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| Mr. Mohammed Jheir, Jheir Trade Services Co. |
Arora: What one major change you have
witnessed that has shaped your specific trading services (packaging products
for petrochemical Industry)?
Jheir: Shipment volume Size and plastic
bag thickness. Bulk shipments, is when product is loaded directly in container
using container liners, and loads of around 20 tons. 10 -20 years ago the world
was not ready with infra-structure needed to load / unload bulk shipments,
today it’s possible. On other hand, plastic bags thickness is being reduced to
as low as 100 microns, and the bags are maintaining strength this was result of
new polymers developments, This trend of increasing strength and size is what crystallized
trend in our trading services is.
Arora: How
do you explain on having successfully formed a ‘heart connection with
customers’ ?
Jheir: Heart connection is the core! Nowadays
on internet you can find any product, check price, buy it online from anywhere,
and most critical, you may find alternatives and choices. But it’s only a good
relationship with client will that differentiate a company from other. You have
to prove that you really care about
your client’s business growth. We had supported our clients by suggesting them alternative
solutions even cheaper ones with fewer returns to us. This is honesty and real care.
If this alternative solution helps them without compromising the quality, they will
be happier and will remain connected with us for long. Some traders will not act
like we act.
In
trading business if you can demonstrate real honesty and care then even the
trade barriers will not affect your business. Pricing will not be the only
comparison factors in getting the order. Further, the client will always come
back to you for not only for our core business but also for seeking
recommendation for its other problems too. Repeat customers may not have heart
connection with us. They just like our services. We have handful of customers,
10-15 only. If you lose one customer, you lose a big chunk of our client base. Good
relationship is and will remain the core of our trading business.
Arora:
What do you see as organizational strength that helps achieving an immortal
status (self-sustaining for long) ?
Jheir: The customer can call me anytime
24x7 and even on public holidays. All my employees know that if customer calls
them and if they don’t reply they know that they are in trouble. It’s common
sense. We are not selling rocket science. If we don’t respond to them urgently,
someone else will do. And this strength of ours is real only if it comes from our
customer side.
Arora: How do you define your business lifeline? Do you see it even going to
zero?
Jheir: Packaging industry will never
die. But our business may stop if we deliver bad services. This is why we are
diversifying into manufacturing some of our traded solutions and adding more
products to our core portfolio. New competitors are inevitable who may reduce
our margins and profit. This can happen.
Arora: Is
there a space for innovation in your company?
Jheir: Innovation in our business comes
in our consultancy business but not in trading. It is not easy to change our
product specifications or values, because customers use our product on their
machines that are not easy to change setting frequently. Our manufacturing project,
which is going to start very soon, will be manufacturing innovative products
that satisfy our clients’ specific needs. And we will be the first one to do it
in GCC.
Arora: What are
your organizational ‘possessed
predictable-intelligence’?
Jheir: The network !
When
the customers know that you are doing you level best to sell, deliver for them
good quality products, they will trust you and then will cooperate and support
you when you have a problem, which is normal with the size of business we do
where chances of mistakes is there. 8
out of 10 mistakes could be resolved with good will cooperation between
customer and supplier.
Arora: What is that ‘unpredictable intelligence’ that you are eager to
capture?
Jheir: Finance. With the team and
knowledge I have, and can add when and if needed, in company I can execute any
task. The progress and expansions however requires financing, which should be
planned in way not to affect the ongoing business. Banks do not finance unless you develop
credit history, which leaves us the choice of financers.
Arora: Is
your ‘possessed predictable intelligence’ sufficient enough to capture the
‘unpredictable a
Jheir: With Possessed intelligence I
can continue as is. But this increases the risk of zero level on long run. With
the financial crisis hitting the world regularly customers are becoming more
price sensitive, and with the world trade organizations the market is becoming
wide open to new competitors to our local markets. If we do not diversify and expand into new
projects, our profit margins will be reduced gradually to reach zero level.
Arora: What
frightens your Organization the most?
Jheir: Our business is coming from one sector and has few customers only. If
an earthquake (God forbid) hits jubail the main petrochemical zone in region, or
Saudi Arabia stops oil manufacturing, or if war happens in region, our business
becomes zero same day. We are therefore diversifying to avoid this fear factor
that is embedded due to the nature of our business.
Arora:
How does chaos look like in your work /
Industry?
Jheir: I don’t have unmanaged chaos in
my normal business. We sell high quality products, so customer returns and
product damages are covered even by insurance or by a win-win resolution to
problems.
The
real chaos is force majeure that is causes beyond our control like war,
political unrest, and other similar reasons where solution is out of our
reach.
