According to Lizzie Earl, MD of Nibble, everything in life – from business and work to health, fitness, and finance – is the culmination of each small decision made over time. If excellence is compromised even once, it’s too easy for other things to become ‘good enough’ and then ultimately the results, as a whole, will suffer. “At Nibble, ‘excellence’ is one of our core values. As a web platform that connects businesses looking for PR with the most highly recommended freelance PR specialists for the job, it sets a standard for the work delivered by our network of talent,” says Lizzie.

Alongside running Nibble, she also works with entrepreneurs as they look to change their businesses somehow. It could be that they want to grow and level up, launch something new, build a leadership team that allows them more balance, or they are founders with multiple ventures and a new idea but no bandwidth to bring it to life. “It’s more than mentorship or consultancy. At one point or another every business owner has said to themselves ‘I wish I had another me’, so I bring that extra founder energy to the table and am there to essentially give a damn about the business as much as the owner does,” she adds. “I’m in their corner as someone they can trust to think through, tackle and solve challenges with, as well as driving plans forward so they get done all the things they need to in order to reach their goals. And, because I’m a fellow founder, they know that I know exactly what they’re going through, that I will get my hands dirty when needed, and have my own network I can connect them with.”

Armed with a ‘make it happen’ mentality – an acute belief that anything is possible – and years of experience running an award-winning boutique London PR firm, Lizzie has been taking her latest company to new heights. The Nibble platform is extremely easy to use and intuitive, getting clients up and running in a matter of minutes. Even if someone has never written a brief before, Nibble features a three-step Q&A that extracts everything needed to match them, as well as everything a PR consultant needs to read to know if they would do a great job. Once matched, clients and freelancers can start discussing the work in more detail.

Nibble is making PR more accessible. “We don’t use jargon or industry ‘day rates’ which only someone in the industry would know. The process is simple; clients post a work brief with their budget and let freelancers propose the value and results they can deliver. They can chat and compare multiple PRs and proposals to choose the right one for them,” adds Lizzie.

Nibble is focused on offering a cost effective and flexible alternative solution to public relations agencies or hiring in house, and creating a quality long-lasting PR experience for both sides. Handy hover tools across the site, alongside its online magazine Chomp, give lots of frank and upfront guidance on every step of the process. “We want our users to feel empowered, and also enjoy the entire journey. I might be biased, but PR is one of the more exciting parts of business, so we want to make the experience not only extremely successful, but something they are excited about doing again.”

As a new business, Nibble is proud to have built a tech product that works, of its highly concentrated network of freelance PR talent, and that it has created a user experience that clients and PRs want to use. One of Nibble’s biggest achievements was the FTSE100 company, St. James’s Place, signing up to the platform as one of its first clients. “The UK’s largest wealth management firm posted a brief for a one-off consumer media relations project on Nibble and was so impressed with the results it signed up for an ongoing retainer with its freelancer match via the platform,” says Lizzie. “That and the fact that the businesses, brands, and professionals who use Nibble to find their PR freelancers go on to tell their network also to use us. To me, that means we are doing our job right.” IEWL

Nibble

Management

Lizzie Earl
MD and Founder of Nibble

Description

Nibble is focused on offering a cost effective and flexible alternative solution to public relations agencies or hiring in house, and creating a quality long-lasting PR experience for both sides.

Kiran Uppuluri, Founder and CEO of verteXD is a charismatic leader who combines passion with compassion and believes in authenticity and perseverance. She is a result-focused, versatile problem solver who takes a distinct “analytics meets creativity” approach. With a strong bias for action, she brings a dynamic ability to distill complex business issues into simple, actionable steps. Her energetic, outcome-oriented leadership style with strong customer obsession has been key to her success and is the driving force that is transformative to the culture of her company.

“Developing human-centric experiences at the intersection of data and design helps transform organizations by delivering durable solutions to compete tomorrow.”

