We got chance to read the research KPMG 2022 CEO Outlook, which asked more than 1,300 CEOs at the world’s largest businesses about their strategies and outlook, reveals that 58 percent of leaders expect a recession to be mild and short. Fourteen percent of senior executives identify a recession among the most pressing concerns today — up slightly from early 2022 (9 percent), while pandemic fatigue tops the list (15 percent).

This is a fantastic news!!

Global CEOs see a ‘mild and short’ recession, yet optimistic about global economy over 3-year horizon

Few Insights

  • Hiring freezes and headcount reductions under heavy consideration for CEOs
  • Uncertainty fueling long-term digital transformation : While current uncertainty is driving CEOs to continue to prioritize digital transformation, 40 percent of businesses have paused their digital transformation strategies and another 37 percent plan to take such steps in the next 6 months.
  • Evolving focus toward reputational and technological risks : Emerging and disruptive technology has landed as the top risk to business growth over the next 3 years. In addition, CEOs have identified several other areas as top risks to growth: reputation, regulatory and operational issues, and climate change.
  • Cyber security no longer corporations’ biggest threat, with more companies prepared for attacks. Cyber security has dropped from the top 5 risks to growth over the past year, with only 6 percent of CEOs naming it as their top risk (17 percent in February 2022).
  • Stakeholder pressure increasing accountability in ESG : More than one-third (38 percent) of CEOs say their organizations struggle to articulate a compelling ESG story. Nearly three-quarters of respondents (72 percent) also believe that stakeholder scrutiny of ESG issues — gender equality, climate impacts etc. — will continue to accelerate.
  • Economic pressure slowing ESG ambitions : Global CEOs recognize the importance of ESG initiatives to their businesses, especially when it comes to improving financial performance and driving growth. In fact, 69 percent of senior executives noted greater demand from stakeholders for increased reporting and transparency on ESG — 58 percent in 2021.

Download the report

If you are looking for answers I would like to invite you to join us on October 13th for our #WICxUNGA 2022 Signature Summit event presented by KPMG!

The 2nd annual #WICxUNGA 2022 Summit is bringing together business, tech and community leaders for enriching and inspiring discussions about the future of ESG+T and UN 2030 Goals.

The agenda includes keynotes, in-depth fireside chats, interactive panels plus power talks with some of the top names in tech and leading experts including Kim Folsom – CEO & Founder of Founders First Capital Partners, Erika Murdock Balbuena – Head of ESG at Robinhood, Colleen O’Brien – CMO at Armoire, Andrea Perkins – Vice President at Insight Enterprise, Tegan Keele – IMPACT Climate Data & Technology Leader at KPMG, Gena Goh – Channel Inclusion & Impact Senior Strategy Lead at Microsoft and many more.

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What can you expect at #WICxUNGA virtual event?

  • Keynote on ESG plus T Mega Trends
  • CLevel ESG Fireside Chat: Exploring Your Career: An Executive’s Journey Leading ESG Narratives
  • CXO Panel: ESG plus T: Tech as ESG Issue, Risk and Value Influencer
  • Power Talk: Differentiate and Grow your Business Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Hackathon 2022
  • Own Your Narrative Bootcamp: ESG=T Focused Personal Brand Building
  • ESG+T Advisory Roundtable Discussions

 Signup: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wicxunga-building-a-sustainable-tech-industry-tickets-403527289987

KPMG and Meylah has total of 30 virtual scholarship tickets and available at no cost with the code “WICxESG”.  Please feel free to share this special invite and promo code with your colleagues, or community network.

On Thursday, July 14, the Women in Cloud community engaged in #WICxINSPIRE, presented by Kyndryl. Where we reimagined the use of hyperscaler cloud marketplaces to drive digital transformation and a new route to market.

Emcee Sonia Dara, Chief of Staff at Microsoft, created a warm welcome at the stage. Chaitra Vedullapalli, Co-Founder & President, Women in Cloud and CMO, Meylah and Sheetal Rishi, Senior Partner, Cloud Engineering & Development at Kyndryl brought important information and contagious excitement of strategic partnership with Women In Cloud within the Opening Remarks.

Then our Keynote, Jacqueline Woods, EVP & CMO at Teradata, brought us Leading Strategic Partnerships with Hyperscalers with audience Q&A led by Michelle Pruitt, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft & Women In Cloud Board of Advisor. 

The CXO Panel: Mastering Co-Sell GTM with Hyperscalers with Gail Mercer-Mckay, Vince Menzione, Amy Bray, and Annemarie Dev, moderated by Sharan Hildebrand. This panel showed you how to make sure that you have all the right factors in place before launching any new products or opening any new channels.

