Main Category: Blog

Every human being has the inbuilt psychological need to reach their full potential during their lifetime. Success is a barometer to realize whether a person has achieved their full potential. Success incites strong emotions of happiness and joy among people. It makes people feel powerful and accomplished. However, we all know that success seldom comes easy. Every great success is built upon tremendous failure, pain, hardships, and sacrifices. It is during the phase of suffering that most people give up. Suffering has indeed killed more dreams than failure itself. Therefore, leading oneself to success requires much resilience. And when the scope of the goal is beyond oneself, where it is for a larger community, it requires resilience and leadership both. Resilient leadership is built on the foundation of a leader’s ability to persevere in tough times and strong people management.

Resilient leadership is a potent combination that increases the possibility of achieving success by many folds. People with resilient leadership find their way to gather the much-needed resources and motivation despite obstacles. They grow and mature with every hardship. They gain the right attitude, knowledge, skills, capital, or people over time. Resilient leadership has the magnetic power to pull all kinds of resources together to reach the finish line. Let us recall the inspirational life story of Nelson Mandela and his resilient leadership.

Mandela went on to lead the African National Congress struggle against the racially oppressive apartheid regime of South Africa. In 1963, he went to prison for 27 years for his efforts to bring peace and justice to his countrymen. During this time, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and received the lowest treatment from prison workers as a Black political prisoner. However, while imprisoned, Mandela earned a Bachelor of Law degree. He gained tremendous public support and worldwide popularity despite being in prison. In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work toward demolishing apartheid in South Africa. In 1994, Mandela was elected president in South Africa’s first democratic elections. Nelson Mandela was an inspiration to millions, and through his speeches, he influenced the youth for the better. Mandela once quoted, “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

How to be a resilient leader?

⦁ Learn – Learn more to develop your wisdom to improve your reasoning. Better reasoning will make your arguments stronger to gain support and bring change. In addition, it will help in generating newer ideas and alternatives as solutions during hardships. A learning person may anticipate possible difficulties before the event occurs and prepare in advance.

⦁ Listen – Listen to the stakeholders, including sponsors, customers, team members, community, and beneficiaries, to understand the scope well. Understanding the scope well may reduce errors and will keep one on track. This will also help gain stakeholders’ support for better advice and other resources to meet the challenges.

⦁ Recall – Recall the past incidences where you handled the hardships well. Or think about someone who did a brilliant job managing the hardships and came out victorious. Recall the stories of Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King.

⦁ Ask questions – Ask questions to yourself and others when there is a hardship. Why is there hardship? Can you do something about it? Is it worth getting stressed about something you cannot control? What is under your control? What can you do best for the things under your control? How will your reaction impact your team members? Sometimes asking questions yourself gives the best answers. Discuss with your mentor and team members to clarify and identify the bottlenecks. You may carve out a better solution this way.

⦁ Relax to recover – Take a break when you hit a roadblock. Let the disappointment settle down. Gain energy during the break and start all over again with enthusiasm.

⦁ Look at the big picture – Go back to basics and look at the big picture. Why did you start this journey, and what was the ultimate objective? Hardships may push you hard to quit. Quitting the mid-way sounds easy, but it may be a bad decision in the long term for oneself and others. If quitting is bad in the long term, then remind yourself to persevere and continue.

At last, resilient leadership may prove to be extremely powerful in achieving the dreams and goals of oneself and the larger community. Every hardship provides an opportunity to develop resilient leadership. One must take this as an opportunity. People love resilient leaders as they are truly inspirational and give better outcomes.

About the author:

Gaurav Warman is a Talent Development Practitioner with 17 years of experience in large organizations across Asia, the Middle East, and the APAC region. In his current position as Head of Learning and Development at Lulu Financial Holdings in Abu Dhabi (UAE), he successfully manages talent development requirements for a large and diverse workforce across 11 countries. He has delivered over 1200 workshops, trained more than 45000 professionals, and developed over 300 training programs. He is passionate about behavioral psychology, leadership, and personal effectiveness. In addition, he loves reading, listening to music, and cycling long-distance rides. He specializes in Executive Coaching, Talent Development, Leadership Development, Learning & Development, Quality Management, Project Management, and Keynote Speaking.

It is globally observed that amid continuous changes in Regulations within the Financial Services industry and political instability worldwide, compliance costs are increasing rapidly. The United Nations Security Council and most governments are continuously imposing financial and other types of sanctions on targeted countries and designated individuals to support world peace; these sanctions come as an alternative to war but increase the pressure on Financial Services providers, requiring continuous updates and more controls in place to identify cases related to financial crime and sanctions evasion. How can a Financial Services provider be continuously updated on all these changes? How can a Financial Services provider continuously update its controls to comply with all these Regulatory requirements? All these have a financial cost; hence the increasing requirements directly relate to the increase in the cost of compliance. Lulu Financial Holdings Limited and all subsidiary companies and associates worldwide (the “Group”) seriously consider the need for compliance and the cost of compliance; these issues are promptly addressed and actioned. The first solution to the issue is “investment in the latest technology”; the Group must continuously implement automation and tools to identify, assess, and manage compliance risks, including sanctions evasion, money laundering, and terrorist financing, production of arms for mass destruction (proliferation), and other types of financial crime including fraud.
Financial Crime Investigation Platforms are provided by software companies specializing in this sector. Most of them use extended Artificial Intelligence to identify compliance risks exposing the Group and resulting from its business and operations. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities are used as enablers within the Compliance Function to identify risks, whereas the human factor is still critical in the investigation and decision- making process.

