Hash Moody from Azoora Inc. Explains to Us How the COVID-19 Pandemic will Change the Way We Do Business Forever

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?

Hash Moody: Thanks for asking, we’re doing well, suspending all travel sine die.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Azoora Inc. 

Hash Moody: My journey has been interesting. Actually, I started working as a freelancer for a client from Dubai, did 5 projects, gained some capital, firsthand experience, and then secured a job with a Belgian company, Indict bvba, just for experience as I wasn’t really interested in doing a job at any point in my life, later on during last decade’s European financial crisis that company, unfortunately, went out of business. But until that time, I developed adequate connections with one of the Managing Partners of the company and we became benefactors and decided to start our own business and Azoora was founded on September 27, 2007.

As we began working together, we were actually fortunate to get started with some sterling dream clients. A couple of years went on, we started recruiting team members to offload the works and things started picking up the pace. Then we decided to expand further into divergent international markets. We had to start somewhere, so started again with the Middle East and got a dependable partner in Israel and we did some inspiring 200 projects alone in 8 years or so. Till this time, my Dutch partner had to quit due to some personal family matters he wasn’t able to continue, and it was certainly a huge loss.

Still, the game needed to be continued. It came on all to the Israeli partner and I that I thought it again the right time to expand further in the North American market and anywhere else we could. That’s when we got another delightful partner in Trinidad & Tobago. Luckily again, we did a multitude of projects in the alliance. Until this time, I developed some valuable connections in the US market and we also began securing projects from there. It was the year of 2020, we had expansion plans and decided to deploy our Centre of Operations in India, but by the end of January 2020, we realized the pandemic situation. Considering travel restrictions and everything else, we decided to continue on our already established globally distributed working system and continue like that until further decisions are made.

Our aptitude for working remotely is now also helping us to keep our services running smoothly and keep our clients safe during such hard times. Our ability to remotely manage our services, clients, assets, and a geographically diverse engineering workforce will well support the cause.

How does Azoora Inc. innovate? 

Hash Moody: I believe that the successful exploitation of new ideas is crucial to a business being able to improve its processes, bring new and improved products and services to market, increase its efficiency and, most importantly, improve its profitability.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Hash Moody: Good question. Despite the size, scope, and intensity of the coronavirus pandemic, some work activities will go back to the way they were—at least for a while. But there will be permanent changes, which will forever alter the way we think about—and behave at—work. People quickly figured out how to work from home; thus, corporate offices will look and operate differently. WFH considerations will be the top priority for many. Technology will be developed to create an environment that more closely resembles a co-working space than a suburban townhouse; business attire will retire, there will be a big impact on the climate agenda, massive reduction in oil prices and much more. There is going to be a new normal because people have discovered there’s a better way of doing things. Our company is working at its best for an all-encompassing package to minimize disruptions to our business operations, including our clients and partners.

Our Covid-19 response can be found at https://dev.azoora.com/covid-19/.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Hash Moody: Fortunately, not. We didn’t have to curtail down on our team to cope up with the situation; infact, the pandemic gave us an opportunity for new and more challenging projects, it enabled us to digitize businesses which haven’t been paying attention to their online presence, enabled us to hire more team members, which I believe has been a little support to the economy, I’ve seen many people lost their jobs, it’s been a terrible time indeed, and I’m really concerned about it, but I’m just trying to help in the best way I could. There’s only one thing that could keep the economy rolling in the current situation, and that’s technology and innovation. Everyone has started realizing the real potential of digital presence and how it can pay off, previously we had to actually educate around 40% of the clients on how digitization can help and provide a better ROI, but the situation suddenly flipped; clients are now learning on their own because that’s certainly their only hope. One of the most important things I’ve learned during this pandemic is there is good in every evil. As an entrepreneur, it taught us the potential of working online, its amazing. Other than this being a father, husband, son, and a brother, it was fascinating for me to see how families unite when there’s a problem, not only my family but everyone else’s as well, at least whichever I was able to observe.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety, how do you project yourself and Azoora Inc. in the future?

Hash Moody: When I started, I’ve had a lot of naysayers all over and I believe its been my zeal and the support of my family, especially my parents, towards what I loved which empowered me with escape velocity to leave the gravity of naysayers, profoundly altering the whole course of my life. It’s been stressful during the start, but later on, after achieving a specific altitude, its all about maintaining; I really don’t have to push that hard, especially on the groundwork, so focus on the actual work is now a vital priority.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game? 

Hash Moody: A lot. Really. The business we’re in is a huge market, just to give an idea, the industry we’re in currently combined was valued at around $140.27 billion in 2018, and projected to reach $454.31 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of around 20% from 2019 to 2026! Bigger markets come with bigger challenges, bigger risks, bigger profits and a variety of competitors, the thing which makes a difference here is to be different, unique, and innovative in every aspect, just stand out from the crowd, always, I really mean always, try to overdeliver to your clients. This is the only success mantra when you’re in the service industry. Always make sure you provide astonishing value to the client, focus on their ROI, not yours, and believe me, the business should flourish independently.

Your final thoughts?

Hash Moody: To sum-up, in the end, I’d just like to say that we should look at the positive side of everything, be optimistic and embrace the technology for the better.

Your website?

https://azoora.com