LEADRSHIP IS GENDER NEUTRAL

Different leaders define leadership in their ways.

According to Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. "You manage

things; you lead people."

For Jack Welch, "Before you are a leader, success is all about
growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about
growing others."

Also, for Peter Drucker, "Leadership is lifting a person's vision to

high sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher
standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal
limitations."

There are many more definitions of leadership. However, none of these

defines the gender of a leader. It is the result that matters ultimately. 
WBEC Metro NY & WBEC Greater DMV
Since the early 21st century, organizations have realized that irrespective President & CEO
of gender, they need strong leadership to survive the ever-competitive
market. If an organization is making huge strides in its journey and its
employees are paid well to raise their families, are they bothered that it
is a woman who made it possible? Probably not!

Editor's Note
Presently, women are making huge strides in almost all sectors with their creativity, leadership, skills,
and problem-solving abilities. Their leadership has been proven instrumental to various organizations'
success.

In this edition of "The 10 Most Innovative Women Changing The Face of Business 2022", we have
curated a list of innovative women leaders setting new benchmarks for excellence in their respective
domains.

On the Cover Story, we have Sandra P. Eberhard, the President, and CEO of the WBEC Metro NY &
WBEC Greater DMV, two of the 14 regional affiliates of the Women's Business Enterprise National
Council (WBENC), the nation's leading advocate of women-owned businesses and third-party
certification organization. Sandra started her professional career as a mathematics teacher. The
problem-solving techniques she designed for her students and project manager certification prepared
Sandra for her move to the corporate world.

So, what are you waiting for? Delve into more inspiring stories of successful women business leaders
who are changing the face of business.

Sonal K
Editor
 Editor In Cheif Sonal K
Managing Editor Ehsan Jami
Publishing Control Team Alexis, Michael

Visualiser Mary Chars

Art and Design Head Stephan Wood
Art And Design Assistant Anushka Bhosle
Art and Pictures Editor Namrata Chaure

Business Development Manager Kenneth Lyods

Marketing Manager Chirs Philip
Business Development Executive Maria, Wilson, Martina, Alex, Kelvin

Technical Head Jacob Smile

Assistant Technical Head Alina Sege

Digital Marketing Manager Jennifer Parker

Assistant Digital Marketing Manager David King

Research Analyst Earl Lewis

Circulation Manager Scoot Taylor

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www.theincmagazine.com
 C
08 O
V
E
R
S
T
O
R
Y
Sandra P. Eberhard
Helping Women Led Businesses Thrive

ARTICLE
ARTI

Anna Stépanoff
Wild Code School is reinforcing Women
Tech Posi�ons on the Market
20
 C
O
N
12 Danielle lafond
Ensuring quality with innovative sampling kit T
E
T
S

