Successful leaders have crystal clear vision, take calculated risks and maintain calm under immense pressure. Joe Caserta is one such leader who knows how to empower his team and bring his business visions to fruition. Joe is the founding President of Caserta, a leading data intelligence firm with a reputation for creating bold and state-of-the-art solutions. He is the co-author of The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit, an industry bestseller that has become the standard for preparing data integration for analytics.
Born and raised in NYC, Joe was educated in database application development and design at Columbia University in New York. Joe drives his firm to continued success by taking calculated risks. “I think one of the most important decisions a CEO/Founder makes as a leader is to take calculated risks,” advises Joe. “Success is always just outside your comfort zone, and if you stay comfortable you will not grow – as a person or as a business.”
Joe counts Steve Jobs and James Hatfield, the guitarist for Metallica, as role models for success—each at the polar end of the business/creative spectrum. Jobs is admirable for his relentless pursuit against all odds to transform his business vision into reality. Hatfield shone in his ability to combine discipline, mastery of his craft, new techniques, creativity, imagination and soul to create something new that impacts the world in a positive way. All of these attributes coupled with empathy for the needs of clients are at the core of every solution Joe provides.
Designing Caserta Strategies
Caserta is a leading New York-based strategic consulting innovation technology implementation firm that specializes in big data analytics, data warehousing, ETL and business intelligence. Caserta is the go-to company to help organizations that are going through major transformations where they have to become analytics-driven to survive in their competitive landscape.
“We collaborate with CIOs and their IT organizations, working together to gain new business insights through a better understanding of their data,” notes Joe. “We implement emerging technologies in big data, NoSQL, search, predictive modeling and data visualization to solve highly complex business challenges, serving clients worldwide in the areas of finance, insurance, healthcare, digital advertising, media, fitness, eCommerce and others.”
Joe is a leader that is always empathetic to his clients’ needs. At Caserta being innovative and advising clients instead of simply taking orders is part of their core identity. “You must be an active listener so that the client is understood and you know the exact problem to solve – from their perspective,” notes Joe.
Collaborating with Creative Thinking and Innovation
At Caserta collaboration is central to creative thinking within the organization. Joe has assembled a curated team of people who are just as passionate about data intelligence as he is. They have a mix of age groups at Caserta, from Millennials to Baby Boomers, and they all have a creative and innovative perspective to bring to the table.
“You should motivate your employees to think like an owner,” advises Joe. “Empower and reward employees so they have the same investment in their work as you do. Next, be a good decision maker – and an active decision maker – because a good CEO realizes that sometimes an imperfect decision may be better than no decision at all.”
Internally at Caserta, Joe holds a monthly Town Hall meeting where the team talks about past performance and how they are solving their business challenges. Team members go around the virtual room, set goals, and brainstorm about innovative ways in which to accomplish those goals.
“It’s our culture to not focus on landing new deals, but to center our attention on how we can create new analytic applications to help solve our clients’ challenges,” notes Joe.
Challenging the Competition
Building custom innovative solutions based on the needs of Caserta’s customers is what keeps them ahead of the competition. If a company wants to survive and stay competitive they must evaluate their data and extract data strategically to be ahead of the game. More companies are starting to realize how important it is and as a result Caserta not only creates data solutions, but also counsels their clients on innovative ways to maximize their data.
Caserta’s data professionals are well practiced in using the latest technologies and consider themselves advocates of cutting-edge open-source products and approaches. Business-Driven and Future-Facing Clients benefit from the firm’s tried and tested, yet innovative, approach.
Staying Ahead of the Curve
Leading firms set themselves apart by achieving a high level of performance and meeting or exceeding consumers’ expectations. To stay ahead of the curve, Caserta has an internal Innovation Laboratory that fulfills their curiosity and proves—or at times disproves—their theories. Some current projects include the convergence of Data Intelligence and Blockchain that uses machine learning to derive Smart Contracts. Breeding that rare combination of being highly technical, having executive-level business acumen, while at the same time possessing sincere client empathy enables Caserta an unrivaled advantage to continue to lead, and eventually dominate, the data industry for years to come.
