Even though the demands placed on the long-term care industry seems to become greater and more burdensome year after year, there is a solution that helps to address this. Steve Booker, President and CEO and Marie Booker, Senior Vice President of Nurse Rosie Products have revolutionized the nursing home arena through their solution RosieConnect 2.0 owing to the product’s boundless potential and ease of use. “Studies show that accurate and timely data help providers reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions, improve clinical outcomes as well as address the concerns of regulatory fines and employee turnover,” says Steve. “The work flow efficiencies provided by RosieConnect 2.0 help build a happier and more engaged workforce, and also help to generate higher star quality ratings and improved marketability across the entire industry.”

Nurse Rosie Products began in 1977 as a distributor of cutting-edge technology to hospitals. It wasn’t long before the company recognized a need for technological improvements in the nursing home industry. This healthcare segment faced challenges such as tight budgets and lack of a biomedical department and to be honest, most manufacturers weren’t interested in pursuing their business because the hospital market was much more lucrative. About 25 years ago, Nurse Rosie Products transitioned from hospitals to long-term care and made it their goal to address these unique needs and improve the quality of care through upgraded technology. “We were the first to combine an automated blood pressure monitor, tympanic or oral thermometer and pulse oximeter on a rolling cart. One of our first customers named our cart “Rosie” and the name stuck,” says Marie. “We are now offering Rosie 4 and the RosieConnect 2.0 platform, which takes the data from ‘Rosie’ and other point-of-care devices and delivers it wirelessly into the Electronic Health Record (EHR).”

“Studies show that accurate and timely data help providers reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions, improve clinical outcomes as well as address the concerns of regulatory fines and employee turnover,” says Steve.

Nurse Rosie Products has risen to the top of the industry by offering high-quality, durable equipment that can withstand the rigors of institutional use. Their affordable in-house lease plans and top-of-the-field technical support were just what was needed to change the standard of care for taking vital signs in nursing homes. Now, with the addition of automated data transfer, their nursing home customers know that if any support is needed, there is only one number to call for technical assistance. All of the Rosie-branded devices such as the RosieScan Bladder Scanner and Rosie RealTime blood glucose meters have been sourced specifically to best meet the needs of the long-term care market.

Nurse Rosie’s suite of point-of-care devices contribute to increased efficiency, reduced hospital readmissions and improved accuracy, especially when used in conjunction with the Rosie Connect 2.0 data transfer platform. Rosie Connect 2.0 is embedded in a touchscreen tablet mounted to the mobile vital signs cart. This reduces steps back and forth to a nursing computer kiosk and keeps all of the equipment safe and secure. The tablet can also be used to access their EHR for other data entry requirements.

Marie says as nursing home management introduces RosieConnect 2.0 as their new standard operating procedure, the caregivers are more open to embracing change. Once the caregivers in a nursing home facility fully embrace the utilization of RosieConnect 2.0, they often see immediate results. Capturing a patient’s vitals, for example, can be done in just a fraction of the time that it would take normally, plus the caregiver does not have to make unnecessary steps going back and forth to the kiosk or the nurses’ station to do their documentation.

The company’s next project on their road map is RosieOne, a mobile platform configured to support unlimited services, including telehealth. “As a company, we have tremendous pride in our past; but, more importantly, we maintain our positioning of being the visionary who will continue to develop and provide relevant solutions to the ever-changing needs across the long-term care industry,” adds Marie.

It’s been said, “If you build it, they will come.” For many, that axiom might hold true however, for Shanna Parry and Greg Parry, it was the reverse. “They” came first. “They,” being the builders, leaders, and administrators of international schools. They came, seeking the accrued knowledge, experience, and above all, integrity of this preeminent pair. The demand was there, Global Services in Education – the response. “We are proven best-practice education leaders. As former teachers and principals, we now lead schools across the world,” says Shanna.

After being approached repeatedly from virtually every corner of the world, both individually and as a dynamic team, the founders of GSE decided to create their international company. Peerless in their capacity to start-up new schools, provide management and support, GSE became a veritable overnight success. “Our services are setting up and managing new international schools and improving quality of existing schools,” adds Greg. They provide teacher and principal trainings across the world and their teacher training programs, specifically, create sustainable development of schools.

” We are proven best-practice education leaders. As former teachers and principals, we now lead schools across the world “

Building on the bedrock of their own, “down in the trenches” experience, both as principals and directors, Shanna and Greg have mastered the intricacies of the education process. More importantly, they possess an innate gift for imparting that knowledge. Coming from a mindset that the ultimate goal is the successful development of young minds, they pave the path to this goal in one simple directive: develop great teachers, who in turn develop excellent schools.

