The urge to change the world with the zeal for innovation is the power that drives innovative people in the world. With the same gusto, i.e. to make an impact in the progress of society by helping organizations adopt new innovative technologies so that they can get benefitted from the advantages these technologies bring, Carme Artigas started her own venture, Synergic Partners.
Carme wanted to run her own company in an innovation area where she could really make a difference in the way information and data was used and analyzed. Carme shares, “I decided to fund a company in the year 2006 to help businesses become data-driven organizations, thanks to the new emerging technologies around Big Data Analytics.”
Starting her career working in Procter&Gamble where Carme had several management positions, collaborated with the United Nations in Costa Rica and also worked as Scientific Researcher in the Max Planck Institute in Germany in the field of Photodynamic Therapy of cancer. She also became CEO of the venture fund, Erricson Innova, where she worked in technology startups.
A demanded speaker in Big Data conferences, Innovation, e-commerce, Strategy and industry conferences and Data governance conferences, such as Strata-Hadoop World where Carme has been a regular speaker for the last 3 years. It was in 2006, Carme founded Synergic Partners, strategic and technology consultancy firm specialized in Big Data and Data Science. The company was acquired in November 2015 by Telefonica Group, the telco company, to support the International growth of the consultancy firm and expand its Big Data analytics offering and services. She is still running the company as a CEO.
Disrupt yourself, before being disrupted
According to Artigas, the most important challenge for big data in the following years will be the rise of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on all aspects of business, from customer relationships to production chain automation. This, together with the exponential growth in the number of sensors (IoT) and new paradigms such as Blockchain will dramatically change the face of many industries. Reflecting on the scenario Carme says, “We are already adopting these exponential technologies in our projects and are developing new areas of expertise to support our client companies in the challenges they will face both in their organizations and the disruptions this will bring to their industries.”
To serve the purpose, Synergic Partners provide its customers Big data and Advanced Data Analytics Services, New business models discovery, Digital Transformation Strategies and Consulting, Analytics as a service, Setting up Big Data Centers of Excellence, and, IoT Analytics solutions among others.
Staying ahead of the curve
Synergic Partners is always up to date in all best-in-class technologies, adopting agile methodologies and promoting strategic alliances. Carme says, “For us being ahead of knowledge is our natural DNA, so we invest not only on continuous learning for our teams but we have also launched Synergic Academy, where we develop and run a huge range of educational and training services, both for technical and executive profiles, especially for our client companies. We have very important knowledge partnerships to be up-to-date with the state of the art of the industry and academia. The most relevant one is our partnership with the Data Science Institute at Columbia University NYC, where we are Industry Affiliates.”
Carme’s Views on ‘The Concrete Leadership of Women’
“I think women provide a different and complementary point of view in the way organizations are managed and in the leadership style. The new ways of working require more flexible organizations with a less-hierarchical structure, faster and with higher levels or autonomy. My experience is that businesswomen are good at managing complexity, dealing with uncertainty and in leading by involvement and commitment.”
Art of Balancing Personal and Professional Life
Handling the personal life as smoothly as professional, Carme explains, “I have been privileged by the fact of running my own company, so this has allowed me to settle my own priorities and schedule to attend both my work and my family. And I have had full support from my partner. But unfortunately, not all working mothers are in this situation. Many professional women have to renounce to a professional career growth if they want to become a mother. Big companies are inducing working women to postpone their maternity by paying them their in-vitro treatments when they are older. This is a new sophisticated way of discrimination.”
Further, she elaborates that a right work-life balance can only be achieved if companies and country legislations allow women to make their professional career compatible with their family priorities by allowing flexible work hours, reduced workdays and incentives, as well as promoting the involvement of men. At Synergic Partners they allow both women and men take a maternity/paternity leave period, and reduced workdays for moms with kids under 6 years old, according to Spain legislation that is quite advanced in this field.
“We must be very good at that, because we have a very high fertility rate in our company, with a bunch of newborns every year, most of them twins!!! There must be something in the coffee.. !”, adds Carme.
