circuit level, so 

they have that vital 

input into how their 

building is operated” 

— 

Pete Marin, 


You want to reduce carbon footprint 

and carbon emissions because this 

industry has a lot of generators that 

are fired with diesel fuel. We need to 

address that. The evolution of solar 

represents a great opportunity to do 

that so we will continue to develop a 

skill set to deliver these solar projects. 

Already, a lot of the big hyperscale 

customers will typically build a solar 

deployment to offset what they’re taking 

from the grid. Eventually, I think you 

could see solar deployments that are 

directly set into the grid, so we’re moving 

in the right direction.” 

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191 

“We’ll see continued 

investment as 5G 

implementation ramps 

and the move to the 

Edge continues” 

— 

Pete Marin, 


THE T5 DIFFERENCE 

It’s one thing to build a great building 

and deliver it, but another beast 

entirely to operate it believes Marin. 

“Being able to go from bricks and 

mortar all the way through to the 

white space and be able to operate 

inside the data hall is unique in our 

business. We ensure we have the 

right EPMS and BMS systems to run 

the facility with a proper model that 

works all the controls throughout the 

data hall,” assures Marin. “We have 

the ability to give visibility to as many 

touch points as a customer wants all 

the way down to the circuit level so 

they have that vital input into how their 

building is operated.” 

businesschief.com

T5 

CRISIS MANAGEMENT TEAM 

192 

“COVID-19 is a challenge for all of us 

but we got up to speed as quickly as 

we could,” says T5’s President & 

CEO Pete Marin. “Right out of the 

gate, we were ahead of it with extra 

safety protocols instituted across 

our sites. We were one of the early 

adopters of testing and, with the 

use of smartphone cameras that 

read a barcode, our staff must complete 

a questionnaire each day 

before they are cleared to enter a 

site. Communication is key - that 

simple approach, along with best 

practice when it comes to PPE and 

social distancing, has limited the 

spread of COVID-19 at our sites. I’m 

very proud of how we’re tackling 

this but we’re not out of the woods 

yet. Our view is that we’re going to 

be managing and living with 

COVID-19 for the next year or two, 

so we need to make sure we take 

care of our people first. People first 

and then we’ll grow the business 

and keep moving forward.” 

Mission critical facilities rely on 

highly specific processes to ensure 

seamless IT deployment and migration, 

low redundancy and secure 

connectivity - much of which is handled 

by on-site IT or remote hands 

staff. An industry leader in critical 

facility management, T5 formed a 

cross-functional Crisis Management 

Team to further support its customers 

with expanded emergency 

action and business continuity 

plans to make sure “the lights never 

go out” as they navigate a global 

pandemic. By keeping many of its 

staff on the ground and avoiding 

the implications of an IT-less facility 

T5 has been able to continue performing 

preventative maintenance 

and server updates to mitigate the 

risk of downtime and outages while 

guaranteeing uptime and continuous 

availability. 


The open book approach Marin 

describes gives T5 the flexibility to 

build to suit offering a best in class 

service. “We work with the brightest 

and the best partners out there, from 

design and construction through to 

services inside the data hall. If there 

are services our customers want and 

we’re not delivering those today, we 

will go out and find the best to do that 

and develop that capability internally, 

or acquire it. We’re constantly looking 

at how to improve the data center and 

to solve the problems of hyperscale 

and enterprise users.” 

Marin maintains that recruiting the 

right people, often with mission critical 

backgrounds in the military, and training 

them to the highest level is paramount. 

“It’s a big part of making sure the lights 

never go out,” he says. Training is the 

front-line philosophy, to keep our people 

at the cutting edge and allow the group 

and its work culture to grow.” 

193 

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T5 

194 

THE EDGE 

Evaluating the industry today, Marin 

believes that on the asset front it’s still 

important to have space that’s ready 

to occupy and in key strategic markets. 

“Over the past couple of years, 

it’s been just a few buyers of data 

center space picking up the majority 

of it. That’s the hyperscale phenomena. 

That’s going to continue. 

However, we predicted last year that 

enterprise business would come back 

and we’re seeing that with a combination 

of both cloud operations and 

data centers all supporting the hybrid 

platform. There’s going to be a combination 

strategy there. We’re seeing the 

enterprise return with more build to 

suit, as well as just leasing traditional 

data center sites.” 

A key development for the future of 

connectivity is the impending 5G roll 

out. Marin is excited to see what this 

will mean for The Edge. “Thanks to 5G 

we’re going to see more Edge deployments,” 

he says. “There have been 

a number of new companies established 

that are looking at data centers 

from a different perspective, not as 

big, scalable operations but micro 

data centers that can be deployed 

quickly in multiple locations bringing 

compute and storage as close to the 

users eyeballs as possible. We’ll see 

continued investment here as 5G 

implementation ramps and the move 

to the Edge continues.” 


2008 

Year founded 

195 

400+ 

Number of 

employees 

SCALING UP 

Last year, in partnership with QuadReal, 

T5 launched a $2.5bn fund to develop, 

acquire and operate data centers 

which has proved to be very successful, 

allowing the company to scale on 

multiple levels. “We’re well positioned 

to continue to scale the breadth of our 

operations,” confirms Marin. “We have 

significant equity to build our asset 

deployment while remaining nimble as 

a private company.” 

T5 recently acquired an asset in 

Chicago, which it is currently building 

businesschief.com

T5 

“Continuing to grow our 

third-party services will 

be at the heart of our 

strategy to remain the 

industry’s premier data 

center lifecycle partner” 

— 

Pete Marin, 


196 

out on a turnkey basis. Located in the 

Elk Grove Village Technology Park, 

T5@Chicago will provide 103,000 

square feet of white space and up 

to 27.6 critical megawatts of power 

capacity, purposefully designed to 

serve enterprise and hyperscale cloud 

computing customers. “We’re constructing 

a new building in Hillsboro, 

Oregon, just outside of Portland with a 

maximum capacity of 17.6 MW,” adds 

Marin. “We’ve also acquired an existing 

turnkey data center in Northern 

California in Silicon Valley where we’ll 

be able to deliver in excess of 17 MW. 

