Adam Torres and Kunal Fabiani discuss business in Africa and the Americas.
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Show Notes:
Healy Consultants Group PLC assists international clients with company incorporation all around the world, including services like business registration, global corporate bank account opening, nominee director services, accounting and tax planning services, business advisory services, legal solutions and comparisons to help businesses owners and executives identify optimal solutions for their businesses. In this episode, Adam Torres and Kunal Fabiani, CEO Americas and Africa at Healy Consultants Group PLC, explore the current business and geopolitical landscape in Africa and the Americas for established businesses and startups.
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About Kunal Fabiani
Kunal joined Healy Consultants Group PLC in July 2013, initially as Business Development Manager at the Singapore HQ office. Within 6 monthshe also started project managing Client engagements setting up in multiple countries across Asia and Africa and Latin America. Kunal was promoted to Senior Client Engagements Manager in 2015 and from 2018 he is fortunate to be the CEO for the Americas and Africa.
About Healy Consultants Group PLC
Healy Consultants Group PLC assists multi-national Clients with business set up in every country on the planet. Our services include i) company incorporation ii) multi-currency corporate bank account opening iii) accounting and tax support iv) sourcing physical office premises v) human resource management.
Established in 2003, we are the best in the world at business set up in every country on the planet. The corporate values include 100% transparency, integrity and honor and respect.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I wanna welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on VR Guest to apply. All right, today I have Al Fabian on the line and he’s a c e O of America’s in Africa at Healy Consultants Group.
So now welcome to show. Hi Adam. Thank you for having. All right, Kunal. So excited to learn more about Healey Consultants Group today and really what drives you and your mission. And just to get us started, we’ll start off the way that we start every episode with our mission Matters minute. So, Kunal, we at Mission Matters.
We amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That’s our mission. But now what Mission matters?
Thanks for the question, Adam. So at HE Consultants, as our, our motto, they, we pride ourselves with being global business experts. Yes. My title officially is Americas Africa. But our mission is to enable the internationalization of companies, be it, you know, your startup companies, an entrepreneur small business, enter.
Multinational corporations or Fortune 500 companies, it doesn’t really matter, right? We, we don’t discriminate on that end. If you have an idea, you wanna go global. If you want go local into a certain continent or country, we want be essential part, right? And enabling you get set in, in, in these countries through the whole process and make it an easy voyage.
Fantastic. Well, we love having mission-based entrepreneurs and, and executives on the line to share why they do what they do, how they do it, and really what we can all gain from that. So we can, we can all learn and grow together. That’s still point of the Mission Matters platform. So, Al, I mean, let’s go back a little bit further.
Well, of course we’re gonna spend some time talking about Healing Consultants Group today, but let’s go a little bit further in your background. Like how did you get started in business? So, Consultants group has been around for 20 plus years. I joined the company 10 years. As a business development manager just growing the business, looking at different types of services that a corporate service provider typically offers.
Give background, corporate provides corporates services, support services and this. Typically done by he consultants in let’s say more around Asia. The company was headquarters in Singapore and we offered services typically around the region. So my mission when I joined the company was also to expand on where we offered services.
I was born, brought up in Spain, so obviously I do speak Spanish. Spanish is a native language, so there was an opportunity to grow our portfolio of. From the South America, central America Latinamerican countries of course. And cause I come from the Canary Islands there is a close proximity to the African continent.
Africa was, was a big one for us as well, to kind enter into that market and provide, let’s say, more clarity, transparency in terms of the process of setting. Which can be simple and straightforward in any given country in the western world the more developed economies, but maybe not that transparent in some of these countries, in, in these countries, right?
Maybe language barriers or just the lack of information. So I think we have done a great job at, at, you know, providing that information through our website very. I guess informational matter, right? It’s very transparent. There’s a lot of information. It’s information rich. So we like to, you know, to be the, let’s say, model wiki or business in any country in the world.