Then we went to Bootcamp! #CloudFounders Bootcamp began with Christine Puccio, VP, Global Cloud Alliances & GTM Programs, JFrog and Chaitra Vedullapalli led us through a Fireside Chat on “Leading Co-Sell Product Launch Strategies with Hyperscalers.” Then Chaitra Vedullapalli, led the workshop “How to Secure Funding For Eligible GTM Strategies from Hyperscalers” with proven tactics for your GTM strategy.

Next we celebrated the finalists and winners for the #empowHERaccess 2022 awards, Emceed by Amy Protexter, Senior Vice President, North America Marketing at Insight. We had wonderful award presenters from our sponsors: Camille Geiger from Boeing for the Cloud Advisor of the Year Award Presenter; Regina Manfredi from Teradata for the Supplier of Year Award Presenter; Andrea Perkins from Insight for the Digital Transformation Project of the Year; Dikasse Zalla from Avanade for the Investor of the Year Award; Katie Franzen from Accenture Women in Technology Outstanding Leadership Award.

Congratulations to the winners: Gena Goh, Beth White, Neal Dempsey, Ashley Miller, Elif Tutuk!

 

Then we joined our masterclass of advisors for intimate roundtable discussions on: Tech Leadership Roles, Executive Leadership and Presence, Tech Platforms, Business Partnerships, and Business Conversations. Thank you to our advisors: Nehal Mehta, Sreelakshmy G, Colleen O’Brien, Dhaval Shah, Sandhya Parameswara, Shirelle Francis, Anamarie Franc, Sahiti Bayana, Keri Smith, Geetha Gandhi, Ebony Burroughs, Amina Sartaj, Laura Sewell, Natasha Eichman, and Emily Colby.

Keep an eye for WIC’s next exciting initiatives:

Announcing the first WIC 100 Influencer NFTS! 

  • Get your WIC Influencer Limited 2022 Edition NFT: Pre-Order Now! 

The Exclusive Gold Edition NFT Includes Access to:

  • Annual Access Pass
  • WICxIcons Celebration Dinner
  • #WICxSummit2023 Speaker Opportunity

 

Do you remember a time when you were so excited about something that you didn’t know how to share all the details to get others excited?

Well, here at Women In Cloud we are going through that same type of excitement, and we completely forgot to share all the details to get our community just as excited!

Last week, we launched our marquee Cosell GTM and content development campaign called the #WICxTop100. The entire campaign is designed to help women tech founders build, plug, and play GTM content during the busiest season of the year, all while making it easy to participate in the upcoming 4 month campaign.

The intention behind this campaign is recognizing that building cloud cosell GTM is very expensive (usually costs over 20K or more), labor intensive (usually one to two resources), and many founders do not have the digital marketing experience needed. After having many conversations, the community came together to pull an integrated hybrid campaign that focused on the following benefits:

  1. Brand Development and Awareness : provide assets to easily build brand within the tech industry
  2. Customer Demand Generation : invitations to events and experiences to meet people
  3. Build Partnerships with Hyperscalers and Channel Partners : connect to hyperscaler programs to establish partnerships
  4. Generate Lead via Marketplaces : showcase SAAS solution and offers to attract customers
  5. Increase knowledge to become world class entrepreneurs

Now the question is how does it work?

  1. To take advantage of the #WICxTop100, our plug and play GTM engine you need to take ACTION. This means you need to signup to be invited to engage in the Cosell activities. Signup here.
  2. Once you signup, you will be invited to participate in the many GTM activities.
  3. You will also be given a dedicated template to create your content so we can jointly promote to create access to customers, partners and future employees.

What can you create through this campaign?

Here is a list of assets you can develop. It is up to you and your company to decide what outcomes you want to accomplish.

  • Joint Press Release
  • Blog Post – Sharing Insights
  • eBook or High Value Asset
  • Customer Offer on marketplaces
  • Solution Spotlight and Demos
  • Webinar Content
  • Customer List
  • Partner List
  • Press Kit – You and/or company
  • Email Nurture Campaign
  • Formulate a Perfect Solution Narrative
  • Cosell Messaging Framework
  • Philanthropic Story and more

What will you receive when you participate in the #WICxTop100 Founder Campaign?