The second solution to the issue is “investment in appropriate resources”; even though compliance risk management is highly demanding human resources, people are the most costly asset the Group has. The overall human resources cost may vary in the different sectors of the Financial Services Industry, but the Regulators would like to see a serious investment done for this besides pressure on financial performance and profitability; if the Group considers increasing the human resources proportionately to the increase in Regulatory requirements, then the cost of compliance shall increase disproportionately to the revenue incurred. So, the Group prudently invests more in qualified and experienced compliance human resources and robotic technology to speed up compliance risk management decisions. Applying a risk-based approach through a speedy decision-making process is essential for the Group and its operations. The third solution to the issue is “investment in knowledge”; the more educated the front- line members and all other employees of the Group are on matters related to sanctions violations identification, anti-money laundering, and counter-terrorism financing, non-proliferation, and anti-financial crime techniques, the less shall be the exposure to these compliance risks. The Group has a diversified portfolio of compliance training programs, blended between face-to-face and virtual delivery techniques. The latest trends are for the Group to use virtual conferences and eLearning platforms to increase knowledge, which can easily and quickly be amended to incorporate changes in the regulatory requirements; additionally, this is an efficient and effective way to create a learning culture among the Group’s employees.
The benefits of using technology in compliance are multiple; however, the most evident ones are related to “time”, i.e., the speed of dealing with compliance risks, the “quality”, i.e., the efficiency and effectiveness of controls if appropriately used, and “reduced overall cost”, i.e., the capital investment in compliance resources, human and technical, to reduce the Regulatory implications for non-compliance leading to reputation damages and heavy financial penalties.

We, the Compliance Team within the Group, are proud to use and continuously upgrade our technology to manage compliance risks related to business and operations; we are pioneers in using every useful compliance technological tool to support the compliance professionals in making appropriate decisions and adequately train all our employees to avoid been engaged in business and operations that expose us into unbearable risks. Ultimately, we are trying to maintain the overall financial cost of compliance at a low level and avoid any possible regulatory exposure and reputation risk.

Christos Christou, Aifs, MBA, CAMS, CGSS
Chief Compliance Officer
Lulu Financial Group

As per Gallup research, “Companies who listen to employees are 21% more profitable than the competition”. Intrapreneurship is becoming more relevant in today’s era of rising competition and the shrinking life span of the organization. The culture of intrapreneurship creates an apt environment for breeding innovation. Organizations have started establishing incubation centers to promote intrapreneurship and innovation within the workplace. In this article, you will discover some of the most prominent success stories of Intrapreneurship.

⦁ Frito-Lay – Flamin’ Hot!

In the mid-1980s, to boost revenue the Frito-Lay CEO announced an initiative for all 300,000 employees to “adopt an owner’s mindset.” All employees were invited to share innovative ideas to boost the growth of the organization. A janitor named Richard Montañez, shared an idea with the CEO. Noticing that there was no product catering to the Latino community, he added a home-made spice mix to some Cheetos and brought them to his meeting. The management was stunned by the taste. His idea was chosen for implementation right away.

“If you’re afraid of looking foolish, you’re never going to achieve anything great”. – Richard Montañez

⦁ McDonald’s – The happiest meal

In 1977, St. Louis Regional Manager, D. Brams began trying a new meal just for kids. He pitched his boxed idea to management, and two years later, McDonald’s rolled out its first circus-themed Happy Meal.
Result: Happy Meals have become so essential to McDonald’s business and brand identity that 3 million Happy Meals are sold every day.

⦁ Amazon Prime

Amazon’s The Prime membership idea was created by Amazon employees led by Amazon VP Greg Greeley, who believed that customers would pay more to be part of an exclusive membership that gave them two-day delivery, considered a luxury back then.

⦁ Starbucks – A tall order

Starbucks, founded in 1971 had a mission to become a “third place” to go, to provide a relaxing environment and experience for its customers. One barista decided to start writing the names of customers on cups.
Result: The idea was shared with the corporate office. Months later, this ‘first-name’ approach became a standard at every Starbucks store. The company has since launched designated advertising efforts to promote this personalized touch. Today, this ‘first-name’ approach is used four billion times a year at 30,000 locations globally.

⦁ Sony – Persistence plays

While now a globally recognized phenomenon, the PlayStation was initially a project that garnered resistance. Sony junior staff member Ken Kutaragi, a self-proclaimed ‘tinkerer’ worked with Nintendo developers to make the PlayStation a reality.
Result: Nintendo rejected the idea, but Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) has become the company’s most profitable business line. Kutaragi became the Chairman and Group CEO of SCE and became “The Father of the PlayStation.”

“I wanted to prove that even regular company employees could build something big”. – Ken Kutaragi

⦁ 3M – Made to stick

3M Spencer Silver invented a sticky adhesive that Art Fry, a fellow 3M employee discovered when searching for a way to keep pages in his books.
Result: Silver and Fry began developing the product after realizing the potential to share messages around the office. Fry supplied the company with the sticky notes, and they were loved by everyone. Post-Its now generate ~$ 1 billion annually.

“I thought, what we have here isn’t just a bookmark. It’s a whole new way to communicate.” – Art Fry

⦁ Gmail by Google

Gmail is a successful outcome of intrapreneurship at Google with their legendary 20%-time policy allowing employees to utilize part of their work hours for personal projects, Paul Buchheit took that chance to create Gmail, which went on to become an important piece of Google’s lineup.
Result: Gmail didn’t just blow away Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, the main free webmail services of the day, but it went on to become a dominant email service. Today Gmail has reportedly more than 1.5 billion global active users, it has gone from a small experiment to becoming a key service of Google’s product offering.

⦁ ITC India

ITC is known to foster the culture of employee ownership and to give them enough autonomy. It is the concept of intrapreneurship that allowed the company to procure agri-products directly from farmers while allowing farmers online access to faraway markets. The idea of e-choupal germinated when Sivakumar, a manager in the ITC Group’s agribusiness unit, approached ITC’s chairman, with a request of Rs 50 lakh to test an idea. He wanted to procure farm produce from soya farmers in Madhya Pradesh, thereby eliminating middlemen.
Result: Today, e-Choupal, reaches out to millions of farmers growing a range of crops in over 40,000 villages in India. It provides valuable information to farmers such as weather forecasts, domestic and international commodity prices, and better crop management methods. It has boosted the productivity of farmers and made the agri-products market more competitive.

⦁ Southwest Airlines

Flight attendant Martha Cobbs became tired of her standard safety announcement monologues and decided to add some humor and heart to it. “In the event, you haven’t been in an automobile since 1960, our flight attendants will now show you how to fasten a seatbelt.” Comments like these would leave passengers laughing.
Result: Cobbs garnered YouTube fame through recordings of her announcements, and Southwest began to encourage staff to embrace humor. Southwest Airlines’ safety announcements are estimated to be worth $140m a year in increased customer loyalty.