Not only America, Africa countries have been target, target markets as a lot of emerging economies are in these, in these. . And so as we and, and I want, I wanna pause for a moment, just be before we go and maybe just talk specifically about what Healy Consultants offers in terms of services, because I know at, at the end of this, I, I’m definitely gonna give you the opportunity to leave that, you know, website and contact information so people can follow up.
But tell us a little bit more about, about the services that Heli consultants actually. So we do offer a company incorporation that entails the business setup as per se. So advising on the type of legal structure that one would have to set up or the options that they would have for their specific business.
Business advisory market entry strategies for specific industry as well. Andary services that come with with business. You know, it can be as simple as bank account opening, keeping services tax planning legal solutions you know, and whatever comes after business. Hire employees or employee matters, you know, running payroll.
And licensing post business set of compliances. So obviously if you’re running business, you have to be compliant with the local regulations. So we provide information and support in, in all of these aspects. Hmm. And so what are the what are the types of clients that you typically find, get the most value out of working with, with heli consultants?
This is, is this only for, or I should say, is this primarily for enterprise middle market mid-cap. Like give us the feel for maybe the type of clients that get the most value out of working with he. As I mentioned, I think the beginning of the conversation of we, we don’t really discriminate.
We don’t have let’s say a target sort of companies. I mean we obviously, we, we provide advisory to high net individuals, startups, you know, businessmen with a certain idea. Maybe a person that’s been employed for 20 years and a business that wanna start as a new venture. So they had maybe saved up some capital and wanna start new business.
So we want be there for, for these clients. But your question specifically, well, which clients are more, add more value to do business, right? Mm-hmm. , so mm-hmm. I’d like to say we’re a boutique consultancy firm, so we don’t typically do volume. And our offering is, is in such a way where typically clients with already say a large presence or, or, or footprint right in, in certain countries.
Come to us to say, okay, well you guys seem to be spread across the globe. Can you help us set up in several jurisdictions? So we specialize, let’s say, multi country setups, right? It can be in one continent, it can be across several continents. Say it can be across six continents, or personal. We don’t do Antarctica yet, but maybe sometime in the future.
Awesome. Well, and thank you for that context. Cause as I, as I ask you some more, more questions about what you’re seeing cuz you have, I like to have a good, some good context there. And I think you, obviously you have a unique vantage point, so meaning working with, first off, the breadth of, of heal, working in many different regions and, and and countries number one.
And working with many different types of business owners. I’m interested to see, so, you know, post pandemic and, and the regions that you’re working in, in in the Americas and in Africa. How do you think really, you know, post pandemic or the pandemic, like how, how have some of the, the regions been affected by, by that?
Well, in terms of regions that have been effective, it’s more the businesses that have. Not harness the power of social media or having an on presence. Those have definitely have been impacted severely. Obviously when you’re confined to your home you can’t go to your local store. You seek to, to, to buy, seek services or get services or, you know, buy products online.
So in many these countries you would typically have, you know, local grocery store or a local hypermarket and get your goods from there, but you have to go in person. So a lot, a lot of businesses have actually. So the pandemic has been opportunity for those companies that have said, well, they’ve identified the power of.
Having an online presence, having a you know, an SD optimized website or just having a page on, you know, social media, Facebook on Instagram, offering services, products more even, you know, just talking about, this is what I offer, this is what I can do, this is what I, no. So many of this have jumped on this bandwagon and capitalized on it as well as companies that offer.
Support services, let’s say it comes to supply chain, right? So in particularly in, in some African countries, if you were to order a product off Amazon mm-hmm , you find it very difficult, that product cannot be delivered the US or any fulfillment center, let’s say, to your country directly to Africa, right?
So you’d need to arrange. Let’s say a PO box or send it to a certain company, then, then shoot that product to you, right? In Africa. So companies that have said, well, you know, why don’t we make this easier for for customers who want to purchase products online? Maybe not for personal use, maybe it’s for the businesses, right?
Mm-hmm. , and they’ve definitely, definitely capitalized on that cause they’ve offered this service. So bring. Not only Amazon, but generally the E marketplace, right? Closer to, to their economies. Another factor that has popped up from the pandemics, obviously the dependency of local, right? So mm-hmm.