So what do women entrepreneurs and leaders who rise up and achieve their goals do differently? What makes them successful?

“We women often tend to focus on compensating for and working on our weaknesses, while men typically focus on leveraging their strengths. It’s a subtle difference and one might say there are two sides to the same coin,” says Kiran. “But it makes a huge difference when it comes to how you approach and view opportunities that come to you in life.” According to her, networking is another important aspect in career growth. She says “women tend to deprioritize building a network, mostly because they treat work and life as two mutually exclusive circles that do not intersect. It takes a village to raise a child. Well, it takes a network to grow a career – a network of peers, mentors and sponsors. Mentors, especially for women, are great as they help bring focus on the ‘wildly important goal’ at any given point in a career. Women are such good jugglers, and we are naturally wired to ‘fire off on all cylinders’,” she says. “At different points in your career and life that may not be the best thing. I have had both male and female mentors in my life as they bring in different perspectives and diversity of thought. In addition, to have a strong trajectory of growth, sponsors are critical for women, to get the right opportunities and exposure.”

After getting a strong foundation in mathematics through Graduate studies, Kiran spent more than two decades in the corporate world working on strategy and customer experience and hand-in-hand with customers and end-users. Her biggest takeaway through her experiences was that companies could achieve groundbreaking innovation by combining a human-centered design thinking approach with artificial intelligence and data analytics. While iconic companies (think Google and Apple) have started to incorporate the fundamentals of design thinking into their organizations, Kiran realized that the companies in the mid-market, startup and non-profit sectors would be left behind in this movement. “That’s when I decided to start verteXD. Whether it is business strategy, building customer journeys or designing signature experiences at key moments of truth, taking the design-thinking approach to solve for it, transforms organizations to deliver durable solutions to compete tomorrow.”

Kiran envisions verteXD to continue as an independent boutique consulting firm. At any given point, they accept only a handful of client engagements so they can continue to provide that high touch, “all hands-on deck” approach and experience to every organization they serve, whether it’s a corporate entity, a startup, or a non-profit. As per Kiran, today’s customers prefer experiences over products, and they are experiencing the world in new and different ways where connectedness, immediacy, and simplicity are key. Besides, they expect similar experiences regardless of industry – Experiences that are: relevant and personalized, consistent, frictionless, and seamless across channels. The pandemic has only accelerated the need for digital transformation in delivering these experiences.

“One of the positive outcomes of the pandemic is the increased comfort level of clients for virtual (design and journey mapping) sessions as well as the many engaging meeting tools that have become mainstream,” says Kiran. “This, in turn, has removed the geographical boundary or limitations when searching for either talent or partner opportunities.” For the future, Kiran envisions building a diverse team of design thinking enthusiasts and evangelists from across the country to mirror their clients’ diversity. “I envision partnering with best-in-class companies across the globe to bring enhanced solutions to our clients in creating exceptional customer experiences,” she says. “A human-centered approach requires an understanding of cultural and local nuances and needs. In the near term, we will stay focused on the US and North America with a goal of expansion into other countries 5-10 years from now.”IE

verteXD

Management

Kiran Uppuluri
Founder and CEO

Description

verteXD is a boutique management consulting firm with a mission to help organizations reimagine business strategy, customer journey mapping and experience design with a core focus on human-centeredness and an intrinsic design thinking approach.

Kristin Steele’s vision and ability to understand how a process can be improved, as well as her ability to build strong relationships effectively with people, have been key assets throughout her career and as the founder of LaunchPad Creative LLC. Kristin believes that these qualities, as well as the distinct personalities of LPC’s team members, contribute to the firm’s success. Kristin truly believes it isn’t a single person that makes a company, but rather, it is the collective effort of the right team of people that make something remarkable.