Conclusion:

Intrapreneurship carries tremendous potential for organizations. It increases the probability of organizational success by taking the first-mover advantage and beating the competition. The leadership team must encourage employees to adopt the mindset of business owners. Employees with a business-owner mindset are more engaged and satisfied compared to their peers. It increases their chances of growth within the organization.

** The end**

Gaurav Warman

About the author: Gaurav Warman is a Talent Development Practitioner with 15 years of experience in large organizations across Asia, Middle East, and the APAC region. In his current position as Head of Learning and Chief Ideas Enabler at Lulu Financial Holdings in Abu Dhabi (UAE), he is successfully managing the talent development and innovation for a large and diverse workforce across 11 countries. He has delivered over 1200 workshops, trained more than 45000 professionals, and developed over 300 training programs. He is passionate about topics such as behavioral psychology, leadership, and personal effectiveness. He loves reading, listening to music, and cycling long-distance rides. He specializes in Executive Coaching, Talent Development, Leadership Development, Learning & Development, Quality Management, Project Management, and Keynote Speaking.

References:
⦁ 14 inspiring examples of intrapreneurship and employee ideas in action, Available at – https://ideas.sideways6.com/article/inspiring-examples-of-intrapreneurship-and-employee-ideas-in-action
⦁ 10 Inspiring Examples of Intrapreneurship, Available at – https://unyscape.com/inspiring-examples-of-indian-intrapreneurship/
⦁ Intrapreneurship Examples: Top 5 Stories from Google, Airbus and More, Available at – https://studiozao.com/resources/intrapreneurship-examples
⦁ Leaving the cult of entrepreneurship: Intrapreneurs are the true drivers of innovation, Available at – https://bigthink.com/smart-skills/intrapreneurs/
⦁ Intrapreneurship Stories To Learn From, Available at – https://lmarks.com/our-blog/intrapreneurship-stories-to-learn-from/
⦁ 30 Books Every Intrapreneur Should Read in 2022, Available at – https://intrapreneurnation.com/skills/books-for-intrapreneurs/

Post-Covid 19 pandemic, the laws governing consumer protection in UAE are gaining much prominence and are continuously evolving. While the free zones of DIFC and ADGM have their own sector-specific Consumer Protection Regulations (“CPR’s”), there is a pressing need to adopt CPR’s within the financial services sector as an important step toward safeguarding the rights of the consumers.
Accordingly, the Central Bank of the UAE issued the Consumer Protection Regulation (Circular No. 08 of 2020) on 31st December 2020. The CPR’s and its associated standards set out the basic requirements for a Licensed Financial Institution to apply the necessary protocols or safeguards while dealing with sensitive consumer data. Since Companies in the financial sector are required to handle diversified and most sensitive consumer protection data, it is very much imperative for such to analyze and understand the intricacies of CPRs and its accompanying standards.
Licensed Financial Institutions are mandated to comply with the new regulations and standards maximum by 31st December 2022.

Why Consumer Protection Regulations and how it can be effectively implemented:
The Pandemic has drastically impacted the consumer’s financial health and therefore regaining and rebuilding the confidence and trust of the consumers is one of the competitive and paramount challenges faced by any Licensed Financial institutions. Further, the technological advancements in the digital landscape necessitated the need to process consumer data effectively, which emphasized the need for CPR’s and its associated standards. Below are the key highlights of CPR’s:

⦁ Ensure the quality and timing of effective disclosure to the consumers by Licensed Financial Institutions concerning the matters or risks that may affect a consumer’s decision to purchase a financial product or service.

⦁ Providing consumers with the access to the right information at the right time to enable them the opportunity to make informed decisions.

⦁ Addressing unreasonable barriers and limits to fair competition and giving importance to consumer choice.

⦁ Implementing a proper forum and mechanism for redress of consumer complaints including the need to establish a department dedicated to managing consumer protection data.

⦁ Licensed Financial Institutions should report in a timely manner consumer data breaches to the UAE Central Bank. A proper mechanism and protocol to be put in place in the event of the occurrence of a consumer data breach. Adequate training programs need to be conducted by the Company for the employees, to ensure adequate data protection for the consumers. UAE Federal Data Protection Laws require organizations to adopt an organized and collaborative approach to conducting data privacy programs that aim to uphold the privacy rights of individuals in the UAE.
Paradigm Shift while dealing with the Consumers:
⦁ All Licensed Financial Institutions, prior to providing information to the consumers must independently assess and seek only the relevant data required for the financial product and services. The Consumer Protection policies should be framed in such a manner so as to minimize data collection and retention (presently for a period of five years) and consumers should be made aware of the Company’s retention policies. The formats and templates of consumer protection policies should be framed to suit the best needs of the consumers.

⦁ Disclosure documents of a financial product and service must necessarily contain ‘Warning Statements’ and should clearly intimate to the consumer the consequences in the event of the Consumer’s failure to meet the Licensed Financial Institution’s terms and conditions. Also, use ‘Warning boxes’ to highlight key risks related to the purchase of financial products and services.

⦁ Disclosure to the third parties or related parties of the consumers shall be made only after obtaining written consent from the consumers. The forms should necessarily contain a clause pertaining to this condition.

It is very much imperative for the Licensed Financial institutions to comply with the disclosure obligations seriously as the UAE Central Bank may impose huge fines and penalties in the event of non -compliance of the same.

Conclusion:

When the UAE Central Bank issued the CPR’s on 31.12.2020, it was welcoming news for the consumers. It was aimed at better protection for the consumers, intended to cut red tape, and put in place a simpler and clearer consumer protection law that would be easier to interpret and enforce. The parameters contained in CPR’s are in tune with the changing times and is comparable with the standards of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR). The UAE Federal Data Protection Law also combines the leading practices from global data protection laws including EU GDPR and other forward-looking technological concepts.
As consumers remain more wary, while sharing sensitive data with Licensed Financial Institutions, proper protocols and data security policies are to be framed by the Fintech firms, which will be further explored in the coming articles.

Ms. Deepthi Azad

Successful Organisations are set up on the tripod of Vision, Mission, and Values.

The mission statement communicates the purpose of the organization. The vision statement provides insight into what the company hopes to achieve or become in the future. The values statement reflects the organization’s core principles and ethics.

Let us look closely at the relevance of ‘Vision’ for an Organisation.