Elsewhere, we’ve acquired a large 

tract of land (80 acres) in Atlanta, 

where we’ve started what we call the 


197 

‘horizontal construction’ of a facility 

with a total design capacity of 217 MW.” 

“This is just a taste of what we’re up 

to at T5 with many exciting developments 

in the pipeline. So far, we’ve 

deployed 30% out of our fund and 

we’ve got a lot more work to do,” 

pledges Marin. “Some of the world’s 

best brands have entrusted us with 

their facilities, so continuing to grow 

our third-party services will be at the 

heart of our strategy to remain the 

industry’s premier data center lifecycle 

partner.” 

businesschief.com

DIGITALLY-ENABLED 

PATIENT CARE 

198 

WRITTEN BY 

HARRY MENEAR 

PRODUCED BY 

MIKE SADR 



199

LEGACY COMMUNITY HEALTH 

ROBERT TENNANT, CIO OF LEGACY 

COMMUNITY HEALTH, TALKS LEADERSHIP 

AND THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 

OF PATIENT CARE DURING THE COVID-19 

CRISIS AND BEYOND 

200 

2020 

has been a year of unprecedented 

challenges to healthcare 

providers across the globe. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than 

38 million people around the world, with more than 

7.8 million cases in the US alone. As US healthcare 

companies strive to cope with the monumental task 

of providing care during this crisis, as well as continue 

to support existing patients, many are turning to 

technology in order to digitally transform their operations. 

The new capabilities offered by Industry 4.0 

are allowing for generational advances in the fields 

of telemedicine and remote care, as well as providing 

powerful new organizational capabilities that are 

revolutionizing the relationship between healthcare 

providers and their patients. 

“This year has been really challenging. We had a lot 

of projects on our plate coming into the COVID-19 crisis 

in March, and then the crisis demanded we quickly 

shift priorities to remote patient care and working 

from home,” says Robert Tennant, Chief Information 

Officer (CIO) at Legacy, a full-service network of community 

health clinics offering primary and specialty 



201


202 

“THIS YEAR HAS BEEN REALLY CHALLENGING. WE HAD A LOT 

OF PROJECTS ON OUR PLATE COMING INTO THE COVID-19 CRISIS 

IN MARCH, AND THEN THE CRISIS DEMANDED WE QUICKLY 

SHIFT PRIORITIES TO REMOTE PATIENT CARE AND WORKING 

FROM HOME” 

— 

Robert Tennant, 

CIO, Legacy Community Health, 

care in the Texas Gulf Coast region. 

Tennant, who joined Legacy in August 

of 2019, has been at the forefront of the 

organization’s efforts to adapt, react 

and overcome the challenges, both of 

a global pandemic and of delivering 

quality healthcare to the underserved 

patients it serves throughout the Gulf 

Coast region. We sat down with him 

to learn more about harnessing digital 

transformation to support Legacy’s 

operations, and how to create a customer 

service-facing culture during 

the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. 

When the COVID-19 crisis hit the 

United States in March of this year, 

Legacy, like many other providers in the 

industry, was almost entirely focused 

on in-person medical care. “Our first 

concern was figuring out how we were 

going to continue to deliver the care 

that patients need,” Tennant explains. 

“It was obvious that the first thing 

we needed to roll out was a telehealth 


Legacy Community Health 

- Principles of Leadership 


203 

solution, which we did in record time. 

We signed a contract with a vendor on 

a Friday and were treating patients 

remotely the following Wednesday.” 

Tennant adds that he’s particularly 

proud of the speed with which Legacy 

transitioned to providing telehealth services 

to a patient base suddenly thrown 

into lockdown. “We went from just a few 

telehealth visits to about 3,000 per week 

in the span of three weeks. It was an 

incredible effort by my team and other 

teams throughout Legacy. The crisis 

gave us focus and we accomplished 

a lot in a very short amount of time.” 

1978 

Year founded 

$186mn+ 

Revenue in 

US dollars 

1,000+ 

Number of 

employees 

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Robert Tennant 

Title: Chief Information Officer 

Location: Houston, Texas 

Industry: Healthcare 

Robert Tennant earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ambassador 

University. In 1993, Tennant started an IT services company focused on IT 

networking and custom software development. He sold the company in 1999 

and spent time traveling before moving on to a new IT venture at the onset 

of the new millennium. 

In 2000, he founded another IT services company, this time focusing on 

health care advisory and IT services. He stood at the helm until selling in 

2009, at which time he joined a national consulting firm focused on leading 

healthcare provider organizations into Value-Based Care (VBC), delivery. 

205 

Over the years following, Tennant held various 

healthcare IT consulting leadership roles, including 

time as an Executive Heath Care Consultant 

and VP of Value-Based Care. The focus on VBC, 

Tennant says, comes from a strong foundation 

of customer service along with a belief that 

health care organizations should anticipate and 

listen to consumers’ needs while measuring 

success by their ability to deliver the best health 

outcomes at the lowest possible cost. 

Tennant has worked as a consultant for Legacy 

since 2014, and officially came on board with the 

organization in 2019. 

businesschief.com


206 

“WE WENT FROM JUST A FEW 

TELEHEALTH VISITS TO ABOUT 

3,000 PER WEEK IN THE SPAN 

OF THREE WEEKS” 

— 




- Working with Financial Stakeholders 



In tandem with a customer base that 

was suddenly unable to visit Legacy’s 

clinics and sites, the organization also 

had to adapt to its own staff’s transition 

to a remote working model. “It was 

kind of the perfect storm,” he recalls. 

“We made a big push towards working 

from home which was something we 

had not done before. Again, within just 

a few weeks, we managed to make a 

180-degree shift to enable a significant 

number of people to work from home 

and, in the case of many of our providers, 

to provide care remotely.” 

Today, Legacy’s Behavioral Health 

Service Line is delivering 91% more 

telehealth appointments than pre- 

COVID-19. “Virtual visits have drastically 

changed the way members of our community 

receive health care. Whereas 

virtual visits were previously reserved 

for those with private insurance that 

approved this option, now anyone can 

get the care they need from the comfort 

of their home,” commented Katy 

Caldwell, Legacy’s CEO, in May. Near 

the beginning of lockdown, Legacy 

also opened a virtual pediatric clinic 

to deliver care to minors in need of 

physical and/or mental health services. 