“Whether the mission is creating a new school or recalibrating an existing one, the focus remains constant: to foster each individual student to grow and develop as a self-assured, knowledgeable and responsible global citizen who will positively shape the future,” explains Shanna. “We were once teachers who became successful principals and are well regarded for research-based best-practice initiatives.” GSE has developed a reputation for being the liaison between “education as a business” and the “true spirit of education that achieves best practices for children and families”.

“One should always remember, parents trust educators. They are sometimes skeptical about the intentions of business people,” adds Greg. “We have a proven system of school improvement and management. We do this by leading, mentoring, coaching and developing instructional leaders within schools.” The company’s superior services do not stop with school management/set up and teacher/principal training and development. They also lead branding/marketing initiatives, academic input into school design, curriculum design, accreditation, and teacher recruitment.

Apart from being a bridge between educators and business people, GSE also has exceptional skills within different cultural contexts. Both of these sets of skills are essential during an educational institute set up and manage international schools in different countries. “How we manage international schools in China is different from how we manage schools in the Middle East or Malaysia,” he adds.

“One has to understand, that we have all attended schools but that does not make us qualified to set up and operate one. School management requires specialist skills. When you add the layers of different cultures and contexts, International Schools become very unique and challenging projects that need specialist skills. GSE continues to serve this purpose,” elucidates Shanna.

The company offers many education solutions that make them particularly unique and successful. Some of their most note-worthy and award winning programs include GSE’s Teacher Development Program: A culture of school improvement created where teachers get access to high-quality training, and principals continue to lead them as the instructional leaders of the school. GSE’s Teacher Development Program creates this school culture allowing teachers and principals to grow with meaning and purpose.

Ali Ziaee Bigdeli, Senior Research Fellow,
Aston Business School

Earlier this week, I gave a keynote talk at the Future Manufacturing Conference 2017 at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh. The conference was organised by the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS), and the key theme was around the impacts of Industry 4.0 on the manufacturing operations. There were some great talks by Siemens, RBS, and Scottish Enterprise on how digital technologies such as AI, VR, cloud computing, 3D printing, and data analytics could impact the growth and resilience of manufacturing.

As much as I believe that the role of ‘technology’ is essential, I don’t think it is the complete story – it only explains one side of the coin. Terms such as Industry 4.0, IoT, IIoT, 4IR, and Circular Economy alone cannot draw the full picture of the scope and scale of societal and organisational change currently taking place. Adopted in isolation, as a result, will not be enough to make a manufacturing company resilient and successful in the changing market.

Therefore I focused my presentation on a more holistic view of the world, which is commonly referred to as ‘servitization’. Servitization combines all of these aspects, along with the organisational change in terms of structure, resources and capabilities, and fundamental organisational culture, that also need to be changed in order for a manufacturer to compete successfully through ‘advanced services’ where they really focus on delivering outcomes for customers. One way to holistically explain this concept is to consider advanced service as a new business model. In this way, not only the the impacts of technology become more apparent in the actual offerings, but also the organisational foundations required for the development and delivery of them are explored.

To set the scene in my presentation, I started by explaining the key components of an advanced service business model. As we all know, there are enormous amount of definitions and frameworks proposed by scholars and practitioners that explain the concept of business model, and assist companies in developing one. However, they are generally too detailed and for a manufacturer that has just started the change journey would be an extra layer of complexity. Therefore, we tend to focus on a more broad definition of business model: a model by which an organisation should be able to explain its customer value proposition (or offering), value creation and delivery process, value capture mechanism, and ultimately its competitive advantage rationale over its competitors.

The design of any new business model should start with the notion of ‘customer’. Especially when it comes to the B2B context, a manufacturer should be absolutely clear about what are the key pain points of their customers, and how they can provide an offering that enable their customers to get their jobs done. These cannot be achieved without a thorough research on the customer’s operation to gain a holistic insight. In the context of advanced service, customer value proposition should be seen as a form of ‘capability’ in which the manufacturer enters a contract to deploy a combination of resources to achieve the customer’s desired goal. These capabilities, ultimately, deliver functional values including for examples saving time, reducing cost and risks, etc. These customer value propositions could be categorised into three forms: customer-asset focused (e.g. machine capability), customer-process focused (e.g. business process capability), and customer network focused (e.g. business model capability).

