4. From Directing to Inspiring
Desk
Editor’s
he cornerstone of a business’s success is an
Teffective leadership. The ultimate purpose of a
leader is to lead others so self-awareness is
essential and it is also necessary that followers find
their leader inspirational; it motivates them. Anyone
can be the inspirational leader, but it’s not something
that will come naturally to everyone. Self-awareness
and awareness of those around are the key part of an
inspirational leadership where one has to focus on
finding different ways to inspire and engage those who
are following for change. “Leadership is the ability to
get extraordinary from ordinary people” said by Brian
Tracy. An inspiring leader helps others to understand
their own value and leads them to witness success.
In the past, leadership was all about pushing the
business towards its goals, irrespective of the impact
on the workforce where being hard-hearted and
indomitable were considered to be traits of good
leadership. Today, aspects of leadership have been
changing; the real heroes of a business' success are its
employees and in order to drive organisation to
success, leaders have to engage with employees
effectively.
To have an inspirational leader is a extremely
beneficial from an organisational perspective.
However, developing the skills to be an inspirational
leader is a never ending process while one experiences
different aspects leadership and develops ability to
5. Leadership is
more of supporting,
guiding and inspiring
than only directing
Rohit Chaturvedi
empower others. Insights Success, in its upcoming
edition “The 10 Most Inspiring CEOs to Watch”, is
bringing some of the world class CEO’s, who’s
success stories are becoming an inspiration for others.
The cover features Nicolas Genest, the CEO and
founder of CodeBoxx Technology, who wanted to
make people more confident who are doubtful about
their skills and potential, and holding themselves
back. His new venture will give you the skills and
resources necessary to become an efficient and highly
appreciated developer on the technology scene. He
believes in educating people to new skills and
providing them with a chance to use them on a new
job, become an entrepreneur or even a freelance
worker.
Nicolas asserts “you should never lose sight of what
you do things for. Hardest things are often the most
impactful ones and the most valuable. Getting carried
away or tempting to focus on the things that you are
good at will happen often, but you should be
determined at what you do.” He understands that
empowering people is important so he constantly
reminds them that the objective is always greater than
any individual on the team. One does that by
highlighting their individual impact within the
collective effort. Everyone is part of a community
effort to be a relevant alternative to the changing
landscape in education and labour.
Also, while flipping the pages, don’t forget to go
through the articles and CXOs written by our in-house
editorial team and industry experts respectively.
7. Feras El Hajjar
An Ingenious Leader
in Digital Transformation
and Business Management
Katherine Colombino
An Excellent Dedicated
Professional
Yatin Patel
Elevating Travel
Experience
20
32
24
36 YOAV DROR
Providing Ultimate
Flexible Crypto
Payment Solution
C o n t e n t s
14. In this technology-driven world, new innovations are
just around the corner. These new innovations bring
changes that require adaptability. Adapting to this
fast pacing world can make even the more confident
people doubtful about their skills and potential, holding
themselves back, Nicolas Genest, the CEO and founder
of CodeBoxx Technology wanted to come up with a
different approach to tackle this situation. His new
venture will give you the skills and resources necessary
to become an efficient and highly appreciated developer
on the technology scene. He believes in educating people
to new skills and providing them with a chance to use
them on a new job, become an entrepreneur or even a
freelance worker.
Prior to founding CodeBoxx Technology, Nicolas has
been a highly successful CTO for vente-privee.com, The
RealReal, Modcloth. Over the span of 15 years he has
been leading teams in multiple and has taken on
challenges many passed on and thought impossible.
Throughout this impressive journey, he has always been
leveraging his organizational acumen, his business bias
and his technology leadership.
Targeting Audience
The value proposition that CodeBoxx puts forward is
quite unique. It offers people who are naturally attracted
to technology, but still do not have any leveraged access
to it, to learn what is already accessible to jump-start a
new chapter of their career. Nicolas believes that nobody
should be refused the right to learn based on education,
background, age, gender, etc. Especially immigrants or
high school dropouts who are really keen towards
learning and becoming a developer to start contributing.
CodeBoxx proposes a framework that allows focus and
performance along with mass exposure to the
technologies that make modern developers quality-
driven and productive.
