Founder of OZ Digital Consulting Reflects on 25 Years of South Florida Innovation
Read Time 3 MinutesBusiness: Offering clients the strategic technical tools and expertise to guide their decision-making, drive data, improve customer experience, and increase efficiency.
Founded: 1998
HQ: Fort Lauderdale
Employees: 300+
Website: FollowOZ.com
Leading South Florida tech entrepreneur reflects on the lessons he learned over the last two and a half decades.
OZ Digital Consulting recently celebrated their 25th anniversary with a celebratory breakfast and networking event in their newly renovated office space in Ft. Lauderdale. Attendees included Bob Swindell, Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance CEO, South Florida Tech Hub Board and Staff, business partners and community members. Distinguished guest, Broward County Commissioner Mayor Lamar P. Fisher, facilitated the event.
For Amjad Shamim, the key to long-term business success is a relentless focus on the people that make business happen: both customers and employees alike. That’s why at Fort Lauderdale-based OZ Digital Consulting, CEO Shamim takes pride in delivering top-tier solutions to clients while also offering employees a great place to work.
“You do good work for your clients, and business will come – money will come,” Shamim told South Florida Tech Hub. He added that OZ Digital Consulting has a customer retention rate of around 90%, which is much higher than average for services firms.
But critical to achieving this high level of success is having a strong team powering these efforts. “It’s so difficult to retain good talent, but we’ve had people with us for 20 years,” he shared, noting that employees appreciate the strong culture Shamim and his colleagues have invested in building over the decades.
“We treat people with mutual respect,” Shamim continued, acknowledging that employees and customers alike enjoy the consensus-building approach OZ Digital Consulting takes to every project.
Shamim attributes part of the firm’s early success to the fact that he and his brother and co-founder Asad had technical backgrounds rather than sales backgrounds – and approached business development accordingly.
“We’re not sales guys, so we just started working with our clients. We did good work, we continued to get more work, and we continued to grow.”
But it wasn’t all about growth for the Shamim brothers. “For us it wasn’t about growing really big, it was about maintaining the culture.” Of course, maintaining their culture played a role in helping them grow.
As Shamim looked back on the last 25 years of OZ Digital Consulting during our interview, his excitement about his work is palpable. “I really enjoy what I do. The reason I keep doing it is because, honestly, it’s not work for me – it’s fun.”
“My wife already knows that I’ll never retire. Even if I do something with this company, I’ll do something else because this is so fun.”
Shamim hopes to share this same enthusiasm with all of OZ Digital Consulting’s 300+ staff members around the world. “I want you to keep our culture of making sure that everyone is enjoying what they do.”
OZ Digital Consulting has grown alongside South Florida’s tech ecosystem. “20 plus years ago, I remember going to Tallahassee lobbying for technology investments in our area,” he said, explaining that there was no major enthusiasm for South Florida tech at that time. His clients felt the same, with one San Francisco-based client seven years ago delivering Shamim the backhanded compliment that she was “surprised there were good tech companies like yours in South Florida.”
Now, Shamim affirmed that the situation is much different: “We’re still in the early stages, but people are taking us seriously. So I see good things happening.”
