Integrated Workplace Management System, also called IWMS software, is a software platform that offers critical insights to enable corporate facilities management professionals to optimize the use of workplace resources. It helps them make smarter decisions around space utilization, capital projects, retail portfolio, sustainability management, maintenance and resource planning.

In an interview with Analytics Insight, Susan Anglin, VP of Program Management and Operations at Horizant shares her valuable insights into how the company is helping clients align people, processes, and technology with IWMS. She also speaks about her transformational career journey that shaped her into the influential leader she is today. Below are the highlights of the interview:

Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization and the services that your company offers.

Horizant aims to bridge the organizational gap of facilities management, human resources and information technology through the implementation and support of an integrated workplace management system (IWMS) – it's enterprise-level software that helps large organizations leverage their real estate assets more effectively. Horizant's team of industry and subject matter experts guide clients through large software implementations that usually encompass business process reviews, software customizations and the application of industry best practices. Leveraging industry-leading software like ARCHIBUS, the company assists with technology planning, implementation, and long-term support to ensure return on technology and process investment.

Give a brief overview of your background and your role in the company. 

I have always been a Jill of all Trades, so this role as VP Operations for Horizant suits me perfectly. Building high-functioning teams, driving product and service strategy, and looking for business development opportunities have all been dominant themes during my career.

After my business degree, I worked in marketing for ITT and Glenayre Electronics. I found this relatively unsatisfying, whereas business school was fun. In school we were solving major strategic problems, even if it was theoretical. This was when I realized that I wanted to influence strategy, not just implement someone else's.

Life's opportunities put an MBA at my doorstep, and upon graduation, I worked in The Netherlands for "de Bijenkorf," a much-loved national department store. I was a Canadian in their elevator management trainee program, and in retrospect, it was not the best fit – the cultural differences on many fronts were a little too hard to cross. I then landed a fantastic position at Corel Corporation in Ottawa, Canada, Directing Corel's sales into the Benelux. That was in the heyday of Corel Draw, and I had a lot of fun building a sales team and developing the sales channel. But Corel never stayed still for more than a couple of seconds, and after a brief time, I was promoted to Director of Consumer and Professional Graphics, till the next Corel reorg came along. All these experiences paved the way for me to join Canada Post, as Director of International Business, where I was given the opportunity to represent Canada in Bern at the UPU (Universal Postal Union) and negotiate bilateral agreements with the United States Postal Service.

My team drove product strategy for all incoming international mail and parcels. Another reorg landed me as Director of Parcel Services at Canada Post, which was a great job with CAD $500 million in revenue. A few entrepreneurial ventures later, I found my current home at Horizant, where I am blessed with a wonderful boss, a talented team, and an organization that due to its rapid growth is benefitting from my efforts to reposition Horizant as an elite IWMS consulting firm, modernize our internal business processes, and improve profitability.

My experiences in operation management, team building, business development and product/service strategy are all foundational and gave me the skills to take Horizant to the next level in operational capacity and profitability. In return, they are giving me the best ride of my career.

What were the past experiences, achievement or lessons that shaped your journey as a successful women leader?   

During my career, I hopped around to different industries and job roles quite a lot; part of that was just life, and part was due to my efforts to find a good opportunity that would be an excellent fit for my skill set and personality. I did not fit the popular HR (Human Resources) mould of the day that asked for aeons of experience in a certain role, but now that I am in the sunset of my career, I can say that these varied experiences have been vital in developing my broad and well-honed managerial skill set.

As a working woman since the 1980s, I've seen work culture change and opportunities for women open up a great deal. But today, there are still a lot of culturally ingrained biases against women and minorities, especially in some of the larger, more institutional organizations I have worked for. The in-crowd, aka the white males do not think they are biased, but when you look at whom they have surrounded themselves with at the management table and whom they give the plum roles to, they are all the white guys that they spend time together with. It is not easy to break into that group, women are always too much like this or too much like that, these are subtle differences and biases that are tough to articulate and to recognize in one's own behaviour.  It is time for leaders to walk the talk and celebrate people's differences – recognizing that diversity brings a valuable perspective to the decision-making table.