CodeBoxx offers a 16-week boot camp, which is the key
for an efficient and fast-paced learning process. After
two weeks going through an intensive selection program
where one’s strengths and weaknesses are tested; the 14-
week Odyssey program will lead every graduate to a
guaranteed job at the end of the road. Jobs are offered by
numerous elite partner businesses or through
CodeBoxx’s digital workshop. Graduates don’t pay
tuition fees until they are hired. CodeBoxx takes on most
Always measure
success through
the impact you
are having over
the people you
try to solve
problems for.
“
“
17. of the risk until completion making it, for most
participants, the only option they had to take their first
steps into a new career.
One Step Forward
People who share similar beliefs are likely to come out
on top at things they do collectively. When Nicolas
started CodeBoxx, he was dedicated to find people who
would embrace the cause, the social mission and live
with the common values that his organization was
founded on. The very few people he launched CodeBoxx
with were high-quality people and Nicolas made sure of
it. With his core team, he was able to create a strong
culture and carry those values forward.
One of Nicolas’ strength is his capacity to surround
himself with people who are results-driven, dedicated
and hard working. He quickly and efficiently identifies
the character traits of a person and assigns them to
certain tasks or roles making sense to the business at any
given moment. He portrays the values of true leaders
and, as a result, is the forefront of trust. Establishing the
definition of success for him and for every member of
the organization helped him in creating the pillars of a
strong culture that aims to empower everyone.
Hardest things are
often the most
impactful ones and the
most valuable.
“
“
18. Aligning Business with Technological Era
Nicolas asserts “you should never lose sight of what you
do things for. Hardest things are often the most impactful
ones and the most valuable. Getting carried away or
tempting to focus on the things that you are good at will
happen often, but you should be determined at what you
do.” He understands that empowering people is
important but what is also capital is to constantly remind
them that the objective is always greater than any
individual on the team. One does that by highlighting
their individual impact within the collective effort.
Everyone is part of a community effort to be a relevant
alternative to the changing landscape in education and
labor.
The three pillars on which CodeBoxx stands are
Excellence in execution, Going the extra mile and
Keeping a nimble and flexible mindset. These pillars are
hammered everyday into participants’ minds by the
members of CodeBoxx team so that it becomes their way
of life and gives them an edge in their career by making
their work ethics and attitude stand out.
Future Insights
“Always measure success through the impact you are
having over the people you try to solve problems for.”
says Nicolas. He states that in the upcoming future, he
wants CodeBoxx to leave a footprint in communities
over the entire world like it has started to do since its
inception. Simultaneously, he also wants to help number
of people from all walks of life by giving them an
opportunity to launch their career in technology.
Moreover, he also mentioned that their primary focus
will stay on their primary customers, which are of course
the participants who trust the school to launch or boost
their technology career, but a special attention will be
paid to their business partners to make sure they are fully
satisfied with the graduates CodeBoxx offers them.
Moving forward he also wants to create a workforce of
change that will give back to the developer community.
19.
20.
21.
22. An Ingenious Leader in Digital Transformation and Business Management
FERAS EL HAJJAR
Feras El Hajjar
Founder & Chairman of Infosysta,
Founder & CEO of App4Legal
20 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com
23. Enjoy what you
are doing every
day. Focus on the
positive side.
Digital transformation is vital/crucial for any
business. It has become mandatory for business
leaders to rethink old operating models with the
new one, to become more experimental, and more agile in
the ability to respond to customers and competitors.
Feras El Hajjar, Founder & Chairman of Infosysta, and
Founder & CEO of App4Legal is an exceptional leader
who has managed to make his mark in the business world
with his outstanding performance in IT as well as
management sector.
Usually, the integration of digital technology into all areas
of business results in fundamental changes regarding
business tactics. If done correctly, this can prove much
more beneficial for the company. Infosysta is one of the
leading companies to provide digital transformation
solutions for your business by challenging the status quo
with market-proven strategies.
Moreover, Legal technology is quite essential, as it
particularly provides and aids legal services. Currently,
most of the companies struggle to acclimatize their
practices and are falling behind hence, the rise of legal tech
has considerably influenced the concurrent legal markets.