That may have grown. So for example, if you’re in the car manufacturing industry, we all know that there’s a shortage of microchips and China went to lockdown. How did affect maybe fulfilling centers or manufacturing centers that South America? Right? So let’s look at suppliers or vendors that are local to us, right?
So we have going to, to look sourcing backup suppliers or service. Closer, closer to home. So those, those are the business that have affected or now have a different outcome, right. It comes to many businesses in the service sector and we’re talking about human resources. Mm-hmm. obviously have to say that there has been a shift in say employees or companies hiring full-time employees and rather now, Getting comfortable with meeting employees as independent contractors and saying, well, you know, work from wherever you want.
You get the job done. It has worked for us during the pandemic working from home. I don’t need. So that kind reduces operational expenditure. Cause companies are now not investing in large spaces to house employees. They well work from home or work from whichever country you. Reporting to into your manager at the X X Y Z times, you know?
And as long as the job gets done, we’re happy. Right. As long as the KPIs are met, we’re happy. Right. So there’s been a shift in that mindset of not hiring permanent employees. Well, not, I guess not treating them as employees, but independent contractors. Mm-hmm. and having that flexibility, obviously working from.
That has allowed greatest flexibility, but that also has created opportunity for entrepreneurs who have identified the space in or concept of digital. No, right? Mm-hmm. , you may be aware that there are, that there are setting up communities of digital nomen, so if you could, you could go to, for example, well, I’m software development, right.
And I, my headquarters in in Silicon Valley, right? But I can work from anywhere at time. I want,
I could communities with the, with the thought of, well these digital nomads will need a community so they will come with their families, right? So digital communities, Nomad communities, we set up with residential properties support services, education centers, and oxy leisure centers. Right. So that’s, that’s an incredible concept and idea for, for, I guess this new era of employment that we have.
Yeah. It’s so interesting to me and, and many of the things that you’ve, you’ve mentioned in, in Africa I can see like similarities to some of the things, , how the pandemic escalated things in the United States, whether I know you mentioned in, in Africa, maybe it has to do with, you know, delivery or, or you know, of services or e-commerce, which maybe some of the, you know, some of the infrastructure in the United States is, is obviously a little bit more, more advanced.
But I can see like similarities in what you said and maybe like how our telehealth is now being delivered. And some of the other things, it’s almost like, like in some certain industries that were lagging are kind of forced out a necessity to, to evolve into advance. Am I, am I off on that? No, absolutely.
You’re absolutely right. Absolutely right. Yeah. I wanted, let’s maybe jump around a little bit here. How do you see, let’s, let’s talk about the, the political side of things. So how do you see maybe the, you know, obviously post pandemic, we’re going into a new, new, new way of doing business, new thing.
I’m just curious, how do you see like the geopolitical landscape evolving in, in, you know, the, the coming years from your vantage. So for certain economies, let’s think in developing economies. Mm-hmm. , if, if they were to evolve and obviously harness this
way, companies operate. Mm-hmm. should open to foreign investment I guess change their policies for. To welcome businesses, right? Especially to that, those businesses that create value. And the most, the most, or the most important form of creating value is creating employment. If I’m being, bringing a business to your country, It should be easy for me to set up a business to hire employees and, and just create jobs and, and to give back to the community, right?
And that creates values for me, right? So I wouldn’t necessarily say relaxed policies, but definitely more flexible policies that comes to investment from, from the outside, right? So if I was, if I was. A business that wanted to hire employees. I mean, going back to the fact that, you know, my employees don’t need to be in the us mm-hmm.
Singapore, you know, I can hire employees. I guess companies have business, well, you know, I can hire employees in Morocco, or let’s say Tunisia or in Egypt, right? Or in South Africa. If I need English speaking stuff, my custom flavor is less, but how easy is it for me? Hire these people, you know? So those are a lot of questions that we get asked, right?