Kindly mention some of the primal challenges that you faced during the initial phase of your journey. 

Speaking about challenges three things come to my mind –  First, when you are young, female, and just out of business school, people do not take your opinion very seriously. You've got to put in your time, keep getting experience and moving with the opportunities that come your way. But keep your chin up; influence comes naturally once you have subject matter expertise. It is important to keep positive, keep moving forward, and keep an eye open for opportunities and challenges that come your way.

The next hurdle was as an ambitious woman in a man's world, I have gone through a handful of career destroying, nasty experiences in the workplace. If these things happen to you, my best advice is to get a good life coach and surround yourself with people who love you. Then pick yourself up as soon as you can and carry on.

Another problem point is that in North America, it's very easy to implement organizational changes and layoffs that have a huge impact on people's lives – without checks, balances and adequate reflection. Executives and legislators do not seem to acknowledge the enormous mental health and financial impact they have on people when they shuffle the organizational deck to fit their new plan for the day. Our institutions need to evolve to ensure that managers act responsibly, and at the very least, with compassion and within the norms of human decency when they take actions that dramatically affect people's lives.

Describe some of the vital attributes that every transformational leader should possess.  

I ardently believe that to fill in the shoes of a dynamic leader in current times; one must:

• Find a challenge where you can throw your heart and mind into and set ambitious goals for yourself.

• Surround yourself with people who are smart, kind, talented and committed to the organization. Build your team with them and you will succeed together.

• Be open to change, feedback, and always move towards learning and improvement, starting with yourself.

• Appreciate the people who work for you and do address the elephant in the room. If you don't address chronic problems like caustic behaviour, bullying and and information hoarding, no one will enjoy their job, and you will not achieve your goals. A leader helps their team visualize the goals, and then puts plans in place to get there. The fun is in doing things together that you can all feel proud of.

How do you innovate your products/solutions that appeal to your target audience? 

In my current role, I am VP of Operations, so my focus now is to deliver IT (Information Technology) consulting services that offer real value to our customers and drive process efficiency to help protect the bottom line. That said, anyone who touches the customer and receives their feedback should be empowered and confident enough to solve the situation, and/or bring the issue up to management to help sort it out.

We all need to listen to the voice of the customer and feed that up to product-strategy and sales for continuous improvement and course corrections in strategy. Creating those lines of communication is vital for a company's success. At the senior level, I think annual, or bi-annual planning sessions with your key business leads are the foundation for keeping the strategy fresh. For larger institutions, I have seen success by creating incubator groups to develop and fund innovative ideas – giving them leeway to explore and not be bogged down by a large, risk-adverse bureaucracy.

How are disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning,  automation and cloud computing impacting today's innovation and do you feel the role of a leader has changed because of it?

We are all looking for reports and tools that will help bring in complex volumes of information and present it in ways so we can make better decisions. At Horizant, we are planning to automate repetitive development tasks in our operations environment. As we have experienced significant growth over the past two years, we are starting to outsource support services so that we can focus on our core business.

Our industry is seeing IT procurement managers move towards SaaS (Software as a Service) and cloud hosting; it's a trend that is gaining traction in hopes of lowering annual software maintenance costs. However, this conflicts with delivering a customized enterprise software solution; software customizations are still of vital importance to large customers who need their software tools to support their organizational processes and not define them. That is the Yin and Yang we are experiencing today in our industry.

How do you see the company and the industry in the future ahead?   

Horizant will continue to grow and support large organization's efforts to better manage their real estate assets and improve their utilization. Shared workspaces, dynamic room bookings, maintenance requests, and managing workspace distancing during pandemics are just a few of our new focus areas. There will always be better ways to serve our community of real estate asset managers in the future.  That is where I am confident that Horizant will continue to add value.

What is your advice for budding or emerging women leaders? 

My mantra for young people will be:

• Always strive to contribute the best you can;

• Take additional education and certifications that deliver value to your industry and your position;

• Find your happy place with your boss, co-workers, and most of all, your family;

• Do not stay in a position if you are not happy. Keep working at it, but take the time to upgrade your skills and look for another job that you think is a better fit;

Be courageous. Life is too short not to go for it!