The value creation and delivery process in the context of an advanced service is heavily dependent on the collaboration with the customers – in fact the value is co-created with them and in spite of the traditional world of manufacturing, customers should be seen more as insider since they play a key role in the design and development of the customer value proposition. In such scenario, manufacturer’s KPIs should be revised and become the ones used by their customers, their facilities need to be more decentralised around their customer’s base, their capabilities and competencies should shift towards a service-centric mind-set, and their operations should further focus on collaboration and cooperation with companies in the wider value chain (ecosystem), in addition to those who have been traditionally part of their supply chain.

After realising what the customer value proposition could look like, and how it could be developed and delivered, it’s time to think about ‘how much does it cost us to make such offering?’ and ‘on what basis should we charge our customers?’ (the value capture mechanism). Lots still need to be done to be able to clearly explain the costing side of advanced services offering. What is clear, though, is that the costing structure should focus on the customer’s profiling and how such offering enables them to create more revenue rather than just thinking how much does it cost us to develop this offering.

In terms of the revenue models for an advanced service business model, we have carried out a thorough research on the previous successful manufacturers (including MAN Truck & Bus, Goodyear, Rolls Royce, Caterpillar, and GE Power) to understand how they have developed their revenue models. Based on this, we believe there are six types of revenue models that could be applied in the context of advanced service business model. The first two types are based on Fixed payment models, where the manufacturer could charge its customer either through a flat fee-based (i.e. pay set amount per month for fixed term) or profile-based (i.e. pay differing proportion of annual fee per month/quarter based on customer’s historic operations). The revenue model could also be based on variable payments; either usage-based (i.e. pay as the capability is used), output-based (i.e. pay for the achieved output), or outcome-based (i.e. pay for the (financial) results achieved). A sixth type also exist – a hybrid model, where the manufacturer could select from the five above-mentioned models based on the offering and the relationship with the specific customer.

A key question still remains – where is the competitive advantage in these?Advanced service offerings could be developed and delivered by third parties, which are not necessarily manufacturers. Air France – KLM provide Power-by-the-Hour for themselves and their customers, exactly in the similar way as Rolls Royce do. However, Rolls Royce as the manufacturer of the engine is in the position of improving and enhancing the production of the engines based on the data they gather from their customers – something that no one else can do as they do not know how the engines are actually manufactured. So, the competitive strategy in this sense lies with the intellectual property and the knowledge of the production.

So, I believe we are halfway through and there is still way to go to bring these two views (i.e. it’s all about technology vs. there’s much more than just technology) closer together. Dr Ziaee Bigdeli is a Senior Research Fellow at The Advanced Services Group, the centre of excellence in research and practice on servitization and advanced services within Aston Business School, Aston University. His interests lie in the organisational change and business model innovation brought about when organisations move towards providing capabilities rather than just selling products on a transaction basis.

Although Tammy Wilson has been at Oak Grove for 30 years, she has been the CEO for the past 15 years. The qualities that have helped inspire her Management Team, staff, and children are a strong work ethic, commitment, a firm belief that youth do not have to be defined by the failures and trauma of the past but rather by growth and hope for the future. She has a strong belief in resilience and that youth are much stronger and braver than we often think.

When Tammy became the CEO, she began fundraising for enrichment programs such as Sports/Recreation, followed by an Arts Program. Tammy has led major initiatives within the last eight years, including opening a new gym and several multipurpose rooms, including an occupational-play therapy room and art-music room, relocating and rehabilitating Oak Grove at the Ranch to a new home in Perris. She and the Oak Grove team have increased Wraparound and Autism Services and added THRIVE, an Independent Living Program for foster youth throughout Riverside County at seven different locations, although now remotely. Tammy recently opened Culinary Creations, a full-service bakery located in Old Town Temecula, which is the culmination of the vocational culinary program.

Tammy often tells the youth and young women she works with: they are “tougher, braver and smarter” than they think. Invest in relationships, select a strong mentor and then listen to what she has to say…She has also advised young staff to “not take it too personally when youth that they work with struggle OR to take too much credit when things are going well.” Early on, her role model was her Mentor at Southwood Residential Treatment Center, who was dynamic, engaging, and committed. She connected with very difficult and challenging youth and always portrayed how much she cared, which made a difference. Presently, Christine Close with Murrieta Development, a female CEO in a male-dominated industry, inspires tammy. Armed with ideologies adopted from her role models, Tammy has been leading Oak Grove towards great heights.

