Diana Dobin, CEO & CSO, Valley Forge Fabrics, has steered the company towards best-in-class sustainability practices. Even when the concept of green was not wholly embraced or considered a worthwhile investment, Diana has pushed for environmentally sensitive products, processes, and practices in our day-to-day lives—Katy Daly, VP of Sales at Valley Forge.

Ward Young, VP of Human Resources at Valley Forge, says, “Not only is Diana the CEO & CSO, but she is the leader of the Company’s unique people culture. Under Diana’s leadership, we have identified Core Values that inform our hiring decisions and how we work. All team members are given nicknames. Diana’s official company nickname is Earth Mother, and she is the first on our team to instruct and guide us on our corporate citizenship as stewards of sustainable practices that impact our families, customers, and communities.” Diana’s unique strength is her empathy. There is not a day that goes by that she has not influenced a team member positively and encouraged their well-being by complementing them professionally and checking in on them.

Diana has always been very passionate about mentoring and women supporting women. She always makes the time to hear somebody’s story – and find a way to introduce them to somebody else – or volunteer herself to be a part of their circle. Diana’s passion for Valley Forge has always come down to one thing: the people who make the business engine hum. Her ability to develop special and unique relationships with each employee often materializes in the personal and professional growth her team members see in so many at Valley Forge. Diana inspires everyone to recognize the importance of each role, excel in their positions, and show great pride in their craft.

Diana acts as a full-time change agent and cheerleader in keeping the company’s products ahead of the market and preparing the teams for company initiatives. “Our business environment is such that we have the resources, diversity, freedom, and support to drive creativity and operational excellence which results in dreamy environments for our clients and personal fulfillment through our team wins at the end of each successful project,” says Ward.

Diana has a servant leadership style and has learned that leading with the heart – and always considering the impact on people, while fueling strategy & execution from the brain – encourages others and connects everyone to a greater purpose. “We are all more motivated when we have a passion for the people we are working with and feel joined together towards a shared goal,” she adds. “The only way I know to authentically connect with others is to listen to their perspectives, learn their stories and support them in their very unique individual dreams.” Armed with this unique ideology, Diana leads the company to new heights.

Valley Forge Fabrics is respected as the Sustainability Steward of the Textile and Hospitality Industry. Diana is proud of their work to further the development and use of fabrics and products that benefit the environment and human health. For her, care about the planet has always been inextricably connected to health & wellness. Currently, when people are yearning to be together more than ever, there is no greater honor than to lead a business that is doing its best to create healthy spaces for all to enjoy.

During the pandemic, the Hospitality industry was severely impacted. “Business was terrible, and we are still in recovery mode. We made the decision to face the downturn in business by investing in ourselves and our future,” she elucidates. “Our leaders and their teams went above and beyond, and we are launching a newly digitalized infrastructure to support Valley Forge in the future.” Along with her brother and partner Michael Dobin, and the company COO Vanesa Patino, Diana and her team were aligned in understanding that companies that don’t innovate, grow stagnant – and then become obsolete. Working closely with company leaders, Vanesa has led and executed a full-scale digitalization of the business from end to end. “Our digitalization strategy will enable the business to scale and set a best-in-class level for service – at a time when we all know that positive connections between people matter most,” explains Diana. “I am excited about how this strategy will allow us to expand and scale the company and innovate faster, while using technology and machine learning to support our teams so they can think and spend more time doing what they enjoy.” WL

Do Sellers Deserve Anything Less?

“Why is it that sales organizations, the very heart of every growth company, are not as well served with technology as their counterparts in Finance, Human Resources, Marketing, Manufacturing and…

Dr. Amy L. Peters, Executive Director, Utah State University’s ability to provide consistent leadership motivates her direct reports and their teams to provide excellent customer service to Faculty, Staff, Students, and community patrons. Her positive outlook on challenges engages every one she encounters; in turn, she creates a harmony of trust and gratitude towards all that work with her. Through her leadership as Chair of the Space Management Committee, she helps to focus on Individuals and programs to make the best use of University space. She coordinates across departments to ensure unity and drive towards sustaining and promoting each program.

