Mr. Mohamed Shamy Adam is the Chairman of Stallion Maldives, a group of companies offering all aspects of safety and security for businesses. Our team sat down with Mr. Shamy to dive deeper into the formation of his company, and to find out what sets it apart from the rest.
Could you begin with an introduction to the Stallion company and what it specializes in?
We actually started Stallion with the purpose of providing fire safety and security services, including IT and cyber-security. Although the company was founded recently, I have been in the security and safety industry for a long time. For the last six years, I have been the Managing Director of Gage Fire Safety, and we have been able to capture and carry out some of the largest projects in the Maldives. Now, we have started Stallion and acquired a few businesses on the security side as well.
How did the idea of the company come about?
Since I have been in the industry for more than 25 years, the idea of having my own business was in my mind for a long time. For most of my career, I was working under other people; I was also the General Manager for Anti-Fire Maldives in 2005. And so, having had so much experience in the industry, I was keen on starting my own brand in safety and security in the Maldives.
In your opinion, how much importance does the Maldivian community give to safety and security in general?
For one thing, we do not have a building code in the Maldives. Due to this, private residences tend not to have fire safety and security systems installed, as there is no requirement to do so.
We have mostly been doing fire safety and security systems for resorts, as there is a regulation for them. They are required to have certain fire safety systems in the resorts to acquire the operational license. Additionally, high-rise buildings such as government buildings especially in Male’ do have regulations from the Defense Ministry, which require them to have fire safety systems.
However, it is just as important to install such security systems in private residences as well. Recently, we’ve had major fire incidents in Male’, and even resorts, so it is necessary to install the right systems to minimize the risk of such events.
What do you think you do differently from your competitors? What sets you apart?
The security industry can be divided into a few areas. One is the security guards you find near stores and businesses; they are often paid very little and not trained specifically for their roles. As we partly cater to the resort market, the level of security required is much higher than that of businesses in Male’. At Stallion, our security officers are trained to a certain level and given regular on-the-job training.
Apart from security, we offer fire safety, emergency management and training, first aid training, and even food safety training and consultancy. Other companies typically focus on and specialize in only one aspect of safety and security, while Stallion offers a total solution to our clients. That is how we are different from the rest.
What are the biggest challenges you face in this industry? How do you overcome them?
The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly affected our economy, especially the Maldivian tourism industry. Resorts have only recently begun to reopen after the lockdown, so we have had difficulty in getting payments for some of our projects. We were looking after more than 30 resorts, but due to the implications of the pandemic and subsequent restrictions on movement, we were unable to give our services to them.
However, after the border reopening, things are picking up. Tourist arrivals are steadily increasing, and some resorts have begun development projects. So I believe there is a lot of scope for this industry in the future.
What’s in store for Stallion in the future? What can we expect to see next?
Although we have started in the safety and security industry, we do have plans to diversify and enter into other related and unrelated areas, such as logistics and supermarkets.
We also have a vision for our training center; we are already in dialogue with various training institutes across the globe, so once we have reached agreements with them, we will begin our training center as well. It will include programs for not only safety and security, but also workplace safety, construction safety, machinery operation, and more.
