The world of technology is constantly growing, with new trends and innovations shaping the way we live and work. One such trend that has gained significant traction in recent years is the concept of Digital Twin technology. This emerging technology is reforming the way businesses operate, enabling them to make informed decisions based on real-time data and future scenario planning. It’s a unique way of modeling all facets of an organization, paving the way for better decision-making and business transformation.
In this technological revolution, a determined woman stands out for her innovative thinking and leadership. Dana Kawas, a Digital Executive, Entrepreneur, Athlete, CEO, and Co-founder of Thynkli has been at the forefront of this change. Dana’s journey began with a simple declaration in her youth, igniting a passion that led her into the field of digital innovation. Her quest for knowledge and growth saw her driving the complications of technology implementation and management consulting, which ultimately resulted in a profound understanding of emerging trends like Digital Twin technology.
Dana’s relentless pursuit of excellence propelled her to co-found Thynkli, a progressive digital twin services company poised to revolutionize business operations. This company augments human intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize and digitize operations, increase technology adoption, and upskill people. Grounded in the belief that technology should serve humanity, Thynkli embodies Dana’s vision of resilience and empowerment through innovation.
Let’s explore Dana’s leadership journey in a tech-driven world:
Journey from a Determined Student to a Futurist
Dana’s personal journey started at a young age—13 years old in PE class—when her teacher told her that she would be a determined woman and would accomplish anything she put her mind to. She wanted to study Computer Science in College, and she did despite the expensive tuition and limited family resources. After finishing her degree, her exploration journey started, as did the career she wanted to pursue and the person she wanted to be. As she said, it is a discovery journey.
Dana is a futurist and always thinks of the future, so after years of experience in Technology Implementation and Management consulting working with 500 Fortune companies, she learned about a trending technology called Digital Twin. Digital Twin is one of the emerging technologies that enables building an intelligent future where business decisions are easily made based on real-time data.
It enables future and scenario planning in support of business transformation. At Thynkli, they started with the Digital Twin of Organization (DTO), one type of digital twin that delivers the highest value to any organization; it is a unique way of modeling all facets of the organization to enable better decision-making.
They went for the highest value.
For example, businesses would’ve responded differently to the pandemic if they had a virtual model of their organization, including processes, people, systems, assets, and stakeholders, with their interactions. Decisions to shut down certain operations or change operations to remote working would’ve been easier. As a digital executive, organizational performance is crucial to the success of the business, and that includes people, processes, and technology.
A New Approach to Digital Transformation
Dana’s advice to anyone building their career is to first go through personal exercise. An exercise where one creates their dream job, knowing their strengths and what fulfills them. Once they identify their personal elements, they pursue any job or career that fuels those elements. This is how they stay fulfilled, passionate, and evolve. Dana believes that one should think of one’s career as a tool to fuel one’s passion and grow who one is.
So, when Dana did this exercise and many others, she learned that she is a people person and enjoys coaching, guiding, and adding value to people’s lives. She discovered that her top 5 strengths, “according to StrengthsFinders 2.0, are:
Focus, Maximizer, Activator, Ideation, and Significance.
As a result, she chose to grow her career from technical to more client-facing roles as a consulting manager, working with different clients to define strategies, implement change management, and support people through Digital Transformation. She likes to show someone the way.
After 23 years of experience in the field, she was ready to enable people and show them a different way of thinking when it came to Digital Twins technology, and this is when she co-founded Thynkli with her sister in 2019—a progressive digital twin services company that is paving the way to building resilience in business operations using technology.
They augment human intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize and digitize operations, increase technology adoption, and upskill people. They think differently about technology and how people are at the center of any digital change.
Cultivating a Culture of Growth and Inclusion
One thing Dana learned throughout her diverse experience and by being a CEO is to pay attention to the culture. According to Bushido (the code of samurai), culture is not a set of beliefs; it is a set of actions; it’s only a thing if you manifest it and do it.
So, when creating the culture of an organization, it should be based on core values and principles. After doing her deeply personal work and discussing it with her co-founder, they aligned the business values with their personal values. At Thynkli, they value:
- Growth: They pursue continuous improvement, have the courage to identify what’s not working, find best practices, and then adopt them.
- Inclusion: They see people for who they are and what they bring to the table; everyone matters, and every idea is welcomed.