Organizations draw up Vision Statement to provide a sense of purpose and direction for their business. Vision is the picture of the future that an Organisation desires to embrace. Vision projects before the Organisation the goal which it strives to reach, an embodiment of its hopes and dreams, giving focus and a clear road map to success.

Vision, more than just an Organisational aspiration, is the committed, concerted, conviction of all the stakeholders about the futuristic icon imaging all aspects of the Organisation. For the Vision to be truly potent and fruitful, it must be shared by all the stakeholders of the organization, unifying, inspiring, motivating, and synergizing the efforts of all in an ambitious and sincere way.

In the Management parlance and OB (Organisational Behaviour) discussions in Business Governance, management maestros draw the analogy of an Elevator/Lift to explain the importance of shared vision and conceiving a common goal by all the people in the Organisation.

Imagine you are working in a Corporate Office in the heart of a busy metropolitan city. Your office is on the 12th Floor of a twenty-storeyed building housing many large and small offices, working mostly from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is common, on most of the working days, to see a small crowd of employees of these offices reaching the building a few minutes before 10 O’clock by different modes of transport- by trains, buses, four-wheelers, two wheelers, etc. anxiously waiting for the Lift. Yes, there will be a crowd on the ground floor, in front of the Lift, as the employees wait for the Lift to reach their respective offices. When the Lift comes and its door opens, people step in, and when the capacity load is reached, the door closes, leaving many behind waiting for the next trip. Usually, the person standing close to the panel- board of buttons indicating the floor numbers, presses the requisite buttons as the other persons enter the Lift request. When the Lift goes up and reaches, say 3rd Floor, the person who has to get down on that floor might be standing at the rear of the Lift, away from the door, as he would have entered with the first few at the head of the crowd waiting initially at the ground floor. When the Lift door opens on the 3rd Floor other persons standing on the front side of the Lift, nearer to the door, would make room for the 3rd-floor person to offboard. For this, sometimes, a few will have to even step out of the Lift. Likewise, the Lift moves up, stopping at different floors with people stepping out or in, and after the ascend to the top ultimately continues the mobility with the descend for the next trip.

Now, let us observe the Lift journey a bit closely:

(i)      Usually, individuals enter the Lift in a disciplined way, not pushing out others along the way, on a ‘first come first in’ principle. If the capacity of the Lift is for 10 people, and you are not in a lot of the first 10 on arrival at the Lift front, you will stand back for the next trip. Of course, there might be a few unconcerned, unruly guys, jostling in! But these are exceptions!
(ii)     Once inside the Lift, the person standing near the buttons goes on pressing the floor-indicator buttons as per the request of the person standing away from the panel of buttons. Seldom does he say, “I am not your servant; if you want, come here and press the button yourself”.
(iii)    Nobody standing nearer to the gate usually stands rooted in his position, unbudging when a person standing in the rear wants to get out, with cursing and grumbling that “if you wanted to get out first, you should stand close to the door.”
(iv)    When we enter the Lift, our perception is that it is a neat, small room well paneled with switches, buttons, and lights, sometimes with fans and music. But there are much more to a Lift – -pulleys, chains, different bolts, nuts, gears, etc. which we rarely think about. All of these help the smooth functioning of the Lift. A small bolt, which may have a financial worth of less than a rupee, is equally important as the sturdy chains that hold the Lift, for if this small bolt is broken, the entire machinery may come to a grinding halt!
Let us examine the behavioral pattern of the passengers in the Lift as seen in points (i), (ii), and (iii) above. The behavior exhibited indicates an unspoken and sometimes unconscious effort on the part of the persons to adjust, accommodate and cooperate with each other.
Why is this?
All the persons boarding the Lift have a common goal; the goal is to reach their respective offices on time, before 10, and mark their attendance. Visualizing and sharing this simple but important requirement, each one desists himself from any action that would delay realizing or reaching the goal. It is the shared vision of reaching one’s work desk in time that prompts everyone to adjust and cooperate to the maximum!
Lift itself is akin to an Organisation ascending to the success of reaching the vision of goal-realization and each employee in the Organisation, like every passenger in the Lift has to imbibe in himself the importance of a shared vision of success and a focussed view of purpose behind any effort. We have seen that in a Lift every single nut or bolt is important and indispensable. Similarly, in an Organisation, every employee is important, whether he is a Peon or the Managing Director and each one must play a significant and crucial role in the smooth running and progress of the Organisation.

This is the gist of the “Elevator Theory” in Organisational management.

A tailpiece:

Why is ‘shared vision’ important for an Organisation?

Peter Senge, the author of “The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization” sites ‘shared vision’ as one of the cardinal disciplines necessary to create a learning organization. Continuous improvement, even in the midst of changes constantly happening, is the mainstay of progress for any organization committed to growth. Continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning. To render focus and purpose to learning, there should be a beacon to guide you and that bright beacon is the vision you hold. Each employee should fervently believe in the vision- a belief strong enough to evangelize it to others and ultimately support the team, in its pursuit.
AS Senge emphasizes “A shared vision is not an idea. It is not even an important idea such as freedom. It is, rather, a force in people’s hearts, a force of impressive power.” We should keep ourselves open to continuously court this impressive power in our hearts as well as in our organization.

Mr. Mathew Vilayil

For every business, one of the most important goals is bringing in new customers. You would agree that the bigger goal is holding the customers for a longer period. Businesses need to constantly devise strategies to acquire and hold the customers onboard to be successful in the long run. Digital disruption and social media have brought more opportunities for the customers and brands. At the same time, this also intensified the competition in the market.

In this era, what makes customers stay with the brand for a longer time? Is it the price, product or service, brand, awareness, loyalty reward program, customer experience or marketing strategies? This is an ever-changing landscape.

In this article, you will get to know about the impact of brand intimacy on holding customers for a longer period by building brand intimacy. You will also discover ways to build brand intimacy to unlock next level of business growth.

What is Brand Intimacy?

Brand intimacy is the emotional science that measures the bonds we form with the brands we use and love. – MBLM

Why is Brand Intimacy matters?

Daniel Kahneman mentioned about the dominant role of emotional and intuitive processes on the human mind in his book ‘Thinking fast and slow’. Human beings use emotions as their first natural choice to take decisions.