The steadfast leader’s philosophy is motivating: “I am a servant leader dedicated to the principles I hold and the people I serve. Above all, I will do what is right, even if unpopular. I will treat everyone as equal. I believe in the transformational power of education. I will work along with others as a bridge-builder to empower communities and transform lives. I am a continuous learner and a hardworking employee for Utah State University, moving forward to improve my abilities and to better serve others. I seek to help others do the same and achieve their goals and will work tirelessly to assist in the removal of barriers, real or perceived, which restrict people from reaching their visions. I am both humbled and comforted by accepting I cannot know it all. I will, however, seek to learn as much as possible, a life’s journey. I will make up for what I lack in talent with effort and indomitable spirit. I will not quit.”

Amy is the person that leads by example and creates opportunities for other women. “This Girl Can” is a plaque that sits in her office for all to see. It reminds her that everyone needs a support system; she relies on women with several salary grades above her for advice and leadership momentum as well as having a courageous husband that provides her a constructive supporting homelife. “I feel my creative character is a positive strength to continue growing in my current leadership position. Roselinde Torres (2013) TED talk helped me realize that daring to be different in the 21st Century Leadership. She mentions withstanding the emotional slam that comes with having your idea sound reckless or immature. I seem to find myself holding strong, sometimes with an attitude adjustment on the side, but I readjust and move on the idea by gaining support from those willing to join me.”

Amy inspires those she works with and those who see her lead from afar. “I know because many have said so directly to me; that I afford them the confidence to lead, make decisions that are impactful on their employees positively,” she says. “I am genuine about gaining knowledge—encouraging each of my direct reports and each team member to continue to improve upon themselves so they, in turn, can be an inspiration to others.”

One of the biggest achievements for Amy and her institute is the ability to reach many more learners, over the last three years, they have moved their paper route to an electronic approval system on many different levels. Some of these electronic approving forms, for example, are requests for motor pool vehicles, requesting a key, or electronic access for internal work orders to accessing virtual events. Amy believes this organization—a high learning institution has a people approach that is revolutionary in itself. They are a statewide land-grant University that provides top-notch education. The University is a Carnegie R-1 status as a Research institute.

“Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see, Que sera, sera, what will be, will be . “The verse is from a song Amy’s parents listened to by Doris Day—Whatever Will Be, Will Be. “I recall as a child, my parents saying this to me when I would inquire about the future. However, the USU Eastern campus is building their freshmen class through great recruitment strides, while the operations of the campus move towards water conservation efforts and dedication to efficient wholistic patron services that will save money (tax dollars), motivate employees, and continue being a community partner in training students to meet societal and industrial employment needs.” WL

The key to success at Artis Energy has been the company’s ability to adapt and grow in the ever-changing energy landscape. They have accomplished this by building a flexible, state-of-the-art Analytics platform. “We decided very early on to invest in people with strong background not only in technology but also in data science and analytics. Our algorithms morph challenges into analytical patterns that easily become solutions and add-on features to the platform,” says Lili Delalat, CEO & CIO at Artis Energy. “The ability to introduce new features based on customers’ needs in a timely fashion has given Artis Energy a competitive edge in the market.” And Lili has been a big motivation for the same.

“Artis Energy™, through its subsidiaries Artis Energy Intelligence and Artis Energy Solutions, brings a unique combination of analytics, technology and energy industry expertise together to analyze, develop and implement energy management strategies that meet the unique business and building needs of its commercial, industrial, institutional and governmental customers.”

Lili started as a reliability engineer, where she designed fault tolerance algorithms for computer chips. “I loved engineering, and I loved my life in Silicon Valley, but my career took a turn when my husband accepted a tenure position at Rutgers University,” she says. “And a good wife that I am, I followed him to the East Coast with stack of books on finance, trading, and C++ programming in hand. That’s when I started my new career as a technologist in Wall Street. Working in such a fast-paced environment made me realize that I had a knack in managing multiple projects simultaneously, putting out fires, and enjoying coming up with quick solutions to The never-ending demands from the trading floors.” The realization and the ability to not ever drop the ball, no matter how many in her hands, prioritizing on the fly, and following through carved the way for Lili to take on more and more responsibilities. Armed with this experience, the steadfast leader has taken the company to new heights.