Tammy and her team have been responsible for rebuilding the lives of at-risk children and their families through educating, healing, restoring relationships, building character, and instilling hope. This has been accomplished through a great therapy program, nonpublic school on campus, enrichment programs, and highly dedicated staff and build therapeutic relationships with youth that also include having fun. “Our goal is to Empower Success and Transform Lives. Youth benefit from learning they do not need to be defined by their problems and past trauma but rather can choose new identities of success, creativity and hope,” she says. “We try and involve youth in activities they can immerse themselves in such as Arts including Dance, Drama, Performing Arts, Drumestra, Video Arts, Graphic and Fine Arts as well as Music and Songwriting. These activities provide healing opportunities as well as self-expression and pain reduction. A strong Family Therapy focus has enabled families to reconnect and learn how to not only get along better but to enjoy each other, not to mention increasing respect.”

It is pertinent to mention and Tammy was honored by Kelly Serato 6th Assembly District and the Board of Supervisors at Oak Grove’s annual gala this year for her 30 years of service at Oak Grove, which was a surprise. She has also been honored as the Woman of the Year in 2018 for Jeff Stone’s district, partly recognizing her work with Oak Grove. Tammy considers it a high honor to work with a team of professionals committed to helping provide healing opportunities and experiences for at-risk and special needs youth.

One of the biggest achievements for Oak Grove is continued growth and expansion while maintaining a highly individualized approach. Although they initially were a nonpublic school and Residential Treatment Center, Oak Grove added Wraparound, an Autism Program, Arts and Music Program, Sports, and an Independent Living Skills Program THRIVE for foster youth throughout Riverside County. As a nonprofit, Oak Grove raises funds to provide enrichment programs, including Sports, Arts & Music, therapy needs, and campus improvements. Tammy is excited about the event which is the 14th Annual Chef Open as well as the 19th Annual Golf Tournament. These dual events raise funds for the Sports-Recreation as well as culinary vocational training. Local and Regional chefs will compete for the coveted Pinnacle Award, determined by esteemed judges, as well as People’s Choice Award which is determined by guest votes. For tickets and or information: Golf: http://weblink.donorperfect.com/2021OGCGolf ; Chef Open: http://weblink.donorperfect.com/2021ChefOpen . For more information or to find out more about Oak Grove programs or events contact [email protected] or 951-677-5599. IEWL

Oak Grove Center

Management

Tammy Wilson
CEO of Oak Grove Center

Description

Oak Grove Center is a nonprofit serving at-risk and special needs youth through residential care, education, and treatment. Oak Grove’s mission is to rebuild the lives of at-risk children and their families through education, healing, restoring relationships, building character and instilling hope. We believe the work we do today builds a better tomorrow.

MITRE’s Crystal Stanfield takes winning talent to a whole new level. Since 2019, she has transformed the company’s Talent Strategy in planning, attracting, and hiring—all to support MITRE’s Good Growth strategy by bringing in next-generation thought leaders and technical experts.

“What drives me is the ability to create,” Crystal says. “I often envision what my result looks like, then I reverse-engineer it.”

A not-for-profit company that works in the public interest across federal, state, and local governments, industry, and academia, MITRE’s mission is solving problems for a safer world. Its sponsors focus on solving the nation’s most critical and complex problems, relying on MITRE’s talent in areas such as national security, cybersecurity, public health, and space. Consequently, Talent Acquisition at MITRE is critical to growth and sponsor delivery, and there’s fierce competition for in-demand, short-supply technologists.

Crystal came to MITRE in 2019, when its siloed Talent Acquisition team was in need of a fresh approach to strategy, consistent leadership, and innovation. “We were able to deliver on the talent demands of the organization,” she recalls, “but it wasn’t a great experience for the candidate, recruiter, or hiring manager. We were competing against some of the most well-known organizations and fighting a brand-awareness challenge.”

So, Crystal realigned Talent Acquisition to support core business sectors, added strategic sourcing capability in-house, launched a recruitment marketing pilot, and began the process of integrating a Talent Experience Management system. “I’m focused on digital employer branding, seamless productivity, candidate experience, and showcasing why MITRE is the company you dream about working for,” Crystal says. “It’s a place where you literally amplify your impact for the public good.”

Now, MITRE’s transformation strategy centers around Team, Technology, and Talent Attraction. “It’s been a long road,” Crystal says,” but we’ve realigned our department to add new capabilities in strategic sourcing and talent attraction. We’ve also added talent advisors with deep expertise in key areas of our business.”

Crystal’s own story is a unique one. At just 19 years old, she began working straight-commission for a boutique staffing firm and quickly found success. “The roots I got in staffing taught me a lot about hunger, work ethic, and influence,” she says. Soon, Crystal jumped from agency to corporate HR in a “build-it” opportunity and continued to land new transformation opportunities.