App4Legal is a provider of best-of-breed Legal Practice
Management Software that provides solutions to keep your
Legal Teams ahead of time with a detailed and organized
approach.
Into the Shoes of Leader
Meet Feras El Hajjar, the Founder & Chairman of Infosysta,
a company specialized in the Digital Transformation in
EMEA and the Founder & CEO of App4Legal a company
specialized in Legal Technology. With more than 18 years
of multi-national experience in the Software industry
including CRM, ERP & HRMS solutions, Feras proved
himself as an expert in Information Systems. Being a
Software Engineer with solid Management and leadership
skills, graduated from Ecole ParisTech in 2002 & Paris
Dauphine (Paris IX) in 2003, has earned years of
experience in multi-national companies in Paris, Singapore,
Dublin, Beirut, Riyadh, Cairo, & Dubai. This solid
experience in the domain of Information Technology, with
the most known solutions in the market, is the success key
to building a sustainable two mature multi-national
companies.
Moreover, he is a permanent speaker at Agile Summits in
the Middle East and a board member of different
organizations including Heriot-Watt University in Dubai,
Industry Advisory Board and also at Atlassian Partners
Board Member in San Francisco.
“Nowadays, it is crucial to align the business with
technology. Follow the right processes and, using the right
tools can be a game-changer when it comes to reaching
objectives, on-time,” adds Feras.
Appreciating the Talent
Feras states that with a clear strategy and communication
plan, employees of his company are involved at the early
stage of strategic decisions and company’s yearly
objectives. Employees are becoming partners of decisions
instead of Task Achievers. Talents are compensated and
accelerating their careers by giving them all the needed
sponsorship to excel.
Overcoming the Volatility in the Markets
Feras states that, he and his team firmly focuses on the on-
going as well as upcoming technology and the market needs
to swiftly overcome any dilemmas. The company helps
people to be agile and how to be more flexible in order to
adapt to changes. It also build quarterly objectives at the
management level and cascade them down to all teams and
employees. He also addresses that the objective may or can
The
Most
INSPIRING
To Watch
www.insightssuccess.com 21|APRIL 2020
24. change from a quarter to another and the dynamics of the
market are the main drivers of the company’s objectives.
Eye-opener for Better Life Appraoch
In 2012, Feras resigned from his job as an IT Director in a
multi-national company in Paris to exercise his
entrepreneurship skills and build his first company,
Infosysta from Beirut to become in less than 6 years the
leader in the Middle East in the Agile & Digital
Transformation. Later, he launched a unique solution called
App4Legal, helping lawyers and legal practitioners to
resolve their daily issues with one complete solution to
innovate their legal practice. In 2019, App4Legal became a
leader in GCC and a major player worldwide recognized by
Gartner as a Legal Technology leader.
Advice to Rely On
Feras believes in the word Focus. He advice that, one must
move by small iterations to close milestone by milestone
until one reach its goal. Also suggesting that one must
accept the fact that every individual need to sacrifice some
‘less important’ activities while focusing on the ‘critical and
high’ ones.
He also emphasizes on some of the attributes that every
leader must posses. By quoting, “the Skill to stay macro and
to go micro when needed are the ingredient of a successful
CEO”, he states that Genuine Leadership is showing the
way to others. An excellent communicator who can by a
simple email or a meeting pitch gets actions into efficient
executions.
He also put some light, on why is it necessary to be an
organized person driven by objectives. As he states, an
objective-driven organized person knows where to stop
putting efforts and where to focus.
22 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com
25.
26. An Excellent Dedicated Professional
ith more than 80 successful implementations and
Wa highly qualified team with more than 20 years
of experience leading the most challenging
projects in the country, Software and Services Consulting
SRL is positioned as the number one partner in Paraguay of
SAP Business One. Confidence, Clarity and Constant
Accompaniment are some of the terms used by its clients to
describe what SSC means to them because in each step the
company takes together, as a team, it looks for ways to help
its clients strengthen their projects and evolve sustainably,
what today makes it differentiate the company from the
competition. One such highly qualified team member is
Katherine Colombino – Chief Executive Officer with a
very clear objective to pull all its energies towards a single
focus: Customer satisfaction.