16 Aimee Ravichandran
Helping Authors to Succeed

24 Kim grennan
Meet the Leader behind a Disruptor in the
Digital Marke�ng Landscape

30 Margaret graziano
Helping to Change Workplace
Culture
 The 10 Most Innovative Women Changing the Face of Business 2022
Helping Women Led Businesses Thrive
M
eet Sandra P. Eberhard, the
President, and CEO of the WBEC
Metro NY & WBEC Greater DMV Inc.
two of the 14 regional affiliates of the Women’s
Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC),
the nation’s leading advocate of women-owned
businesses and third-party certification
organization.
Sandra started her professional career as a
mathematics teacher. The problem-solving
techniques she designed for her students, along
with project manager certification, prepared
Sandra for her move to the corporate world.
Before joining WPEO-DC in 2011, Sandra worked
as an Asset Manager for a major healthcare
company’s northeast region, she managed all
leased and owned facilities and administrative
sales shared service operations in the northeast.
Sandra approved and arranged for financing of
capital spending plans, consistent with financial
objectives, in addition to developing programs for
efficiency gains and delivering them nationwide.
Additionally, Sandra was also responsible for the
fulfilment of member collateral, working with
marketing, sales, and external vendors to deliver
materials just in time to the homes of all insured in
the northeast market. Sandra has also received the
Chairman Award for performance excellence
during the crisis of 9/11. Sandra has always been
an advocate of women’s issues and she is a trained
Crisis Intervention Counsellor. She was a member,
then President of the New York Women’s Agenda-
a coalition of women’s organizations affiliated
with over 100 organizations dedicated to
improving the lives of women and their families in
New York City. It is this experience with local
businesses, years of corporate operational
efficiencies, and passion to support women that
led Sandra to WBEC Metro NY and Greater DMV
Inc., 2 regional affiliates of WBENC the nation’s
leading advocate of women-owned businesses and
third-party certification.
08
During her tenure as Executive Director, her
organization has seen more than 157% growth in
the number of certified businesses. The firm has
developed and delivered tools, resources,
information, and connections for high growth and
impact to women-owned businesses of all
ethnicities.
Helping Women-Owned Businesses
As an affiliate organization of WBENC, Sandra’s
organization’s core offering is certifying
women-owned businesses that are at least 51%
owned and operated by women so they can contract
with Fortune 1000 corporations.
These businesses must not only remain open but
scale and grow their capabilities to meet corporate
needs as well as provide employment to their local
communities. Sandra and her colleagues offer
business development programs with curriculums
that help them achieve that growth and scale.
Program content and connections are facilitated at
the local and national levels and delivered by
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in the corporate and
business arena. The organization also nurtures
alliances of community experts that can support
businesses at the appropriate time in the life cycle.
Most importantly, Sandra and her team deliver all
their programs through a cultural lens. They
embrace the diversity of the women in their network
and present tools, resources, and information to
them as it meets their demographic and
psychographics.
The Greatest Accomplishment
As a lifelong learner and believer in adapting to
new thoughts, Sandra is still working towards that
www.theincmagazine.com
“greatest accomplishment”. She does know it
will be a combination of her definition of
success in life and career, and when she will
be able to answer the question, “Does Hope
Rise when I walk into a room” with an
affirmative response.

Tackling Biggest Failures

While starting, Sandra thought that it was all

up to her to win or lose. There were times
when she could have utilized her teams in
better ways. She has learned that she doesn’t
have to have all the answers and can depend
on her team to meet goals.
Sandra has also realized that allowing
compensation to drive career choices and
personal goals rather than purpose and
meaning don’t lead to happiness. It took her a Sandra P. Eberhard
while, but she is finally in a place
President & CEO
professionally where she has both drive and
passion for the work.

What Success Looks Like

Sandra believes, as the leader of the organization,

success means being the premier facilitator in
empowering women-owned businesses by creating
an environment, which is inclusive, trusted, and
ever-evolving to better serve its audiences.
Specifically, success means being the
thought-leader and the real-life catalyst in areas
like social capital, human capital, infrastructure,
finance, culture, and policy awareness and
increasing the visibility of these women business
owners locally and nationally.
Implementing New Ideas
In recent years, Environmental, Social, and
Governance (ESG) have been non-financial factors
that play an ever-increasing part in the analysis of
businesses’ material risks and growth potential.
Sandra would like to create a program, that takes
businesses from the basics to comprehensive
sustainability, not only giving them a competitive
advantage but, increasing their impact on the local
economy. Promoting community-based business to
visibility where others will use their services
and/or products which will help growth and
economic impact.

Sandra would like to work closely with schools

and universities in her organization’s territory to
introduce and support entrepreneurship,
respectively, and provide help to students who
want to start their businesses. Also, utilize these
students to support women-owned businesses,
providing students with real work experience
before they enter the workforce.

09 www.theincmagazine.com
 F
Founded in 1987, LABPLAS
Inc. specializes in
manufacturing sterile
sampling solution for
transport and laboratory
analysis. Under the leadership
of its current President,
Danielle Lafond, the
organization got reoriented
from its earliest years towards
agri-food and international
markets, which eventually
allowed Danielle to position
the firm to achieve constant
growth over the years.
Previously LABPLAS served
the clinical market, then the
agri-food market opened up,
offering much more promising
business potential. Over the
years, Danielle and her team at
LABPLAS have gradually
DANIELLE LAFOND developed several other
LABPLAS INC |President markets in fields where ever
sample security is essential.

Danielle believes, through businesses and targeted shows, she and her team have been able to listen to the users
in the laboratory industry, both in Canada and abroad. As an organization, LABPLAS has created a strong
partnership with its distributors, focusing on transparency and communication. It has also relied on colorful,
playful, and intelligent marketing, which appeals to the human side of LABPLAS’s scientific clientele.