Artis Energy’s mission is to simplify energy management by introducing a comprehensive view of its energy profile to clients. They analyze their clients’ energy patterns to gain insight into their carbon emission, energy efficiency, and cost profile and assist them with actionable recommendations to achieve their goals in these areas.

Artis Energy Intelligence provides two parallel service offerings. For customers who are just starting to focus on energy management, their Energy Consulting offerings provide transparency into cost and energy savings opportunities, identify energy management challenges, and clears the path to achieving continuous carbon emission and cost reductions. Customers looking to employ advanced energy management strategies, need increased transparency into day-to-day energy usage, or are interested in tracking and centralizing their energy management initiatives offer a cloud-based, real-time energy monitoring platform RTIS®.

The company keeps a close eye on industry challenges, State and Federal energy goals, and programs. They use direct feedback from clients to bring new value propositions to the energy analytics space.

They have also driven and participated in several widescale utility pilot programs focused on identifying and implementing new cost-effective energy management techniques.

• They employ a proactive approach to product and service improvements, pushing regular updates to our RTIS® SaaS customers, and whenever possible, leveraging their client’s feedback to guide product development initiatives.

•They build trust through transparency and continuous support. Often, RTIS® customers elect to work with their Managed Services support team to drive continuous improvements and bring to light problems before they impact the bottom line.

• From a product design perspective, RTIS® is built to be hardware and Building Management System agnostic. Suppose a customer has already made investments in energy management or would like to build a foundation to grow energy management practices over time. In that case, their platform is set up to support their evolving needs at any stage of the lifecycle.

Artis Energy’s tagline “Listen to you Building™” speaks of their goal in client engagements; let the data speak for itself. They work with clients to find the right platform setup or consulting service to solve their unique challenges on a facility-by-facility basis. “Energy management can become an expensive undertaking, and in fact, many simple BMS installations can quickly run deep into the 6-figure range. We right size our service offerings for our client’s needs and energy savings potential to ensure that our clients realize an immediate and compounding return on investment.”

Artis Energy Intelligence (AEI) has grown from a small CT-based company focusing on single facility and meter deployments to serving fortune 100 customers in a global setting in the past six years. AEI is expanding its sustainability tracking and automated anomaly detection algorithms to provide more profound energy efficiency opportunities to customers. IEWL

Artis Energy

Management

Lili Delalat
CEO & CIO at Artis Energy

Description

Artis Energy Intelligence utilizes its patented energy analytics platform, RTIS®, to deliver the real-time visibility and insights that our customers need to secure meaningful energy savings, satisfy sustainability goals, identify operational improvements and evaluate energy investment opportunities.

Did Big Data Lead Us Here?

Yes, this is about the current state of politics in America, but rest assured I am not taking a political position on a forum that, gratefully and for the most part, has kept politics at arms length. Rather, as…

Mike Albang, CPA, CFA, VP Finance,
Costanoa Ventures

We invest in the very early stages of a company when most founders don’t prioritize a finance hire and precious cash is reserved (rightfully so) for engineers and product hires. As things progress, company resources are focused on sales, marketing and customer success to capitalize on early customer traction. Finance is not a high priority and often not deliberately planned.

But a haphazard approach to finance can lead to poorly constructed operating plans (i.e. running out of money too fast) or mismanaged financings that lead to Boards losing faith in the company’s strategy and team. It’s an enormous headache for the CEO in an area in which s/he typically doesn’t have a strong foundation. Without an understanding of the key business drivers impacting financial health, a company’s fundraising ability and valuation can be affected.

If you are an early-stage company, you must have a clear understanding of:

Leading metrics like bookings, contracted ARR & recognized ARRUnit economics like CAC:LTV and marketing/sales efficiencyCash burn and runway

When these essential financial metrics are miscalculated, the company’s ability to show growth and historical trends is impaired and founders and Boards lack the tools for strategic decision-making. Time at board meetings is spent on understanding how financial performance is calculated instead of interpreting their significance.