Kristin Steele created LaunchPad Creative as she saw a need in the financial services industry for companies to differentiate themselves and clearly articulate their value proposition in order to retain and attract clients. Granted, there are certain similarities among businesses that provide similar services to the same client base. However, there are distinct business characteristics that often are not extracted and showcased in a firm’s brand identity, content, elevator pitch, or marketing strategies. LPC aims to identify these unique and compelling attributes to help firms articulate their competitive advantage and convey them through beautiful brand design and compelling content to expand their businesses.

LaunchPad Creative’s mission is to work with financial services firms on tailored marketing, branding, and lead generation activities that will launch them into the next phase of exponential growth. LPC assists its clients in achieving this goal through a variety of services such as brand exploration and design, website design and development, marketing strategy formulation, content marketing, social media marketing, lead generation tactics (email marketing and inbound lead strategies), and public relations.

Kristin Steele says, “What we learned is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing. Each client requires different marketing strategies to help them reach their goals. For example, we may provide content generation and social media marketing to one client and brand strategy formulation to another. What each client receives from us is a streamlined approach that is clear and effective in meeting their objectives.”

When creating LPC, Kristin was intentional about defining the company’s key tenets to attract a team who are committed to providing the level of service excellence our clients deserve. Our key tenets are:

1. We foster an environment of continuous learning and constantly challenge what we know.

2. We are transparent with each other and our clients to ensure we are consistently aligned.

3. We have a sense of purpose: we are respectful of our time and the time we seek from others.

4. We strive to bring humor and joy to the people we interact with.

With LaunchPad Creative, Kristin aspires to help educate people on how marketing + sales + product + leadership need to be aligned to create a single voice that creates an unforgettable brand. If these stakeholders are not involved and on board with the go-to-market plan, inevitably, the strategy will fail. LaunchPad Creative aims to help companies create alignment and get behind a single strategy with measurable goals to launch their firm into the next phase of exponential growth.

Kristin says, “My advice to young people taking their first step into corporate America is to never think that you are an underdog. Approach everything with confidence and humility. Give everyone the respect that you hope to receive. Be a team player. Be true to yourself and your values. Be humble, be grateful, be the hardest working person in the room. People will take notice and will want to help or mentor you along the way. It is a fun ride!”

Kristin’s integrity, leadership, hands-on approach, and relationship-focused vision have enabled LaunchPad Creative to achieve tremendous success in a short period. These qualities make her a prominent leader. IEWL

Cindy Adler found that being open and receptive in this ever-changing economy was essential, and remaining stagnant was not an option. She incorporated Alliance Leasing and Financial Services in 1994, but she needed to look for new ways to improve continually. “Over the past three decades, I have studied various business models and researched what makes them a success. It always began with having the necessary characteristics of a valuable leader,” she says. “I found being open-minded, flexible, genuine, passionate, supportive, adaptable, and trustworthy are key characteristics in motivating your team. Anyone in a leadership role should commit to inspiring and encouraging others. Leaders must be proactive and “color outside the lines”. This will result in taking the organization beyond its self-imposed limitations. Keep learning, improving and GROWING!”

According to Cindy, empowering team members not only is a benefit to the business but also aids with the personal development of future leaders. She has found leading by example is the first step to empowerment. “Trust is the number one component of any successful organization. In essence, you are giving these team members authority, experience, responsibility, and skills to make their own decisions in connection with specific goals that have been set,” she explains. “Research has regularly demonstrated that when employees feel empowered at work, it is associated with stronger job performance, job satisfaction, and commitment to the organization.” Hence Cindy advocates for developing team members as it conveys that employees are valued, and the organization is willing to invest in them. Those things that are rewarded are repeated.

