How the Age of the Second Brain Can Destroy the First?
How many of you are harry potter fans? In the story, Dumbledore had a magical vessel he used to store and review memories. It was called the pencil. This is obviously a fictional story set in a school of magic. But today we have something like this in the real world, it’s called the second brain. The second brain is a digital brain that can be used to document every piece of information, every experience, every thought, and every learning. You can access all of this whenever and wherever you want. What does a second brain look like? Nothing too sci-fi or magical, a second brain looks like a word document backed up in the cloud. How much does it cost? Most second brains are free and some cost as little as $8 a month. The second brain has been developed on the hypothesis that a human brain is meant to have ideas not to store those ideas. So the second brain can do the job of storing. It will store everything from your thoughts to your screenshots, your grocery list, your notes, photos, passwords, reminders, and all other things you can think of. How does this work? The second brain works through apps like Notion, Evernote, One Note, Obsidian, and Mem, all of them work in the same way. They expect every bit of information you come across, everything that you think your brain cannot hold. Shopping lists, quotes, or reminders, you don’t even have to type them down, you can simply voice record and send. If you are reading something interesting online for instance you can email the relevant paragraphs to your second brain. If you have a fleeting thought you can make a quick note of it. Basically, every time you come across something that grabs your attention you log, in whatever form. Screenshots, photos, excel sheets, slides from a PowerPoint presentation, lines from an e-book, excerpts from online articles, and then you can access all this information whenever you want. Say years later you want to write an essay or prepare an address on federalism. All you need to do is go to your second brain and type in the keywords, everything that you uploaded on the topic will be in front of you. If you’ve uploaded a grocery list you can retrieve it the next time you go shopping. Advocates of the second brain say the system helps in knowledge management, it increases creativity and the theory is pretty interesting. It’s almost like having your own little library in the cloud. So is this the future? Well more like the present, believe it or not, all of us already have a second brain. All the apps that we use double up as a second brain. You know the ones that remind you to drink water or to stretch at home. Even breathe, apps tell you to stand up and breathe. They remind you to buy bread on the way back home. Apps remind you what you are doing 10 years back in the month of June. Gigabyte after gigabyte of content from your life is spread across these apps. Do you remember what was the storage capacity of the first iPhone? 16 gigabytes (GB)! Today, an iPhone’s memory can be expanded up to 1TB, that’s one terabyte full of information from your day-to-day life. What second brain apps do is replace all these apps with one, a notepad that doubles up as your library, your gallery, your reminder, your password keeper, your bookmark, your logbook, basically everything. It’s all cataloged! Some apps take it a step up they use time and location data to remind you of information/memories that you may have uploaded but forgotten. For instance, you go to a restaurant, the app will tell you that you came here 3 years back and this is what you ordered, this is who you came with and this is what you thought of the experience back then, obviously provided you’ve logged all of that. But who does that, who documents so much information from their daily life? Actually, most of us do! We are continuously uploading stories, we are tweeting every fleeting thought, and blogging experience. Second brain app stores this content. Quick question. Can’t we store the same information offline? Of course, we can. We can keep notes, we can keep files. Previously, we had a filing cabinet. Once upon a time, every office would have such cabinets but filing and then searching for that file takes a lot of time. A digital brain is more convenient. But do we really need one? Some of us can barely handle one brain. Jokes apart, science disagrees with the very high hypothesis of the second brain. It says our brain can store information, in fact, it can store 2.5 petabytes of information. It’s enough to store 3 million hours of TV shows. You have to leave the TV running for 300 years to use up all that brain space. In other words, we don’t have to worry about running out of brain space in our lifetime. So why do we need a second brain at all? These apps handicap us. They make us unnecessarily dependent on technology. Today, at least 20 million people are using a second brain. Some are leaning on them for making life decisions. There is a very interesting story in an article. Annie, a 27-year-old in New York City began taking notes on her dating life. For Annie, the notion love tracker functions almost like an alternate memory which, once or twice, helped her clarify the amorphous gut feeling she was experiencing. “Once, after a first date I remember thinking this guy is so much fun but he seems really immature,” Annie says. Then on the third date with him, she was enjoying herself but began to feel a bit uneasy like “something was eating at me that I could not put a finger on,” she said. So she went home
Manju Mastakar: An Extensive Investment Solution Provider For Wealth-Creation
After working as a stock advisor in a brokerage firm in the economic hub city of Mumbai, Manju moved to Bangalore to dive in as a wealth manager. Investing and gaining experience for more than 20 years in the investment industry, the sub-prime crisis of 2008 left her no choice but to quit the corporate job. The event triggered her to start a venture, Armstrong. Taking her passion as her business, Manju started working from home, meeting clients and advising them on investments. She has worked and developed solutions for clients of all sizes and played an instrumental role in choosing the right mutual fund. We at Fortunes Crown got into conversation with Manju Mastakar, Managing Director of Armstrong Capital & Financial Services Pvt. Ltd., to know more about the company and how it is helping the businesses and individuals as a whole. Below are the highlights of the interview: Describe your professional journey as an inspiring business professional. Any time that someone takes a risk and launches their own business