Crystal’s own take on leadership is one born of experience. “I’ve been fortunate and grateful to have hired and mentored many talented recruiters over the years, and I’m proud to see them climb the ranks, knowing I was part of their journey,” she says.

That’s because Crystal, too, had influential mentors throughout her career—including one who encouraged her to pursue her bachelor’s degree at age 30. This mentor then guided and encouraged Crystal—who was a single, working mom—through her coursework at Chicago’s DePaul University.

“Going to school at 30 was the best thing I ever did for myself and my career,” Crystal says. “I was able to instantly apply everything I learned, because I tapped into 10-plus years of experience in recruiting.”

Crystal sees her accomplishments to date as just the beginning. “I imagine, come September, that my transformation vision will be realized,” she says. “But it’s not the end. We have a roadmap of innovation ahead of us, so it’s more of an evolution than a transformation.”

She adds, “Recruiting is the sales and marketing of talent. We sell career opportunities—and at MITRE, we sell the dream of making a difference.” IE

Bonnie Moss, PE, President of MBCO Engineering, has been dubbed an inspiration. Her story is a tribute to the perseverance and determination required to build a truly first-class engineering consultancy business.

“We are a woman-owned civil and environmental engineering firm with expertise in design, planning, surveying, construction management, program management, project management and procurement.”

Bonnie’s earliest childhood memories consist of endless travel across North America with her parents, who were musicians. For over ten years her life consisted of new places, new people but limited opportunity for a young girl to gain even the most basic of a formal education. “Our family was extremely financially challenged to the point where we were living in our vehicle for months on end. It was also common practice that my parents would donate blood just so we could eat,” says Bonnie. “When my parents divorced and we finally settled in one place, I was placed into a school grade that matched my age, which at that point was the 8th grade. It was definitely a challenge being both socially and educationally behind my peers. After barely graduating high school at the age of 18, I left the Pacific Northwest with limited funds and the idea to start over in Houston.”

Bonnie soon got jobs making fast cash in waitressing and bartending but realized rather quickly that changing her future would require a different approach. “I made the decision to enroll in college and pursue a Civil Engineering degree. I was studying and working multiple jobs to pay for my own education. It took 10 years to graduate but the result was well worth it.” For the next 20 years Bonnie would work for several amazing organizations across Texas. These opportunities took her from a newly graduated intern to project engineer and all the way to regional manager. “It was at that point when I thought it was time to take all of the experience I’d gained throughout the years and put it to use in starting a company. This was the birth of MBCO.”

Since its inception, MBCO has been guided by the tenet that their Clients and its employees are their greatest asset. It was important to Bonnie to build a world-class engineering consultancy that Clients want to use, and Employees want to work for. One of the original thoughts was for MBCO to grow into a company Employees could buy into, literally, then own and drive. “We are committed to ensuring our Employees are engaged in the success of the business and are happy to come to work,” she says. “If our Employees know they are valued and share our desire to perfect our service and exceed our Client’s expectations, their growth and our growth is ensured. MBCO is greater for the combined efforts of our employee and leadership teams.” Both internal and external Clients have made this endeavor worthwhile for Bonnie whose vision for the Company continues to grow.

The plan for MBCO is to grow the employee numbers into the triple digits over the next five years. “We are pushing for this to occur organically, but acquisition is definitely an option. We are working on our 5-year plan which involves growing our existing engineering and surveying business lines,” says Bonnie. “We are looking into the creation of two new business opportunities that will serve both our existing and future Clients well. MBCO is also in the process of exploring two other geographical service areas in Texas.”

Advising future women entrepreneurs, Bonnie says “believe in yourself. No one is going to believe in you and your dream more than you. Be your biggest cheerleader. Also, don’t look back on the failures of the past, they don’t dictate your future. Learn from those mistakes and then only look forward.” She adds, “You are going to fail at some point. This is a good thing; this is where you grow. If you are genuinely passionate about what you are doing, keep going then success will come and everything will naturally play out the way it needs to.” IE

MBCO Engineering

Management

Bonnie Moss
President

Description

Our team comes from the public side serving in the roles of Director of Engineering, Project Engineer, and Project Manager. We lead by example and provide support in getting the project completed in a timely and efficient manner, and we are not afraid to get our hands dirty in the process.

Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Julie Tutkovics’s unique approach to people and building connections differentiates her as a leader and makes her stand out as a marketer.

