Zayn Jaffer (Best Buy)

Apr. 20

On this episode of Marketing News Canada, Darian Kovacs interviews Zayn Jaffer. He is the Category Officer, Home Theatre, Smart Home, & Emerging Business at Best Buy Canada.

Zayn believes in a leadership approach style to business. He leads high performing teams focused on innovative and entrepreneurial out-of-the-box ideas and solutions. He has an honest, open, and consistent approach and believes in being an active listener and strong verbal communicator. He provides coaching today to ensure a group of stronger leaders for the future.

Zayn is interested in technology because he finds it very exciting. He stated that, compared to other industries, it is always changing. In regards to technology, his favourite advancements are in the health and fitness category. He enjoys seeing people strive to live healthy lifestyles and now it is becoming more accessible than ever. With the current pandemic a lot of people are no longer able to go to the gym or be enrolled in fitness classes, but Zayn believes that even post pandemic there will be more people choosing to work out at home.

With technology becoming more advanced, it is becoming easier and more accessible to live a “better” life. There are now devices such as smart belts that sense when a person is eating too much. There are smart scales that measure more than a person's weight, they take into consideration their height to measure their BMI to ensure that they are healthy. There is also technology that functions as food sensors to ensure users are not eating food they are severely allergic to. To minimize the amount of doctors visits for patients with heart complications, there are now watches that function as Health Canada certified heart monitor machines.

Zayn also finds augmented reality and partnerships very interesting. He believes there are many possibilities and opportunities for fitness brands and lifestyle brands to work together. An example of this would be Peloton. Peloton has partnered with augmented reality brands in the past to create captivating virtual experiences for riders. He sees a trend in virtual reality and sees it expanding significantly.

He believes that technology is beneficial to everyone, however especially the aging population. With the aging population becoming less capable of completing everyday tasks, there are now devices to assist them. This includes the Google Nest, this makes it easier for them to do tasks such as checking who is at the door. Through the Smart Home System they can now simply check using the installed cameras.

Technology is always changing and advancing, and that is what makes it so interesting to observe. Zayn believes in the future, many human tasks will be replaced with artificial intelligence and robots. His passion for technology is what makes him a desirable employee for Best Buy Canada.

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Juliana Bermudez