But being in a male-dominated sector, Cindy knew she had to be different. When she began three decades ago, she set herself apart from the pack by bringing something unique to the table. “I found many of the traits women are typically known for would be a good place to begin. People tend to react differently to male and female leaders. Consistency, determination, compromise, asking for help, and the refusal to give up is what being a female leader has taught me,” she says. Being a steadfast woman leader, Cindy has been encouraging and empowering women entrepreneurs to the best of her abilities. “I am a long-standing member of the AACFB – American Association of Commercial Finance Brokers and previously associated with the NAELB – National Association of Equipment Leasing Brokers,” she elucidates. “Within both associations I have been used as a resource for new brokers. Within these organizations there are groups strictly made up of women who network and support one another in a male-dominated industry. From the newly established woman single-owned sole proprietorship to a large corporation run by a woman employing several hundred, there are always ideas I find to share.”

In addition to mentoring other women-owned businesses within her industry, Cindy has developed a unique finance program for women seeking funds for equipment purchases to open their doors. Depending upon the industry, this can range from computer hardware and software systems to construction/restaurant/medical equipment pertinent to their trade. Not only can Alliance Leasing and Financial Services finance the necessary equipment to open, but they can also cover costs associated with those purchases, including training, installation, delivery, and sales tax.

Armed with this philanthropic and unique mindset, Cindy has been leading Alliance Leasing and Financial Services to great heights. “I began cultivating my team to take on more of an active role in decision-making and working with our clients on a one-to-one basis. I am slowly easing into a consultant role as they become the daily contact people and “brains” behind the organization,” says Cindy. “A large majority of our clients have come back when seeking additional financing ten, twenty, and thirty times throughout the years we have been operating. I have always felt that we are providing a service and should take on the responsibility of educating our customers on what is available to them as business owners – advantages as well as disadvantages.” For Cindy, the mantra is being honest and forthright. Hence, Alliance Leasing and Financial Services customers keep coming back to get the best solutions and build a brilliant collaboration. WL

As organizations continue to pivot operations because of COVID-19, some regional businesses are thriving in the face of these challenges. Bookminders, the Mid-Atlantic’s premier outsourced bookkeeping company and a beacon for empowering women in the workforce, is one of those stellar companies. The continued growth and success of Bookminders since 2020 is largely due to the rapid and cohesive response of its senior leadership. Bookminders Chief Operating Officer, Jessica Minkus, led the entire company through a transition to virtual operations over a single weekend in March 2020, ensuring that employees wouldn’t miss a beat and clients continued to receive top-notch service.

“Successfully supporting our team fills me with the greatest sense of accomplishment.”

Studies suggest that women demonstrate more effective leadership in times of crisis. Jessica, a shining example of empowerment of women in the workforce, maintained an innovative but steady course for the company as she maintained and expanded the elements behind Bookminders success pre-COVID. Drawing on Bookminders’ insightful and powerful blend of technology, flexibility, and collaboration, Jessica adds her personalized approach to success to inspire and encourage women into becoming great leaders of tomorrow.

“Throughout my career, I’ve always wondered why women focus on not ‘having it all’ because life is not a one-size-fits all concept,” explains Jessica. “I have a strong work ethic and tailor my professional and personal life to my needs and those of my family and co-workers. It’s tremendously important for women to continually reshape and define what ‘having it all’ means to them and to feel honored by everything they accomplish.”

In addition to promoting flexibility at Bookminders, Jessica believes that everyone brings a different and valuable perspective. She maintains an open-door policy and continually seeks team feedback to improve client service and employee satisfaction.

“Our entire team of professionals, which are mostly women, have a deep trove of knowledge that allows us to improve our organization for our clients and our co-workers. When met with a challenge or change, I think every person sees the same problem but often a different solution. We want to take advantage of these varied perspectives to best serve our organization and clients,” Jessica explains.

During the pandemic, she asked staff to schedule individual 15-minute check-ins to ask questions, share personal experiences, or just chat about the stresses of navigating their home and professional lives. On a monthly basis, Bookminders provides their staff the opportunity to offer general feedback and, bi-annually, they issue an anonymous survey collecting comprehensive feedback from the team on all aspects of working at Bookminders. These policies result in the team feeling balanced, supported, and heard when organizational changes are implemented.

