Firaz Markar to head STAX digital practice

Sri Lanka’s leading global management consulting firm, STAX, announced the appointment of veteran consultant and renowned tech entrepreneur, Firaz Markar, as the head of its newly launched Digital Advisory Service where he is tasked with identifying and unleashing opportunities for disruptive digital growth among Sri Lankan corporates. 

Commenting on this appointment, Stax Managing Director Dr. Kumudu Gunasekera stated, “I am glad to announce the appointment of Firaz Markar as our new Head of Digital. Firaz possesses a proven track record of leading and executing several industry firsts within the Sri Lankan digital space, and I’m certain his expertise and innovativeness will be a huge value-add for our clients as they progress along their digital journey.”

Having first joined STAX in 2007, Firaz gained extensive expertise in supporting clients realise their objectives through insight-driven consulting solutions. During his six year stint at STAX, Firaz rose through the ranks to lead the research practice. Thereafter, he went on to co-found and successfully grow Carmudi – a Rocket Internet venture in Sri Lanka – and the Sri Lankan arm of iflix— the largest SVOD platform among developing markets.

With his return to STAX, Firaz will bring a decade’s worth of experience leading management consulting engagements and launching global digital businesses to advise clients on maximizing long-term value. Firaz holds a BSc. in Information Systems and Management from the University Of London International Programme, and is also well versed in financial accounting through CIMA accreditation. 

Designed to offer unprecedented value for any corporate considering the establishment of their first digital business or for those already along their digital journey, Stax’s Digital Advisory Services was first launched for the Sri Lankan market earlier this year. 

Commenting on current challenges and opportunities within the market, Firaz alluded to a growing sense of urgency among the country’s most progressive corporates to take a more structured approach to digital investments. 

“Many corporates view today’s technological advancements as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the disruptive innovations enabled by the rising prominence of developments like omni-channel retail, big-data analytics and increasing prevalence of emergent communication and social media platforms, have generated bold new digital strategies capable of winning new market share. Yet at the same time, consumers, businesses, and supply chains, are changing and becoming more complex to manage. Our goal at Stax is to leverage our own technological expertise to ingest and analyse all of this data on behalf of our clients, and distil valuable insights into where and how they can invest to gain the best returns on their digital investments,” Markar explained. 

Leading the company’s portfolio of digital offerings is the Stax Digital Readiness Index. It provides corporates with an in-depth evaluation of the digital maturity and disruptive influence of a company through an extensive audit of a given client’s digital positioning. By factoring in the nature of their core business, competitor behaviour, industry best practices, and internal capabilities, Stax is able to generate invaluable insights into how a digital strategy succeeds while also highlighting opportunities for greater engagement. 

Meanwhile, the Stax Digital Roadmap service builds on these audit findings, leveraging them towards the development of a comprehensive plan for the implementation of a customer focused digital business strategy. STAX Digital Implementation services are focused on strategy implementation in areas including but not limited to: Digital product development and launching, digital marketing optimisation, performance management, business intelligence dashboard implementation, and change management. 

For over 25 years, STAX has been advising 100+ global Private Equity investors and 25+ Fortune 500 companies. Headquartered in Boston, the company has branch offices across Chicago, New York, Colombo and Singapore. Since inception, STAX has delivered over 2,500+ client engagements, across diverse industries covering 40+ international markets. With a growing client base in Sri Lanka, including diversified conglomerates, blue chip industry leaders and large family businesses, STAX inspires organisations to dream big, think outside the box and complement gut-based decisions with fact based insights.