there is always some foundational reason behind it. Though it was challenging at the beginning to switch from busy office life to working in a home environment, slowly but effectively working from home became the business norm. Initially, I thought of it as a stop-gap arrangement and that when the financial markets stabilize, I would get back into corporate life once again, but that never happened. First I established myself as a freelancer, and I was not shy about it at all. It wasn’t hard for me to say that I don’t have an office and I currently work out of the home. After I was almost 8-9 months into the entrepreneurial journey and had generated some cash flow, I took up a workstation in a business center. After a few more months, I hired my first employee, who in the past worked as a secretary. When you are on your own as a one-person army, it’s very important to delegate non-productive things. Slowly as business GREW, I started hiring people 1 by 1. In a year I would only add 1-2 resources. I worked on a very lean structure so that I could survive through the first 2 years of the entrepreneurial journey. What products and/or services do you offer? Armstrong offers services in the form of Financial Planning & Investment Advisory. We analyze the client’s past investments, understand his liabilities, and discuss their preferences with them. Further, we take a judgmental call on their risk appetite and then offer solutions. We call it the execution plan. We discuss the plan with the client, involving them in the decision-making process of choosing the right mutual fund. The primary motive behind starting Armstrong and continuing it was the unencouraging way wealth management is dealt with conventionally. More of upselling the product. I felt it was necessary to build up the relationship, understand the needs and then offer a solution. We have one plan and one perspective throughout the wealth creation journey. Till today Armstrong does not sell products. We identify requirements and sell solutions. Our core competency is that we work with integrity, keeping in mind that we need to build a long-term relationships. How do you set yourself apart from those already in the industry? We have always had a customer-centric approach – well, all companies say the same but how they put it to practice differs. So for us, when we say customer-centric, it means that there is no over-the-counter solution provided. All relationships begin by keeping in mind the long-term objective, and a financial plan tailored to their needs. We focus a lot on research we do bottom-up research on the funds and the stocks that they pick. We have various filterers based on analytical and various other parameters and the funds that pass through form a part of our white list. We then construct model portfolios for different categories of investors. Our wealth-building process is an iterative one, supported by many plans that evaluate the performance over a period of time. Every client is different, and we have an individualistic approach when offering them solutions. We conceive customized financial plans for each client, considering their life goals, their commitments, their dreams and their savings. We do not create returns, the appreciation is created by the markets we only create the discipline in the investor to save and invest at regular intervals. The first thing I do is protect wealth, the second thing we do is manage risk and then that last preference is past performance. My focus is my Vision, my focus is on my customer’s satisfaction, his long-term wealth creation and protection. This differentiates us from the rest of the industry. Talent Retaining and Hiring have been a challenge for all industries? How are you managing this aspect? In Armstrong Capital we generally hire freshers, I find freshers to be like a jigsaw puzzle and after every conversation with them add on to a piece and for more than 2 years is when the puzzle transforms into a full picture. I feel every individual has a unique characteristic that has to be utilized as a skill for the organization. A team is a unique collage of many individualistic characteristics someone can be like a lion who begins the project with full trust and power and doesn’t relax till the task is completed, someone may be like a crane with high levels of concentration who can strike at the right place with the right force. Someone maybe like a donkey who never refuses any work, some may be like cocks who can give a wake-up call. It’s the leaders’ ability to assemble them as a team and then orchestrate them. They then realize that they are dependent on one another and stick on as a team for a long time, making magic make history. What motivates you to keep going? What attracts me to this profession is intellectual stimulation, the people I work with,
Gagan Arora: From Transforming the Industry to Building an Empire
Gagan, is a first-generation software entrepreneur, a tenacious leader, and a tech evangelist who has successfully built himself as a well-known brand name in the industry. He is Boston University Certified and the seven-time recipient of the BEST CEO award. He is the Chairman of the Foreign Investors Council’s Delhi Chapter and the Director-Global Education for the Asian Arab Chamber of Commerce, servicing 52 countries. Mr. Gagan Arora, Founder and CEO of Vertex Group, is a pioneer in providing aided sales and marketing services to BPOs, BPMs, IT solution providers, and financial and accountancy firms. What’s the inspiration behind Vertex Group? Would you like to mention some of the highlights from your journey? I have spearheaded Vertex Group‘s expansion into six countries in just five years, earning numerous honors including “World’s Greatest Leaders 2021-22”, 40 UNDER 40, and Asia’s Youngest Entrepreneur by Asia One, which was highlighted on CNBC and ET Now. I have also been named as one of India’s Top 100 Influencers by GMI and Forbes two times in a row. I am usually inspired when the utterly impossible becomes possible by embracing the challenge with a never-say-die mindset, no matter how difficult things grow. My desire to prove myself has driven me to build the best work environment possible, expand, and spread our message around the world. If I hear a story from someone who has overcome the odds, worked hard, focused, fulfilled on their word, and has been relentless in changing the world to make it a better place, I feel unbelievably inspired and uplifted. Three words that describe my entrepreneurial journey are Upward, Learning, and Evolving. Since the inception of my journey as an entrepreneur, I have been upward with the challenges coming my way