Semaj expands business advisory service to Florida
Published:Tuesday | December 5, 2017 | 12:00 AMAvia Collinder
The business management consulting firm, Above or Beyond, founded by Dr Leahcim Semaj and headed by Dr Sandra Palmer, has expanded into Miramar, South Florida.
The addition of a new office in an overseas market follows 35 years of operation throughout the Caribbean from the advisory service's Kingston base.
Above or Beyond itself is not a new operation. It is the marketing brand of Leahcim T Semaj and Company Limited in Jamaica and Above or Beyond Incorporated in the United States.
The consultancy started as Psychological Services Inter-national - PSI - and traded as the JobBank until 2015, when it was rebranded as Above or Beyond.
Palmer said she joined the firm in 2015 as a consultant and assumed the role of CEO and Senior Partner in 2016.
The new consultancy office in Miramar will target US companies with core services, including keynote and motivational speaking; management consulting; individual consulting; executive hiring; psychometric testing; seminars; cultural alignment; strategic planning; and business development.
"Our ambition, capacity and capability are growing faster than the Jamaica economy," said Palmer.
"We think it's time to export the Jamaican intellectual capacity for knowledge work and creative problem solving to the world, where there is effective demand and the ability and desire to pay for that value. Jamaica is more than music, sports and beaches," she said.
The partners say they are responding to the increasing demand for their expertise from Caribbean and international businesses.
"We plan to double our revenues," Palmer said. The company aims to reach that goal through "focused attention on the new market, building new relationships on the ground and increasing share of income from existing international clients, while containing expenses," she told the Gleaner Business.
TURNOVER NOT DISCLOSED
She declined to disclose the company's turnover and the size of the investment in the Florida office, even while suggesting it was not capital intensive.
"Above or Beyond is committed to a lean start-up in any new market ... 90 per cent of our services are not location bound. We deliver where, when and how the client requires the service," the CEO said.
The company's website indicates that the consultants have experience designing, managing and implementing transformational programmes in a range of sectors including energy, banking, education, gaming, government, hospitality, insurance, finance, manufacturing, mining and agriculture, pharmaceutical, retail and distribution, security, shipping and telecommunications.
Palmer notes that the company has an international network of associates that deliver its services with a Caribbean flair.