How Priya Rex Fernandez is Helping Businesses Make Smarter Decisions Through Market Intelligence and Cultural Understanding

Quick Insights

• Founder: Priya Rex Fernandez

• Company: Hayyakum Market Research

• Founded: 2020

• Headquarters: Sharjah

• Industry: Market Research & Business Consulting

• Core Focus: Consumer insights, market intelligence, customer experience, and business strategy research

• Specialization: Qualitative research, quantitative research, B2B intelligence, customer experience studies, and market entry research

• Key Differentiator: Combining global research standards with deep cultural understanding across the Middle East, Africa, and emerging markets

Every successful business decision begins with a question.

Why are customers choosing one brand over another? What motivates buying behavior?

Which markets offer the greatest opportunity for growth? And perhaps most importantly, how can businesses separate assumptions from reality?

For many organizations operating across diverse markets, finding reliable answers to these questions is often more difficult than it appears.

This is where Priya Rex Fernandez saw an opportunity.

After spending more than 15 years working across market research, business development, client servicing, and international consulting projects, she realized that businesses needed more than data. They needed meaningful insights that could help leaders make confident decisions in increasingly complex markets.

That vision led to the creation of Hayyakum Market Research in 2020, a UAE-based insights consultancy focused on helping organizations understand consumer behavior, evaluate opportunities, and navigate market dynamics across the Middle East, Africa, and other emerging regions.

Today, Hayyakum works with organizations across sectors including: consumer goods, retail, healthcare, automotive, banking, travel, aviation, and sustainability, providing research solutions that transform complex market realities into actionable business intelligence.

Building a Research Company Around Trust and Sincerity

In the market research industry, speed often takes priority over depth.

Businesses frequently receive large volumes of data but struggle to uncover the insights that truly matter.

Priya wanted to build a different kind of consultancy.

From the beginning, Hayyakum focused on one principle that continues to define the company today: sincerity.

Rather than treating clients as short-term projects, the company views them as long-term partners whose growth and success matter beyond a single assignment.

This philosophy has become one of Hayyakum’s strongest competitive advantages. In fact, nearly 99% of its clients return for repeat engagements, reflecting the trust and consistency the company has built over time.

Whether conducting: focus groups,customer experience studies,in-depth interviews,market entry assessments,competitive intelligence projects,or large-scale quantitative surveys,the company prioritizes quality, transparency, and actionable recommendations over simply delivering reports.

As Priya often emphasizes, meaningful research begins with asking the right questions.

Turning Curiosity Into Entrepreneurship

Priya’s entrepreneurial journey was not built on instant confidence.

Like many founders, she began her career facing moments of self-doubt and uncertainty. Yet over time, she discovered that leadership is less about titles and more about resilience, discipline, and the willingness to keep growing.

Building Hayyakum in a highly competitive industry required earning credibility in new markets, navigating cultural nuances across multiple countries, and managing growth with limited resources.

Instead of viewing these challenges as obstacles, Priya treated them as opportunities for personal and professional evolution.

She made a commitment to continuously upgrade herself every year.

From learning advanced business analytics and machine learning to strengthening her mindset through disciplines such as karate, she embraced lifelong learning as a leadership strategy rather than a personal hobby.

This mindset not only strengthened her business capabilities but also shaped the culture she continues to build within Hayyakum today.

Helping Businesses Understand People, Not Just Data

One of Hayyakum’s greatest strengths is its ability to combine global methodologies with local cultural intelligence.

Operating across regions as diverse as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and parts of Africa requires more than research expertise alone. It requires understanding how culture, behavior, language, and context influence decision-making.

This is why Hayyakum focuses on helping businesses answer critical questions such as:

• Why are customers staying or leaving?

• How does a brand compare with competitors?

• Which opportunities deserve investment?

• How should businesses enter new markets?

• What truly drives customer loyalty?

By translating consumer behavior into strategic insight, the company enables organizations to reduce risk, improve customer experiences, and make better business decisions with confidence.

Creating Impact Beyond Business

For Priya, entrepreneurship is not only about commercial success.

She is equally passionate about mentoring young professionals, encouraging women to pursue ambitious goals, and creating workplace cultures built on integrity, learning, and excellence.

Her leadership philosophy centers on continuous reinvention.

She believes growth is not a destination or a milestone but an ongoing commitment to becoming a better leader, learner, and professional.

That mindset continues to influence both her personal journey and the evolution of Hayyakum Market Research.

Advice to Women Entrepreneurs

Priya Rex Fernandez encourages aspiring women entrepreneurs to start before they feel completely ready.

According to her, confidence is often the result of action rather than the prerequisite for it.

She advises women to continuously upgrade their skills, embrace lifelong learning, build credibility through consistency, and lead with sincerity.

Most importantly, she reminds women that challenges are not barriers to success — they are opportunities for transformation.

"Confidence does not come first. Courage does."

Why Priya Rex Fernandez Stands Out

Priya Rex Fernandez is helping organizations navigate complexity through meaningful insights, cultural intelligence, and data-driven decision-making.

Her ability to combine research expertise, entrepreneurial resilience, and a people-first leadership philosophy has positioned Hayyakum as a trusted market intelligence partner across the Middle East, Africa, and emerging markets.

Through integrity, continuous learning, and an unwavering commitment to helping businesses understand people better, Priya continues proving that the most valuable insights are not found in data alone — but in the clarity they create.