The Steadfast Leader

Described as authentic, approachable, positive, and resilient, Danielle loves to get an opportunity to question
herself and the team to go further and to think differently. At LABPLAS, everyone has a voice, and each person
can express himself or herself freely; all of the employees of LABPLAS benefit from one another’s input.
Danielle likes people, and she likes to know their stories, share their experiences, to establish genuine and
respectful relationships that have an honest, solid, and durable foundation. This is also how she conceives the
company, and she promotes this philosophy every day, both with the employees and with the suppliers and
customers.

12 www.theincmagazine.com
 The 10 Most Innovative Women Changing the Face of Business 2022

Ensuring quality with innovative sampling

kit
After studying law, Danielle was in charge of HR and legal affairs in a company for four years, which explains
her human approach to business. After discovering a passion for entrepreneurship at the age of 33, Danielle
bought back all the shares of the company she had founded with her father in 1987. At that point in time, the
company had only one machine developed by its employees. Now with more than 100 employees, LABPLAS
sells its products from Quebec, via a network of distributors, to customers in more than 65 countries. LABP-
LAS Inc. has been manufacturing sterile sampling products for over 35 years to meet the most demanding
safety and compositional analysis needs of the food, pharmaceutical, veterinary, chemical, and environmental
industries.

13 www.theincmagazine.com
According to Danielle, the decision to take 100 percent control of the company in 1993, gave her greater
agility and helped her tune into her feelings. Currently, under Danielle’s leadership, LABPLAS is the
second-largest company in the world in its respective sector. Danielle says, “It hasn’t always been easy; it was
not obvious how we would find financing and establish our credibility, but we managed to do so and
established long-lasting relationships with both our suppliers and our customers – and these relationships have
endured for over 30 years.” She also thinks the same is true about LABPLAS’s employees, with many of them
now having more than 20 years of seniority with the average length of service being more than 10 years.

Tackling Challenges

Danielle believes, her team is never completely prepared for challenges, and that’s a good thing. She thinks,
knowing too much about the dangers that lie ahead, could paralyze the company and it can become too set in its
ways or inflexible in its customer offerings. She says, “You have to stay tuned, surround yourself with the best
people, not be afraid to be challenged, and, above all, you must be willing to dare. You can’t control the situa-
tion; instead, you have to welcome it and remain resilient.” “Who would have thought that we would be facing
a pandemic?”- she added.

Achieving Balance Between Heart and Mind

For Danielle, success is first and foremost about achieving a balance between heart and mind, between profes-
sional and personal life. She believes, it’s about finding a way to be fully present and active in both spheres.
And this applies equally to the company: it must move forward, surpass itself and allow the individuals who
compose it to surpass themselves and make a difference in society.

Future Roadmap

Danielle always strives to stay ahead of the clients’ needs by maintaining close contact with them; which is
illustrated by the sterile biodegradable sampling bag that the company has developed 14 years ago and which to
this day is the only one on the market. When Danielle implemented the first business planning system system in
1995, LABPLAS had only 12 employees. After installing several robots, the company has been working on an
new innovation for machine quality control. Thanks to Danielle’s strong leadership, the company continues to
develop new products every year and manufacture its production equipment to meet its needs. The company has
established a scientific laboratory to ensure the validation of its products and to advance research in microbio-
logical analysis. LABPLAS’s team of engineers and computer technicians ensures that the company benefits
from advances in methodology, digital technologies, and artificial intelligence, both on the production floor and
in all of its other departments and services.

14 www.theincmagazine.com
 Helping Authors to Succeed

M
eet Aimee Ravichandran, the Owner, promotion services are; managed social
and founder of Abundantly Social, media posts, Managed Facebook ads,
which understands the need to Amazon ads, and Bargain Booksie ads, Press
accomplish marketing on a limited budget. releases, Keyword research, Facebook live
book launch events, Connection to podcast
Aimee grew up in San Antonio, Texas, where she interviews.
attended UTSA and graduated with a Bachelor’s
Degree in Psychology. During that time, she
started working with Houston known Sandy
Lawrence, who is the former CEO of Perceptive
Public Relations. While working for the
organization, Aimee began to learn the ins and outs
of social media, and soon she developed a great
understanding of managing different types of
business social media accounts. However, she
didn’t stop there, she went on and took multiple
courses and attended social media examiner
webinars learning about social media marketing
and consulting.