In order to connect Legacy’s customers 

with its healthcare professionals, 

Tennant and his team have increased 

their efforts to digitally enable the organization’s 

customer-facing experience. 

“A lot of our innovations are customerfacing. 

We’re working to build out what 

I call a digital patient engagement 

strategy – or a digital front door – for our 

patients, so they can take advantage 

of services from Legacy without having 

to come into a clinic or site,” Tennant 

explains. “Its development has only been 

accelerated by the COVID-19 outbreak. 

207 

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PEDIATRIC MENTAL HEALTH CARE 

208 

The global pandemic has been hard 

on everyone. However, it’s been 

found than children and young 

adults in particular are bearing the 

brunt of its effects on mental health. 

A recent study found that, in the 

US, 7.1% of children between the 

ages of 3 and 17 are currently living 

with an anxiety diagnosis, and 

a further 3.2% are struggling with 

clinical depression. According 

to Roxane Cohen Silver, a social 

psychologist at UC Irvine, the 

elevated levels of stress following 

national crises can have long-lasting 

detrimental effects on the mental 

health of an entire generation. 

Now, she added in an interview 

with TIME, we can expect to see 

the coronavirus pandemic contribute 

to an even greater spike in mental 

health issues than following the 

September 11 attacks in 2001. 

“This is a difficult time for everyone, 

and that includes children,” said 

Dr. Melanie Melville, Medical Director 

of the Behavioral Health Service Line 

at Legacy in March of this year. “As 

we turn to social distancing to quell 

the spread of this unprecedented 

virus, we at Legacy want to 

proactively work to ensure that 

our most vulnerable populations 

have continued access to equitable 

care – including behavioral health 

care for children.” 

Since the early days of the US’ 

Stay Home Order, Legacy has offered 

remote pediatric appointments 

to children up to the age of 17, 

including therapy appointments to 

assist pediatric patients with anxiety, 

depression, and behavioral problems. 

“The crux of our school-based 

health care program has always 

been to keep students healthy and 

relieve the burden of a clinic visit 

from the parents’ shoulders,” says 

Dr. Teandra Gordon, the Clinical 

Director of School Based Behavioral 

Health program at Legacy. “By now 

offering these services via telehealth 

while students don’t have access 

to their campus clinics, our goal is 

to continue that warm-hug feeling 

of wrap-around care that the 

students – and parents – have come 

to know and trust from Legacy.” 



- Cultural Initiative 


209 

We want patients to be anywhere and 

be able to pick up their mobile device and 

self-schedule an appointment with us, 

arrange a telehealth visit, pay a bill, digitally 

sign a document, etc. We’re working 

diligently to digitally enable our patient 

engagement offerings.” 

Internally, Tennant has also been 

working to increasingly automate and 

integrate the organization’s back-end 

systems. “We’re looking at how to create 

a similar digital strategy to better serve 

our employees,” he explains, adding 

that their ongoing project is dedicated 

to alleviating the burden of manual 

processes from Legacy’s caregivers and 

support staff. Both internally and externally, 

Tennant and the Legacy team are 

engaging with technological innovation 

in the healthcare sector and beyond, in 

order to better harness the Industry 4.0 

developments in service of their unique 

healthcare model. 

“WE’RE WORKING DILIGENTLY TO 

DIGITALLY ENABLE OUR PATIENT 

ENGAGEMENT OFFERINGS” 

— 



businesschief.com


“We’re not a hospital or a healthcare 

system; we’re a community health provider. 

We serve the underserved and 

we function very differently than a lot 

of other organizations in our industry. 

Culturally, I think we’re very unique 

and extraordinary in a lot of ways,” 

says Tennant. “We do look at what 

other people are doing, but we’re very 

entrepreneurial and agile as an organization. 

We do a lot of self-inquiry as a 

business and ask ourselves what we, 

our customers and our patients need, 

® 

ServiceNow Global Elite 

Partner of the Year

“VIRTUAL VISITS HAVE 

DRASTICALLY CHANGED 

THE WAY MEMBERS OF 

OUR COMMUNITY RECEIVE 

HEALTH CARE” 

— 



and how best we can serve those 

needs with technology.” 

Both during and beyond the pandemic, 

Tennant notes that his number-one 

initiative is the creation of a culture 

of customer service. “I want my team 

to feel like their work is meaningful. I 

want them to feel safe. I want them to 

feel like they can make suggestions 

and be confident that they’ll be heard. 

And I want them to be able to go home 

at the end of the day and separate 

themselves from work. I want these 

things for everybody, including myself,” 

he says, stressing that, “If we don’t get 

the customer service element right, 

it’s going to undermine every other 

aspect of the culture that we’re trying 

to create.” 

211 

businesschief.com

212 


213 

Embracing 

the Art of 

the Possible 

WRITTEN BY 

WILL GIRLING 

PRODUCED BY 

JAKE MEGEARY 

businesschief.com

PROTECTIVE INSURANCE 

Jeremy Johnson, CEO, 

describes the company’s tech 

transformation, customerfocused 

service and why 

problem-solving is at the 

heart of its business 

214 

A 

t its most fundamental level, insurance 

is an industry predicated on risk management, 

customer service and trust. Few 

companies understand the interconnection of 

these principles better than Protective Insurance, 

and even fewer have an equivalent level of the 

experience, engagement and commitment necessary 

to transcend these precepts and deliver 

superior results. Founded in 1930 and headquartered 

in Carmel, Indiana, USA, the company is a 

transport insurance specialist for trucking fleets 

of all sizes, licensed in all 50 states, the District 

of Columbia, Puerto Rico and all Canadian provinces. 

With a long-standing heritage, a portfolio 

of diverse products, services and solutions, it 

has been and continues to be a strong partner 

for an equally essential industry, particularly in 

the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Jeremy Johnson, CEO, joined Protective 

Insurance in May 2019 following several years in 

executive positions at some of the world’s most 



215


216 

“There’s just so much data that, with the 

right attitude, you can really envisage 

a different approach, one that can really 

make the roads safer” 

— 

Jeremy Johnson, 

CEO, Protective Insurance 

prestigious insurance organizations. 

