Mastering Leadership Across Industries with Maen Razouqi | Transformational Change Leader

I am from Kuwait, grew up, all my life, in Kuwait until high school, where my father opted to give me that opportunity of experience, in the US.

So, I ended up, going to high school in San Diego and spent a good 3 years of high school, in San Diego. Being in California is never too bad, especially if, you know, the weather of San Diego and the beaches, of San Diego. And then I started, exploring what am I going to do next in college.

So, my exploration led me to go into engineering, and I figured out that, you know, engineering is a good way for problem solving, and I like to solve problem. Although, you know, what I did probably in my career was less related to engineering, but it also gave me the capabilities to find solutions and not fear and challenges. And I think that’s a top side of engineering. I did my universities in the in the US, continued in Arizona State. And then after that, interestingly, by luck, I had an opportunity, to be passing, a career fair, and this big sign that just says, we hire people from all over the world.

I walked in there, and there was Schlumberger who were hiring. You know, at that time, they wanted to hire people from the countries that they work in. And, I applied, and I went through a very stringent process, and I still remember it very well because, you know, their goal is to find people who are willing to learn and not people who have certain skill sets or technical skill sets because, the engineering part of the oil field services is a bit different, and it cannot be taught in university. So, I went through the process, and then I was, you know, assigned to work in the US. I spent couple of, years in the US as a field engineer.

This is a field engineer where you actually go to the rigs and provide, services, going from drilling to evaluation to well construction. And then, a downturn happens. You know? And, usually, the oil and gas industry, it’s a very cyclical industry. So, you know, when the oil price is high, everybody is drilling, and everybody is happy, and everybody is making money.

When the oil price is down, nobody is making money, and nobody is happy. And then they want to reduce costs, so they move people or they get rid of people, unfortunately.

So, my temperature bandwidth was, you know, minimum 10 degrees since I was fortunate not to be among the ones pursuing their study in Arizona. I went there, and it was, unfortunately, in February, in the North Sea. And, with wind, you’re talking about minus 30 degrees. So, I’m supposed now to adapt to working into, a delta of 40 degrees from the north. In the North Sea, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the North Sea. It’s the furthest point, in Europe, offshore, winds, very cold, waves. We’re talking about 10-meter waves.

So, it’s not the most comfortable environment, but the challenges of it brings an experience that you take. And then, I remember one time, the manager of the units there said, who wants to go to Africa? I said, I will go to Africa tomorrow… And, he said, are you sure? I said, yeah.

I had to go to Congo and you only know the Congo from, movies and gorillas. The Congo was never known to be a place that that there is oil. And I had never thought that there is oil in the Congo. I went there. And that time, it was not the best time because there was a war between Republic of Congo and Zaire.

So, another learning experience is now you go to a country which is very beautiful. It has resources. It has, you know, beside oil, diamonds, you know, uranium, and the beaches, I remember, you know, you could eat the sand because it was so clear and clean. And I said, you know, it’s amazing how you have all of this, but there is only 10 people living, and everybody is below poverty.

And, and that gives you the reality check that, we are very lucky. So, there’s a component of luck that comes into your life that you have to appreciate.

And the journey continues. I don’t know how far you want me to go because that’s the first question.

But, you know, the journey then evolved into me coming back to Kuwait. And I took my first management’s, role here, in Kuwait, managing people for the first time, and that’s a different role. And this was, maybe 6 years into my career. And then I went into, human resources after that. And then I moved into technical roles, in back to Kuwait. And then I took, probably one of the first senior role, as a vice president of technology, and this is where I got acquainted at that time with, NVIDIA and with, you know, justice Wang. I don’t know if you know him. He’s the CEO of NVIDIA. So, Schlumberger was one of the first companies that actually, introduced the GPU when he introduced it because he was introducing the GPU for the gaming industry.

And we wanted to take that to increase the capacity of data analysis that we do when it comes to reservoir modeling. And that was very enlightening because you get to listen researchers and technologists and everybody wants to push his or her idea through for company investment. And now I want to embark into a journey of my own. And I always wanted to drive technology development from the region, And I thought this region and the validity of it is that this region sits on almost 50% of the oil reserve, but all the technologies are imported. So, there is no technology development from the region when it comes to oil and gas.

So, I had an idea, and I translated that idea with a group of friends who agreed on the concept and the need, and we brought their idea into a company that we called Afkaar.

Afkaar means ideas. Afkaar is an energy tech venture, where, we managed to basically drive, accelerate technology development, and in some cases, acquire technologies from outside of the Middle East region, and we brought them, to become, Middle East centric.