Helping Clients Succeed

Aimee feels, it is okay to, not be an expert at every
social media platform. Being an expert in a few and
doing them very well is what is truly important.
While knowing how each platform works is
necessary, not everyone fits every avenue.

Abundantly Social is entirely committed to helping

its clients succeed on social media platforms. The
firm offers fully managed social media packages
for small businesses and authors. Abundantly
Social provides everything, one needs to start
improving his/her social media presence.
Social Media Consultation: Abundantly Social
provides social media consultations for authors and
small businesses. With years of experience in
social media marketing and public relations, Aimee
and her team help their clients to form a plan and Book Pre-Production: Aimee and her team
advises them accordingly. have years of experience helping authors get
their books prepared for publishing. The
Book Promotion: Abundantly Social offers services include; Finding and negotiating with
complete packages to help its clients to editors, formatters, and cover designers,
promote their books. The firm’s book Assistance in obtaining ISBNs, Assistance in

16 www.theincmagazine.com
 The 10 Most Innovative Women Changing the Face of Business 2022

registering with the

copyright, LCCN,
Uploading to
Amazon, Uploading
to Ingram Sparks.

Membership
Programs:
Abundantly Social’s
membership program
was specially curated
for authors, where the
firm provides weekly
training materials and
discounts on all of its
service bundles.

The Secret Sauce of

Leadership
One of the keys to
Abundantly Social's
success is the passion
with which Aimee
engages with her
clients. The energy and
enthusiasm with which
she pursues their goals.
Another key to
Abundantly Social’'s
effectiveness is
Aimee’s ability to view
Aimee Ravichandran
many pathways to Abundantly Social | Owner
success. Everyone's
journey is unique and
being flexible and open
to a variety of methods
has been a major part of
achieving Abundantly
Social’s goals. well as the press itself and it has been a wonderful
opportunity.
The Greatest Accomplishments and Future
Roadmap When we asked Aimee about the future of her
organization, she says, “Abundantly Social’s
Aimee feels Abundantly Social’s acquisition of acquisition of client accounts with various small
client accounts with various small presses is her presses is our greatest accomplishment. Small
and the team’s greatest accomplishment. Small businesses like these see the benefit of having
businesses like these see the benefit of having Abundantly Social work with all their authors as well
Abundantly Social work with all their authors as as the press itself and it has been a wonderful

17 www.theincmagazine.com
 opportunity.” started it off as a quarterly subscription instead of
monthly to give it time to grow.
Tackling Failures
Mission and Vision
Aimee believes,
her biggest failure
thus far is when
she created a book
box subscription
service. Aimee
had researched
every aspect of
how to run it,
joined different
Facebook support
groups and laid
what she felt was
a strong founda-
tion by partnering
with local writing
organizations. Yet
it did not take off
how she wanted it
to. It just kept
requiring more
and more money
with little to no
profit. Aimee
wanted it to be
successful so
badly so that it
would help Indie
and small press
authors, but it just
never really took
off and she had to
shut it down.
Aimee learned a
lot during that
whole process.

For her, the key lesson was the importance of
taking more time to create a more thorough busi-
ness plan. In hindsight, Aimee feels, she would
have taken the time to do a pre-launch campaign to
create interest and a strong subscriber base instead
of just launching her first box offering right away.
Aimee realized the importance of planning so that
she could buy wholesale items rather than on a
Aimee loves helping others with what they are
passionate about and lets that shine. Doesn’t matter
if it is a small business owner that took the leap of
faith and started a press, or an author that wants to
get their book to be a best seller and get their story
out to everyone.