  • Get educated: 4 hour bootcamp on Building Cosell Partnership with Cloud Hyperscalers
  • Meet Influential Executives at the #WICxIcons 2022: Executive Dinner at Seattle, WA
  • Get seen by Fortune 1000 companies – Top100 Enterprise Ready Cloud Solutions List
  • Get featured on Industry stages and community stages
  • Create unique content for your business
  • Get invited to participate in Microsoft #Buildfor2030 Hackathon and opportunities
  • Monthly roundtables to meet fellow women tech founders and explore joint partnerships to scale
  • Connect with Boeing, Accenture, Insight, Microsoft, Avanade, Teradata, Google and more
  • Get invited to participate in Cloud Accelerator 8.0

What is the roadmap for me and my company to participate?

Every experience that is design is to help you achieve goals within your GTM plan.

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Wondering? If you are ready or not?

Take a free Cloud Cosell Marketing Assessment.

It takes 15 minutes but you will know the reality of how much you need.

If you see lot many reds and oranges, then you are 100% ready to participate.

Actually, the reality is that you need it more than anyone else. It is an indication that you must invest in GTM activities.

What are the qualification criteria for selection?

  • Companies with at least one woman in the C-level role with decision making power in the company
  • Based anywhere across the globe
  • Solution Built on Cloud Hyperscaler platform such as Microsoft Cloud, AWS, Google Cloud, Salesforce, IBM Cloud and/or AliCloud.
  • Those targeting enterprise opportunities in any industry sector with a potential to scale
  • Must be in business for one year with one pilot customer and developed a cloud solution
  • One or more of the business’ solutions directly impact one or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Looking to Cosell their solutions through Microsoft, Google, AWS, IBM, Salesforce and their distribution channels

What will it cost?

  • $129 plus 3.49% processing fee to get access.
  • Deadline to apply : Oct3rd, 2022

Where can I signup?

Learn more here: https://womenincloud.com/wicxtop100/

Apply Here: https://womenincloud.submittable.com/submit/231817/wicxtop100

On April 22, the Women in Cloud community joined together as we hosted a special edition of #WICxFortune100 Lunch and Learn. Salesforce Ventures features “A Guide to Corporate Venture Investing: Learn the Ins and Outs from Salesforce Ventures.” 

salesforce lunch and learn

To begin the event, Erin Northern, Partnership Lead for Women in Cloud (WIC) set the stage to introduce WIC and Salesforce Ventures. Erin greeted the audience and encouraged an active chat within the attendees. Attendees came from 5+ countries around the globe, all with a goal to learn and be inspired by the event today. 

Watch the introduction here:

 

Next, Salesforce Ventures brought Enki Toto, Investor for Salesforce Impact Venture Fund to the stage for the Keynote: A Guide to Corporate Venture Investing. Enki gave an in-depth presentation on the basics of investing and how corporate venture capital is different. With insightful questions from the chat, Enki delivered a well rounded approach to the topic, breaking down ideas and methods to teach and engage the audience.

Enki focused on the following topics: 

  • Deal structures
  • How to prepare for your pitch
  • Due diligence, risks, and closing the deal
  • The return on investment

Enki is currently an investor on the Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund, Salesforce’s corporate venture capital fund that invests in cloud technology solutions with a demonstrable impact in Education and Workforce Development, Sustainability, DE&I, and the Social Sector. She’s been involved in the company’s investments in BlocPower, Circulor, Crehana, Ellevest. and Propel.

 

Watch Enki Toto here: https://youtu.be/0bpqONyLC54

With this special edition of the #WICxFortune100 Lunch and Learn featuring Salesforce Ventures, WIC captured a niche audience and brought important information to the stage. 

Useful Resources: 

  • If you missed this session, you can find the recordings here
  • Register for #WICxInspire on July 14 for an interactive virtual event 
  • Do you want infinite access to more career and professional development opportunities? You can get $1000 of value for just $249 with the Women In Cloud’s Annual Access Pass. Learn and connect with the tech industry’s top leaders through Signature Events and Warm Introductions, develop your leadership skills, reach your full potential, and more! 
  • Learn more about EmpowHERaccess Awards
  • WICxLEAD: Next-generation Corporate ESG Women’s Leadership Accelerator, designed to empower corporate women and entrepreneurs to ignite economic access. Learn more and apply to qualify.
  • Want to request a warm introduction with Cloud Leaders from the session? Click here to request warm introductions today.
  • Join the #WiCDigitalNetwork to connect with community members and stay up to date with latest news, opportunities, and initiatives 

 

WIC is excited to announce the launch of our 7th Cloud Accelerator Cohort, beginning virtually on May 26th, 2022. Our unique accelerator program enables female tech founders to leverage the power of partnering with hyperscalers like Microsoft, Google, and IBM to become enterprise and Cosell ready. 