This company has been running successfully for 4 years now, and it’s managing itself into the growth of technology, you know, I would say, implementation for the oil and gas sector. But halfway through that journey, I got a call of duty. You know, a national call of duty, I call it. And, and I was told, can you come and help fix Kuwait Airways? And this was the first time I get involved into a government role, which is absolutely different than coming in from a corporate structure into a private, own structure and to the government.

And it was a very enlightening and satisfying for me. I think we’ve accomplished what we wanted and more during that journey. And, it came to an end like anything else, without going to the details of the reasons, but I didn’t see that, you know, I could continue contributing under certain circumstances because I like to see no limits to achieving the goals. And some people, they’re okay to be c rated and get a degree.

I am absolutely very competitive, and, I didn’t see that the environment, around will allow us to be that competitive. Although there is massive history in the company, there is massive, jewels, I’ll say, in its people and experience in the company. But, the structure, that came governing this, the past year has not been, driving it to the right direction. And, and then I decided.

Now I’ve done so many things in life. What am I going to do to give myself a break, and engage into more strategic and structured, you know, business, engagement? So, I decided to structure my family office and all the businesses that we have, direct shareholding in, I’m engaged in them into a nonexecutive role, but very strategic, role. So that goes from, interestingly, retail to oil and gas to energy to, logistics and, last but not least, to F&B.

I’m enjoying being a partner into a new venture, which is, in the food industry where we launched a new concept of Italian trattoria Called Augusto, in Kuwait, is doing great.

Mohammad: That’s a good thing. And then that Kuwait is also, like, you know, a place where a lot of F & B companies and businesses thrive.

There is a lot of them. I think Kuwait has a lot of, talent when it comes to F & B, and, in some cases, should be promoted as the capital of food.

You know, because of the diversity, the quality. And, interestingly, a lot of people come from regional, countries, and they say, you know, they come to Kuwait because the quality of food is stop notch.

Do you do you think that the FMBC in Kuwait, well, you know, we’re on the topic, is a regional leader, when it comes to FMBC?

Kuwait is regional leader. And, you know what demonstrate this is when you walk in the cities, like of London, and you will see Kuwaiti outlets, coming there. And there has been a lot of, entrepreneurs in that, coming through. But, also, it’s not only F & B

I think it’s also in the retail. So, you see a lot of in the perfumery, side of things. So, you see a lot of Kuwaiti’s, startups or, family, offices or family businesses have been successful there, and the clothing. I think Kuwait has a lot of talent, and that’s demonstrated with where they are positioned.

What’s missing is that what are we providing from technology perspective?

Because we have a lot of, high end quality, technical resources also in Kuwait. The question is, where is this into that, growth, journey. I think that’s probably something is missing, but it should be a focus area.

Mohammad: So, to be honest, you have a very diverse background when it comes to work. You’ve worked in many countries and multiple industries. So, my question is if I were to go back to your college years, in Arizona, did you expect that you will be where you are today? Did you expect it to be so diverse?

I think I was I was lucky in some sense to have had the chance to study high school in the US because high school in the US, you become a part of America. Because there’s not Kuwaitis. I was the only Kuwaiti in this high school in in San Diego. There is no there is no other Kuwaitis because Kuwaitis don’t study high school in in the US, you know, or a few of them and unless also Arabs there. So that’s a component. So, I started understanding the American, you know, what they call it, the American dream.

Everybody can make it in America, and you don’t have to come from a certain family or a rich background or, from certain authenticity. So, the American dream, was very well understood at an early stage. Now you take this with the support, and I’m blessed to have, you know, the best parents in the world without, discounting anybody else’s parents who are still supporting me and because we are so close, they are just next door.

So, we are very close, and I still seek advice, and they seek advice, and guidance also and support, from me. And that’s very important. And it doesn’t have to be parents, by the way. It could have it could be, an uncle, a friend.

And after that, obviously, the support continued even with my own family and my wife is an amazing support to been able to live through that journey, you know, in my career. So, I think having luck is important or has to be identified, and the support is a key enabler to where you can be today.

Mohammad: Now so we’re going to move on to the Kuwait Airways. You know, you’ve worked there, and we have done some research on our end, and we saw some accomplishments. There has been a significant increase in revenue, a decrease in losses of the company, as well as an increase in the number of total passengers. Tell us what’s your secret.

No! There is no secret. First of all, you have to understand that the market dynamics was on a growth mode. So, I was I was also lucky to come in, and, this was just post COVID. So, on COVID, the only the industry that got hurt the most is probably the aviation industry because there were planes that were never flying. So now you know, I came in just a year after COVID into an industry that is absolutely just hungry for travel. You know?

I remember, so many passengers that were traveling, you know, in the summer, usually, you know, a lot of families would choose the location to travel and spend, let’s say, 2 weeks or a month there, the summer after COVID, there were so many families that just wanted to travel 3 to 4 times. So that’s an opportunity.