So there’s a lot of confusion. There’s not no clarity. So obviously our mission is to make that clear and accessible to, to our clients, right, who are definitely interested in being set in these countries. So again, for those countries that are target for our clients, well, they, they should. Offer incentives, right.
To two businesses to set up so that they can also I guess right on what they have to offer businesses set. It’s not, not only. Create jobs, but there’s an, there’s a knowledge transfer, right? Or especially we’ve seen the boom of FinTech, right? Financial technology companies being set up especially across say Nigeria definitely hub and Kenya and South Africa’s lot companies that have set up there to, especially in the payment sector.
So that, that’s definitely opportunities for, for these. And more countries should shoot and, and see what these countries are getting. Right. I, I think that’s, that’s my take on this. And, and speaking of the businesses themselves how do you see maybe the, the competition between, you know, these established businesses and maybe even the startups in the region?
Like how do, how do you see this evolving?
So evolving is, is is powerful. if businesses that are established for 10, 20, 50 years, it doesn’t, with the changing landscape, if they don’t keep evolving mm-hmm. and adapting to this new era, they essentially become the modern age time, you know, they will become, So you have to adapt to, to the new era.
And that would be like, kinda like in the US it’d be like our Kodak or something or some of the big, you know, the companies that you never thought would change. Right, exactly. Absolutely. Absolutely. That’s a very good example. Kodak is very good example. So again, evolve, adapt to the new era. Make your workplace a bit more flexible.
The power harness, the power of digital media. Imagine a business not being present online, or not having any present digital presence. That’s, that’s unfathomable, right? In today’s day and age. Yeah. And and I seven . I agree with that one. I’m thinking about what you’re saying, Goode. I’m like, yeah, there’s still, there’s some that have listened to this and they’ll be like, oh, come on.
But you’re right, . There’s some, some people that are listen to this. Yeah. And if you’re listening and you don’t have that presence working it. I’m sorry, go ahead. I just, I had to say that cause I say it all the time on this show and it’s fun for me to hear somebody else preach it.
Go ahead, continue. Sorry. Yeah, no, and, and this is, this is definitely opportunities for, for new businesses or new interest, right? They say, well, this company is doing this well, but there’s a gap right? Between what they’re offering and maybe their presence online. I can do that better. So come in and maybe I’m a small fish and this established company, whale.
Can do it better because I know how to sell my services or sell my product, or market my product or my services or my business better because I understand how, how a digital company or, or non online business should operate and should present itself, right? Mm-hmm. so that resist know, doing business.
This way, or, you know, being online obviously will face some sort of difficulties. Obviously, established companies will have their portfolio clients for sure. But new entrance will, will definitely, will definitely catch up on and maybe bit their market share. Right. It’s very important step. There should be a constant evolution and harnessing, you know, new tools, ai.
Chat gt. That can be I mean, if you’re not using chat GBT in your business, you, you’re starting to become obsolete. Right. And just that’s just one tool. Yeah. Well, Kunal, I can talk to you about this all day, but we’re about out of time for today’s episode. That being said, it, it really, it’s been great having you on the show.
If somebody’s listening to this or watching this and they want to follow up and they wanna learn more about Healy consultants what’s the best way for them to connect with you and your team? So we have push, we have a great presence online. We have a website that’s www e consultants.com. You can look us up on LinkedIn consultants, on Instagram consultants, well as Facebook.
And we do have, we do publish regularly videos, information, videos experiences of our clients on YouTube. So definitely check us on. Fantastic, and we’ll, we’ll put all that information in the show notes so that our audience can just click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters or listening to an episode, we’re all about bringing on business owners, entrepreneurs, executives and experts, and having them share their mission, the reason behind their mission, and really what we can all learn from that, so that we can all grow together.
The whole point of the Mission Matters platform is for us all to grow together. If that’s a type of content that sounds interesting or fun or exciting to you, we welcome you hit that subscribe button because we have many more mission-based individuals coming up on the line and we don’t want you to miss a thing.
And Kulan, not really. It has been a pleasure. Thanks Kim, for coming on the show. Thank you Adam. And just a final note to all your listeners, your success is our own.
