bloom: Soraya Hayani

In the early days of Corona, Soraya Hayani started at the Cronos cluster &KOO as Business Architect. In &KOO, which includes around 18 marketing agencies, she is responsible for the business development. Socially impactful projects are the basis of her incredible energy and professional approach. In addition to her full-time job, she works on a voluntary basis on social projects involving young entrepreneurs and the homeless. Her story is powerful and fierce, especially knowing that she is only 26 years old. We talked to Soraya about her path, ambitions and vision. 👇🏽

A young business architect in the marketing world.

What do you do in your current role as Business Architect?

"As a Business Architect at &KOO, I mainly focus on business development. Our business cluster includes about 18 marketing agencies for which we provide a guaranteed percentage of sales from within the cluster. We also explain the ecosystem of both &KOO and Cronos to engage in meaningful co-creation with other Cronos companies to be able to move quickly on projects. I put the right expert companies together for projects that match that expertise. That way we join forces and can take on larger and more complex projects together."

Soraya's focus is mainly on retail, sports and food. In addition, tenders in IT from the government and NGOs suit her best. She has found these sectors after having somewhat a more difficult experience with other verticals, such as the construction sector. 

"I often heard that I was the 'The Miss from &KOO' and not the marketing specialist. Even though I am young, I already have some experience, but they didn't really want to see that. So I went looking for sectors that I felt were more modern, such as retail, food... I feel more welcome there. There are also a lot more women around the table when you discuss a project, and the products are also much more in line with my lifestyle."

Socially committed.

In addition to her job as a business architect, Soraya is also very active socially, supporting causes such as homeless organisations and young entrepreneurs. She is the co-founder of 'Fleks'which works on empowering young people to become entrepreneurs. She is a member of the General Assembly of Formaat,the umbrella organisation for youth associations in Flanders. She was also on the board of directors of Amana, which a few years ago devoted itself to helping the homeless in Brussels and Antwerp and building wells and orphanages in North Africa. Her non-profit Amana became third in the 2016 Diwan Awards in Brussels for the most social enterprise of the year. In addition, Soraya herself was chosen as "most active social citizen of the year" in 2018 by JCI (Junior Chamber International).

"You have to want to do the work to make a difference. Where is your commitment if you only want to do something for money? It would be sad if you want to contribute to a better world, but only if you can send an invoice."

In your free time, you are involved in many social projects. How do you do that, combining almost 2-3 jobs? 

"Little sleep... Well, I laugh about it now, but it's really how it works. I don't get more than 5 hours of sleep a night on average. I am chairman of an organisation and sit on the boards of several others. In one of them, I have two full-time employees to manage. So even if I delegate work like this, there is still something left over that I do in the evening. 

It is not exactly easy and it is a lot of hours. A colleague once asked me if I shouldn't invest those hours in something that makes money. I really don't mind that, all the unpaid work. You have to want to do the work to make a difference. Where is your commitment if you only want to do something for money? It would be sad if you want to contribute to a better world, but only if you can send an invoice."

Where does your desire and energy to be so dedicated to helping the world come from?

"I got this mainly from my home and family. My parents were always very committed. As a child, they taught me to stand up for people who were less fortunate. 'Speak up' was often their message. As a woman and a cultural minority, I have experienced discrimination and racism. It taught me to stand up for myself and, when I was older, for others. I was lucky that my parents were well-off and could offer me many opportunities. I didn't have to work to fund my studies so I had the luxury of taking care of others. Realising that I have these privileges and others do not, gives me a moral obligation to give something back to society." 

Successes and challenges.

What were your greatest successes and what are your daily challenges?

"What I am really proud of is my first big sale at &KOO. What a great feeling that was! This was a big project and I had just recently started at &KOO. The feeling of having 'won' was more satisfying than I had imagined. I had found the project through my network; my contact was the marketing manager there and the company just wanted to change marketing agencies. Good timing, brought the right people together and in this way was able to supervise a beautiful project for Dallas (business unit of &Koo)."

"In terms of challenges, I sometimes find it difficult to be taken seriously within our tech sector. It remains a challenge every time to have to prove that I do have enough expertise to help to prospects who are prejudiced. Is it because I am young or too enthusiastic? Colleagues sometimes ask if they should take over. That is always well-intentioned, but for myself I then think: 'No, I want to do this myself'. In a way, it's a fight with yourself, but it's OK to take on that fight. It's just painful when someone doesn't want to talk to you and asks for someone more experienced and thus more credible, but at that point you have to be strong. Fortunately, my team is always behind me. If things really don't work out, they will step in, but most of the time they give me a push and say: 'Come on girl, you can do it!'"

The future.

Soraya's greatest ambition in her own life is to combine 'improving the world' with her paid job. To make a living out of what she does with projects that create a social and societal impact, is her dream. She's already on the right track, because at &KOO social themes are very much alive. With the slogan 'We make better futures happen' and the concept of 'purpose-driven brands', they help companies think about sustainability, humanity and ecology. 

At &KOO you're also involved in a project about diversity and inclusion. Tell us about it!

"My colleague, Kristel Vanderlinden, has set up a project on 'betterment' of companies. This means that she thinks with companies about how they can do better in a socially responsible way. For this, we would like to use our technology and bring brands into the story. For this project, I helped by doing research. My expertise in the theme is 'inclusion'. My research was specifically about how companies that do not yet have an inclusive mindset can integrate it into their DNA. Our study showed that almost all companies are open to inclusion, but most do not know how. We are not yet 100% ready with our proposition and we are still puzzling with the building blocks to really help companies. The theme gives me energy because you notice that you are really doing something very useful; you are helping people and at the same time companies."

Within the theme of networking and building a community, we would like to ask you who you would like to meet and why?

"The first person who comes to mind is Vernā Myers, Chief diversity manager of Netflix. She was the first to bring diversity (colour and representation) to the screen absolutely successfully. The international growth of Netflix has proved her right. People all over the world watch Netflix, and I think that success is largely due to the international nature of the product thanks to Vernā. She manages to cover so many diverse people, which really inspires me. If I could meet her I'd ask how on earth she managed that! To raise this issue in a mogul like Netflix and convince people of its impact is something I admire. I also love how sincere they are about this. The Belgian media landscape has already had to re-record several programmes to be aired on Netflix because they did not meet the diversity requirements. That Netflix has also become a global player while, or even because, they address strong social issues is just very inspiring."

Soraya Hayani, an energetic, intelligent impact maker, inspired us greatly with her interview. What especially sticks out is her drive and enthusiasm to dedicate her career and even life to others. Would you like to know more about Soraya? You can find her on Linkedin or soon at one of our events.