Strong Knowledge of Business
Katherine completed her education from Asuncion
Polytechnic Faculty and the National University of
Asuncion. She joined Consulmatica SRL as Systems
Development Manager. After 5 years in that position and
having put the system on the market with great success,
Katherine held the position of Support Manager for more
than 6 years, so her orientation was customer satisfaction.
She has incorporated more than 50% of clients as Sales
Manager at Infocenter S.A. actively, she had collaborated
with marketing campaigns and events for SAP
development, conflict resolution, in addition, to support
tasks of definition and development of solutions to specific
problems of the client, always having as focus, excellence
in attention to the customer.
Teaching how to work, how to confront difficulties, skills
that one was learning in her career through the years and
the example itself are her strategies that she tries to make
everyone imitate to the best of their ability. The company
also participated continuously in training courses and
interpersonal skills.
A Glimpse into Katherine’s Journey
Currently, Katherine Colombino is the CEO of SSC -
Software & Services Consulting SRL. She is a specialized
consultant in Sales, Implementation, Development,
Training, and Support of SAP systems, also holds a Degree
in Systems Analysis, Post-degrees in University Didactics
and English Teaching Staff. With extensive experience in
the area of management of Work Teams, Katherine holds
various positions of Headquarters for more than two
decades. Before the opening of SSC SRL, for 4 years, she
was in charge of the Business Unit of SAP Business One in
Infocenter S.A., a Paraguayan partner of SAP and an IT
company with an exemplary track record in the national
market and with more than 20 consultants in different areas.
It is also an SAP Certified Consultant “FI” and “MM”. She
has developed from Market plans, sales, personal
motivation policies among others within the unit and
contributed progress towards the project goal.
Millennial Paradigm
Being informed is essential, and knowledge is necessary to
understand the great changes that are already there and
which SSC faces. Just as it happened with the millennial
paradigm, telework, etc. that break into the lives without
asking permission. The company has to be in constant
change to adapt easily. It works nowadays exclusively with
SAP BUSINESS ONE Systems, and everything that
involves development, deploying, licenses sales, support.
24 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com
28. Any company must-have technology, without technology,
the company is going to die. We are in the era of
Technology. You can choose, you are in, or you are out. But
that decision will mark the future of your business.
Strength and Commitment
Katherine Colombino had a car accident, with her father, at
the age of 8 years. The diagnosis was a paralysis in her legs
due to a spinal injury. Although she has to move with
wheelchairs, she had all the same capabilities as any person.
That incident made her stronger, and with a great capacity
to adapt to difficult situations, she also developed her best
in several areas. They have to be strong because leadership
must be something that others have to feel about you. Many
times all is not given by knowledge, but the strength of your
heart and your commitment is transmitted by your voice,
your gestures, your life.
“Inspire the ordinary to become extraordinary. Be resilient.
Set goals and motivate continuously to achieve. Encourage
feedback without judgment. Hire people who align with
your culture and aligned with the goals of the company. Put
the right person in the right role. Get to know your team.
Empower employees to unlock their ‘zone of genius.
‘Remember that leading is an inside job”, says Katherine.
Optimizing Processes in Time
Software and Services Consulting wants its clients to
recognize them as strategic partners to accompany them in
their growth and expansion processes. The company is
highly competent professionals, motivated and aligned with
an internal knowledge management policy and the
development of human capital. It provides commercially
attractive solutions that respond to the real needs of the
customers. Collaborate with the country, generating highly
qualified professionals. Reach the sources (universities,
colleges, companies) and provide their training services.
Education does the country well, produces citizens aware of
their duties and obligations. And above all, first-rate
professionals, without discrimination, “exportable” to any
first world country.
SSC’s greatest value is customer satisfaction, honesty, the
obligation to be the best in the area it chooses, the
company’s commitment to the present and the future of
keeping up to date with the technological areas and
providing first-level knowledge and services.
The limitations in life are
not given by your
physical or situation itself,
they are given by you, if
your mind changes, your
world too.
