CEO Today Middle East Awards

www.ceotodaymagazine.com 66 CEO Today Middle East Awards 2019 united arab emirates MAHER AL AGHBAR Regional CEO of Dussmann Middle East GmbH ABOUT MAHER AL AGHBAR Maher Al Aghbar, Regional CEO / Middle East Cluster head at Dussmann Service, has taken the challenge of upgrading the Dussmann delivery in the region. A professional Facilities Management Leader and expert; With over 35 years of learning experience in the Facilities Management industry and a background in Engineering, Maher has worked on all levels from an Engineer/Chief Engineer, as an Operations Manager of Technical Services, as an Operations Director, and with one of the lead retails and shopping centers in the region as the Chief Operating Officer. Always the mission had been to find the perfect balance in a service industry where an asset owner entrusts a third party where he needs to make sure these assets are in trusted care to live their life expectancy and beyond. An interview with Maher Al Aghbar How would you describe your leadership style as the CEO of the company? Mainly I am a Task-focused with a results-oriented approach; I am also a logical and realistic thinker and very loyal to the brand and trade. I manage with a strong Lead by Example and value consistency, hard work and rewarding where you are expected to appreciate success coupled with efficiency. I am good at building efficient structures and processes that enable reliable execution. I always expect all in my team to “get on with it and produce a ready to eat cake” where if you don’t know, we invest in coaching and teaching to upgrade your skills and never give up unless it is evident these investments are not paying back. What is the key behind optimizing growth at a company such as Dussmann Service on a long and short-term basis? Dussmann Service in the UAE is a mid-range size company; we always work with a three-year business plan that we had started in 2015. To increase the size of our business—our goal is to be a significant player in the FM industry within the region. Our strategy is to grow organically, expanding with clients and at the same time naturally by improving the value-added service and partnership with our clients each year through our Operations and Business Development teams. We are also serious about adding more service partners through an additional strategic corporations/alliance with both service providers and assets owners—those could be in specific markets, specific services or even through opportunities that present themselves to us. We aim for a one-stop shop for the non-core service industry either alone or with our partners, the total non-core service solutions provider. It’s in our opinion where we see the significant opportunity for growth. We understand the Facilities Management Business approach, and we understand where we are heading while on the other hand, we know the region market need for significant players to concentrate on their core business and excel in their delivery as we wish to excel in ours. How do you ensure the delivery of top-quality service to your clients? When we say top quality, it means we will go beyond the expectation of the clients and what he had committed to them before we start the partnership. We fulfill and exceeds these promises by going the extra mile every step of the way. Putting effort on hiring the right candidates in different parts of the world, educating the staff in such a way they could easily understand and grasp every bit of concept. It was before my journey starts with Dussmann Service that the training is happening in the camp where there is no proper ventilation nor enough space for the machines, equipment, chemical thus making it difficult for the trainer to demonstrate the procedure accurately. As the saying goes; you don’t build a business, you create people, and then people grow the business. I decided to build a training center for all the new and existing employees of the company. The idea is not just to train people but to elevate the company’s standards when it comes to service delivery. And with the help of the team, the Dussmann Academy went live. Currently, all training is happening in the academy. Cleaning staff learns the practical hands-on approach for every machine, equipment, and chemicals. Refresher training for the technical staff, security officers as well as administrative people, whenever required. But the training does not end there; once the people deployed to the sites, trainers are conducting visits to ensure best practices implemented. Q Q Q