Women in Cloud has successfully graduated 70+ women-led companies over 6 previous cohorts with a global expansion including 9 countries around the world: United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, India, Kenya, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

The WIC entrepreneur community asked and We ANSWERED! We’ve adjusted the program to be even better than before.

Now A 3-month immersive program with even MORE benefits, including a 3 year relationship with the Women in Cloud community. During this immersive 3-month program the Cloud Accelerator provides: access to industry leaders, structured training, office hours, industry events, self-learning content, and more, all via digital platforms making the Accelerator accessible to women-led businesses worldwide. Women in Cloud is excited to announce the following 9 companies that have been accepted in the WIC Cloud Accelerator 7.0 Cohort of their award-winning Cloud CoSell Accelerator:

This kickoff focused on helping founders develop their future vision and this experience was led by Patti Dobrowolski, 3 Times TEDx speaker and inspired the founders to design their co-sell plan.

Here is the output of what a vision of equitable equity and access looks like for women founders.

Going digital has let us expand our horizon and open this program to people from around the world rather than just a region. 

This year’s WiC Cloud Cosell Accelerator is more than just an effort to make economic contributions to the system by empowering entrepreneurs. It is about embracing the new normal and moving forward with a sense of community. It is about adopting self-empowerment and finding comfort in knowing where to turn for support with a community at your side. Most importantly, it is about collective growth and learning.

The Cloud Cosell Accelerator combines training, access to industry leaders, structured training and office hours, industry events, self-learning content, and more, all via digital platforms making the Accelerator accessible to women-led business worldwide. Women in Cloud is excited to announce the following companies as accepted in the 7.0 cohort of their award-winning Cloud Cosell Accelerator:

  • AffableBPM- SaaS based Fully Customizable Business Workflow Management to provide Automated Compliance checks, Paperless – end to end, Cut down manpower up to 65% and Cost savings up to 50% . It is quick and easy to install and adopt!

  • Liiingo– Liiingo’s platform enables businesses to effectively connect, engage, and their shared customers’ journey, so they can nurture and benefit from repeat business and referrals. Liiingo’s mobile engagement platform removes those barriers for customers with our patented language delivery solution, as well as providing an intuitive an engaging experience.

  • LockDocs: LockDocs is a Digital-identity-as-a-service platform for the financial services sector. We are transforming how financial institutions collect and manage and customer data by offering a frictionless customer experience and generating significant time and cost savings in the process.

  • MyExcelia: MyExcelia is an AI-powered voice-enabled pocket coach that records voice, translates to text, anonymizes input, and provides in-the moment communication improvement feedback to managers, coaches, leaders, and employees at all levels without further input or effort from the employee.

  • OfficeTroops: Offers a global technology supported service to help small and medium organizations source, manage and nurture their future talent. The fight for talent requires a concerted effort at career brand development, candidate engagement and technology in hiring. Large organizations have substantial budgets to do this. We bring that same caliber to small and mid size businesses (SMB) who might otherwise lose out in this fight. Our solution centers around a white labelled hiring platform combined with concierge level placement services. We augment SMB hiring teams from day one and give them hiring scale at an attractive price point.

  • Accelera : The Maestro Ecosystem is a complete, all-in-one digital transformation tool. We partner with various technologies in payments, finance, and customer service through the API management layer. We use a digital identifier in a multi-tenanted environment to segregate a client’s data, which is orchestrated, headlessly, and displayed on a webpage.

  • Sapta Inc: Sapta is a cloud-based enterprise value management software built to help organizations achieve sustainable accelerated growth eliminating management chaos. The integrated management platform helps enterprises build OKRs, fuel innovation, make faster business decisions, and create a seamless CX journey.

  • Viverie AI: Viverie AI is the vision and brain for various types of smart robots, cameras, and sensors. Through collaborative training, our AI can be your solution for your specific needs. 

  • iLEAP Group: A Cloud MSP Provider transforming HBCU ecosystem with Cloud Services with IP based solutions.

Do you want to participate in the WIC Cloud CoSell Accelerator but missed the deadline? Don’t worry you can apply to be a part of our next Cohort HERE that is expected to roll out in late September.  

If you think you’d like to apply for the Accelerator Program but not sure if your business is ready yet?

 

Join us for the #MillionDollarPartnershipChallenge June 21-24, designed to prepare women-led tech businesses for the next steps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We invite you to apply. Click HERE to learn more: https://womenincloud.com/initiative-cloud-accelerator/

Women are the key drivers of the economy; by accessing the resources needed to launch and sustain businesses, Women in Cloud will address the economic inclusion to co-develop and co-market solutions by providing women the tools, knowledge, and networks they need to build a successful enterprise-ready cloud business.