“Because it’s a smaller company 

(Protective has approximately 500 

employees), it’s a much more intimate 

environment and it feels like 

one person can really make a difference,” 

Johnson explains. “It’s a pretty 

revered brand and, because of our 

client-centric, relationship-oriented 

approach, Protective Insurance is very 

well respected both by our distribution 

partners and by our customers, 

trucking fleets.” Despite starting with 

the company only last year, Johnson 

says that his first exposure to truck 

insurance actually occurred earlier 

in his career. Recognizing that it was 

an intricate, data-rich opportunity, he 

gained a particular fascination with 

the sector which continues to this day. 

“There’s just so much data that, with 

the right attitude, you can really envisage 

a different approach, one that can 

really make the roads safer. We’ve got 


Protective Insurance 


217 

a lot more work to do in order to seize 

that massive data opportunity, but we 

have a great foundation, momentum 

and a vision. 

For Johnson, this interest in the 

possibilities of data analysis goes 

back to one of his former bosses, who 

instilled in him a passion for ‘the art of 

the possible’ – a spirit of inquisitiveness 

and innovation that isn’t afraid to challenge 

the status quo or explore new 

directions. “Unless you’re prepared 

to ask really intriguing questions, 

the data just exists in a vacuum,” he 

states. Facilitating this approach 

meant a new, tech-driven transformation 

of Protective Insurance was 

necessary as, like many companies 

with decades of experience in the 

market, the business was rife with 

non-integrated legacy systems. “The 

linchpins were moving to the cloud 

using Microsoft Azure to build a ‘data 

lake’ and embracing an analytics-first 

commercial auto underwriting platform 

built for us by TSIQ. We have a 

partnership with a company called 

Roots Automation, who’ve provided 

us with self-learning digital bots, and 

we have a great partner in Majesco 

businesschief.com


218 

whose approach to microservices and 

‘plug and play’ style system modules 

really align with our technology vision.” 

In addition, Johnson explains that 

there will be numerous, more mundane 

but no less crucial changes happening 

behind the scenes that will affect the 

company’s ability to scale as well as 

ingest, harmonize and analyze data. 

However, increased technological 

sophistication is only a component 

of Protective Insurance’s successful 

formula. What really sets it apart, 

as Johnson intimated, is its cultural 

emphasis on employee engagement 

and building strong customer relationships. 

“People genuinely enjoy 

working here,” he states. “In fact, 


1930 

Year founded 

$495m+ 

Total Revenue in 

US dollars (2019) 

500 

we recently celebrated one member 

of staff’s 50th year with us. We are 

a specialist and know our customers 

well; we have a shared dedication and 

excitement about our mission: making 

roads safer.” The importance of 

this client connection took on even 

greater proportions at the start of the 

COVID-19 lockdown in mid-March. 

In order to ensure that it was meeting 

its customers rapidly shifting concerns 

and priorities, Protective Insurance 

Number of 

reached out to understand how best 

employees 

219 

it could lend assistance. The answer, 


Jeremy Johnson 

Title: Chief Executive Officer 

Industry: Insurance 

Company: Protective Insurance 


Jeremy has more than 25 years of insurance industry experience 

and has been the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Protective 

Insurance since May 2019. Prior to Protective, Jeremy served 

in various executive leadership roles at American 

International Group, Inc. (AIG) for 17 years. Roles included, 

President, US Commercial for AIG; and CEO & President 

of Lexington Insurance Company, AIG’s excess and surplus 

lines unit. Jeremy is a graduate of the University of Oxford 

with a Masters of Arts degree in Law. 

businesschief.com

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“Unless you’re 

prepared to ask 

really intriguing 

questions, the 

data just exists 

in a vacuum” 

— 



Johnson claims, was rather ironic. 

“We asked them, ‘What can we do 

for you?’, expecting an answer that 

would revolve around digital technology. 

However, the overwhelming 

reply was, ‘We need hand sanitizer’.” 

Partnering with a local distillery, 

Protective Insurance was able to 

purchase and distribute hundreds 

of gallons of sanitizer with logistical 

assistance from the American 

Trucking Association. 

221 

businesschief.com


Despite this response, the company 

was more than adequately prepared to 

meet the technological challenges of 

the pandemic too. Having analyzed the 

pre-lockdown situation and modelled 

for various operational contingencies, 

Johnson says that Protective 

Insurance “didn’t miss a beat” throughout 

the transition, even though it 

was still undergoing a major tech 

transformation at the time. “We had 

tested some things and taken some 

dry runs, but you never know until 

you’re actually in that environment,” 

he explains. “I think there was a lot 

of fear and trepidation as to whether 

our employees could effectively manage 

our customer relationships, pay 

claims, take submissions and communicate 

effectively while working from 

home.” Enabled by the company’s 

technology team, which provided the 

bandwidth necessary for sustaining 

an equivalently high standard of customer 

interaction virtually, Johnson 

reports that staff were emboldened 

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“Protective Insurance will continue to invest in 

other tools that can make our employees’ lives 

more comfortable when working remotely” 

— 



and empowered to succeed. “I think 

we’re going to be in this environment 

for quite a lot longer. Therefore, 

Protective Insurance will continue to 

invest in other tools that can make our 

employees’ lives more comfortable 

when working remotely.” 

To further develop this tech familiarity 

among its staff, Protective Insurance 

hosted a ‘virtual’ fair on relevant 

tech-based subjects. Presented 

to employees by employees, the 

company hopes to augment its transformation 

through learning and 

communication to highlight the importance 

of change. “Employees can go 

through the many modules that make 

up the Technology Transformation 

Fair and learn, for example, what the 

cloud or a data lake is, and why and 

how that matters to us,” Johnson 

explains. “I’m fully confident that 100% 

of our employees will take the time to 

look at the modules that are of most 

interest to them.” Educating staff is 

an important part of his ‘embracing 

the art of the possible’ concept, and, 

as data analytics continues to play 

an important role in insurance’s digital 

transformation, knowing how to 

extract results will be critical. “You 

build all this infrastructure and you 

gain the ability to look at the data, but 

how do you get the right minds to ask 

the right questions?” Johnson asks. 

“What are the questions that will allow 

us to get a game changing advantage? 