From its founding in 1991, Bookminders has followed a core philosophy to provide structured flexibility to degreed accounts on a part-time, work-from-home basis while serving non-profits and small to medium-sized businesses in an outsourced capacity. Starting as a staff accountant 15 years ago, Jessica was mentored by Bookminders’ Founder and CEO, Thomas Joseph. The company’s fundamental philosophy of flexibility is a core commitment and critical driver for Jessica and her team.

“A few times early in my career, employees walked into my office with resignation letters because they were struggling with personal issues and scheduling. I did not want to lose my co-workers because they needed greater flexibility. We worked together to figure out how they could satisfy their desire to remain professionally challenged while having enough time to manage their personal life successfully. Now when employees need an even more flexible arrangement, they come in with their plan to ‘have it all’,” Jessica says with a smile. “Successfully supporting our team fills me with the greatest sense of accomplishment. They know we are here to help them be successful and fulfilled.” IEWL

Bookminders

Management

Jessica Minkus
Chief Operating Officer of Bookminders

Description

Over the past 25 years, Bookminders has grown to become Pennsylvania’s premier outsourced bookkeeping service. We provide timely, accurate and cost effective bookkeeping for a variety of nonprofits and small businesses in the Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Baltimore areas. Our unique approach affords work-life balance to our staff of degreed accountants, while providing clients access to highly skilled professionals they otherwise couldn’t afford.

Co-Founder and CEO at eLINK Finance, Founder and CEO at Real Wealth Australia, long time Property Investor, Speaker, Best-selling Author, property Influencer, are just a few of the honors of Helen Collier- Kogtevs. She isn’t resting on her laurels though and continues to forge ahead with improving and developing new mortgage broking systems and processes that are revolutionizing the way loans are being processed in her mortgage broking business, which she also hopes will be the go-to systems and processes that other industry brokerages will also choose to adopt in the future.

Her commitment and dynamism to improving broker loan processing practices and systems, has culminated in her being described as one of the most inspiring women leaders in her industry. As a property investor herself, Helen experienced firsthand the pain and difficulty in getting finance, including the growing frustration of loan processing time and delays caused by lenders, so she decided to setup eLINK Finance. “I wanted to make the whole process of getting finance easier, seamless, and transparent. I didn’t want my clients to suffer the challenges I had in order to buy a piece of real estate! Instead, Helen “offers borrowers the right tools, knowledge and education to get their loans approved by lenders,” she says. “The result is a mortgage brokerage tailored to supporting the borrower to achieving their financial goals.

In order to accommodate these imposts on the business model, “we had to undertake a complete review of our loan processing systems. The outcome of this review identified that a completely new system needed to be developed. It has taken us several months, but we have finally completed the new system which improves accuracy, reduces duplication of effort, is task driven, transparent, ensures compliance is achieved and is scalable” Helen says.

“Being a woman in the male­ dominated industries of real estate and finance, I endeavour to inspire women to be more entrepreneurial and have the confidence to take control of their finances.”

The system that Helen has developed called Sync-afy, provides transparency of the entire loan process from beginning to end and is scalable as eLINK Finance’s business grows. “It reduces duplication of effort, time spent and enables monitoring of progress right through the loan application process and it works extremely effectively with our loan processing operations” says Helen.

As a multi award-winning mortgage brokerage, eLINK Finance provides educational materials and tools to ensure borrowers have the best chance to achieve their objectives which also include coaching and planning for investors to build property portfolios for earlier retirement.

In conjunction with this, eLINK Finance has built a platform to make the loan process easier for the borrower. “We created Sync-afy to track and trace the whole loan process, in a transparent way so that the customer can see at any point in time what stage their loan application is at, making it a seamless process of applying for a loan,” she explains. “We are exploring options of partnering with aggregators so that they can offer this technology to their brokers”.

What is the Plan for the future?