A highly respected marketing professional with over 25 years of experience in the banking industry, Julie reports directly to Huntington’s Chairman and CEO and is an integral member of the Executive Leadership Team. With a purpose-driven mindset, Julie leads an approximately 175-member marketing, communications, and customer insights and advocacy team in their efforts across a multi-state footprint.

Julie impressively led the communications strategy and was deeply influential in the integration efforts of FirstMerit in 2016 and TCF in 2021, which resulted in a Midwest bank with more than $175 billion in assets. Under her leadership, Huntington defined its Corporate Purpose to make lives better, help businesses thrive and strengthen the communities they serve. Huntington’s cultural evolution is more than an internal success. Every day, Huntington colleagues change customers’ lives because their purpose drives them to look out for people – which Julie championed.

She’s a motivational leader whose people-focused marketing approach inspires thousands of colleagues across Huntington’s footprint. Julie encourages colleagues to live the company’s Purpose in actions both large and small – and the bank sets the bar high. In June 2021, Huntington announced a $40 billion strategic Community Plan to tackle social, racial, environmental and economic inequities across its footprint. This announcement is just one of the many reasons why colleagues take pride in Huntington and believe in its brand and mission.

This translates into the brand’s success in the marketplace. Industry studies show that customers experience Huntington’s welcoming culture and are satisfied with the bank and the service they receive. Evidence of Julie’s influence and distinct marketing approach can be seen in the brand campaign – particularly the powerful “Brand Essence” spot that, rather than advertising for a product or service, demonstrated Huntington’s unique purpose to look out for people. Julie’s marketing approach has transformed Huntington’s internal partnerships and external presence.

Throughout her successful career, Julie has prioritized one thing above all else: people. Her greatest leadership quality is her authentic desire to develop meaningful relationships with everyone she meets – whether entry-level colleagues, senior leaders, or external partners. She is an outstanding mentor for many emerging professionals across Huntington.

Julie also is heavily involved in promoting Huntington’s inclusive culture and advocating on behalf of colleagues—including as Executive Sponsor of the Hispanic Business Resource Group (BRG).

She mentors the BRG’s female leaders and guides their work, which is focused on the needs of Latinx and refugee communities through financial education and expanded community outreach.

As she has advanced throughout her career, her sharp skills, deep knowledge of the industry, and her genuine desire to positively impact colleagues, customers and the community have made her the clear choice for positions such as Chief Marketing Officer at FirstMerit and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Huntington.

Her goal is to make people better, enable them to become the best versions of themselves, and achieve more than they thought possible. In her words, “if we take time to listen and to understand someone’s perspective, we can connect with them personally and help them navigate their career and reach professional milestones.” IEWL

Huntington Bank

Management

Julie Clemo Tutkovics
EVP & CMCO at Huntington Bank

Description

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is a $174 billion asset regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1866, The Huntington National Bank and its affiliates provide consumers, small and middle‐market businesses, corporations, municipalities, and other organizations with a comprehensive suite of banking, payments, wealth management, and risk management products and services. Huntington operates more than 1,100 branches in 12 states, with certain businesses operating in extended geographies.

Helen Lawrence, Co-Founder & Chief Happiness Officer at The Happy Learning Company, always had an enthusiasm and passion for people. Truth be known, animals and children too, but as the saying goes, ‘never work with animals and children.’

As a team sports fanatic and sports coach, she discovered an aptitude and passion for leading people and building successful teams. A career in hospitality, HR, and Learning & Development over 25 years has enabled her to continue to inspire and help people achieve great things. Her authentic leadership style and energy help inspire the team to deliver their very best work, and her mantra that ‘why be good when you can be great?’ helps unlock the full potential in people and ensures all their products and services are delivered to the highest possible quality. It’s these attributes that help achieve happy colleagues and happy clients.

Helen is highly purpose-driven and is incredibly passionate about the topic of happiness and how it can help transform people’s lives personally, employees’ and customers’ experiences, business performance, and the wider communities they serve. She’s often described as lighting up a room when she walks in it and is fondly nicknamed ‘happiness Helen.’ Helen advocates for happiness at work to feature on the strategic priorities of organizations to ensure all businesses are a force for good, not greed and profit at all costs. A happier place of work is a successful one. These values drive The Happy Learning Company’s approach and customer promise.