considering my setbacks and failures as new learnings that allowed me to evolve and create a bigger picture of my vision. Deprived of any financial or psychological support, although my circumstances were homeless my vision was not. I had a crystal-clear vision of setting a trend of innovation and technology by using the best of my day-to-day business knowledge. To give wings to my passion I took a leap of faith and left my job, sacrificed the comfort of a monthly salary and perks, and invested money to achieve one true dream. Success to me came in the form of waves that had highs and lows but my keen determination to not settle for anything less kept me going despite a few initial failures. With a strong vision and the will to transform the industry, I laid the pillars of my dream in a small garage in Florida with a team of two, and have since, expanded my footprints across seven countries with a powerful workforce of over 1500+ people. Now, as a President of the Group and a leader, I have taken all of my experience and learnings to make a huge impact, growing my current company from 2 employees to more than 1500, with international offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Philippines, Nepal, Middle East, and Africa. Please brief us in detail about the current scenario of the business. How have the customer preferences changed over the years? With the increasing demand for technology, India’s IT solutions sector has the potential to become the world’s next space center. Advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and others have shrunk the distance between the virtual and real worlds, resulting in an interoperable platform between Information Technology (IT) and actual physical activities. Over and above past human-machine interactions, machine-machine real-time communication is now conceivable. With the rise in processing capability of the chips, visualization and simulation tools have advanced significantly. A wide range of complicated, customized, and modular goods can be designed and immediately conveyed to the machines that will follow. Thus, embedded systems, factories, and workers link via the Internet of Things to collaborate in a cyber-physical environment. Society is rapidly moving from analog processes to digitalized technologies which have opened new ways for businesses to improve and evolve together with their customers. Also, it offers the possibility to link the worldwide economy and build a network in which every business can find its place. Your smartphone is a perfect example of digital transformation. It allows you to use different digital services like socialmedia, which are yet an example of digital transformation because they have changed our way of communicating with each other. Big dataor machine learningare other examples that are especially relevant for businesses that want to learn more about their customers. They offer completely new perspectives on your customers’ behavior that you can use to grow your business. With digital transformation businesses are taking an important step toward getting to know customers better.Pen and paper are outdated. Today you can collect important information via smart applications that offer endless possibilities. Customers’ expectations have changed, thus traditional marketing channels like PR and distribution are starting to lose their impact. Social media is critical for both marketing your items and communicating with your customers. Customer care is now available not only by phone and email but also through social media. As a result, customers have come to expect significantly faster responses to their inquiries. It would not be inaccurate to argue that digital transformation serves as a vehicle for taking your company to the next level. What are the unique challenges your company is currently facing? How have they affected your company? With the changing business environment, no industry is immune to unknown difficulties. The Covid-19 pandemic has built a new reality that is complex, ambiguous, and full of possibilities. Uncertainty regarding the future is one of the most pressing issues we face today. The unprecedented waves of Covid-19 have had a negative impact on employees’ physical and emotional well-being, as they are constantly threatened by the loss that pandemic uncertainties could have on them and their families, thereby hurting employee productivity. The work-from-home culture necessitated that corporate culture is built in
Mohammed Mubin Mallick: On the Forefront of Robot Solutions and Services
Please tell us about your educational/professional background. Who inspired you to become a business leader? Would you like to mention some of the highlights from your journey? I, Mohammed Mubin Mallick, am the CEO and Founder of Kiran Smart company in Kuwait, Dubai, and India. I am an innovator of Humanoid Robot Services and the Founder of Mi-Robots Company registered in India. Holding a Master’s Degree MBA from Cardiff University, UK. I have several professional certificates under his name. It was one of the childhood incidents that inspired me to be an Entrepreneur and be a leader to help others not only in business but in their personal life as well. Every journey has good and bad highlights so let me start with bad highlights first because they helped me forge my path to success. During the journey, I lost my father, lost money, was cheated several times, failed myself many times, and sacrificed a lot in my personal life. But I flipped the coin and built trust. People started recognizing me. I excelled in business. I have loyal customers and employees. I am able to expand my business in India and Dubai (UAE). I have bagged many awards for being advanced in the robotics field. Today, I am recognized as one of the Top Influencers in the field of robotics. When was Kiran Smart established? What are the prominent services/solutions offered by the company? Kiran Smart was established in the year 2019. We have IT solutions and services but in the recent year during COVID-19, we have diversified to Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, and Digital Transformation. Headquartered in Dubai, Kiran Smart is always different than its competitors offering because we always introduce advanced new technology and innovative product so that customers can be ahead and up to date with the latest technological solutions and services offered by us. Please brief us in detail about the current scenario of the business. How have the customer preferences changed over the years? The present scenario of business will vary from business to business. So if I share about my business then it is different