18 www.theincmagazine.com
 www.wildcodeschool.com

STÉPANOFF
Wild Cold School | Founder

20 www.theincmagazine.com
 The 10 Most Innovative Women Changing the Face of Business 2022
3
3%, that is the percentage of women among
Wild Code School’s students in 2022, and this
number is about to grow even more.
CEO Anna Stépanoff co-founded Wild Code School
in 2013, with the idea of creating a new environment
of education – where the students could benefit from
a personalized training support, but also from a
project-based teaching approach thanks to ‘learn-
ing-by-doing’. The school promotes gender diversity
among its students, to empower women in tech
positions!
Today, Wild Code School is a leading European tech
school offering lifelong learning programs at 20+
campuses, remotely or at company’s offices, and has
trained 5,000 alumni in the most in-demand digital
skills: web development, data, product management,
cybersecurity and no code.
Behind Wild Code School’s Creation: Who
is Anna Stépanoff?
It all started in Belarus, where Anna is originally
from, and where her dream of being a teacher was
born. When she benefited from scholarships to go
further in her studies, she left her home country at the
age 19 to fulfill her ambition.
Bachelor of Arts at Harvard University in Social
Sciences, PhD on the History of museums at La
Sorbonne, Consultant at McKinsey and now CEO at
Wild Code School, she went through a lot of learning
and working environments before starting an educa-
tion business.
Her strong belief in education and technology chang-
ing lives made her realize three things: there was -
and still is - a huge lack of tech talents in the market,
women are underrepresented in this field and the
straitjacket of education is not adapted to this fast
evolving industry. Then came the idea of creating an
alternative teaching approach, coupled to technology
and aligned with the current businesses’ needs.
Followed the birth of Wild Code School’s first
campus in 2013, in La Loupe, France.
21
More Women in Tech Positions
Tech jobs have never been that valued among young
girls, even though our own vocations emerge at a very
young age. No surprise that only 17% of women are
working in tech, and that there are still a lot of barri-
ers for women to work in the IT world. Paradoxically,
tech companies increasingly seek women candidates
and are starting to value gender diversity among
teams.
The goal of Anna Stépanoff is to create an educational
environment that empowers people, especially
women. The school is progressively moving towards
gender parity within IT fields by taking actions to
facilitate women's access to its training courses.
In 2017, the initiative Women are Programming
aimed to boost women’s tech education by providing
scholarships to acquire the hard and soft skills to
make it as a tech professional. This was available on
Wild Code School’s European campuses, such as:
● Coding Bootcamp Lisbon
● Coding Bootcamp Berlin
Another action is the promotion of women partners’
and Wilders’ careers and role models through events,
interviews, articles, videos... Anna Stépanoff is one of
them: mother of 3 children, and yet CEO of a leading
tech school, Entrepreneur, and Regional advisor of
the French Centre-Val de Loire Region, she made a
successful career:
“Organize your life balance, work and family - with
kids specially, they take time and the company takes
time. I have 3 kids and that is my everyday challenge,
we need to share responsibilities with our partner and
father of our kids and be supported. I personally
recommend women to be brave, to think that it is
possible - I see a lot of women limiting themselves.
Just go for it and try things and if it doesn’t work, it is
ok!”
www.theincmagazine.com
Technology talents are all around us, that is why the
school is encouraging its students to change careers or
upskill to fulfill their dreams, and helping companies
find their next tech talent. Today, the rate of return to
employment for women (86%) is even higher than
Wild Code School’s overall rate (82%). Regardless of
their initial level or age, female candidates are highly
sought after.
Wild Code School’s students and partners
prove it everyday:
“Go for it! You’re capable, courageous, and just as
justified as men. Do it for yourself—but also for
future generations. Your choices today will make the
difference tomorrow. And if you falter at first, do it
again!” - Anne, Talent Acquisition Specialist at
Ubisoft Ivory Tower
“No more clichés of the pimply-faced geek developer
with glasses locked in the dark. Web development is
within the reach of anyone who is motivated and
invested! As women, we can bring something different
to the profession. [...] We sometimes have a sharper
eye for the practicality of certain features. We can be
an asset to a team and we shouldn't be afraid to take
the plunge.” - Sophie, Toulouse alumni in web
development
22
“I was planning to go into the data analysis field and
it turned out that Wild Code School was looking for
future students with my profile - and they were ward-
ing scholarships for the training. [...] It was a gift of
destiny for me. It was exactly what I wanted to do and
it came at the right time” - Doriane, a Paris alumni
in data analysis
“I worked for a few years in a consulting company
and wanted to switch to coding. At that time, I discov-
ered the initiative Women are Programming on
Facebook and decided to apply for the scholarship. I
passed the tests and joined Wild Code School for a
5-month web developer training and I am now
specializing in front-end development. [...] Wild Code
School not only allowed me to discover powerful tech
tools and languages, but also gave me all the skills I
needed to have a global vision and practical experi-
ence in web development and be multi-skilled and
totally resourceful in finding a job afterwards.” -
Audrey, Brussels alumni in web development
“Never hesitate to get started! This is a fast-growing
sector and there is a great demand for new recruits.
Moreover, you should not be afraid of this environ-
ment, which is still predominantly male, otherwise it
will remain so and that would be a pity!” - Servanne,
a Remote alumni in cybersecurity
www.theincmagazine.com
 