Arora: What action is majorly taken after
the completion of production if the complaints w.r.t. quality of product is
received from the clients?
Jheir: Hamdullah,
so far we have not faced even one problem like you asked. In the first place, we
make sure that we select good suppliers for our solutions and products and we
strictly adhere to product qualifying process. Our employees conduct quality
check visit at our global suppliers location to avoid the future problems. Not
everything coming from China is of low quality. They also make high quality
products. We just want to ensure that we are always standing next to our
customers at the time of their disaster. If my product (whose worth is say
10000 riyals) fails the extent of damage to my customer could go to 2 million
riyals or more. So if any problem happens, we first make sure we resolve the
problem and provide alternative solutions to the customer so they continue
their business. Other issues like returning the defective products, etc. could
be done later. First solve the problem of client. Product insurance covers most
of such situation else I simply can’t afford to have a problem of this scale
that might arise due to product failure.
Arora: What does
harmony mean for you in your work and personal life? What you do to maintain
it?
Jheir: Personal Life v/s Business. Till
I am 50, I consider myself I am still in a building process where 80% of my
time is allocated to business and 20% allocated to personal life. Later on, this time allocation will start switching in
favor of personal life where more time is allocated to my personal hobbies,
family as business will take care of my expenses and lifestyle. Chaos is a part
of professional harmony. I have been working now for 27 years, 13 of them as
self-employed, I still a beginner in many aspects and avenues of business.
Other
harmony is among my business team. My employees are like my family this is no
cliché, One day, when my coffee boy told me that he had his first baby boy, I
hugged him and we cried together of joy. Employees have to know that it is
their company. I am sure that if I am away from the company for weeks, the
company will run the same way as it is. I don’t interfere in their work. They
take their own expert decisions. When they are stuck at some point / situation,
they come to me and I take the necessary hard decisions. This coordination
between employees and my decision makes professional harmony possible.
At
time of chaos, and I really have a tough time, I do three things. First, I fix my relation with God by way
of doing prayers and doing charity. Second,
I do lot of sports to release the tensions. Third,
I entertain myself, by listening to music and or watching movies alone. I
listen to hard rock music like Deep
purple or Scorpion. It gives me a
good memory of my old college time and makes me feel good and fresh. When the
music is loud in home they know it’s a sign that I have hard time, they get
away from me. Even my wife! This helps me to forget about the problem and then I
relax and start thinking about the solutions for the problem. Every problem has
a solution and by keeping away from that checkmate type of mindset is what is
needed to get back to my harmony state.
Arora: How
your harmony can influence your employees, clients and personal life?
Jheir: My mood affects my employees’
performance and all the office atmosphere. The way I dress for example of
Thursday it is casual, and good mood, everyone is affected and happy. When I am
in really bad mood, my employees approach and try to be helpful and give
suggestions this Harmony between myself and the employees in company is because
we are very close. My employees feel happy and at home when they share their
personal details with me. A way to identify successful companies is how they
manage problem, chaos, bad moods, etc. If employees can step forward and handle
the blame or they just roll the blame to others. My employees feel the pain
more than me when they lose an order. I am proud of it. And this kind of
feeling of employee is more precious to me which indicates their bonding with the
company. This strong bonding will ensure that harmony will be restored any time
it is lost.
Arora:
What technical skills young business
undergraduate / postgraduate business students should develop to be
successfully recruited in your trading business?
Jheir: for the manufacturing project I
need Industrial engineers, mechanical engineers etc. For my trading I need more
of business management staff. After all, today’s technologies & software knowledge
is as essential, such as MS office, reporting skills, presentation skills that
are essential for communication among their own team and others.
Arora: What soft skills young business
undergraduate / postgraduate students should develop to be successfully
recruited in your trading business?
Jheir:
Ethical and Behavioral skills. The candidate should know when to admit
mistakes, and when to step forward in case other party did the mistake,
customers are humans and do make mistakes, by time the customers will realize
that it was not arrogance at all.
List of previous published
articles
1.
Arora, N (2014). Key
Insights from Crystallization happening in Psychiatry Services.
An Interview with Dr. Abdul Kareem Mustafa, Consultant Psychiatrist, Ibn Al
Nafees Hospital, Bahrain (Interview Date: 16th June 2014)
2.
Arora, N. (2014) Key
Insights from Crystallization happening in Advisory Services.
An Interview with Mr. Adnan Fareed, Senior Financial Consultant, Talal Abu
Ghazaleh Organization, Bahrain. (Interview Date: 10th June 2014)
3.
Arora, N (2014); Crystallization
of SpaceTime: An exploratory Mystical insights for Business. The
Proposed model.
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