26 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com
31. WHY
Entrepreneurial
Leadership
IS DISTINCTIVE?
eadership is a process through
Lwhich, one person provides
guidelines derive path for an
individual or group and influence them to
achieve individual or organizational
objectives and goals through executing the
activities effectively and efficiently. Leaders
carry out this process through their
leadership style, knowledge, skills, abilities,
www.insightssuccess.com 29|APRIL 2020
Industry Insider
32. and characteristics that help to achieve predefined
individual objectives and goals or common goals. Skills,
attitudes, beliefs, values, ethics, character, bits of
knowledge are the critical success factors and part of
leadership. There are four crucial factors of leadership:
leader, followers, communication, and situation. Leaders
use the leadership style to achieve overall success to get
individual, group, or organizational goals. The concept
of follower describes the style of leadership that leaders
used for corporate functions: planning, staffing,
organizing, executing, and managing. Communication is
a factor that helps to create, maintain, and retain the
relationship in the organization. Situation defines the
approach and expresses the trait leadership of leaders.
Social entrepreneurship is a term in search of a good
definition. Leadership and entrepreneurship create
critical concepts in research and sources. This may affect
business performance, and transformational leadership
creates a more significant contribution to production.
Today is the world of entrepreneurship, and this helps to
meet with the concept of organization-level
entrepreneurship.
Every entrepreneur has this quality and possesses a
strong sense of opportunity. Thus, they also help with a
higher possibility of achieving financial rewards so as
provides the high capability to meet with the total
operation and goals of the business. They also create a
more significant opportunity for the contribution of the
person, and this helps them to bring with innovation
strategies. Many leaders in the world are entrepreneurs
who started their business on a small scale and worked
smartly and made a fortune through this strategy.
There are many factors of entrepreneurship, and this
creates the essential ways of uniqueness so as
differentiation. The successful entrepreneurship creates
new ways of differentiation, innovation, as well as a
niche market. In countries like fewer developing
countries, change is created in the developed countries.
Entrepreneurship must focus on effective
communication, and they should directly communicate
with the suppliers, distributors, customers, and other
vital resources. Entrepreneurship provides information
about websites and other critical reliable resources.
Entrepreneurs are also well known and highly aware of
all the issues and risks in the business, and they also try
to reduce them, which becomes possible from the help of
the business plan. This helps them to provide high-
quality products to their customers who are very
important for a successful business. Entrepreneurs also
offer a wide variety and quality, which allows them to
generate high demand for price and loyalty. They are
very responsive, which helps the customer to get a quick
and easy response, and they do not have to wait in a
queue. This will also help to develop new ideas with the
help of a group of people. Strong management skills are
also required to make the business successful. Also, there
is a requirement of proper and robust marketing skills,
which will help the company to benefit the experience
and to start the new business. Thus by determining the
competitor's value, the industry also can differentiate and
provide high value to its customers.
An idealistic leader recognizes challenges and growth
possibilities before they happen, placing people to
produce remarkable results that make contributions to
life. Leaders should also focus their attention on
introducing further research questions that are
meaningful to the different domains that intersect with
social entrepreneurship, including social innovation and
the management of non-profit organizations. Leaders
used these leadership styles, traits to execute the
activities and managerial functions effectively and
efficiently to achieve the individuals' and group's goals
and objectives and directly and indirectly achieve the
organization or one common goal. Leadership is various,
but entrepreneurship is a clear case of administration. To
conclude, Entrepreneurial leaders can create vision,
express vision, passionately possess vision, and
persistently drive it to accomplishment.
30 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com
33.
34. Yatin PatelElevating Travel Experience
O
ver the course of the last 15 years, the travel
industry has undergone a digital transformation. In
the pre-internet era, the market for consumer
travel needs was dominated by local travel agencies that
provided a high-touch service but at low scalability and
with minimal transparency. With the broad adoption of
online travel booking platforms, consumers are faced with a
very different challenge – zero-touch, do-it-yourself,
websites that offer high transparency but little or no
assistance. Today's mass-market online travel model has
made the booking process cumbersome. With a vision to
bring a human touch back into the world of online travel,
Yatin Patel, Co-Founder of Reservations.com, delivering
travel services with personalized experiential travel
planning and redefining the booking and travel experience
for today’s travellers. According to Yatin, since the online
travel industry is highly commoditized, customer loyalty
can only be obtained through a unique value proposition.