As per Natarelli M. (2020), We now know that up to 90 percent of the decisions we make are based on emotion. Almost every decision we make is based on emotion, not rational thought, and measured consideration. The same is true for the consumer while taking purchase decision about the brands.

Hence, brands making a more emotional connect with the consumers are more likely to grow faster compared to other brands.

As per Brand Intimacy Study 2020, the most intimate brands have continued to perform better than the S&P and the Fortune 500 for ten years running when it comes to profit, revenue and other key financial indices. These percentage differences are significant and indicate intimate brands generate millions more dollars in revenue and profit annually and over the long term.

The top five intimate brand in USA of 2020 are – 1st Amazon, 2nd Disney, 3rd Apple, 4th Ford, 5th Jeep.

Figure 2- US Top 10 Most Intimate Brands 2020

Advantages of Brand Intimacy

• Focuses on the emotional science that drives on-brand behaviors and purchase.
• Promotes customer-centricity by enhancing bonds based on reciprocity.
• Demonstrates superiority as intimate brands outperform the S&P and Fortune 500 across profit and revenue.
• Consumers are more willing to pay a premium for highly intimate brands than for brands with lower levels of intimacy.

How is Brand Intimacy can be developed?

There are three simple steps can be taken to build the brand intimacy –

1. Understand Where You Are Today

According to Daye D. (2020), the first step in building an iconic and thriving brand is to measure the emotions you are eliciting among your customers through all the touch points.

2. Identify Where You Need To Go

Identify the emotions that your brand wants to be known for.

For example, “Apple not only understands emotions, they use emotions as the beacon to guide their strategy and marketing. Apple has identified its core emotions it wants every customer to feel across every single touch point with which they engage.

The four emotions that Apple aims to elicit among customers are delight, surprise, connection, and love. Whether it is a new product like the iPad, the interface and UI of the AppStore, or the customer experience of the Genius Bar, Apple consistently targets those four emotions to drive long-term brand growth through emotional connection with those that are most important to its future” Daye D. (2020).

3. Bridge The Gap

“Once brand’s core emotions are identified, the key to building and growing the brand is executing every interaction with relentless consistency. The key to relentless consistency is to uncover which of your brand elements (i.e. colors, pack shape, logo lockup, brand script, brand characters, taglines, package shape, etc.) evoke the brand’s ‘core emotions’ and then ensure that these elements are executed across every touch point with relentless consistency” Daye D. (2020).

For example – Decathlon a French sports retail company measures the customers emotions after every sale through a digital monitor. They focus on delighting every customer. It forms the core of their culture. They have trained their staff to act like a coach rather than a salesman. They focus on understanding their needs of customers to recommend the best solution available. This gives decathlon an edge for building emotional bonds with their customers. They also engage customers by organizing various sports activities and adventures at regular intervals. As a result, Decathlon overtakes Adidas, Nike in sports gear retailing in India.

Conclusion

Emotions continue to remain the main influencer for arriving at the buying decision. The digital disruption and social media have brought consumers and brands closer to each other. The brands that are successful in build brand intimacy are more successful than their competitors in the long run. The entrepreneurs, business leaders, marketers and researcher have a great chance to emotionally engage with customers and create a win-win situation.

Gaurav Warman

References:

• How to Build Customer Loyalty with Brand Intimacy (CxOTalk #354), Available at – https://youtu.be/EB3JEEJXHxI [Accessed on 31st Dec 2021]
• Amazon ranked #1 company for “brand intimacy”, Available at – https://youtu.be/SZF2uOe8ifY [Accessed on 31st Dec 2021]
• Vogel K. (2020), 10 customer engagement strategies from real small businesses, Available at – https://www.ringcentral.com/us/en/blog/customer-engagement-strategies/, [Accessed on 31st Dec 2021]
• Natarelli M. (2020), How Emotion Drives Brand Choices And Decisions, Available at – https://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/how-emotion-drives-brand-choices-and-decisions/, [Accessed on 31st Dec 2021]
• Daye D. (2020), Igniting Brand Growth Via Emotional Connections, Available at – https://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/igniting-brand-growth-via-emotional-connections/, [Accessed on 31st Dec 2021]
• Malviya S. (2019), Decathlon overtakes Adidas, Nike in sports gear retailing, Available at – https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/decathlon-overtakes-adidas-nike-in-sports-gear-retailing/articleshow/68804024.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst, [Accessed on 16th Sept 2021]

Technologies are transforming the nature of work and its environment. The fact that level of input Technology has on our daily activities and life is growing in tremendous ways.
Whether we feel it and act to it, or just stay passive such input would occur.

How many of us were skeptical about online shopping and using our own credit cards as a method of payment before the COVID-19 pandemic? and how many were pushed to experience it during the pandemic and yet found it to be easy and safe?

This is just a small example of such an effect on us as a consumer and how our behavior as consumers are changing.

Such acceleration of adaptation to the new technology by the consumers has put most of the organizations in serious challenges toward their abilities to adapt and respond at the same speed as what is happening out within their consumers and competitors.

These challenges can become threats as well if they have not been resolved properly. This may lead to the loss of the clients and the business associated with them.

This issue leads us to a serious topic:
Ability to define and anticipate the consumer’s requirements and engage with them to ensure the retention and sustainability of the business within the work environment.

The question here is how can we be upfront in our thinking and what kind of skills do we need to learn that can equip us with such abilities?

Based on many studies and research that has been done, we can define some of these practices that would help us to acquire such capabilities.

1-To look ahead when defining critical rules.
We need to define what are the critical rules that are contributing to the implementation of our strategy. We need to rethink those needed skills with an increasing tech-enabled future and develop these tools in the current workforce. This may result in changing roles of people as we start to adapt to technology.

2-Ability to re-assess the nature of work and the needed skills and capabilities.
This will lead to identifying our assumptions of success of our people to perform within the new nature of work and accordingly to start building such capabilities within our people.

3-To focus on management development.
It will be needed to keep the development of management for re-skilling to equip them with the requirements of the new roles usually those supported by new technology.
Studies and research show that more than 60% of companies’ future roles can be filled with current employees, assuming that adequate programs are in place.

4-It is most important to get the people engaged with the technology.
The reason is that many of these technologies are AI-enabled processes.
The more we are shifting to the processes that can be done by machine, it means that those tasks previously used to be done by the employees will be replaced by the machine. People would need to understand the new roles to align themselves with the results generated from the machine.
We would like to leverage the technology with the alignment of the people to result in superior service to our clients and retain their loyalty.