- Accountability: They are professional, brave, disciplined, and focused; they are part of the solution; they take ownership and have each other’s backs.
- Collaboration: They lead from anywhere; they share, listen, and facilitate work with people to raise their game.
Dana continuously learns from other CEOs and entrepreneurs, applies what she has learned, and tests what works for her and what does not. This is simply how they apply innovation to the work they do. Learn, experiment, evaluate, and grow.
Driving and Nurturing Innovation in the Workplace
She believes leaders need to drive and nurture innovation.
To nurture innovation, leaders must build a culture in the company that allows employees to speak up, bring amazing ideas to the table, and put innovative strategies into effect. Dana believes that there is no such thing as an idea too bold or too ridiculous; employees need to feel free to contribute and feel like their contribution is acknowledged. Also, leaders must promote cross-functional group experimentation with room for failing and learning.
To drive innovation, it’s important for leaders to have a clear sense of what they’re trying to achieve. Setting specific goals and objectives for the team and communicating them clearly is crucial. Leaders should allocate resources, budget, time, and talent toward innovation efforts. Making it a priority is key.
Lastly, embracing technologies is essential; setting up a research and development team to explore new technologies and trends and providing them with the resources and support they need to do so is a strategy that Dana endorses.
Innovation Through Collaboration
For Dana, collaboration is not an option anymore; it’s the only way to develop and implement innovative solutions. She believes that encouraging cross-functional collaboration helps break down silos and sparks new ideas.
Building a cross-functional team, in her view, means bringing together diverse perspectives and skill sets and encouraging teams to work across departments and functions to tackle specific challenges or projects.
One of the common ways to build cross-functional teams, according to Dana, is to perform personality tests to gain valuable insights into the team members’ personalities, work styles, decision-making processes, and communication styles.
Another way is to encourage team members to attend meetings and events outside of their usual scope of work and provide opportunities for them to learn new skills and gain exposure to different parts of the business.
Embracing Trends and Technologies in Business
As a CEO, Dana believes it’s important to stay up to date on the latest trends and technologies in her industry and be willing to invest in them when appropriate. Here are a few ways she achieves that:
- She establishes a research and development teamto explore new technologies and trends and provides them with the resources and support they need to do so.
- She partners and collaborates with startups and other innovators and considers investing in emerging technologies that could help drive her business forward, like the Digital Twin, Artificial Intelligence, and cloud computing.
- Dana adds her personal experience to bridge the gap between where she or her client is and where the trend is going. This includes assessing the trend’s maturity and understanding its challenges.
- She stays in the conversation by attending conferences, reading publications, and participating in industry consortiums.
Prioritizing Requirements and Objectives
This is a very important aspect of any project or initiative to achieve that balance.
- Dana always starts with the business objectives and outcomes, has a clear understanding of her “why”—her vision and North Star”—and “what”—her strategy and what she is planning to do—and then the “how” where the technical aspects are covered. She sees technology as a tool to accelerate her journey, elevate her experiences, and generate more revenue.
- She engages her stakeholders and communicates consistently, frequently, and clearly.
- Dana prioritizes requirements and creates a roadmap for achieving the business objectives.
- She measures, monitors, and improves her execution plan; she is agile and open to changing the execution plan as she is learning throughout the journey.
- She encourages collaboration and builds cross-functional teams.
- She builds a culture of innovation, collaboration, and agility.
The Key Principles of Trustworthy Leadership
Effective leadership, according to Dana, has more to do with leadership style. Her leadership style matters in any realm.
It is usually a combination of her personality, life experiences, level of emotional intelligence, and way of thinking. So, knowing who she is as a person impacts her leadership style and the culture she is building in her organization. No matter what leadership style she has, these are her key leadership principles:
- Prioritize your people.
- Lead by example.
- Transparency and consistent communication
Envisioning Intelligent Economies
Dana envisions intelligent, equitable economies powered by intelligent connected systems with models to boost productivity and growth, empower individuals, and address major social challenges like poverty, climate change, and inequality. She envisions human and machine augmentation, where robotics and AI are enhancing the quality of current jobs and creating new ones.
Her contribution to this future is to continue enabling leaders and organizations to embark on any digital transformation journey and make sure that they have the tools and knowledge to be successful at it while taking care of their people.