Helen is concentrating on building an ecosystem that will revolutionize how brokers interact with their customers to streamline the whole process of applying for a loan. “Having a team of really good people who want to achieve great heights, is an important part of the journey. The team understand the vision and are encouraged to participate in the process and engage them on a daily basis. I can proudly say that we are a family where we care and support each other. We are working towards achieving greater heights, together,” elucidates Helen.

Paying it forward

“It’s an honor to be an inspiration to women,” says Helen. “Being a woman in the male­ dominated industries of real estate and finance, I endeavour to inspire women to be more entrepreneurial and have the confidence to take control of their finances”. Being a mother to her 12-year-old daughter, Helen is making sure she can influence her daughter to become a leader of tomorrow. “I wish for my daughter to be armed with the leadership qualities and skills to have the freedom to step up and make a difference to the world in any field she is passionate about”.

Helen is also driven and passionate about giving back to the community. She is actively involved in projects that are focused on helping others. Back in 2015, Helen was one of the founding members of SHaRM Foundation.com which helped to rebuild schools destroyed by cyclone Pam on the islands of Vanuatu. “Every child has the right to feel safe and the right to an education and that is why we make sure every school building we project manage, is built to Australian cyclone standards” says Helen.IEWL

Steven Tait, Senior Consultant, EY

Nowadays, retail companies and their CRM providers are increasingly looking into innovative ways to enrich the stock of knowledge about their customers. Get to know your customers is a crucial aspect for every business in this era. The better you know your customer base the better will be the result of every action you plan for them, both collectively or individually. With aggregate data it is possible to realize marketing campaign with high interest index whereas knowing in detail a particular client enables tailored experience and increase redemption efficiency.

Once upon a time, businesses used to manage campaigns and interactions with their customers based on static data that could categorize a client in a persona. Basically, your age, your job position and salary, your education level, your marital status, your hometown and location were the best information a business could collect about you. These data alone can tell a lot about somebody, however they also miss most of a person’s life. Moreover, some of these data may vary over time, you can get married or divorce, change your job and living place. However, the business that collected your data – maybe on a paper form – being a bank, an insurance company, a supermarket chain or even some online retail via a digital form will not receive any update from you.

Then, any business started to check which the actual need of their clients were. Clearly they could collect purchase history concerning product or service offered. This apply to retail chain with fidelity card, banks for POS operations or routes travelled with public transport while using subscription cards just to make some examples. Finally, surveys concerning satisfaction rates for products and services, campaigns redemptions, clicks on banners and ads together with other metrics to get customers impressions concerning the company’s core business completed the picture of its users.

Definitely, by implementing a good strategy, this practices provide already a great picture of a customer base. Nevertheless, the growing of a new form of data disclosure completely change the game in the recent years. These new pool of data that may be available to businesses comes from the social network where people leave digital trace of their life almost every day. Taking into account just Facebook, out of 28M Italian accounts, analysis shows that 21M connects every day! These means posts, likes, comments, geo-located data, subscription in groups, sharing of news, purchases and much more. Clearly the question arise, is it possible to exploit these data – granting the platform and user permissions – for improving the knowledge about your customer base? Well, the answer is yes if you do also improve you customer base user experience.

I read a nice article some months ago titled “La società degli algoritmi” (The algorithms society), which explains how the real time experience of users is completely changed in the last years and it will be even more profoundly changed in the next years to come. Big data, machine learning algorithms together with the increasing amount of structured and unstructured data that everybody leaves behind everyday will change our life. We are used to get personalize advertisements, suggestion for item purchases, articles, books, movies, music… even restaurants and place to visit. More we disclose about us – and more is disclosed collectively – the better will the algorithms understand our preferences and customize our experiences.

Concern is rising on this topic. Privacy and security of data connected to the use that can be made are definitely great issues of our time. The combination of data disclosure in a digital manner together with the advancement in big data analytics and machine learning algorithms represent a great opportunity for the future. As every disruptive innovation that can change the world it can act both on the bright and on the dark side. Institutions, authorities and movements are constantly involved in protecting people from the unwanted consequences of this revolution. People of every social extraction are more and more aware of the use that can be made of their data. As an example, GDPR is really a hot topic among every company how manages data.

