How would you describe your time at Four Principles (FP)? Are there any key lessons learned or professional advice that you still carry with you?
Working at Four Principles (FP) and working for Patrick and Seif was a massive learning curve for me, in terms of expectation and delivering results. Getting the chance to work in different industries broadens your knowledge and skills, something you don’t get working as an internal employee. This then gives you the confidence to tackle any situation knowing you can tailor your approach to suit the environment you enter.
What I still carry with me is to be direct in your approach, get the job done, top management do not have the time to work through all the angles to make a decision, you have to put the work in to help making these decisions easier for them.
What are some new opportunities or partnerships you’ve been able to take part in since leaving FP?
Since leaving FP, I have worked for a local FMCG company in the UAE, started as a Business Process Manager for the Consumer Division before taking over as the Head of Manufacturing for one of their major contract manufacturing companies, managing over 250 employees across 4 factories. I then joined Hitachi ABB Power Grids as a Continuous Improvement Manager for Middle East & Africa, after a short time taking on the Quality role as well for the region. Today I am now looking after Q&CI for the company’s biggest region Europe.
What do you enjoy about your current role?
I am currently the Quality & CI Manager for Europe working with 15 countries. The business is mainly focused on planning and executing large scale engineering projects for utilities. I have not worked in this industry before; it is very different to that of manufacturing, where you can go and see the problem. We find ourselves today solving problems that had an input into planning 2 years ago. With it being a project organization, people are moving and customers are changing. Hence, it is difficult to sustain standardization at times. With these challenges comes huge opportunity for improvement, so this keeps me motivated in my current role.
Have there been challenges in your career that surprised you? How have you met those challenges?
Working in a fast-paced environment like I do, change is constant and there are always challenges. For me, challenges are something you face as part of any business and the best way to handle them is to face them head on, deal with it, and move on. I prefer to have a plan in place rather than wait for someone else to give me their plan.
What/who keeps you inspired and motivated?
Resolving problems to improve performance. I enjoy the responsibility that comes with having the autonomy to put strategies in place. In the position I am now, it is more about building teams that can implement the strategies I plan, rather than delivering the results myself. People to purpose to improve performance.
My wife can now tell when I am inspired or in the zone – she learnt this from my FP days, in the times where a final presentation had been delivered with top results, or a new project had been secured and the feeling just shows. I am sure the FP consultants will know that feeling.
On a more personal note, what are you reading at the moment?
I am not reading anything as such, I am continuing my research on lean and performance cultures, and on what guiding principles are used in successful companies, I’m always trying to pick up tips to utilize in my organization. My favorite lean book is still The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, I regularly pass it on to my colleagues.