5-We need to anticipate what the future managers would need in a work environment.
The future managers would be looking for a workplace with a real value proposition and this is different than what used to be earlier in the past.

As per the US Bureau of labor statistics by 2030 Millennials will make up 75% of the workforce.
This generation who are tech-savvy would need to have flexible schedules, diversity in the workplace, engagement, autonomy, and a meaningful connection with their employers.
This means we need to allow focus on factors that are most critical to retaining and inspiring our employees: A culture of inclusion, a workplace that makes getting things done fast and easy, and a top-notch rewarding system that evaluates contribution and productivity.

In conclusion, we need to agree that technology is fundamentally changing the nature of work. This means that to secure our future with such changing environment in the workplace driven by the latest technology, we need to act today to create an environment that inspires the people within the organization and allows them to excel with their future talents and abilities. Such an approach would allow us to retain our talented people and attract future stars to the organization in order to win the future game.

Osama Al Rahma

The year was 1983. It was a busy semi-urban branch of the Union Bank of India.

In those days, when technology had not yet ‘upgraded’ the banking transaction procedures, a customer, to draw money from his account, had to present his cheque at the ‘Token- Counter’, get a token, and present it at the cash counter, to collect the cash.

There was a commotion in the banking hall, in front of the token counter. An elderly customer was pleading with the bank official at the counter. His plea was that he was given Token no.13, and he wanted to get it changed, as he felt 13 was a ‘bad omen’. He was drawing the money to buy ornaments for his daughter who was getting married. 13 was ominously a bad number; since he was to use the money for an auspicious purpose, he wanted to get the Token number 13 changed. But the Bank official was adamant, explaining that Tokens are issued seriatim, in the order in which cheques are presented at the counter. He was telling the customer: “You came, and Token 13 was in line to be issued”. The customer was not pacified: “I cannot use this token 13 to draw cash for my dear daughter’s good”. Other customers in the banking hall were also getting into the fray. The banker: “it is only superstition that number 13 is a bad omen.” Then another customer blurted out to the Banker. ‘Your Bank is itself superstitious in that your head office building has dropped 13 from the floor- numbering’.

[ In the multi-storeyed ‘Union Bank Bhavan’ – the Head office of the Bank- at Nariman Point, Mumbai, after the 12th Floor the next higher floor is marked 14th floor].

The aggrieved customer finally did not collect the cash; he went back and sent a request through another bank to close his account and transfer the proceeds to that bank.

‘Superstition’ or ‘belief founded on strong faith’ is a conflict in perception, and I have narrated this small incident to suggest how ‘perception’ plays a prominent role in customer service or disservice in a service industry.

What is ‘Perception’?

When we look at an object, science tells us, that light rays from the object get focussed on the Iris of our eyes. And we ‘see’ the image of the object. What happens thereafter? The image is passed through the optic nerves to the brain where our collective repository of ‘data’ – experiences, assumptions, interpretations, etc. process the image to ‘perceive’ it in a highly subjective way. ‘Seeing’ is only gathering the impression of an image and ‘Perception’ is its ultimate processing and presentation in totality.

Why perception is important in customer service?

For a service provider, understanding the ‘need’ of a customer and responding to the same positively form the basic quality of service. Positive response emanates from ‘empathy’ – a cardinal concept in customer care.

To understand a customer’s real need to be serviced, you have to put yourselves in his place and sense the requirement from his perspective (to know where the shoe pinches, you have to wear it on your foot!) and this unique perspective is the pattern of perception in which the customer visualizes and holds his need.

Understanding ‘customer’s perception’ is not just a pre-requisite for rendering good customer service; we will have to also constantly strive ‘to create a positive customer perception of our company’. Customer perception determines how your customers feel about you, whether they continue to do business with you, and whether they recommend you to their family and friends.

Experts suggest various ways to ensure that customers see your company in the best possible light. Let me quote some time-tested methods of understanding and influencing customer perception:

Quote:

1. Respond to customer feedback –
Most businesses collect customer feedback in some shape or form. But a study by ‘Qualtrics’ found that less than half of customers surveyed felt that their feedback resulted in changes. Taking the time to respond to and act on customer feedback goes a long way toward making customers feel that you care.

2. Interviewing customers

For more in-depth analysis, consider interviewing customers at different stages of their lifecycle. Why did they choose to sign up? Why did they choose to leave? How would they describe  your product or service? Having a long conversation with customers will move your understanding beyond simple survey responses.

3. Understand who your audience is

You can’t be universally loved by everyone. Instead, understand who you’re trying to appeal to and what they want.

4. Recognize and reward customer-centric behavior

Because customer perception is influenced by every interaction customers have with your business, it means that every employee has a part in how your customers feel…..In order to create a positive customer perception, you need to first build a customer-centric culture that empowers employees to act in the customer’s best interest….

Unquote

Let us take conscious efforts to align our understanding of our customers’ needs with their perception levels, and, extend services that would be lasting, lingering, and salubrious experiences really ‘felt’ by them.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did, but people will
never forget how you made them feel.”
– Maya Angelou

Mathew Vilayil

Experts are indicating that the survival and growth of organizations are becoming challenging. The average age of an organization is continuously shrinking. These business challenges can be attributed to the VUCA threat (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity). Disruptive forces like technology and globalization are adding fuel to the fire. The laws of doing business are undergoing a change.

A few enlightened organizations have adopted a new approach called Intrapreneurship to thrive in business. Intrapreneurship helped organizations in defying the threats and disruptive forces. Apple is a great example. In this series of articles, you will learn about the potential benefits of Intrapreneurship for organizations. You will discover the success stories of intrapreneurship. You will identify methods of building a culture of intrapreneurship within the organization. So, keep reading.

We are witnessing intense competition among organizations worldwide. Consumer preferences are changing faster than ever before. A couple of decades back, consumers largely depended on TV and word of mouth to seek information for buying decisions. The information flow was either slow or moderate but not fast. It didn’t impact consumer behavior the way it is influencing today. Today information is readily available from multiple sources. Thanks to the rise of social media and smartphones. Consumers can access a plethora of information on products and services at the click of a button. They can easily compare products, and prices, to judge their value. The information gave tremendous power, transparency, and visibility to consumers. They are constantly discovering better deals on the internet. As a result, the ‘not-so-competitive’ products and services are moving out of the market sooner than ever. The responsibility to keep the product offerings competitive lies with the company’s top management. It requires them to act faster to align with the future. Innovation is a promising solution for organizations to stay competitive.