than others as our core business is robotics services for different industries and the demand is increasing daily. Other than this we are also into IT solutions and services which is the ongoing business for us from past few years. Customer preferences keep changing from time to time as per the latest trends in the market and in terms of advanced technologies as well. So customers always prefer something innovative as well solve the problem. Previously, customers used to focus on resolving the issue but now the preferences have been widened in terms of innovation, technologies, quick services, and 24 hr availability. What are the unique challenges your company is currently facing? How have they affected your company? At present, we have one unique challenge which is Post Covid 19 recovery because this challenge is not only for us but it is for the whole world and it has affected every business. Financial-wise and work-wise it has affected our company but not to a very high extent as we have deployed the advanced technologies, especially robots to overcome these challenges. We were quite successful to overcome these challenges with our robots. What measures do you incorporate to ensure motivation and productivity within the workspace? How do you respond to criticism and disagreements? Our working style is like a family in our working environment. Also, our working times are flexible. We offer employees their preferred time to work where they can have much more productivity. So as a holistic situation it helps to remain motivated and also increases productivity. We always think in a positive way so whatever criticism or disagreement comes from our customers we always take it as tips or lessons for ourselves to improve it and develop it to be better in the future. Because we believe that everyone is not perfect and from mistakes only we can learn to be better and better in our services. What measures do you undertake to ensure optimum customer satisfaction? How much impact does the customer feedback have on the company’s strategies? It is very simple for us. We just listen to our customers carefully so that we can deliver the best solution as per the customer’s problems defined. Customer feedback is very important because it helps us to make a better strategy whether it is related to competition, market trends, customer demand, customer satisfaction, or employees’ services to customers. So for us, the feedback of customers is very important because it helps us to grow and develop. Are you planning to launch any new products/services or advancements to your existing offerings? If so, we would like to know about it. Yes, there are many but all of them are robots for different industries and verticals. We cannot disclose the information due to company policies.
Tonya Winders: Regulating Health, Life and Balance
Allergy and asthma are serious global health problems affecting all age groups. Their prevalence is increasing in many countries, especially among children. Although some countries have seen a decline in hospitalizations and deaths from these diseases, especially asthma, they are still imposing an unacceptable burden on health care systems, and on society through loss of productivity in the workplace and, especially for pediatric asthma, disruption to the family. Faced a gap within delivering awareness about allergy, asthma, and related conditions, Tonya Winders, CEO of Allergy & Asthma Network sought an effective way to treat the patients diagnosed with these diseases. Her networks provide support to patients through outreach, education, advocacy, and research. Go to allergyasthmanetwork.org to know their process of improving the quality of life of patients. We have highlighted the insights, the impression, and the inspiration through an interview with Tonya for brevity and clarity about the company. Educational/professional background and highlights Tonya: I have my Masters in marketing and business administration and have spent the past 25 years in healthcare—15 in pharma, medical device & diagnostics, and 10 leading Allergy & Asthma Network. Highlights: Patient Advocate for GINA global asthma guidelines Patient Advocate for WHO GARD (respiratory diseases) President of Global Allergy & Airways Patient Platform (>70 patient organizations throughout the world) Published >50 peer-reviewed articles in the medical literature Speak internationally to thousands of healthcare providers and millions of patients each year Growth against uncertaintiesTonya: In March 2020, I listened to our community and recognized a unique opportunity to offer evidence-based, timely information regarding COVID. Consequently, over 150,000 people have tuned into our COVID webinars in the past two years. Moreover, over 3M have visited our COVID-19 Information Center. We have also held live events in community settings in underserved neighborhoods to address vaccine hesitancy and identify lung health issues. We have experienced explosive growth over the past two years and our challenges revolve around the growing burden of immune and respiratory diseases and limited resources to address the unmet needs. What is your call on women’s leadership? Tonya: I often hear from women who do not fully accept their role as leaders. It is vital to help women fully own their leadership style even if it is different from traditional alpha male styles. Female leaders have been proven to be more likely to coach, mentor, and develop their direct reports than male leaders. They are true talent agents, using feedback and direction to help people grow. This enables them to unlock other people’s potential and promote effective cooperation on their teams. While we gravitate towards leaders who are self-focused and self-centered, the likelihood that such individuals can turn a group of people into a high-performing team is low. I believe women are uniquely gifted in the areas of nurturing, communicating, and supporting teamwork. Like society, it is important to take the best of both alpha and beta leadership strengths to effectively address the largest business and political challenges. Do you think women hold more potential to excel economically and make the world a better place for living? Tonya: The real problem is not a lack of competent females; it is too few obstacles for incompetent males, which explains the surplus of overconfident, narcissistic, and unethical people in charge. As a consequence, gender differences in leadership effectiveness (what it takes to perform well) are out of sync with gender differences in leadership emergence (what it takes to make it to the top). instead of encouraging women to act like male leaders (many of whom are incompetent), we should be asking men in power to adopt behaviors more commonly found in women. This would create a pool of better role models who could pave the way for both competent men and women to advance. As women are believed to be a gentler part of humanity, how their leadership can heal both business and political corridors? Tonya: Women are more likely to lead through inspiration, transforming people’s attitudes and beliefs, and aligning people with meaning and purpose (rather than through carrots and sticks), than men are. Since transformational leadership is linked to higher levels of team engagement, performance, and productivity, it is a critical path to improving leaders’ performance. If men spent more time trying to win people’s hearts and souls, leading with both EQ and IQ, as opposed to leaning more on the latter and nurturing a change in beliefs rather than behaviors, they would be better leaders. Furthermore, If the average male leader wants to improve their performance, they would do well to adopt a less self-centered style of leadership. Servant leadership and putting others ahead of yourself are second nature to most women. We must stop falling for people who lean in when they lack the talents to back it up. In a logical world, we would promote people into leadership roles when they are competent rather than confident, vetting them for their expertise, track record, and relevant leadership competencies (e.g., intelligence, curiosity, empathy, integrity, and coachability). Women are generally less overconfident than men. This is good news because it enables them to understand how people see them and gives them the capacity to spot gaps between where they want to be and where they are. People who see themselves in a more critical way than others do are better able to prepare, even if it means overpreparing, and that’s a solid way to increase your competence and performance. What are your contributions to the company? Tonya: As the President & CEO of Allergy & Asthma Network, each day I aim to inspire my team to remember the “why?” behind the “what?” we do daily. Ultimately our goal is to end the needless death and suffering due to asthma, allergies, and related conditions like COVID or COPD through outreach, education, advocacy, and research. What are the services/products which your company offers? Are they anywhere different from your competitors’ offerings? Tonya: We drive awareness of these diseases via a multichannel approach including digital media, social
Esther Riveroll: Transforming Data Governance in the Digital Age
A sports lover, trained for a cross country marathon of 45Kms, and passionate about mathematics to keep challenging her brain, Esther at a very young age realized that she was born to be a leader. After graduating high school, she cracked a position at IBM where her path in technology began. She sees failure as learning and an opportunity to do things differently, it is just that you are preparing yourself to grow. Big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning are transforming economies and innovation on a revolutionary scale. They have great economic potential. Indeed, some have already hailed data as “the new oil.” This may be an imperfect analogy, but it does capture the excitement and high expectations surrounding the data-driven economy. The prospect of extracting lucrative insights from rapidly growing pools of data is galvanizing entrepreneurs and investors in all sectors of industry. Esther Riveroll, Founder and CEO at Alldatum Business, brings a sophisticated capacity to collect, organize, control, and commercialize stores of data and intellectual property to help businesses with data governance. She accompanies them on their path to a successful digital transformation getting value on their data, as well as responding to the challenges presented by the digital economy and data management initiatives. Please tell us about your educational/professional background. Who inspired you to become a business leader? Would you like to mention some of the highlights from your journey? When I was 18, I studied at the “Colegio de Bachilleres”, a high school in Mexico that gives you a technical specialty and mine was accounting. This school did not have a direct pass to the government universities and my parents did not have the money to pay me for a private university, so I took the exam at UNAM Public school and I was not selected. There were students from another high school who had a direct pass and the career I had chosen which was “Applied Mathematics and Computing” was fashionable, I was not fortunate enough to be chosen. I had to work in the meantime in the Collective Transport System (Metro) for a year. There I realized that I did not want to be an administrative assistant, that I wanted to be a leader of something, and also with everything I saw, I realized that I wanted to help create a better world. After that year I took the exam again and now I was accepted. I taught aerobics classes daily (3 hours) to help my family. I loved sports, I trained for a Mexico – Cuernavaca cross country marathon (45 KMS) and that was my passion. I loved exercise so much that my friend from college was upset with me because I was always doing homework at the last moment. At that time, I wanted to put in a gym and I loved to make people happy through exercise and music which is also my passion. In this process, I had a car accident that stopped for a while the opportunity to continue teaching classes and that was where I received the message that my mission was not teaching aerobics, that I had to start to focus more on my professional career and that was when I tried harder in the University. I love mathematics, to challenge my brain to solve problems, the more difficult I like it and that also I was passionate about. When I was finishing school I wanted to work in a company that was the IT biggest Company, where I could learn more and be challenged. That’s where I found out back then that it was IBM and a friend’s sister took my resume to IBM. I went on a scholarship and that’s where my path in technology began. Since I was at school I always had the opportunity to be a leader. I was a group leader in secondary school for the 3 years in a row, and I loved it because I have the firm conviction that being a leader you can train and help people, and create high-potential teams. My first position as a manager was when I thought I was ready, I asked my manager at IBM what do I have to do to become a manager and he assigned me goals that I met and they gave me a management position. I learned that if you want something you need