At the end of the day, for businesses, the question is clear and simple: are you getting ahead with this innovation wave or are you lagging behind? The companies that will shape the future of the next years to come will be those who get advantage of recent trends and technologies to offer a better and more tailored experience than their competitors. Every business with a wide customer base should definitely consider if they know their customer well enough to keep the pace of the 21st century. If the answer is no, well the moment to take action about it may be the right one.

Steph Hamill strives for #techforgood in our digital world and is a champion of creative innovation in human-centred technology and experience. As a creative solutions pioneer, Hamill has devoted her time to exploring socially conscious opportunities, creatively applying human-centred AI to Experience. Her ultimate mission? To inspire, solve challenges and support society through transformational solutions, trailblazing a new approach to unified capabilities.

“METTANOON IS INNOVATING through Sensory AI, amplifying multisensorial human-centred Experience.”

As MettaNoon CEO, Hamill co-built the boutique consultancy focusing on #SensoryAI and it is the world’s first #SensoryAI design company. At its core, MettaNoon combines AI, biometric data and human-centered design with creative innovation to develop high value products and services that solve live business and societal challenges. Hamill’s work sees her delivering solutions and products to ensure that businesses not only excel but that individuals experience added benefits, too. Additionally, Hamill ensured that MettaNoon leveraged cutting-edge international technology partners in its ecosystem, such as Voice award winners Say It Now, development superstars Dengun and IoT market leaders TeraCode.

Hamill’s journey into AI has been an unorthodox one. Hamill was a lead Experience Partner and Head of Creative, Brand and Digital Marketing for the consulting division of FTSE 250 company, Capita plc, one of the UK’s largest digital services, software and consultancy businesses with a US$4 billion turnover. Prior to that she was an agency creative director and consultant, and earlier in her career she worked for organisations including the BBC, ASOS, Turner-Time Warner, Havas, McCann and Razorfish.

It was while working in advertising that Hamill became interested in the role of human-centred digital experience. “I couldn’t stop thinking that a human-benefits first approach would make a bigger difference in people’s lives, and business successes rather than the ‘tech-function-first’ standard that we’d all become accustomed to.”

Because of this diverse experience she is now able to approach challenges from a synthesised perspective. Hamill combines conceptual thinking, human-behavioural and neuromarketing and science, innovative tech and brand development for transformational experience-centred output.

Working with one of the country’s top neuromarketing specialists transformed Hamill’s way of thinking from the usual prescriptive agency formulas and forced creative processes. In breaking away from those outdated techniques, Hamill collected other like-minded industry leader and pioneer support. As a result, Hamill feels she is finding ways to embrace these skills, tech developments and engage her network for the collective good.

Hamill notes that one person can make all the difference, simply by reframing the questions that we are asking. This is where #techforgood comes into its own: “One person with an idea, who harnesses the power of technology in a fresh, creative and innovative way can change the world,” states Hamill. And while Hamill acknowledges the ‘noise’ around AI, she believes that it “can be an extremely good thing but it is important to make sure that we’re humanising the experience. It’s no longer human vs. machine, our best future is human and machine.”

These practices have led Hamill to write her book, But What Does AI Mean For Me? which breaks down how AI impacts the everyday human experience. As she states: “It’s a completely different take on the subject from the typical AI tech tome and while I didn’t want to frighten people with the extreme blue-sky possibilities, the reality is we’ re a long way from anything overwhelming. The book cuts through the jargon and demystifies the subject.”