“Innovation is executing an idea which addresses a specific challenge and achieves value for both the company and customer”

– Nick Skillicorn

The harsh reality is that achieving innovation is easier said than done. Nowadays, innovation can no longer be managed by a few brainy people sitting in the top positions. Today’s demands for innovation are much greater than anyone’s imagination. Organizations need to increase the muscle power for innovation. Unless the leadership team encourages the employees to adopt an ‘entrepreneurial mindset’ to participate in the innovation process, it won’t be easy. The practice of developing an entrepreneurial mindset in employees is INTRAPRENEURSHIP. It was first coined in the 1980s by management consultants Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot. Steve Jobs made it popular by practicing it. He once said the Macintosh team “was what is commonly known as intrapreneurship. A group of people going, in essence, back to the garage, but in a large company”.

When employees think and act like entrepreneurs, they become INTRAPRENEURS.

“Intrapreneur: An employee who is given freedom and financial support to create new products and services and systems who does not have to follow company’s usual routines and protocols”

– Richard Branson

Intrapreneurs think about increasing market share, introducing new products, reducing costs, building high-performance teams, and boosting profitability. Intrapreneurs have done wonders for organizations. Steve Jobs successfully practiced intrapreneurship at Apple in the 1980s, which made Apple the brilliant organization we know today. iPhone, launched in 2007, is a baby of intrapreneurship. A product that transformed the tech industry and the world. That’s the power of intrapreneurship.

Benefits of Intrapreneurship for organizations

There are several benefits of intrapreneurship for organizations. Some of them are –

Business Growth: It is a well-known fact that intrapreneurship facilitates innovation which leads to business growth. For example, in 2020, a portfolio that was theoretically invested in BCG’s most innovative companies would have performed 17% better than the MSCI World Index during the period 2005 to 2020.

Increasing Sustainability: A culture of intrapreneurship within the organization increases the sustainability of the organization. World Economic Forum (2021), indicated, “Intrapreneurial talent is a critical resource for corporate innovation as business increasingly pivots towards sustainability and purpose.”.

Gaining Mindshare: Organizations gain customers’ mind share with new and improved products. Brands make a special place in the mind of consumers when the products are continuously upgraded as per their preferences. For example, Apple launched its first model in 2007 and continuously upgraded its model to reflect consumer preferences at regular intervals. iPhone 14 is slated to be released by September 2022. Apple and its products have become an essential part of consumer’s life. This is being converted into the shareholder value and the business numbers. Since 2001, Apple stocks have risen by 15,000% and reached a mark of $3 trillion market capitalization. As of 2022, a total of 2.2 billion iPhones have been sold since inception.

Building Competitive Advantage: Building a culture of intrapreneurship is not a cup of tea for many organizations. It is very tough and requires dedicated efforts by the leadership team. It is both art and science. A visionary leadership team can achieve the dream of intrapreneurship. The doors of success are then wide open for the organizations. Hence it provides a competitive advantage to the organization that practices intrapreneurship.

Building Talent Pipeline: An intrapreneur is a rare breed of employee. It takes time to recognize them as intrapreneurs. The business growth is directly proportional to the number of intrapreneurs present within the organization. Intrapreneurship opens the door for building a talent pipeline for the organization. Behind every successful organization, there is an army of intrapreneurs. And such an organization does everything possible to attract, recognize, engage, and retain key people for the longer term.

Today Intrapreneurship is adopted by many organizations worldwide. Some prominent names are Google, NESTLE, Sony, 3M, ITC India, Infosys, and Starbucks, among many others. Success stories of intrapreneurship are very inspiring. It is worth it for the organizations.

Conclusion: Innovation is the key to survival. Organizations stand a great chance to survive and grow by building a culture of intrapreneurship. To unlock the full potential of intrapreneurship, entrepreneurs must encourage employees to think and act beyond their position and titles. The presence of more intrapreneurs within the organization can add tremendous value for all the stakeholders. It is a must in today’s intensely competitive world.

I hope you found the article quite useful. In the following articles, you will explore the more success stories, and ways to build a culture of Intrapreneurship. Stay tuned and do well.

About the author: Gaurav Warman is a Talent Development Practitioner with 15 years of experience in large organizations across Asia, Middle East, and the APAC region. In his current position as Head of Learning and Development at Lulu Financial Holdings in Abu Dhabi (UAE), he is successfully managing the talent development requirements for a large and diverse workforce across 11 countries. He has delivered over 1200 workshops, trained more than 45000 professionals, and developed over 300 training programs. He is passionate about topics such as behavioral psychology, leadership, and personal effectiveness.  He loves reading, listening to music, and cycling long-distance rides. He specializes in Executive Coaching, Talent Development, Leadership Development, Learning & Development, Quality Management, Project Management, and Keynote Speaking.

References

• https://studiozao.com/resources/intrapreneurship-examples
• https://unyscape.com/inspiring-examples-of-indian-intrapreneurship/
• https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/de/Documents/technology/Intrapreneurship_Whitepaper_English.pdf
• https://www.cablecenter.org/2022-innovation-report/employee-activation/
• https://www.ideatovalue.com/inno/nickskillicorn/2016/03/innovation-15-experts-share-innovation-definition/
• https://blog.cfte.education/the-5-most-famous-cases-of-companies-that-promote-intrapreneurship/
• https://www.macworld.com/article/677790/complete-guide-to-this-years-iphone-14.html
• https://kommandotech.com/statistics/how-many-iphones-have-been-sold-worldwide/#:~:text=2.2%20billion%20iPhones%20have%20been,total%20revenue%20generated%20by%20Apple.
• https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/how-change-making-intrapreneurs-can-provide-renewable-energy-for-businesses/
• https://gulfbusiness.com/apples-market-cap-briefly-tops-3-trillion-after-relentless-rally/
• https://online.jefferson.edu/business/what-is-an-intrapreneur/#:~:text=Origins%20of%20Intrapreneurship,consultants%20Gifford%20and%20Elizabeth%20Pinchot.