I think there’s a colossal amount 

of momentum behind unlocking the 

value of data.” 

223 

businesschief.com


224 

“We couldn’t have got into this position 

without 500 committed, experienced and 

able employees” The company’s worth is defined by 

— 



Achieving this goal is Protective 

Insurance’s primary aspiration, “We 

want to be our customer’s most valued 

transportation insurance provider.” 

its ability to manage risk, save clients 

money and make the roads safer; 2021 

is a year in which it hopes to fulfil this 

mission with tech-enhanced vigor and 

partners equally committed to surmounting 

the challenges of delivering 

superior service. “I think we’re going to 

be valuable to all of our stakeholders; 


225 

not just our customers, but our shareholders, 

employees, reinsurers, vendor 

partners and technology partners, 

who are all important to us.” Engaging 

with ‘possibility thinking’ and adopting 

an ‘always moving forwards’ mentality 

will maintain Protective Insurance’s 

competitive edge, which has already 

seen it triumph over other, less-imaginative 

companies in the space. Finally, 

Johnson concludes with a declaration 

of pride for his employees’ hard work 

and engagement with the corporate 

mission: “Our existing customers value 

us and many more now want to work 

with us. We couldn’t have got into this 

position without 500 committed, experienced 

and able employees. I’m super 

proud of what we’ve achieved.” 

businesschief.com

Transforming 

in the 

Data Center 

Industry 

226 

WRITTEN BY 

SEAN GALEA-PACE 

PRODUCED BY 

LEWIS VAUGHAN 



227

NAUTILUS 

James Connaughton, 

Nautilus CEO, discusses 

how his firm is revolutionising 

the data center industry 

228 

N 

autilus Data Technologies is a global 

pioneer in water-cooled data centers and 

is leading a global transformation to ultraefficient, 

high-performance and environmentally 

sustainable operations in the data center sector. 

James Connaughton is the CEO at Nautilus. 

Having joined the organisation in March 2016, he 

has overseen the implementation of the world’s 

first water-cooled and water-borne data center 

with Nautilus. “There are two essential features,” 

explains Connaughton. “The first and most important 

feature is cooling with naturally cold water, 

which is how all other major infrastructure sectors 

address the large amounts of heat generated 

by their systems. These include, for example, 

thermal power plants, ships, industrial processing 

facilities, and paper mills. Only data centers, 

generate heat at a similar industrial scale, still use 

massive and unsustainable air-cooling systems. 

The second feature is mobility--the ability to prefabricate 

the data center in large modules, and 

either assemble them onto a barge and deliver 

it fully ready to go, or transport the modules to 



229


230 

a prepared site for rapid assembly. 

Placing essential infrastructure on 

barges—such as energy barges and 

water treatment barges--is a wellestablished 

model for enabling rapid 

and flexible access to such infrastructure 

in fast growing and emerging 

markets. The opportunity and need is 

equally strong today when it comes to 

providing access to digital infrastructure 

to those who currently lack it.” 

Connaughton believes data centers 

are the newest and most important 

component of critical infrastructure 

that sustains and enriches the lives 

of people around the world. “Data 

centers now stand alongside power 

generation, drinking-water plants, 


waste-water plants, roads and other 

critical infrastructure that allows 

society to function and create good 

outcomes for people,” he explains. 

“Access to the water molecule and 

the electron has long been vitally 

important. Worldwide access to the 

photon for data delivery is the next 

essential piece.” Over the past two 

years, Connaughton has overseen 

the development of the company’s 

first full-scale commercial facility, 

which provides six megawatts of 

water-cooled data center capacity on 

a barge. He strives for an innovative 

approach across all his operations. 

“We’ve been on the arc of creative 

invention and cleverly practical engineering 

to make that a reality,” says 

Connaughton. “The first part of our 


James Connaughton 

231 

Title: CEO 

Industry: Data Centre 

Company: Nautilus 

Location: San Francisco Bay 

James Connaughton is the CEO at Nautilus. Having joined the 

organisation in March 2016, he has overseen the implementation 

of the world’s first water-cooled and water-borne data center 

with Nautilus. He began his career as a Partner at Sidley Austin 

focusing on energy, natural resources and environment, 

energy and environmental management and compliance 

assurance systems. He then moved on to serve as Chairman of 

the White House Council on Environmental Quality as Senior 

Advisor to President George W. Bush. Roles followed 

at clean energy companies Constellation Energy and 

Exelon, and big data analytics company C3.ai, before 

moving into his current role at Nautilus. 

businesschief.com


232 

“We’ve been on the 

arc of innovation 

and invention and 

engineering to make 

a high performing 

and environmentally 

sustainable data 

centre a reality” 

— 


CEO, Nautilus 

company’s life has focused on building 

a functional prototype, and then using 

that experience to make the thousands 

of decisions of what not to do 

against the several hundred decisions 

of what to do in bringing a full scale 

facility into being. We’re really excited 

to be commissioning that data center 

in California in just a few weeks time.” 

Nautilus is planning to develop 

facilities in North America, Europe 

and Asia, and has been contacted 

by potential partners to pursue 

projects in the Middle East, Africa, 


Nautilus Data Technologies | 

Water-cooled Data Centre 


233 

and South America. “Once our data 

center in Northern California is up 

and running, we look forward to 

onboarding a great set of anchor customers,” 

says Connaughton. “We will 

show the world the ultra-efficiency, 

high-performance, and the strong 

sustainability of our approach. After 

that, we are ready to rapidly move into 

other locations to “productize” the 

technology and we look forward to 

partnering through joint ventures and 

technology licensing so that we can 

get this important technology out into 

the world as quickly as possible.” 

Connaughton explains that a key 

part of his organisation’s development 

has been to develop the supply chain 

partnerships with companies such 

as Usystems, Schneider, Vertiv, and 

George Fischer, among others. “Our 

objective is to work with partners that 

can help us make this technology 

available globally,” he says. “These 

partnerships are important because, 

as customers, communities, and 

digital infrastructure providers become 

excited about taking advantage of 

our technology, we don’t want to lose 

ground in being able to deliver it. In order 

businesschief.com

Systems 

www.usystems.com 

Future proofing data centers with advanced, 

sustainable and energy saving coldlogik 

cooling technology 

Low to high density cooling ‘in one solution’. 