Hamill acknowledges that people often dwell on ‘the dark side’ of AI. “With every new technology, there are positives and negatives,” says Hamill. “This has been true throughout history and, if we don’t look back, we won’t have the appreciation and insights to move forward, positively. We must be respectful of technology and its advancements.” IE

MettaNoon

Management

Steph Hamill FRSA
CEO of MettaNoon

Description

MettaNoon is a Sensory AI and Digital Transformation company. Sensory AI amplifies multi-sensory human experiences, in digital and physical spaces. We blend multi-sensory AI and human-centered experience design, applying sight, sound, behaviours, mobility, data and ethics to create a new generation of Sensory solutions and SaaS products for all industries that touch clients, consumers and workforces.

Laura Narpaul has led Mach1 to grow through the COVID-19 pandemic. As a start-up, investor-funded company, she found creative ways not only survive but to thrive during this time. The company started with 34 markets across ten states in January 2020 and has continued to expand during the pandemic, becoming nationwide in February 2021. Laura oversees many areas of the business. One of the main areas of impact is the marketing and advertising efforts which have led to an 80% customer growth in 2021 over 2020, directly impacting the company’s revenue stream. Another area of impact is with the company’s software and technology development. Laura has led the development teams to achieve software improvements that directly affect the customer and provider bases. She has expanded the business from consumer growth and other business to business opportunities utilizing the software that is revolutionizing the roadside assistance industry. From marketing to development to overall operations, Laura’s daily impact is taking this start-up investor-funded business to be known nationally by both companies and consumers.

Laura utilizes her role as Co-Founder and President of Mach1 Services to provide a platform for women entrepreneurs to collaborate and share their ideas towards joint initiatives. Be it for her employees, while participating as a panelist in women-led corporate events, or even just the values she instills in her daughters right at home, she presents opportunities for these women to fast-track their career development through cultivating creative and critical thinking skills. By gathering her collective experience gained from her roles in business to her title today, she grants young women the tools they need to take concrete, actionable steps to improve their working environments, especially in male-dominated fields. Her work ethic is deep-rooted in authenticity, illustrated in her constant availability to those with the same thirst for knowledge. Her advice is, “wherever you are at in your career or if you’re on the fence of creating something new- don’t be afraid to take the leap of faith, and most importantly, enjoy the ride!” Armed with this ideology, she is taking the company to new heights.

Mach1 started from an idea of transforming the roadside assistance industry with the use of technology. “My husband and I decided to take a leap of faith and quit our day jobs to see Mach1 through. We wanted to improve both the consumer roadside experience, and the provider experience. I think everyone can relate to the pain points of the traditional roadside assistance model,” Laura says. “You make a phone call and ultimately wait for hours, helpless and in the dark as to when someone will be there to help you. We’ve transformed the process in a way that brings transparency to the customer, where customers can see who is coming to help them, where they are and when they’ll arrive.” Users can even call and text in the app using burner numbers, so they never give their personal information. But that is not the only side of roadside assistance that needed change. In the traditional model, motor clubs will reach out to multiple providers, asking them to bid for the job. The motor clubs choose the lowest bid.

“Imagine you’re a provider and you accept a job from a motorclub, but then you get a cash calling customer, you’re going to help the cash calling customer first as you’ll make more money from that, which is one of the reasons the wait times are long,” explains Laura. “In our model, we only dispatch the closest provider to the customer. We show a price window that is based on fair market rates for those services and then the provider will set the final cost in the app.”

Mach1 will be adding mobile electric vehicle charging for the days to come, which is exciting considering how quickly the electric vehicle industry and the need for mobile charging are growing. “There are other services we plan to release next year as well. We’re also bringing value and discounts to our customers with different partnership programs.” IEWL

Mach1 Services

Management

Laura Narpaul
President & Co-Founder of Mach1 Services

Description

Mach1 is the first on-demand phone app to truly automate and digitize the roadside assistance industry, with no membership fee. Customers can access the app for free and only pay for services when they need them. Our integrated platforms work in real time to dispatch the closest provider, allow providers & consumers to communicate, and harness GPS technology. We require safety training and background checks for our providers, making safety our first priority.