This is why a company should hire their first finance professional sooner rather than later. The ideal candidate is analytically-minded, has experience at the early stage (sector experience less vital), and most importantly is a multi-talented swiss-army knife who can do a little bit of everything. With luck, this person is invaluable to the effectiveness of the CEO, helps scale the company, and provides meaningful insight and analysis to the company.

At the early stages, this professional is doing different things and the mix of skills at work vary. Here’s what ideal tends to look like:Seed/Product-Market-Fit Stage:

At this stage, the most finance-savvy member of the founding team is responsible for the finance function. However, this team member might not have the requisite skills or their time is already at a premium in other aspects of the business. When the company has a small team and a manageable subset of customers, a combination of using an outsourced bookkeeping firm, and pairing them with a part-time CFO — usually a day a week — is the best mix.

Here’s why this is a smart way to go:1.Minimizes costs at a critical phase. Employing a CFO part-time allows oversight of the finance function but keeps costs low by placing the bulk of the finance time (more basic accounting) with an outsourced firm.2.Leverages CFO resource to offload the founder/CEO. The part-time CFO only needs to focus on the most strategic finance and operations functions — managing vendor relationships, establishing policies and procedures, creating hiring plans for example — that are not typically tasked to an outsourced resource.

3.Leverage experience and best practices. Outsourced bookkeeping means institutional knowledge — of your company and of best accounting practices — and controls that might otherwise be impractical at your tiny company get put in place. Not only does this reduce risks and put in place more mature processes but you won’t have to worry about turnover.

Elizabeth McGee, President of Workforce Management’s compassionate and empowering leadership, mentoring, and customized coaching partnered with her experience, cultivates a fun, diverse, and engaging team inspired to build their measure of success. Elizabeth has shared how important each client is to the company, and the team showers the clients with individualized attention, so they each feel like our only customers. Elizabeth’s great sense of humor creates a fun work environment for the internal team as well as the customers.

The pioneering leader recently created a small team dedicated to targeting fellow female-owned businesses to align and support collective empowerment. Elizabeth prides herself on doing business the way she would want business done with Workforce Management by supporting fellow women entrepreneurs. “I love partnering with any business that supports women rising. I inspire and empower each team member by leading by example, coaching on the spot, and mentoring where accountability is open on both sides,” explains Elizabeth. “Mistakes are made, we are human. I coach my team using mistakes as examples for them to see how they can grow inside the business and personally for their own hopes, dreams, and goals applying empowering tools.”

Elizabeth has made it her mission to encourage the team to answer the questions they present to her before answering them. It is her goal to guide them into following and trusting their instincts. “There is a solution to every challenge—is the mantra that I share with the team. If you think of our business as building solutions, it becomes easier. Every member of my team comes with their own list of talents, and the way they think, they may come up with a unique solution,” she adds. “It is my gift to allow the team to come up with a solution which builds their confidence in making the next decision.”

Success found Elizabeth early when the company’s first-year business plan goal was achieved in 2 months, the second-year goal in 4 months, and the third-year goal in 8 months. Taking the leap of faith in herself, buying out from her former business partner, becoming a solo entrepreneur, and opening her second office has taken Elizabeth’s definition of success to another level.

“The desire to find work people love and easing the burden off company staffing needs or shortages is a success we find every day,” she says. “My advice to everyone is to be persistent, believe in yourself yet hold yourself accountable, and follow your passion with an open heart. It is okay to let your guard down and show your vulnerability. Strength and bravery can be shown through being vulnerable. Your team needs to see this aspect of the leader’s personality.”

An avid traveler, Elizabeth gains immense experience from the various destinations she visits, trying to connect with each place and understanding the foundation of how the area came into existence. She imparts her experiences in the way she leads the company. She keeps raising the bar of goals to achieve with each passing day, setting up a new challenge for herself to succeed. “All my employees are like an extension of my family, and I couldn’t do my job without their unique skills and passion for the industry,” she says.