Axle Eight | Founder & CEO
24 www.theincmagazine.com
 The 10 Most Innovative Women Changing the Face of Business 2022


 

 
 More about the Firm
H
aving mentioned her favourite quote about
success, it is only accurate to share how the
Founder & CEO of Axle Eight, Kim Grennan,
feels about her success, "I’ve always been a “do things
differently” type of person. I don’t love going with the
grain of things if I can help it and like finding new,
better, more fun ways of anything. I think that most
entrepreneurs have a big hint of this in their DNA. I
have had a lot of help and support from family,
friends, my husband, people in my network, even
strangers. It’s hard to do anything on your own, so
help continues to be key to my personal success."
AS the digital revolution came into the picture in a
massive way, the marketing industry saw its vertigi-
nous rise and the arrival of new marketing firms with
modern techniques that have thrown open new
avenues for brands to reach their target audience.
Scottsdale-based Axle Eight, a niche digital marketing
agency, is one such firm that found its genesis in 2016
as the brainchild of seasoned entrepreneur and market-
er Kim Grennan who specializes in strategic planning,
start-ups, and web analytics.
With over a decade of experience as an entrepreneur,
Kim has helped build and oversee multiple products
and enabled businesses to perfect their road from zero
to one. Born in Los Angeles but raised in Arizona, the
As a full-service boutique digital marketing firm,
Axle Eight offers a wide range of marketing solu-
tions from paid media, content creation, PR, email,
and social media services to mid-sized companies.
As a service-based business that’s highly commod-
itized, it’s hard to differentiate on a completely
unique level.
Kim further apprised, “There are not dozens, but
hundreds of thousands of people who offer aspects
of the services that Axle does. But it’s the people,
and our process for how we get things done for our
clients, our work quality, and how we pride
ourselves on building unique relationships with our
clients that set us apart. We like being very person-
able, more casual, and results-oriented. We tend to
have a human approach to relationships and less of
a white-collar business approach. We want to be
approachable and transparent while achieving
results you’ve only dreamed of.?
       
             
            
    
dignified woman holds a B.S. in Economics from the   
       

   
University of Arizona and an MBA from Loyola
University Chicago.      
      
     
Talking about the inspiration behind the inception of
Axle Eight, the leading lady stated My background
             
originally began in finance and corporate strategy but      
        
my love for creativity is what made me fall in love
with marketing. Because unknown to many, marketing                 
is one of the greatest true mixes of analytics and
creativity. You need a very diverse set of skills to be
 
          

broadly functional across all the various components
that marketing holds; from design and copywriting to
   
   
      
  
web analytics, technical SEO, and paid media. And I         
loved that I got to exercise a diversity of skills in this
field.”
25 www.theincmagazine.com
 The Source of Inspiration Kim’s Favourite Book
Kim Grennan has always been attracted to how one Kim’s favourite book has always been Rich Dad Poor
could build a business and accomplish financial Dad. It’s an old one but a classic! The first time she
success through that, and she started Axle Eight with read it she was 14 and it completely changed her life.
that goal in mind. It has been the most difficult It’s funny because she re-read it every year and she is
endeavour in her life to date as an entrepreneur, but always at a different stage in her life at the time and it
by far absolutely the most rewarding thing she has provides new insight and perspective just solely
ever done. She proudly said that they have the best based on where she is at that moment while reading
team around. Kim truly values each and every person it. It’s the book that keeps on giving because it always
along the way who she has had the privilege to call a keeps her motivated in new ways.
colleague and a friend. In a service-based business, Future Outlook
you're only as successful as the people you surround
yourself with. And the team at Axle has been very A larger team delivering services and results to the
fortunate in this capacity. right clients in a systematic way that continues to be
scalable. They have big growth goals, and luckily,
Clientele & Corporate Ethos they have never had a year where they haven’t
Axle works with brands typically with 10-100 achieved them. Kim plans on not breaking that streak!
employees who are looking to do more with their That keeps things most exciting for her, when they
marketing budget. The team works really well with continue to crush their goals then get to create new
B2B companies or B2C service-based companies who ones.
want to do things differently than the status quos of
their respective industries. When it comes to building
relationships with the clients, Kim and her entire team
put a lot of emphasis on building trust through just
being good people, being flexible, and getting results
fast. At the end of the day, they are all just humans
and they want to work with people who they like. It’s
so important for Kim that her team can prove their
value and show you that they are approachable,
transparent, and are going to make the right calls for
your business within the first 30 days. “We want you
to fall in love with what we do for you. And the clients
we work with love this mentality that we have”,
shared Kim Grennan.

