CEO Insights Magazine

It is challenging for entrepreneurs to establish and expand many enterprises due to a combination of a lack of access to capital and a challenging regulatory environment. Given this backdrop, it's inspiring to see how far Ali Alzaki has grown as an Iraqi entrepreneur and serial businessman despite facing many challenges along the way. Ali Alzaki is not only the Founder and CEO of Sky Verona but also the Co-Founder of the Pro Company, which is an organization that specializes in marketing and management. Ali Alzaki is also responsible for the establishment of the Alzaki Group in South Korea and contributes to bringing the most famous brands worldwide to the Iraqi market despite the challenges.Below is an excerpt of Ali Alzaki’s exclusive interaction with CEO Insights ASIA magazine.

What is the vision and inspiration behind the inception of Sky Verona? What was the gap in the industry that you wanted to fill and what drives you today as an entrepreneur?

When I was young, I often thought about how I might improve the situations I was in by offering  new values on top of the ones I already knew. After completing my bachelor's degree in pharmacy, I decided to focus on the marketing field through the pharmacy market and start with others because of the many opportunities it presented to me in my chosen career. Since no one had ever set up a department dedicated to improving and delivering services to the Iraqi market while I was working, I often found myself waiting for supplies, especially in the aesthetics sector.

Tell us about your leadership approach, as well as the values and guidelines that you follow as a leader.

Leadership is shown by the way in which it communicates the organization's abilities and vision to its workforce in order to improve the quality of services offered to customers.

No organizational success story is complete without talking about the team. How would you define the teams in your organization, their skills, and their expertise?

It's the sum of one's life experiences. Strengthening support for the concept to which you already adhere should be your first objective. However, you can't be creative or successful if you don't believe in yourself. Also, when working with our team, we always insist on honesty.

What were the biggest challenges that you faced while building Sky Verona’s impeccable brand person? What is the unique proposition that your organization offers to customers?

As you are aware, the situation in Iraq is often severe on finances and other domains. In addition, there are no rules in Iraq, which has led to tremendous difficulties in the form of competition. Our company standards require all team members to encourage long-term, meaningful connections with consumers and to take these connections into consideration.

How are you adapting to new tools/ technologies to revolutionize your services and enhance customer experience?

In general, life has become much more rapid in recent years than it was in previous decades. Particularly, digital marketing and doing business online. In terms of our company's operations, we have just begun to place a greater emphasis on doing business online by developing smart apps and putting in place business platforms, which is a fifty percent increase from where we were before. We are also providing regular training opportunities for team members so that they are kept up to speed on the most recent technological developments.

How do you perceive the changing consumer market behaviors? What are opportunities that you foresee and what are your future plans?

In fact, in order to grow you should focus on expanding your brand on healthy and promise encourages markets that’s why we are planning to start in other countries. The market growing more immediately than before and the global market become tighter by establishing huge online platforms and facilitating payment methods and shipping, the future is for the service market and expanding you.

Ali Alzaki , Founder & CEO Sky Verona

The Founder and CEO of Sky Verona, Ali Alzaki holds a degree in Bachelor of Pharmacy. Though coming from a science educational background, Ali wanted to gather professional skills and knowledge from different industries. Thus, in his professional journey so far, Ali Alzaki have been part of various companies such as Althuraya SDB, Titanium, Jenna Scientific Bureau. In addition, he is also an entrepreneur with two companies – Sky Verona and PRO Services, apart from this, Ali Alzaki is currently also serving as the Marketing Leader at ISHTAR.

• Hobbies: Watching Mystery Movies, Solving Puzzles, Gym

• Favorite Cuisine: ARABIAN & ITALIAN

• Favorite Travel Destination: UAE, SPAIN

• Awards & Recognition: 3 Best Startups 2017 in Iraq