Elizabeth founded Workforce Management with a commitment to a sense of urgency that is unsurpassed, and she finds delivering world-class service a natural extension of herself. Elizabeth feels accountable when a business trusts her to handle each and every open position. She understands, with each placement, how she is impacting a client’s business and has a vested interest in them to achieve their goals for a prosperous future. “Biggest achievements for the company have been buying my former business partner out, becoming an 8(a) certified woman-owned business (the hardest woman-owned certification to obtain), opening a second office in Florida, and building two amazing teams morphing to the needs of the staffing industry and fluctuating client demands,” she asserts. “My goals for the future are working toward our Florida office thriving as much as our Colorado location, possibly opening a third office next year, and having 200 billable employees for each office. With our customers becoming a part of mergers and acquisitions, this is positioning us for more opportunities to add more locations. We will now be able to bid on government contracts, which will catapult the business’s growth exponentially.” WL

Studio Legale Stefanelli & Stefanelli was founded about 25 years ago in Bologna following a very specific choice: to deal with all the legal aspects of the healthcare and life science sector. Therefore, they have always invested in their image by creating from the beginning a website where they could talk about their specialization. “While today it is common for a law firm to have a website, at that time in Italy it was a very innovative choice. Then over the years we have enhanced the digitization of our law firm, both as for the internal organization and as a way to communicate with clients and prospects. Today we run many web pages specialized in the areas of our expertise, online columns, and daily posts on social media,” says Silvia Stefanelli, Founder & Co-owner of Studio Legale Stefanelli & Stefanelli.

“Digital Professional Award 2022” –

My Law Firm has just won the 2022 Digital Professional Award of the Politecnico di Milano – Digital innovation Observatory in the Customer Relationship Effectiveness category.

This Award is dedicated to Legal Firm that have stood out for their innovative and business skills through the use of digital technologies:

we have won with our Check-list Self-assessment Platform designed to verify and monitor compliance with the GDPR.

In Studio Legale Stefanelli & Stefanelli, most lawyers and employees are women, primarily because their work is firmly based on collaboration. Women usually have a greater attitude toward sharing knowledge and cooperating with each other. Today, they are organized in departments that work in specific areas and each department has a team leader responsible for the organization of the whole team. This system helps develop leadership skills that are hardly learned at the university in Italy. “Our professionals believe that everything they do from providing brilliant legal services, all the way to managing a crisis, should add value to the company in one way or another. In fact, legal compliance allows companies to avoid sanctions, but also to improve the corporate image and to distinguish themselves from competitors gaining a competitive advantage. This is why traditional judicial assistance is complemented by the ability to collaborate in all areas of legal risk management, to enable and support business development,” says Silvia.

According to the steadfast leader, the complexity of law today requires more teamwork than ever. Therefore, being a leader means learning how to value the people in the team and understanding how everyone can best contribute to the achievement of the team goals. Thus, Silvia believes that being a leader means having competencies and skills and, above all, the ability to manage and empower people in the workplace. She firmly believes that women have an extraordinary ability to coordinate and balance different aspects of life. “I am myself also a wife and a mother, and when my son was an infant, it was extremely difficult to find the right balance between all the different aspects of my life. Through time I learnt how to and began to use this soft skill in the workplace as well,” elucidates Silvia.

The growth of her coworkers’ skills is one of the most significant achievements for Silvia as a leader and the law firm as a whole. Thanks to the use of technology, Studio Legale Stefanelli & Stefanelli has created updating groups on every area they work on: so everyone is updated in real-time on legal news and is obliged to update others as well on the news in their own area. This creates cohesion and expertise. Studio Legale Stefanelli & Stefanelli is working with other professionals to broaden the range of their services. To this end, the company Best In Health was recently founded, of which Silvia is the president, whose goal is to offer multi-professional services in the health care sector. Best in Health was created to give quick and comprehensive solutions: a company of professionals with concrete vertical and diverse expertise, who can support investors and health and social operators in their daily challenges, both conceptive and functional.

In the future, Silvia and her team will have to deal with all the different challenges of new technologies: artificial intelligence, blockchain, the metaverse, and so on. “These are tools that may change the way we work, both internally and with our clients. I would only like to emphasize that the future will belong to those who will be able to grasp the challenges of the digitization,” says Silvia. WL