to ask for it. There is a lot of responsibility in being a leader because you become an example and inspiration for others, but if you do it well, you can create opportunities and a better world. When was Alldatum Business established? What are the prominent services/solutions offered by the company? Alldatum Business is a proudly Mexican company created in 2016. Our passion is to deliver and help customers derive value from their information and collaborate with them on their data strategy. Headquartered in Mexico City, Alldatum brings value to customers by being a business partner that accompanies them on their path to a successful digital transformation getting value on their data, as well as responding to the challenges presented by the digital economy and data management initiatives. We help companies to obtain the best information from their systems, and the vision of the data they don’t have today but need for future growth. create value with this data and thus share this data to the lines of business and the analytical area to make better decisions. We transform the data into wisdom for the companies. Data projects are not only technological projects. Many customers need help to understand all about the data and the best strategy to get value from it. Sometimes their first pain is on the silos and integration of their information, sometimes they do not have the data they need, sometimes they had internal political situations that are difficult to manage, and the owners do not want to share the data, the data is poor on quality, and many other situations. Data projects are
Team Genius Partners with Gateway+ to Turn Educator’s Ambitious Vision into Reality
Gateway+, an education technology start-up, announced its strategic partnership with Team Genius today, an online digital transformation company. The partnership will allow the start-ups to harness the power of technology to deliver expert university and test preparation content in a way that has never been seen before. With support and guidance from Team Genius, Gateway+ is built as a robust educational platform that integrates the most up-to-date admissions and tests preparation content with features to maximize engagement from learners. The platform boasts hundreds of video lessons with over 2,200 minutes of learning, with tailored content to five major higher education destinations: the UK, USA, Australia, Canada and Singapore. Apart from video lessons, the platform also features community spaces where learners can interact, and checkpoints and assessments strategically placed so students can track their progress. According to the founder of Gateway+, Clarice Chan, “Gateway+ was founded with a vision to level the playing field regarding students’ journeys to higher education. We aim to empower students across the globe to overcome the asymmetry in access to information. From choosing the best universities for their academic goals to providing comprehensive test preparation support, students will be empowered to tackle every part of the university admissions process.” By partnering, Team Genius and Gateway+ can offer scalable solutions for delivering quality educational content to learners worldwide. “This strategic partnership is a step towards creating an efficient, engaging, learning experience for Gateway+ customers. Team Genius is excited to be on this journey with Gateway+ as our shared values and mission create powerful synergy,” said Yasaf Burshan, the owner and CEO of Team Genius. “This collaboration provides Gateway+ with the competitive edge they need to be the leaders in their niche,” Yasaf added. About Gateway+ Gateway+ is a content streaming platform for all your higher education needs. Its extensive content and proven pedagogy help students make informed decisions as they prepare for higher education. The platform is friendly on all devices and provides quality content that students can access anytime, anywhere. About Team Genius Team Genius, founded by Yasaf Burshan, is a leading digital technologies partner for creators in the new world committed to utilizing the power of technology to transform businesses. The next-generation solutions by Team Genius have helped companies across industries to scale their business and deliver a seamless experience to their customers. It is a certified Thinkific expert, certified Zapier expert and technology partner with other major brands such as Microsoft and Monday.com. The company’s mission is to empower the creators. Team Genius is recognized as the one-stop shop for digital services, providing exceptional work. Media Contact – Gateway+: marcom@gateway-plus.com Media Contact – Team Genius: hq@team-genius.com
MOBILE APPLICATIONS AS THE CURRENT CATALYST OF BUSINESSES
The impact of mobile applications on people’s daily lives has grown exponentially within this decade. There’s not a lot of things to say about it because its emergence and improvement is evident. While the majority of users worldwide are taking advantage of mobile applications because of social media platforms and online shopping, there’s still a fair chunk of that massive user base that other sectors can grab. And sole proprietor businesses, in particular, took a shot and leveraged mobile applications. In this article, we will focus most on the clear benefits that mobile applications bring to any size of businesses and enterprises. Bigger boost in reach Both the Android OS and iOS have their application marketplace, where users can download any types of applications they want with or without a fee. Most businesses offer free access to users to increase their reach and accessibility. UberEats, for example, is a food delivery service that requires a specific amount of reach to become functional. McDonald’s, on the other hand, is a restaurant that mostly uses its application to advertise their menu, while still offering customers the option to deliver food at the doorsteps of their customers. Both of these make more profit, the more customers they serve, the more mobile applications are the perfect platform for them to achieve that goal. Accessibility and management One thing that most people adore from mobile applications is their accessibility. Indeed, it is an invention that has allowed people to become more organized than ever before. The mClinic application is an excellent example of the management side. It helps doctors and other medical professionals to organize their clinics and hospitals within just a couple of taps. This impact can be felt on the client’s end as well. Increased brand recognition Another beauty of having an application for a business despite it being costly to develop is slight to a