All Aboard!! 

USystems are proud to be an integral part of the Nautilus 

journey incorporating ColdLogik adaptive intelligence into the 

TM 

‘TRUE ’ green data center solution. A shared vision leading 

with innovation, high-performance and sustainability.

“In order to support an 

innovation company 

like ours, partners must 

field tiger teams that 

know how to interact 

with startups and other 

smaller technology 

innovators like us” 

— 


CEO, Nautilus 

to support an innovation company like 

ours, partners must field tiger teams that 

know how to interact with startups and 

other smaller technology innovators 

like us. And these teams need to have 

the creativity and agility to adapt as the 

innovation advances. We’ve come a long 

way in just three years, and there is a 

lot more to come. Our partners need to 

keep pace with us.” 

With the future in mind, 

Connaughton believes that the data 

center industry is moving rapidly 

to where the users are in order to 

235 

businesschief.com


“Data centers are 

the newest and most 

essential piece of 

critical infrastructure 

for the world” 

— 


CEO, Nautilus 

236 



237


238 


239 

provide the more powerful computing 

and faster connections necessary 

for smart-city, smart-transportation, 

smart grid, tele-medicine and other 

highly valuable digital applications 

and services. “This means high-performance 

data centers in the centre 

of every population center,” he says. 

“We’ve seen this dynamic before with 

the buildout of other forms of public 

and private infrastructure—such as 

electricity and gas delivery, public 

water systems, telecommunications, 

highways, railroads, airports, ports, 

and even overnight package delivery. 

To these we will now add warehouses 

of computers, countless miles of 

fiber optics, and an endless array of 

wireless devices linking everyone to 

everything digital. We need to make 

sure that the environmental footprint 

of the data centers at the heart of all 

of this well serves both society and the 

planet. It’s very exciting.” 

businesschief.com

240 


241 

A New Vision for 

Community-based 

Insurance 

WRITTEN BY 

WILL GIRLING 

PRODUCED BY 

JAKE MEGEARY 

businesschief.com

BROKERLINK 

Alena Kharkavets, VP Digital 

Strategy and CX, outlines the 

transformation roadmap that’s 

enabling a new, digitally driven 

vision of insurance processes 

242 

A 

t a time when it seems like there’s insurmountable 

uncertainty about so many 

aspects of life, BrokerLink is spearheading 

a new approach to the insurance process: one 

that emphasises clarity, community and customercentricity. 

Founded in 1991, this Canadian company 

has managed to create an expansive presence 

across the country, with over 140 branches serviced 

by more than 2,000 employees. 

“I’ve been in insurance for over 13 years. 

Throughout my entire career, I’ve always had the 

mindset of wanting to understand how all the 

pieces fit together,” says Alena Kharkavets, VP 

Digital Strategy and Customer Experience. Joining 

BrokerLink in October 2013, Kharkavets relates 

that her current role, in combination with her extensive 

industry experience in actuarial, corporate 

development, operations and sales, provides her 

with the “big picture thinking” she needs to thrive. 

That holistic mindset is crucial for a company with 

a broad geographic footprint, which, nonetheless, 

must still deliver a consistent level of high quality 



243

BROKERLINK 

244 

“Every single branch 

has a unique, grassroots 

presence and that 

resonates with me 

tremendously” 

— 

Alena Kharkavets, 

VP of Digital Strategy and CX, 

BrokerLink 

service across all of its locations. 

Kharkavets adds that “every single 

branch has a unique, grassroots 

presence and that resonates with 

me tremendously.” With regards to 

her management style in this ‘many 

community branches with a unified 

approach’ model, Kharkavets credits 

one of her previous roles as a sales 

team manager as a perfect primer: 

“It was one of the most transformational 

experiences of my career; 

it really taught me how to break 

down complexities into something 

more simple.” 

BrokerLink’s national scale doesn’t 

detract from its local impact, and 

employees benefit just as much as 

customers. The company is a firm 

believer in fostering career development, 

which it facilitates by being 

a subsidiary of Intact Financial 

Corporation, allowing brokers to 

have a wide range of career opportunities 

from underwriting to claims 

adjustment. “We’ve worked very 

hard to be a great employer,” states 

Kharkavets. “In fact, we’ve obtained 

‘Best Employer in Canada’ from 

Kincentric, again.” Empowered with 


lean and agile capabilities through 

analytics technology, BrokerLink’s 

team managers are given access to 

a variety of live data and customer 

surveys. “This year, we’ve received 

over 40,000 responses from our 

customers,” Kharkavets says. “The 

notion of changing our tactics and 

addressing pain points depending on 

what we read in those comments or 

observe in trends is hardwired into 

BrokerLink’s culture.” 

Like many companies around the 

world, BrokerLink rushed into action 

at the beginning of the COVID-19 

pandemic. “In our case, nearly all our 

employees ended up working from 

home virtually overnight,” Kharkavets 

relates. “I think the pandemic will 

change how we stay connected and 

how we make sure that culture is 

retained, particularly when onboarding 

new staff.” This also goes hand-inhand 

with BrokerLink’s renewed focus 

on employee wellness and mental 

health. Indeed, for the company and 

insurance generally there is a sense 

that things are on course for significant 

businesschief.com

Payments 

solutions 

built for the 

insurance 

industry. 

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change, including how customers 

experience modern products and 

services. While digital transformation 

certainly generated the momentum for 

a technologically invigorated industry, 

Kharkavets believes that current conditions 

are enabling its fulfillment, 

1991 

Year founded 

2,000+ 

Number of 

employees 

“The pandemic has accelerated a lot 

of trends that we’ve seen before.” 

Developing omnichannel customer 

service capabilities has been a direct 

and necessary consequence of 

increased digitisation at BrokerLink. 

Customer needs and expectations 

are changing in relation to technology, 

claims Kharkavets, and insurance’s 

evolution will be dependent on its 

realisation of this fact. However, while 

it’s tempting to assume that there 

is a clear divide between younger 

people (i.e. millennials) preferring 

digital self-service options and older 

people wanting agent-based service, 


Kharkavets states that the truth is 

much more nuanced. “Everyone talks 

about digitisation in those terms, but 

what’s interesting is, when we dive 

into the data, 35% of BrokerLink’s 

‘70+ years old’ demographic enjoys 

using an app for their insurance needs.” 