Below are the highlights of the interview conducted
between Yatin and Insights Success:
Give a brief overview of your background and your role
in Reservations.com.
I have spent all my carrier in online line travel space.
Started with founding member of software company which
st
designed one of the very 1 hotel booking engines in 1997.
After few successful exits, co-founded reservations.com in
2014 with some industry veterans. I'm a builder and not an
operator, so my focus remains in building out new
initiatives, growth strategies and look ahead on what's
coming. Preparing my company and leadership to adopt,
change and solve ever changing consumer demands in this
fast-evolving world we live in is where I spend most of my
time now.
How do you diversify your travel solutions to appeal
your target audience?
Reservations.com feels there is a need for new fresh brand
to fill the void in the industry. Today, all the players in the
online travel space offer the same product with no unique
value proposition. Consumers have varying needs at
varying times spanning from price-consciousness to highly
personalized booking experiences. In the name of
optimizing revenues and conversions, online travel brands
have forgotten the basic essence of why people travel. At
Reservations.com we believe that travel, in general, is an
experiential product category and that consumer experience
begins at the very outset of the booking process and not just
when hotel stay begins.
Today, Reservations.com is built on very simple philosophy
– providing a no-nonsense, convenient, hotel booking
experience on the web, via mobile devices, and by phone.
We believe that a critical step in bringing back the lost
personal touch in the travel industry is utilizing a
personalized contact center. Other large players in the space
such as Booking.com do not have a focus on call centers.
Reservations.com has developed army of customer success
agents, who are ready to take calls 24/7 for whatever
consumers desire – from guidance on locations to
discussing hotel amenities and local attractions. Customer
success center enjoys a high conversion rate; by inbound
calls they receive on a daily basis. The Company has made
32 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com
35. Holistic approach
towards life brings
success to business.
Yatin patel
Co- Founder
The
Most
INSPIRING
To Watch
www.insightssuccess.com 33|APRIL 2020
36. significant investments to train and empower our customer
success agents and charges a small fee to consumers for
providing this service. We believe that our high-touch
customer success is one form of differentiation.
What was your life changing event / incident that
changed your life?
I was fortunate enough to have few exits under my belt
which gives financial freedom to think freely and
experiment with ideas to create value. That is the most life
changing thing I have experienced. Freedom is hard to
come by and as an entrepreneur, it gives me courage to
tackle larger problems.
What strategies do you undertake to make your
employees resourceful?
Give employee space to grow and clear the path for them to
implement vision and mission of the company. Make the
company purpose driven and encourage them to follow the
guiding principle. Clear visibility of results and measuring
small wins keeps the moral of organization alive.
What are some of the vital attributes, in your opinion,
that every CEO should possess?
Longer the road – Celebrate small successes every day. – I
think that is the most vital attribute any CEO should have. It
is difficult to remain optimistic and confident on long time
frame projects. Building a company takes time, not to lose
focus, prospective and invest in people.
How do you sustain your entrepreneurial spirit in this
changing technological era?
Computing power in today’s world is changing everything,
expediential growth is a keyword here. Machine learning
and AI were the Buzz word 5 years ago and today its
reality. We try to look at what travellers wants in next 10
years and preparing our company to be ready to take
advantage of these extraordinary computing power to apply
on various problem statement within our organisation.
Some of them are consumer facing some of them are just
analytics which gives you real time computing and
programmatic algorithm to optimise our process.
How do you deal with dynamics of market?
Dynamics of the market in my opinion is not very relevant,
as far as your solution or services are customer centric and
you are always staying ahead of consumer needs. You
become a market leader and you define market dynamics. I
try to make sure my business is always solving ever
changing consumer needs.
What advice would you like to give to the emerging
leaders?
I do not like to give advice but can share experiences, I
would say there is no short cut in life, be passionate and
patient and do not be afraid to make mistakes, only way to
learn. One cannot get everything right in the journey of life.
34 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com