Bill Gates said in 1994 “Banking is necessary but banks are not”. Before we understand what is NEO Banking, lets to try to understand the fundamental difference between Neo Banking and Open Banking.

Open Banking:

The system of allowing access and control of banking and financial accounts through third-party applications is Open Banking. Open banking is a banking practice that provides third-party financial service providers open access to consumer banking, transaction, and other financial data from banks and non-bank financial institutions through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). Moving towards open architecture is the next logical step toward sustainable growth that banks, insurers, and other FinServ incumbents are set to explore in the coming years.

Use Cases – Account Aggregation, Personal Finance Management, Instant Lending, Digital Onboarding, Money Tracking, International Payments, Remittances, New Account Opening.

Neo Banking:

A neobank (also known as an online bank, internet-only bank, virtual bank, or digital bank) is a type of direct bank that operates exclusively online without traditional physical branch networks.

Challenges in Current Banking Landscape:

1. Legacy Systems: Core Banking platforms have played a critical role in these banks’ daily operations, gradually, they are being viewed as problematic, as they inhibit progress. Today’s systems are more agile and, in some instances, modular as well. This is in sharp contrast to the monolithic architecture of CBS – changing one part of the larger system could have an adverse effect on other parts. This, in turn, necessitates lengthy impact assessments and testing, which would incur significant expenses.

2. Proposed Regulations: Globally, banks are now shelling out in excess of $270 billion per year on compliance and regulatory obligations. Regulations like PSD2 are mandating banks to open up their APIs for FinTech and external developers. This will lead to the prospect of banks losing a share of the customer relationship to FinTech.
https://www.varonis.com/blog/psd2

3. Tech Giants: Tech Invaders like GAFAM and BAT (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) – are making huge dents in financial services markets across the globe. We have seen the growing traction of lending services by WeChat and Amazon in their respective regions. With their superior technology, access to huge data pools, and superior customer experience, these players are making serious inroads into the financial services ecosystem, and are changing the way people save, pay, borrow, and invest – thus powering their financial lives. The Chinese Moghuls – Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu – already have a significant head start in their FinTech initiatives. These three players have ventured into most of the key FinTech segments, and are beginning to show signs of leading the next wave of FinTech.

4. Running Physical Branches: leads to higher cost and provides average customer experience. Tracking customer interactions with bank staff is also a challenge and is limited to the actual transaction that a customer would end up doing.

Digital Transformation can give these banks an opportunity to transform themselves. In order to reap the complete benefits of digital, banks will need to align their innovation strategy with the emergence of technology on all major fronts, i.e., business model, service delivery, operations, resources, and customer management. This presents Neo Banks as a key challenger to the existing large traditional banks.

Characteristics of Neo banks:

Licensed Bank: These are digital-only banks that have obtained a fully operational banking license. This enables them to offer certain products and services on their own, rather than through licensed banks. Some of these banks may still continue to offer services in partnerships with banks and other FinTech companies.

Traditional Banks Digital Initiatives: These are separate, stand-alone, mobile-only banks created by traditional banks; they use new-age technology to deliver products and services in a customer-friendly manner. These digital banks use completely different technology platforms compared to their parent banks, thereby fast-tracking the overcoming of hurdles associated with legacy architecture.

Over The Top: These are digital-only platforms that don’t have their own banking licenses. These platforms offer either a stand-alone product or a bouquet of financial products in partnerships with financial institutions/banks and FinTech firms but at a cost quite lower than of traditional banks.

Unique Use Cases solved by Neo Banks:

Chime lets users get paid early for up to two days with the Early Direct Deposit feature. It adds money as soon as it receives a notification of the transaction from the user’s employer and immediately transfers the funds to the user’s account.

Starling Bank has launched a marketplace banking platform, which integrates with financial services spanning pensions, savings, travel insurance, and mortgage brokerage. This helps Starling bank to provide users with access to a choice of third-party money-related apps & services and to create a network effect on both sides of its market.

Fiinu has developed an automated lending robot called Fiinuscore which – combined with PSD2 and Open Banking – will be able to provide small overdrafts to millions of people within the payday loan price cap. This will help consumers to minimize overdraft fees.

bunq lets users link one card to two bunq bank accounts at the same time using their patent-pending Dual PIN technology. Users can also switch the accounts linked to the cards.

Online bank Tangerine also offers its banking services (account opening, cheque deposit, account checking, etc.) to customers through cafés, pop-up locations, and kiosks. People can come to talk about their finances and savings goals face-to-face.

In a world where businesses would spend hours trying to reconcile all their transactions and be forced to juggle multiple tools to manage their finances, Open provides an easy solution. It helps collect payments, auto-reconcile transactions, make seamless payouts, auto-generate accounting reports, and do expense management, all on a single platform. Open also exposes developer-friendly APIs for SMEs & startups to integrate banking into their business workflows.

Rise – Banking for migrants in UAE

Engagement Options:

Direct Investment: As a part of their digital transformation journey, banks and financial institutions have started to make direct investments in various FinTech startups over the recent years.

Strategic Partnerships: New technologies of startups are integrated into banks’ applications and also in the form of a “white label” arrangement.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Almost one in three banks and asset managers have plans to buy a FinTech firm in the next 12 months

Synergy Points between Traditional Banks and New Age FinTech’s

1. Access to New Markets: The partnerships with the new-age FinTech players enable these institutions to devise ways for reaching out and acquiring new market segments, i.e., the underbanked segments of the population. The partnership between Mastercard and Grindrod Bank and Net1 for providing services to the underserved population in South Africa.

2. Creating new offerings for existing customers: The second major challenge faced by financial institutions is developing innovative & profitable services for their existing customer base in the lower market segment. This plays as an obstacle to the steadier and regular revenue stream for financial institutions compared to the costs of acquiring new customers. Eg: ICICI Bank’s partnership with Stellar, a Silicon Valley-based non-profit offering distributed ledger infrastructure services, to build a blockchain-enabled payments network for their customers.

3. Data collection, use, and management: Effectively collecting, using, and managing data for financial inclusion has been one of the major challenges faced by the financial institutions in this space. The main theme for forging partnerships with FinTechs is to leverage their expertise in creating alternative risk modeling techniques.

Ankur Sharma