high increase in brand recognition. Most businesses push this endeavor to stand out from the crowd and be ahead of their competitors. Tropical Roofing Products, for instance, saw this opportunity to grow because of the lack of roofing contractors and repairers on the app market. Many sole proprietor businesses can take advantage of this, including computer repair services, landscaping providers, accountants for hire, etc. Along with technology, businesses have also evolved and are now using a different approach to advertising, and generally reaching more people. Mobile applications have done such a great job combining all of these and benefiting both the businesses and their clients, as well. Contact us today to create your own mobile application. About Webster Solutions Vishal Dudhal, founder, Webster Solution, specializes in building unique, personalized, and easy to manage websites and applications. Having been in the web industry for over nine years, we have over 200 satisfied and recurring clients, across the world! We focus on quality, innovation, & speed. We utilize technology to bring results to grow our clients businesses. Throughout the years Webster Solutions has been able to create stunning Website designs and Mobile/Web applications in multiple verticals while allowing our clients to obtain an overall better web presence. Based in India, Webster Solution provides services such as Domain Registration And Web Hosting E-Commerce Development Search Engine Optimization WordPress Development Web Design And Development Mobile Application Development
Yasaf Burshan: Inspiring and Empowering Creators to Make an Impact
Israel is a very small country – two hours from Tel Aviv you are on the edge of the country. But due to its position as a global innovation powerhouse, investors from major countries are attracted to it. Identified as a hotspot for collaboration, Yasaf, an innovative Israeli entrepreneur helps businesses thrive through effectively integrating technologies in their education businesses. Yasaf Burshan, Founder and CEO of Team Genius, shares his journey of outgrowing and expanding abroad, connecting people with technology. We at Fortunes Crown got into an interview questionnaire to know more about the company and its impact on ed-tech businesses. Please tell us about your educational/professional background. Who inspired you to become a business leader? Would you like to mention some of the highlights from your journey? When it comes to formal education, I’m happy to say that I’ve obtained education in two major fields that I’m very passionate about, Technology and People. I have a BA in business management with a major in Information Technology and I’m a certified project management professional (PMP). Also, I am a certified Clinical NLP master and a graduate of the Tony Robbins platinum partnership program. This combination allowed me to have a very successful career in the traditional IT industry for over 20 years, in which I held multiple senior roles including the head of IT for IKEA in Israel. Please brief us in detail about the current scenario of the business. How have the customer preferences changed over the years? Team Genius’s mission is to inspire and empower creators to make an impact. We work with content and course creators all over the world (majorly in the US, Canada, and Australia) and we help them to unleash their creativity by effectively integrating technology into all areas of their business. Simply put, we keep them in their Zone of Genius, doing what they do best, as we help them create profitable online businesses. As a content creator myself, for my program “Anywhere Boss”, I know first-hand the challenges they are facing, and I’m also inspired by them to become better and better. While I’m still very much in the “tech zone” my ideal customer has changed from the finance/retail/consumer subject matters to the knowledge commerce business. What are the unique challenges your company is currently facing? How have they affected your company? I think that like most other companies these days working remotely and efficiently is a challenge. At the same time, one advantage we have on our side is that Team Genius was founded as a global organization with team members across multiple locations, so this is built right into our DNA. It drives us to be more open in our communications, efficient in the way we do business, and of course, rely on technology, we do for ourselves what we do for our customers. When was Team Genius established? What are the prominent services/solutions offered by the company? Team Genius was established in 2019. We are a certified Thinkific agency partner, certified Zapier experts and a certified Evernote partner. In addition, we have partnerships with other major brands like Microsoft and Monday that gives us a unique ability to look at our customers’ tech needs from a holistic point of view. We help our customers create profitable online courses, products and membership sites and convert sales funnels, but we don’t stop there. We apply automation and make them more efficient and productive in their business. And on a personal level, I also mentor and coach my customers on how to take things to the next level and build a lifestyle that excites them by becoming “Anywhere Bosses”. What measures do you incorporate to ensure motivation and productivity within the workspace? How do you respond to criticism and disagreements? I encourage open and honest communication. It is my responsibility as the leader to make sure that everybody gets heard and to recognize what they have to say. Values and culture are the keys here and it starts with me leading by example, and by choosing Team Members that share the same values. Not the same opinions, the same values. Disagreements are inventible, nor they should be ignored. Every member of the team has the freedom to speak freely. Criticism is fine, as long as it is served as feedback that we can build on and improve. My response is always “bring it on, let’s talk about it so we can get better. What measures do you undertake to ensure optimum customer satisfaction? How much impact does the customer feedback have on the company’s strategies? Communication is the key. Customer satisfaction is very important for us and it plays a major role in our growth and success strategies. Customer dissatisfaction is most likely to come when there is a gap between the customer expectation and the result or deliverable. So we communicate clearly from the first step what is to be expected, what is included in the scope of work, the timeline and the expected cost. Then we monitor expectations and communication throughout