"Be prudent. Spend extra time understanding your business’s financial health and cash flow."
Zahir Khoja Tweet
Zahir Khoja is CEO of Wave, a one-stop money management solution for small business owners and subsidiary of H&R Block. Zahir believes that by helping small businesses succeed, we help families and our communities.
Prior to Wave, Zahir was GM for Afterpay North America and EVP at Mastercard. He joined Mastercard in 2012 as CEO for Mobile Payment Solutions where he was responsible for deploying mobile solutions in Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Philippines, India and Turkey.
Zahir’s passion for enabling financial access for all also led him to serve as President and CEO of M-Paisa Afghanistan, bringing banking and financial education to underserved communities.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Zahir Khoja: I’m the CEO of Wave, the one-stop money management solution for small business owners. We believe in empowering entrepreneurs and driving greater inclusion and access to entrepreneurial opportunity. When small businesses can get access to powerful digital tools, they will be more likely to succeed and generate greater prosperity for their communities.
We help solopreneurs, freelancers, contractors, and microbusinesses to get access to the right digital capabilities to manage their bookkeeping, send invoices, make payments, get paid faster, and understand the financial health of their businesses.
As a South African-Canadian who grew up in Vancouver and the child of immigrants who were small business owners, I have a passion for small business and for enabling access to financial opportunity. Much of my career has been focused on helping small businesses get the tools they need to run more effectively, and creating a more inclusive and accessible financial system.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Zahir Khoja: One big takeaway is having the willingness to unlearn, reframe, and adapt to deliver what the business community and consumers need and want.
If you had asked people in January 2020, “will you stop going to grocery stores to buy food, will you start using digital commerce more than ever before?” – most people would’ve said “no, grocery delivery doesn’t make sense, we like to choose our own bananas” – suddenly, it became a necessity for many to have their groceries delivered.
Another fundamental lesson is that participation in the digital economy is not just about the simplicity of pushing a button or using an app – it’s the entry point to inclusion and growth. If you run a small landscaping business, if you can easily accept card payments and pay your staff via digital payroll, this helps you build the currency of trust. You now have the digital financial record of your business vital for legitimacy, tax time, or a potential loan application.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Zahir Khoja: Be prudent. Spend extra time understanding your business’s financial health and cash flow. Be obsessed with your customer and how you serve them.
On average, 20% of small businesses fail within their first year and less than half are profitable. These businesses don’t fail because no one wants their products or there’s no need for them; they fail because of poor financial management, a lack of understanding of their financial health, or poor management of cash flow. In a recent survey conducted by Wave, 45% of small business owners cited cash flow as a top challenge.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Zahir Khoja: We talk a lot about “going back to normal” or pre-pandemic comparisons. The world has evolved in the last 2.5 years from a digital perspective and an outlook perspective – especially among Gen Z and Millennials who are the upcoming cohort of entrepreneurs. There were a record-breaking 5.4 million new business applications filed in 2021 according to U.S. Census Bureau data. What’s important to them: impact, balance, being environmentally conscious.
Given the current economic uncertainty, we’re likely to see continued interest in entrepreneurship as people look for alternative ways of making a living.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Zahir Khoja: 1] It’s so important to recognize that things can change on a dime, and the importance of Business Continuity Planning. Many companies didn’t have a plan for “what happens if we can’t go to the office.”
2] Another piece of advice would be to do a “pre-mortem” on your business. What are the factors that could put your business at risk—at a macro and micro level—and are you prepared to mitigate those risks?
3] Finally, if you’re in constant communication with your customers, you’ll be more prepared —this demonstrates the fundamental importance of keeping your ear to the ground and staying close to your customer.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Zahir Khoja: The world has moved fast, like an elastic band – it went highly digital with everything available at the touch of your mobile so it’s crucial to understand where your business fits in the new normal.
The positive impact of digital solutions is clear; truly personalized solutions are the next step. At Wave, we think through the lens of “what does this technology, product, or solution mean for me as a small business owner?” We all have to understand the space that we serve, and we have to offer meaningful, simple solutions to help customers solve their problems.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Zahir Khoja: So many great things like banking, investing, and staying in touch with loved ones are made possible by digital. I’ve not been to my bank branch in the last five years; I do it all via screens. I don’t know how many hours a day I spend on screens, it’s an innate part of my day. But I try to make social interactions and face-to-face my primary, and screens as additive.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Zahir Khoja: I like to use analogies and examples of other top performing companies to paint a picture of where we are vs. where we want to be.
I try to convey that sense of customer obsession: getting in front of them, how to innovate to meet their needs. I believe in being transparent: sharing with the team when things are good or when things are a challenge. I’m very open with my team and our shareholders, providing regular updates on what I’m seeing and hearing, and providing a platform for the team to share what they’re seeing, feeling, and celebrating. If we can build off that, we can tell the Wave story in a way that’s authentic to who we are.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Zahir Khoja: The biggest challenge right now is uncertainty. There is a massive level of uncertainty in the world across many variables – whether it’s the pandemic, climate change, the war in Ukraine, high inflation, aging populations, environmental issues, political instability, lack of social cohesion. We’ve never experienced such a confluence of uncertainty as a society, as humans.
How do we manage this uncertainty? It’s about coming together and unlearning. Unlearning: each of those aspects of uncertainty might be able to be solved by what we know from past experience. When you combine so many variables together, having the courage to unlearn and reframe, come together as ONE and provide support where needed and solutions that will advance growth will yield the success to the challenges of today.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Zahir Khoja: At the moment, I’m highly focused on learning my new job as CEO of Wave! But also, I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about how to leverage technology to improve consumers’ and businesses’ lives. I’m excited to see what this new generation can bring. I really believe we have a long runway ahead of us in helping aspiring and underserved communities and businesses to reach their full potential.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Zahir Khoja: It’s a unique time to be a leader. One change that more business leaders need to embrace is to understand that people truly want to be part of the solution. They want to see how the job they’re doing is driving that positive impact for the community and customers. We as leaders need to translate that so they feel that impact.
And communication within the organization needs to be in both directions, not just sharing announcements and directives from the top down, but working through challenges at all levels. Sometimes the best ideas come the farthest from the executive team. It’s that idea of “unlearning” again – some people in the organization are farther from the C-suite but closer to the customer, and they have an innate understanding of the problem which needs attention.
Leading with authenticity and transparency is critical. Understanding that things have changed – building a culture of growth and impact, maintaining and growing the best team, providing the best service to every customer – these concepts are all related to knowing your values, knowing who you serve, and showing up every day with curiosity, openness, integrity, and humility.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Zahir Khoja: Seeing the future! If I could get that crystal ball, it would be outstanding. To see the future to drive impact, to avoid some of the calamities we’re seeing with underserved communities, to help us reach more people, and help create more successful small businesses.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Zahir Khoja: In the next 12 months for me and the team at Wave, it’s all about sharing and growing the Wave story and suite of solutions. We have a strong sense of mission and purpose.
And for me, it’s not just professional, it’s personal – it all goes back to my personal journey, my family’s small business ownership, and the people I met in Afghanistan and all over the world. When small businesses can reach their potential, when constraints are removed, when entrepreneurs can do more of what they do best, it creates massive positive effects on families, communities, and countries. We can make this a reality.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Zahir Khoja for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Zahir Khoja or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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