The Happy Learning Company’s products and services are incredibly innovative, pioneering, and creative. This is fuelled partly by Helen’s creative streak, which stems from her passion for art. At school and college, she studied art and was offered a place at a London art school to pursue a career in natural history illustration. While her true passion for sport and sports science took her down another path initially, she’s managed to find new ways to utilize her eye for design and creativity and now uses it to help create bespoke learning solutions. Helen loves nothing more than to theme a learning or engagement program and is famous for her mood boards and creative briefs in the form of sketches!

Helen is passionate about inspiring others to take positive action and fulfill their full potential. It’s what she gets out of bed for! As a woman in the sometimes complex and diverse world of work, she has always been determined to be a positive example to others, inspiring and helping to empower fellow women entrepreneurs – whether through giving advice and encouraging friends, colleagues, and clients to set up their businesses or go for the next available promotion – or to step out of their comfort zone to show their sometimes-hidden talents to thrive in life and their careers. Having been inspired by many women, role modeling being a courageous, resilient, and confident leader is really important to Helen as she aims to show others that you can achieve whatever you want to.

The Happy Learning Company recently developed a highly empowering blended development program for senior women leaders in an amazing global gaming and entertainment company. It was designed to help women leaders working in the very male-dominated tech and gaming industries unlock their power to influence others. It was part of a wider diversity and inclusion initiative. In true Happy Learning Company style, it was called the ‘Kick-Ass’ Influence program, playing on the concept of kicking through the glass ceiling. Helen and her colleagues worked passionately to bring the project to life and make it a success, and it was a brilliant opportunity for Helen to share her passion for empowering women by developing a program that showcased the incredible work and achievements of many women from all different walks of life.

In line with Helen’s beliefs around the importance of creating happiness and finding joy in achieving your full potential, she believes that women should thrive in the face of challenge, lifting, inspiring, and supporting each other – and showcasing their talents. IE

Catherine Swee, former Head of Marketing, APAC & ME, NICE, says being analytical and inquisitive has taught her a lot, right from being data-driven and understand what works, what doesn’t work, why so, and what’s next? “This helps the team to understand why these data matters in drawing insights and how we can become better. When some information seems incomplete or misleading, how do we uncover that information or even uncover underlying implications to take next best-informed action?” Alongside, personalization (humility) and empathy is a big necessity when dealing with people because knowing how people work, their strengths, and what makes them tick will facilitate better understanding and increase effectiveness. Communicating effectively and practicing agility to pivot in a timely manner to stay ahead of the curve is equally essential. Lastly, being bold and creative is a must-have quality for every leader of today, as one has to be bold enough to make the extra effort to overcome the hurdles.

“With more than 20 years of regional experience in Marketing and Business Development, I’ve observed the many shifts in the market – from wave of disruption by the Cloud, Automation and Artificial Intelligence, to the exponential growth of data, down to rapid pace of change in consumer behaviour and expectations.”

“I’ve met many talented people from different walks. I’m honored to have the opportunity to recruit and coached a number of them in my career path and thank those who had helped and enabled me one way or the other to who I am today. There are many who reached out to me via events and social media to seek advice on how to get onto a marketing career or excel professionally,” says Catherine. “Some guiding principles which I’ll usually share besides offering my support with an earnest listening ear is to ask them to have a clear vision, aim high and set key milestones. Today’s leaders have to be responsible and accountable, stay focused and on track along with being passionate and courageous.” She adds, “have a balanced life and inject some fun along the way. Regardless of the situation, there’s always something for us to learn from it.”

Being the head of marketing, Catherine believes every organization has to ensure they have customer success. Only when the customer wins and experiences success in their organization can one look at creating further success beyond the original contract. “It is critical that we build trust and deliver on win-win scenarios when we go to market to share our customer success. We typically manage and identify how our customer would like to further brand/ position themselves with their success,” she says. “If the customer has certain pending objectives, we can help them achieve it through these marketing efforts. Whenever necessary, we pull in a bigger team and resources to support and optimize the end results.” Examples commonly known to many are customer press releases, speaking engagement at events and workshops, customer referral site visits, success case stories in written and video format, and media interviews.

There were occasions where customers sought help organizing their technology day, briefing seminars, and workshops to raise awareness and educate their internal stakeholders on the purchased solution. “For newer technology adoption, we even worked with customers to offer marketing consultation on how to roll out internal enablement and user adoption and their external communications and brand awareness plan,” she says. “Customers are usually very appreciative when we make an effort to understand them better and have their interest at heart to achieve a win-win situation.”