the lifecycle of the project and adjust as needed. We are not afraid to say that we don’t have the answer to something, and if such cases arise we see them as an opportunity to learn something new with a promise to come back with an answer in X amount of time. Please tell us about the services/products your company is offering? How are they different from your competitors’ offerings? We are certified Thinkific agency partners, and as such, we offer course creation, site-building and automation services. We also support all Thinkific superpowerups, from general consultation to setup and configuration. As Zapier experts, we effectively integrate technology in all areas of our customer’s business. Keeping them in their “Zone of Genius”, doing what they do best; teaching, empowering, creating, leading, and making sure they have efficient processes that are working for them so they can quickly and effortlessly scale. The successful partnerships we maintain with industry-leading vendors allows
Nick Zamucen: Helping People Restore Properties to Pre-Loss Condition
There is nothing closer than your own home, it is a gift you earn and give yourself. It becomes a box of memories of precious moments. Unfortunately, sometimes due to some inevitable disasters people lose their houses beyond restoration. But there are state-of-the-art ways to restore the house environment to its prime historical period. Nick Zamucen, CEO of Best Option Restoration, is committed to helping those in need after a disaster and returning their homes to their original condition. Recently, Mr. Zamucen is being interviewed to share his experience of restoring happiness in society. Let’s have a look! Please tell us about your professional background. Would you like to mention some of the highlights from your journey? I have created four nationally recognized franchised brands. Three of which have been previously sold to private equity companies and now my focus is to build and sell the last one, Best Option Restoration, over the course of the next decade. I live my life with the want and need to help others. Adding massive value to those around me is my passion. I live to be a good leader, a great friend, and an outstanding business mentor for my franchisees. Please brief us in detail about the current scenario of the business. How have the customer preferences changed over the years? The franchised restoration industry has never been in a hotter market. With Billions of dollars in claims being paid monthly from insurance companies, prospective franchise owners want in. Who could blame them? Best Option Restoration is in a fantastic position with its low cost of entry, state-of-the-art thermal drying systems and a management team second to none. We win and will continue to win in this crowded field. This is the industry to be in to build a life-changing business and a substantial income for years to come. What are the unique challenges your company is currently facing? How have they affected your company? The challenges we’ve had are actually rather opportunities. We continue to have a ton of new franchisee interest in our company. The hardest thing for us at a corporate level is keeping up with demand. We can only take on many units a month and having to put people on a waiting list isn’t fun for anyone. Most stay on the list and wait their turn, a few we lose to competition because they make a side deal and get in for a lesser price somewhere else. I find in business and life, you get what you pay for. Be very careful making deals with companies and devaluing your position. When was Best Option Restoration established? What are the prominent services/solutions offered by the company? Best Option Restoration was established in 2016. We offer Water mitigation, Fire rebuilds, Mold termination, Storm Damage, and Content Cleaning solutions for home and business owners. We’re escalating at our best, hence our name, Best Option Restoration. What measures do you incorporate to ensure motivation and productivity within the workspace? How do you respond to criticism and disagreements? We treat everyone like family. Sometimes you’re all on the same page and everyone is happy, sometimes you’re not. The important thing is, not that everyone always gets what they want, but they feel heard, understood, and respected. There will always be criticisms around and negative feedback. All you can do is try to mitigate that as much as possible but always do the best things for the clients. In our case, the clients are our franchisees. Put them first and always do what is right, you can’t go wrong. Everything takes more time than you think it will and problems are going to happen. People tend to think working for yourself is the ultimate freedom, and it can be after it’s earned. Working for yourself is not normally harder and longer hours than you’ve ever had before. You have to stay disciplined, driven, and self-started… every day, not just when you feel like it. What measures do you undertake to ensure optimum customer satisfaction? How much impact does the customer feedback have on the company’s strategies? With our clients being our franchisees, it’s pretty simple to ensure satisfaction because we are in communication with them weekly if not daily. Again, we are a family, we’re a close group. There are many times a franchise will reach out to me just to say hi, ask how I’m doing, and how is my family. This means the world to me because I know they care and in turn, they feel comfortable enough with me to be personal. I know I’m doing my job when my franchises are friends, like family, not just unit numbers. Please tell us about the services/products your company is offering? How are they different from your competitors’ offerings? With our propriety thermal technology drying systems, we are state of the art. We aren’t just another, “man with a fan in a van” like our competition. Best Option Restoration franchises dry structures in literally half the time of anyone else out there. There is truly no comparison to what we do. There are some copycats in the field we noticed lately. I look at that as once again I’m doing my job, I’m changing an old tired industry and bringing it into the new century. A century of technology and focused strategy. We are better because we practice being so. We’re just the “Best Option” in a mitigation and restoration situation. Tips for aspirants Problems are going to arise, just out of nowhere, so you must learn to deal with them effectively and quickly. You can’t just ignore problems and think someone else will handle them, not when you’re a business owner, it’s on you…success and failure. The choice is yours.