“In any economy, you prepare your organization for facing the tough time”

Hossam Saleh, an Entrepreneur, Senior Business Consultant and Accredited Facilitator has spent more than 25 years in leading positions with reputable organizations. He represents a generation that is ambitious and driven; converged in its possibilities and determined to make a difference. In this exclusive interview he discusses business strategies, personal values and explains why he is resolute to investing his power and prestige to actually make a difference...

Please elaborate for DG readers some of you qualifications, skills and abilities...?
That’s a tough one! Let’s review it all together, 25 years of experience in Self owned, Local and multinational companies. 25 Years of experience of moving between different parts of the organizations, from technical to sales to commercial to strategy then executive management. Assigned as CEOs for one of the largest Egyptian companies at the age of 27. Having long track of building skills through learning process and hands on in the field qualified me for several steps in my career. But I can say that all qualities, skills and abilities were built across the years besides few that are acquired by birth.

In a difficult economy such as ours, it is crucial that business owners are prepared for any unpredictable shocks. What advice do you have on establishing appropriate responses to minimize any impact...?
In any economy, you prepare your organization for facing the tough time. Having said that, there are times where you focus on developing your organization and its people. You change people behavior in order to be able to deal with the new impacts of the change taking place. In business, your past success guarantees nothings; that’s why you have to be on the top of your market and industry in order to be able to move from position to a better position relatively to the market dynamics. Sometimes we stand still for a while although the market dynamics don’t allow this.

Are there some tools available to help me determine if my company is in real trouble? And would you say measuring frequency of website visits a fair way to measure success.
We always ask companies to review four major areas to judge its healthy operation. First, navigate through the commercial plan which includes their sales and marketing activities according to the strategy set. Second; verify the technical plan or the production plan where the technical part of the company is in manufacturing, trade, or any business line. Third; we validate the management and human resources plan and actions taking place. Fourth, examine the financial plan including the cash flow and different accounting ratios. If you have any of those four areas is not on track, then trouble is too close. Back to your question, having the company in troubles won’t affect the number of visitors to its website. The content of the web site could be attractive enough to cover any trouble of failure. Certainly, frequency of website visits is not an indicator.

Technology is now enabling companies to replace their traditional face-to-face interactions via a technology interface using the internet. Are you convinced that the most successful brands will be those that embrace and learn to harness these progressions as opposed to underestimating and fighting against its influence...?
Technology is not opposing human in their day-to-day work. However, technology changed the work cycle and where we need people at. The front liners in many organizations now have more tools to provide much better services and more benefits to their clients. Certainly, those who adapt faster to the new market dynamics will win early enough with a competitive advantage. Aligning with the new paradigm of technologies is the way not to fight against it. Those who choose to fight will not win in the end.

On what foundation does each of the reputable organizations that you have worked with, assemble their qualified team to effectively manage, and develop a plan for maximizing market potential and probability...?
Human resources are the most valuable assets of any company. Great organizations are built on three main pillars; Focus on execution, Great Leaders and great people. Those who know those pillars provide their finest attention to people. Those who focus to run the company with best HR rules and systems that enables people to excel, those who can bet on their market leadership. Some of the organizations I worked at promoted their worldwide commercial leader to HR leader as part of pushing the company forward. May be one of your readers would consider this as a demotion, but that was a real promotion where he made a success in the results by allocating people to their best places. Success comes out of people and not from policies and procedures.

What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months...?
The toughest turn I would call it, that I changed the priorities of the roles I play in life. I have my professional carrier, volunteer life, entrepreneurial business beside my personal life. I decided to put my small family in the head of my priorities despite the fact that my time is needed on my professional areas. I took that decision for the family benefit where on the long term, I’m positive it will pay off on the other roles. Success on one arm and letting the other arm won’t live long no matter how powerful and successful the person becomes. In addition to that, having multi-business activities in different industries is an edge that I enjoy very much. Now, I’m having more focus on certain areas to grow in the near future. Those are tough ones as you drop by choice some of your fun parts of life that you used to enjoy during development.

With all the incredible experience you have - How had you learnt to handle an extremely discontented client, who is unhappy due to non- effective business plans & strategies?
Client handling is an art where you study human behavior and you work on it. Companies in some areas might not be the best fit for that client. If you find out this gap, you work on putting your best people to handle it. And one of the best approaches is to use the benefit of being honest to your client and put yourself and your team at the client side finding how to handle. If you fail to satisfy the client, you must go for compensation and finding him an alternative. Besides, start working on the improvement immediately on those noneffective parts of our plans and strategies.

What single book do you think everyone should read...?
From Good to Great – Jim Collins

On a more personal note: what do you value most in life...?
Happiness of my family is of the highest value coming second to the willing of GOD’s satisfaction of me. Those two can make me achieve miracles … Our best days yet to come! Thanks to you and DG