BY JELENA BOJIC.
Starting my conversation with Jeremy Hayward via Google Meets didn’t kick off as planned. The recording button didn’t show up for some reason, so we had to troubleshoot. Conveniently, I was talking to an IT expert who solved the problem immediately and we carried on after a very short interruption.
Jeremy Hayward has been in the IT world for two decades, with great fortune to join Solut in its early days, and watch it evolve and grow into what it is today. Solut provides creative tech solutions to its clients and is in its third iteration of the business since its inception. Change is the only constant, and the team at Solut knows that. Started in 2001, with three individuals who sat down and shared their entrepreneurial goals; they wanted to develop a company focused on technology, innovation, and community. They took a chance, found a few clients, mostly post dot-com boom small to medium businesses, and that’s how the company started building its foundation. Those were the early days of IT, and things have evolved and changed significantly over the years.
Over time, they found that a big differentiator was having three or four owners in the room, who wanted to move in the same direction. “Our big growth really happened between 2010 and 2015, and we really wanted to pivot over from the break-fix approach,” says Hayward. They focused on strategy, meaning that their clients were introduced to a new approach, having technology top of mind as they moved forward with organizational plans and growth.
The Changing landscape of Technology
With the last two years changing many work patterns, Solut has been busy helping clients adjust to new work arrangements, working from home and outside of the office. That has been the biggest challenge in the early days of the pandemic, having businesses use and access services remotely, and push things to the cloud. “Where we really saw growth has been around the idea that a lot of businesses didn’t have a technology plan or a road map, or policies in place. That was a great opportunity to sit down and have these conversations, helping companies come up with an appropriate response, and plan for situations like this.” A large piece of this was educating clients on how to use technology and how to become comfortable with it. “Just like we did at the beginning of this conversation,” says Hayward, referring to my technology issues at the start of our call.
The technology arena demands innovation, reinventing yourself constantly, and never being stagnant. Jeremy and the team at Solut live by those rules, and that’s the key to their success. They continue to push the envelope with their own team on how to do things differently, remain relevant and ahead of the curve.
On the current ‘work from home or from the office’ question, hybrid work arrangement is an answer, says Hayward. After the past two years, we learned that moving forward we can make it work remotely, but we also need that face-to-face contact. The big players in the tech world have already implemented a hybrid work situation, and Hayward is doing the same for their team. While their new office space overlooking Churchill Square is open again, Hayward says the hybrid world is the future and we have to be prepared for that. “Emulating the work culture that you once built with social and team building activities is going to be more challenging in a hybrid model, but it’s something you have to be very intentional about.”
In the Community
Aside from being one of the leaders at Solut, Haywardis very dedicated to the community through various volunteer engagements. His current engagements include being a Vice Chair at the Edmonton Downtown Business Association, where he continues to be a voice for downtown communities and businesses, a Vice Chair of the YOUCAN Youth Services, a youth employment agency that finds employment for at-risk youth, and he assists with the fundraising side of things. Additionally, he chairs the YWCA Philanthropy Committee. Knowing that an incredible number of hours is dedicated to all these engagements.
Hayward says that what gives him great fulfillment is being able to take his skills in business and lend them to the not-for-profit organizations that do great work in the community. “Giving back and a sense of servitude is what I really enjoy, standing behind those organizations that are so passionate about what they do.“
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