Catherine recently embarked on a new journey with Everbridge after five fruitful years at NICE. She is diving into switching from customer experience space to critical event management and public warning, an area that’s so important, yet not many are fully aware of what this encompasses and how it’s helping to keep people safe and businesses running more effectively. “Everbridge is fairly new in APAC and I see great potential to educate the market and bring the brand to light. I personally think what Everbridge provides matters at a global level and it shouldn’t stay as a well-kept secret,” adds Catherine. “I’ll work on educating the APAC market on what is critical event management, the importance of it and why every second counts when it comes to saving lives and assets. It’s mind blowing when we learn about the impact.” IE

NICE

Management

Catherine Swee
CMO of NICE

Description

NICE (Nasdaq: NICE) is the worldwide leading provider of both cloud and on-premises enterprise software solutions that empower organizations to make smarter decisions based on advanced analytics of structured and unstructured data. NICE helps organizations of all sizes deliver better customer service, ensure compliance, combat fraud and safeguard citizens. Over 25,000 organizations in more than 150 countries, including over 85 of the Fortune 100 companies, are using NICE solutions. www.nice.com.

One thing’s for sure — the secondary market for mortgages hasn’t been the same since Eloise Schmitz entered the picture. Seeing a void in the market for certain mortgage loans after the housing crisis in 2008, Eloise had the vision and foresight to launch LoanNEX, which connects originators, lenders and investors through an interactive platform to work smarter together on non-agency loans, or those not sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

In fact, Eloise co-founded LoanNEX specifically to link buyers and sellers of non-agency loans after the housing crisis essentially wiped out that part of the market. Ultimately, LoanNEX opens up more opportunities for homebuyers who would otherwise be left out.

Today, as the company’s CEO, Eloise leads a carefully assembled team of professionals to continually update and make enhancements to the LoanNEX platform, expertly navigating any challenges the non-agency market faces. Her success story is an inspiration for all.

Eloise’s colleagues describe her as a global thinker with the ability to view the big picture and understand market trends from both short-term and long-term perspectives. Eloise evaluates business opportunities from an immediate revenue standpoint and ensures those opportunities align with the larger mission and end vision for LoanNEX.

Before she co-founded LoanNEX, Eloise worked in corporate finance outside of the mortgage industry, spending 11 years in corporate banking and 12 years as a senior executive at Charter Communications, a Fortune 500 company.

A Revolutionary Platform

LoanNEX leverages the latest technology to provide an intuitive, dynamic and collaborative experience for all users. Unlike the legacy platforms previously used by originators, LoanNEX’s tools are fully customizable, supporting an unlimited number of attributes and requirements, and accommodate all loan types and conditions. “We have added two-way communication to our marketplace tools, giving originators the ability to discover, collaborate and transact, all from a single platform,” Eloise says.

Connecting to the LoanNEX platform is quickly becoming a necessity for originators to find all loan options that will work for their borrowers and for investors to gain access to the best revenue-building tools virtually.

A Good Listener with a Talent for Team Building

Much of the success LoanNEX enjoys is due to Eloise’s team, as she has a talent for building teams with a passion for their work. Eloise provides the strategic vision, has an appreciation of the team’s work, and allows everyone to have a voice. As a result, she has assembled an agile, cross-functional team that can quickly understand customer problems and deliver relevant solutions.

It takes strong leadership and vision to start a mortgage marketplace service and product and pricing engine from the ground up, and Eloise continues to meet any obstacles the market might present. In the past year and half, the non-agency market faced another challenge as the pandemic put a near-halt to that segment of the industry. Eloise and her team worked to enhance products and services with more robust features, and to expand its platform access with new integrations. At the same time, Eloise grew the LoanNEX senior leadership team. All of the changes she made were based on listening carefully to the feedback from customers and her team.

Through the success of LoanNEX, Eloise is inspiring others with her story. “Good leadership is not dependent on gender,” she says. “Being a good leader means listening, learning and not being afraid to move. Giving team members the ability to find their path to success is the most important thing for a small company. Those that can, will. You just have to give people the opportunity to lead and succeed.”

Eloise has taken cues on leadership from two people with whom she previously worked. “I have had the privilege of working with a couple of great people who exemplified truly inspiring leadership. They both took a chance on me, which led to key opportunities that shaped where I am today,” she says. “They also taught me the importance of listening while directing. Respect is a two-way street and must be earned, always.”

“One of my first role models was a credit executive at a regional bank where I worked,” she adds. “He was not an obvious role model, but he taught me important lessons on leadership by showing me how to guide people by being constructive but firm while navigating growth with restraint. He approached unfamiliar opportunities with questions to learn first and opine second. These qualities have assisted me into becoming the steadfast leader that I am today.” IEWL