Therefore, she considers the continued 

investment in digital channels as 

wholly validated. However, BrokerLink 

is also careful to ensure that its roadmap 

is configured to meet the specific 

challenges of its clients, particularly in 

an industry often represented as being 

overly complex. “When we design 

things, we want them to be inclusive 

and accessible,” says Kharkavets. 

“We’re constantly exploring how 

digital interacts with local: how can 

it support and act as an extension of 


Alena Kharkavets 

247 

Title: VP of Digital Strategy and Customer Experience 

Industry: Insurance 

Location: Canada 

Alena Kharkavets is the VP of Digital Strategy and Customer Experience 

at BrokerLink Insurance. She brings extensive experience in actuarial, 

corporate development, strategy and sales operations. She’s 

passionate about modernizing and simplifying the insurance 

experience. Alena graduated from the University of Toronto 

with a dual degree in Computer Science and Actuarial 

Science. She has also completed a Global Professional 

Master of Laws. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute 

of Actuaries and the Casualty Actuarial Society. Outside 

of insurance, Alena loves spending time with her 

daughters, ages two and four. She loves travelling 

with them and showing them the world. 

businesschief.com

BROKERLINK 

our branches?” One of BrokerLink’s 

guiding principles is its ‘#realpeople’ 

philosophy, a method by which digital 

projects are developed conscientiously 

with maximised accessibility 

as the ultimate goal. “Our accessibility 

score is 92% while the industry 

benchmark is only 71%,” she explains. 

“We implement the principles of 

behavioural science in our design: we 

serve information in bite-sized chunks 

and manage price expectations with 

an accuracy meter on our website. If 

someone’s eyesight is impaired or their 

attention span is reduced because 

they’re browsing at night and require 

more visual information, it all has to 

be factored in.” 

248 


“The notion of changing 

our tactics and addressing 

pain points depending 

on what we [...] observe 

in trends is hardwired into 

BrokerLink’s culture” 

— 



BrokerLink 

Furthermore, on the topic of digital 

projects, Kharkavets emphasises the 

importance of instilling team confidence 

with ‘minimum viable product’, 

a concept predicated on fast-paced 

two-week development sprints and 

combined with a “progress over 

perfection” attitude and data-based 

decision making. “In digital, if you aim 

249 

businesschief.com

BROKERLINK 

250 

BROKERLINK: INSURANCE WITH SOCIAL IMPACT 

Sponsoring YW Calgary’s ‘International 

Day of the Girl 2020’ on 11 October, a 

UN sanctioned annual event dedicated 

to empowering girls and protecting 

their rights, BrokerLink has 

distinguished itself as part of a rising 

movement in insurance: insurers with 

a strong social stance. 

“Every branch participates quite 

actively in the community; we have a 

firm belief that organisations of every 

size – small, medium and large – have a 

role to play in making society a better 

place,” states Kharkavets. “BrokerLink 

will continue to champion diversity 

and inclusion. We believe that the 

input of business will be essential 

to achieving this goal, particularly 

as consumers expect companies 

to have an opinion and to stand 

up for what is right.” 

“The power of ‘diversity of thought’ 

is huge. I encourage everyone when 

they start their digital roadmap, or 

wherever they are on their journey, 

to question whether they have a team 

that contains different opinions and 

consider how they interact so that 

everyone is inclusive of each other.” 


for perfection you’ll likely arrive too 

late. BrokerLink demonstrates the 

value of its propositions to customers 

and then iterates and improves from 

there based on their feedback and 

what data shows.” From these key 

building blocks, the company is able 

to forge a coherent understanding of 

where and how it wants to develop. 

Kharkavets adds that, although 

BrokerLink’s transformation journey 

has been underway for slightly less 

than two years, it firmly believes 

that maintaining focus on delivering 

“When we design things, 

they are inclusive and 

accessible. We’re 

constantly exploring 

how digital interacts with 

local: how can it support 

and act as an extension 

of our branches?” 

— 



BrokerLink 

251 

BrokerLink Recruitment Video 2019 


businesschief.com

BROKERLINK 

252 

“In digital, if you aim for perfection 

you’ll likely arrive too late. BrokerLink 

demonstrates the value of its 

propositions to customers and then 

iterates from there” 

— 



BrokerLink 


customer value at all times will ultimately 

reap greater success. 

When considering the direction 

of the company as it prepares to 

enter 2021, Kharkavets states that 

BrokerLink will remain as dedicated 

to transformation as ever, “We like to 

set ambitious goals. We then break 

them down into small steps and say, 

‘Okay, here’s where we are going and 

here’s how we’re going to achieve it’.” 

This approach will be bolstered by collaborating 

with its partner companies 

to help improve customer experience 

by responding to their needs. Central 

to BrokerLink’s future success will be 

an inherent trust in the value of digital 

technology and fast-paced R&D, 

which Kharkavets highlights as being 

particularly important. “The term ‘digital 

transformation’ can be intimidating 

for many because it’s a big term,” she 

adds. “But you don’t need to do everything 

at once, so long as you’re putting 

the right building blocks in place.” 

253 

businesschief.com

254 

Customerfocused 

Digital 

Transformation 


255 

WRITTEN BY 

WILLIAM SMITH 

PRODUCED BY 

MIKE SADR 

businesschief.com

ALTAR’D STATE 

Ty Tastepe, Chief Information 

and Digital Officer at fashion 

retailer Altar’d State, on 

digital transformation and 

its response to COVID-19 

256 

T 

y Tastepe is Chief Information and Digital 

Officer at Altar’d State, a fast-growing 

women’s fashion retailer, which sees 

him leading its technology and digital teams. “We 

have three brands,” explains Tastepe. “We have 

A’Beautiful Soul, our plus size brand and Vow’d, our 

recently launched weddings brand, as well as the 

flagship Altar’d State brand.” Tastepe emphasizes 

the fact that the company likes to do things differently 

from its competitors. “We’re very focused on 

giving back to the community, exceeding our guest 

expectations at every touch point, doing the right 

thing and being willing to challenge established 

notions in the retail industry.” 