Hurdles on the Way

Axle works to improve their operational efficiencies
every single day. It is something that has improved so
significantly over the years, but will never stop. There
is always room for improvement and we take great
pride in sharing ideas amongst the team and having
people internally take the lead on new improvement
projects, and more! As a marketing agency, how you
operate is a big part of your value, so for them it is a
living and breathing “challenge” of making this
excellent every single day.

26 www.theincmagazine.com
 Jewels in the Crown
Here is the list of awards won by Kim and her
venture:
10 Most Influential Women in Tech - Analytics
Insight
30 Most Reputable companies 2020 - The Silicon
Review
10 Most Influential Women Leaders 2020 - As
pioneer
10 Most Admired Business Women to Watch 2021 -
CIO Views
Best Boutique Digital Marketing Agency 2021 -
Arizona - Corporate Vision Magazine
20 Best Scottsdale Digital Marketing Agencies -
2019, 2020, 2021 - Expertise
27
Most Empowering Women in Business in 2021 -
CIO Views
Top 10 Inspiring Women Leaders Striving for
Change - Perspective
The 10 Most Influential Business Women to Watch
in 2022 - Mirror Review
Most Inspiring Business Leaders to Follow 2022 -
Business Iconic
A Piece of Advice for Female
Entrepreneurs
Do it now - it’s not going to get any easier as the
years go on. You will likely only continue to get
salary increases and feel more stuck and content
inyour employment. So, rip the band aid off and take
a chance in building something for yourself!
www.theincmagazine.com
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 Cover Story

MARGARET GRAZIANO
KeenAlignment | FOUNDER, CEO
30 www.theincmagazine.com

 The 10 Most Innovative Women Changing the Face of Business 2022

Helping to Change Workplace

Culture
M
eet Margaret Graziano, CEO, and
founder of KeenAlignment which works
to transform organizational culture as a
executive team to integrate the espoused culture, what
they want, and what they're committed to with how
people work, communicate and accomplish goals.

“
reset for companies that have been around a long
time, or with start-ups that are looking to grow to
the next level. Margaret has been in the human
relations/talent optimization industry for more
than 25 years. She began her career as a recruiter
and moved her career forward to executive search,
I am the master of
then organizational development, then executive
coaching, and all of that along with 20-year volun-
my fate. I am the
teerism in the human potential industry. She
integrates human potential, organizational devel-
captain of my soul.
opment, change management, and talent optimiza-
tion to inspire and catalyze organizational culture.
The company provides a carefully curated and strate-
Margaret spends over 250 hours on her profession- gically sequenced Culture Blueprint, a road map to its
al development each year. She works diligently to clients and they guarantee breakthrough results.
have clean relationships and communicate what
needs to be communicated. Margaret is completely Ideal / Actual Culture Diagnostic: It gives sound
committed to delivering outstanding results for the and current data on which to make balanced deci-
clients her company serves, and actively practices sions for intentional and healthy organizational
and lives the ‘work’. change.

Transforming Organizational Cultures Organizational Culture Alignment: It creates the

At KeenAlignment, Margaret and her team are
transforming organizational culture as a reset for
companies that have been around a long time, or
with start-ups that are looking to grow to the next
level. There's typically some inflection point in the
organization where they need to break through the
ceiling of what's possible, and they realize that the
way to do it is through creating a high-perfor-
mance, healthy, and intentional organizational
culture. That’s what KeenAlignment does. Marga-
ret and her organization’s vision is to forever
liberate the human spirit at work, and its mission is
to shape a high-performance, healthy and inten-
tional organizational culture. Margaret and her
team do that by working hand-in-hand with the
conditions for proactive, inspiring and collective
change to occur from the inside out.
Leadership Development: It creates outstanding
leaders, who can move strategy forward with passion
and alignment.
Talent Optimization: It shapes a healthy, empowered
human system where people put their highest and
best use of self to work.
Liberating the Human Spirit at Work
As a Leader in Talent Acquisition for more than 20
years, Margaret witnessed first hand why people leave
companies. 70% of the time, they were the wrong