Tastepe came to the role as an experienced 

technology leader having worked at Universal, 

Hilton and Disney to deliver innovative technologies 

around the globe. “Altar’d State gave me 

the opportunity to make an impact in the digital 

transformation of the organisation, as we focused 

on balancing our physical and digital portfolio and 

providing our guests the choice of platforms to 

engage with us.” 


257 

2009 

Year founded 

2,400 

Number of 

employees 

businesschief.com


258 

“We’re very focused 

on giving back to 

the community” 

— 

Ty Tastepe, 

Chief Information and Digital Officer, 

Altar’d State 

His approach to leadership has 

been solidified by the challenging 

times caused by the ongoing COVID- 

19 pandemic, which he believes made it 

necessary to move more quickly on all 

fronts. “I believe that to be an effective 

leader one needs to be able to paint 

a picture of the destination and really 

communicate the role of each team 

member on that journey,” says Tastepe. 

“Seeking a diversity of ideas and experiences, 

listening to input from partners 

both inside and outside the organization, 

staying positive and maintaining a 

can-do attitude, learning from failures, 

moving forward quickly and celebrating 

successes are really essential in 

achieving the company’s goals.” 

The company’s approach to 

implementing new technology is 

guided by a clear strategy. “We have 

looked at the digital transformation in 


two ways. One is a set of technologies 

to enable our associates to reduce 

friction in their lives and to help them 

serve our guests better. And the second 

is another set of technologies that 

help us know our guests better and 

enable them to engage with us anytime 

and anywhere.” 

One such group of technologies 

is artificial intelligence, as Tastepe 

explains. “We are starting to leverage 

AI in some places. For instance, we use 

technologies on our website to recommend 

products based on our customer 

history and choices. We are continuing 

to identify many more opportunities to 

leverage tools that help us make better 

decisions, AI being one of them.” 

It is data that is at the heart of the 

company’s decision making. “Frankly 


Ty Tastepe 

259 

Title: Chief Information and Digital Officer Company: Altar’d State 

Industry: Retail 

Location: Maryville, TN, USA 

Ty Tastepe serves as the Chief Information and Digital Officer for 

Altar’d State, and leads technology and digital teams to deliver 

exceptional digital experiences for guests and associates. 

Prior to Altar’d State, Ty spent almost two decades delivering 

large scale digital transformation programs at global 

entertainment and hospitality brands including Universal 

Parks and Resorts, Hilton Worldwide and Walt Disney 

Parks and Resorts. 

He earned an MBA from Villanova University and 

received both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees 

in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University. 

businesschief.com


the better we know our guests and the 

more we are informed about what is 

happening in our business, the better 

we can make adjustments and improve 

our business,” says Tastepe. “We look 

at hourly, daily and weekly metrics 

across many fronts to help our leaders 

make decisions as quickly as possible.” 

Tastepe is clear that such technologies 

cannot be implemented without 

first being aware of how changes in 

technology might impact associates 

and customers. “It’s important to 

provide the right tools to our associates 

so that they welcome the 

change and can help our guests. This 

is an area we can always do better 

in and it’s something I think about a 

lot. But I am impressed with how our 

associates have responded to the 

introduction of new technologies. 

Although we’ve seen that can-do attitude 

in every corner of our business, 

it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t focus on 

change management, communication 

and training.” 

260 


We Missed You! 

We Thank You! 

We Love You! 


261 

“We look at hourly, daily and weekly metrics across 

many fronts to help our leaders make decisions” 

— 

Ty Tastepe, 



Altar’d State’s transformation has 

been enabled with the support of a 

number of key technology and service 

providers, both large household 

names and emerging companies. 

One such partner is Exponea. “We 

selected Exponea as our customer 

data platform provider after an 

extensive evaluation process. The 

things we liked about them include 

their ability to combine customer 

data management, segmentation, 

orchestration, and analytics. We 

recently deployed the solution into 

production and we are continuing to 

learn and evolve our use of the technology. 

That’ll teach us a lot more 

about our customers and how we 

engage with them.” 

businesschief.com

ALTAR’D STATE

“I am impressed with 

how our associates 

have responded to 

the introduction of 

new technologies” 

— 

Ty Tastepe, 



The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic 

has led to changes in customer behaviour 

which Altar’d State is responding 

to. “We’re emphasizing our digital 

investments but we’re continuing to 

invest in our stores as well. We care 

very much about the experience we 

provide to our guests in our stores, 

and that will continue to be a key 

component of our strategy. So it’s 

a balancing act between our digital 

and physical presence.” That balancing 

act dovetails with the company’s 

strategy to be present wherever its 

guests shop, to provide a seamless 

experience across all touchpoints. 

“That includes both our direct channels 

and third party channels. We’re 

deploying technologies to provide single 

visibility to our inventory in a near 

real-time mode and manage orders 

across the ecosystem, both direct 

and indirect channels. That enables 

us to offer capabilities like buy online, 

pickup in store.” 

Such innovations stand the company 

in good stead to thrive in the new 

normal, leaving Tastepe to conclude 

that the future is bright for Altar’d 

State. “We weathered the storm as 

well as can be expected and even 

launched our wedding brand in the 

middle of the year during the pandemic. 

We will continue to listen to 

263 

businesschief.com


264 


“We will continue to 

listen to our guests 

and constantly adjust 

to shifting purchase 

patterns and evolving 

conditions” 

— 

Ty Tastepe, 



our guests and constantly adjust to 

shifting purchase patterns and evolving 

conditions. The keys to success 

in such an environment are resilience, 

persistence, responsiveness, and ultimately 

taking care of our guests and 

associates. With those pillars in mind, 

we will continue to grow our business 

into the future.” 

265 

businesschief.com

Driving insurers 

digital 

into a 

future 

At Cognizant, we’ve invested in the end-to-end capabilities 

needed to help insurance organizations not just do digital, 

but be digital. We partner with our clients to unlock new 

value and through the power of digital technologies and new 

ways of working, we help them evolve into more competitive, 

progressive versions of themselves. 

Learn more at Cognizant.com 

Copyright © 2019 Cognizant

BC NA December 2020

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