31 www.theincmagazine.com
 person for the job. The other 30% of the time it’s
because there’s no vision or structure for how
people are led. So, people are frustrated, feel
unappreciated, or feel undervalued. Over and over
again, with more than 10,000 people, she got to
see how dysfunctional the “human system” in
most organizations is. Then, as she got into the
human potential movement, volunteering in a
myriad of different organizations, and participating
in large group empowerment workshops, she saw
how misaligned people are with the work they
chose to do. Most are working for a paycheck with
little to no self awareness about what work life
fulfillment means to them. Somewhere along the
line they lost themselves and forgot who they
really are and what's really important. Then, after
realizing that life is fleeting and 70% of their
waking hours are spent working, one day they
wake up and they realize they are unhappy. It is
the first instinct to point to the job because most
people think their happiness comes from the
outside. Sometimes it really is the job, or the
leader, and most of the time it is a case of missing
purpose and passion from the inside out. It's never
solely about the job or people they're working
with. People just recreate the same situation at
companies, because inside they're missing some-
thing. They're missing a touchpoint with their
highest and best self about where they should be
spending their time, and what they should be
doing. So, they're looking for a job to fulfill a need
that the job can never fulfill. If they're unhappy it
is easy to point outside yet the answer is always
within.
Both of those experiences encouraged Margaret to
become part of the workplace empowerment
movement. She spends the majority of her time
teaching, writing, designing programs and working
with Executive teams. Her work keeps her busy
and utilizes her passions, strengths and interests.
She is grateful for her humble roots in recruiting,
she often refers to those days as the MBA school
of hard knocks.
Satisfied Clientele Margaret says, “Our clients
are small to mid-sized organizations who want to
do good in the world or who are already doing
good in the world.” These clients are entirely
32
to creating a high-performance, healthy and inten-
tional organization that can do good in the world
with more peace, freedom, and ease. Typically, they
have between 50 and 650 employees, or they have a
plan to get there in the next few years.
They may be a company that is growing exponen-
tially and starting to see that their unintentional
culture, the culture that was created based on behav-
iors of the most influential people, is not working
for them. So, they want to realign and set the stage
for fast growth, with a high-performance, healthy
and intentional culture. Or, they’re an organization
that's been around a long time and handed from one
generation to the next. The new generation sees that
the way things were done and how culture has
morphed over time is not effective for where they
need to go, and who they need to be now.
In another scenario there might be companies that
are doing good and new leadership comes in and
that new leadership’s values are not being reflected
throughout the organization. Instead, what gets
espoused is entangled behavior of wills, that is
causing stress, breakdowns, confusion, and volatili-
ty. The new leader then says this cannot be, this is
not a healthy way to run a company. So, they say
they need to hit refresh as Satya Nadella did at
Microsoft.
Those are the 3 situations where a company would
work with KeenAlignment. It delivers more than
promised and makes sure not to take on any clients
who don't want to do the work from the inside out.
KeenAlignment only focuses on what it can deliver
outstandingly, and if they want the company to do
things that it doesn’t have expertise in, it says no to
projects that are distractions.
Picture of the Future
Margaret is most excited about his new book that's
coming out, which is about cultural transformation
from the inside out. One of her goals for the
company is to create a certification program for
practitioners, where they can learn how to do the
cultural transformation from KeenAlignment’s
blueprint. She is also excited about new people
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 joining the organization who are aligned with the mission, vision, and values. Margaret and her team are excited
about transforming the world of work and creating a world of work that works for everyone where people don't
have to feel like they have to get the hell out of work every day just to be happy, but they can go to work and be
happy.

Margaret "Magi" Graziano, Peak-Performance Culture and Leadership Coach

Recognized as one of Silicon Valley’s Top 100 Women Leaders, Magi’s groundbreaking work is driven by her
power to uncover and catalyze human potential. Pioneering the leading edge of Leadership Training,
Organizational Culture and Strategic People Operations, she brings:

Proven success transforming organizational culture with more than 25,000 lives impacted

Over 25 years of experience in unlocking the wealth of talent, human spirit and capacity in organizations

Methods that increase employee performance, ignite passion in teams and deliver up to 10x return on program
nvestment




33 www.theincmagazine.com