So, you realize that there is an opportunity. An opportunity is post pandemic. And they always say, the smartest people are the ones who actually capitalize on crisis. And, if you bought NVIDIA stock at that time at $40 compared where it is today over $1,000, you would be a millionaire. You know? So, you know, you should have done it, but not a lot of I did, but I sold too early.

But, so the opportunity of growth was there. So, when you look at it, then you start mapping where do I want to what do I want to capture from that growth? Because you also have to realize you have limitations.

Number of planes are limited. You cannot just go and buy new planes because everybody was buying planes. They sell and the delivery, dates was extended.

We were in a very stringent negotiation, with, with airplane manufacturers to try to get them to give us planes within 8 years. You order a plane today, and you receive it after 8 years because all the manufacturing has, the capacity was reduced during COVID, and now all of a sudden, there is massive demand. But, also, you have to know that in manufacturing, there are companies that were shut down. You know?

And, and each plane, if you look if you look at the average plane, you know, wide body plane, if you look at how many components in it, you’re talking about 1000000 components. You know? That’s from the small as small as a screw to, to, you know, to as big as the engine.

So, there is 1,000,000 parts in that plane. And that’s and then when you look at it, there is probably 1000 manufacturers who were making these parts. Big companies can survive, pandemics. They can they last. They can live 3, 4 years, of crisis. Yes. It will hurt them, but they can survive it. But the small manufacturers who are supporting them are no longer in business. So, what do you do?So, you have to regenerate the supply chain of it. So, supply chain was a big challenge. The opportunity is there. So now you have to choose your battles.

And I always say, I said, you know, when you want to enter a war, and this is not a war at that time, and there is 20 battles, the I think, the leader who will probably most likely lose the war, the one who wants to win the 20 battles. But if you want to choose 3 or 4 or 5 battles that are very targeted battles, you can win the war after 4, 5 battles. So, you know, I was I was blessed also to have, the support of the, you know, the board of directors at that time and the chairman of the board who believed that this is an opportunity. We’re going to give you, that opportunity to tailor it into actions with freedom to build the team.

And we built the team. The teams, you know, a lot of them were, as I said, from Kuwait Airways. You just had to identify, you know, who are going to be the enablers of delivering the mission. And we just wanted to grow to the capacity of our capabilities as much as improve on our service quality and service experience, and also later on, you know, position Kuwait Airways to be a hub, to the limited capacity that we have, knowing that there is going to be a new terminal that will also give us that opportunity to grow. So, when you have all of these together, then, you know, it’s no brainer that you have to do 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. You know? And, Alhamdulillah we were very successful to improve the airline, and we won the most improved airline year over year. That was a huge accomplishment because you have to remember, you’re competing with 300 other airlines Yes. Worldwide. We improved the ranking.

You know, from I remember when I first took the job, Kuwait Airways was ranked 179. And in 2 years, we brought it down to 42, and we were in the right directions to go to top 20. You know, we wanted to be in the top 20 because we wanted to, customers to book Kuwait Airways. Like today, customers, when they want to book a flight, they think about, like, 3 or 4 airlines by default. So, we wanted to quit Kuwait Airways to be a part of that, thinking process, and you can only do it when you improve customer experience.

So, we spend a lot of time and money into improving customer experience, customer engagement, and, you know, and our strategy, that transformation strategy that we named Beyond Excellence, because strategy that we named beyond excellence, because that goes to being competitive. You know? I don’t want to be excellent. I want to be beyond excellent. So, when you drive the mindset beyond excellence, then there is no limit to being beyond excellence.

You know? It’s infinity. And we put the customer at the heart of it. So, when the customer is at the heart of everything we do and say and invest in, then, it becomes a lot more visible to them. You know?

And we engage customers, which is very important. The worst thing you do when you’re in the service industry is you decide what the customer wants to eat, and you decide what’s the menu. So, this you know, it was a game changer for us to bring customers. So, we mapped who are the top 100 customers. We brought them, over 2 sessions, I remember, to do the food tasting and rank and tell us, listen, this is the food we would like to eat on, on the airplane, and this is the food we don’t want to eat on the airplane.

So, things like this, and then we took the same experience into, and to also, you know, what they see on the screens. You know? So, and we introduced also an enhanced loyalty program, by introducing, you know, the mileage and additional mileage for reward system. So, you know, we made the customer a part of our journey. And when you do this, then it becomes a lot easier for you to fulfill your and achieve your goals. But I was very lucky also to have the right team and the right support from, management at that time.

Mohammad: We also noticed one other thing, a pattern in your career journey. You are currently on involved in parts of several companies. To name a few, there’s the Round Table, you have Wassel, you have DA GUSTO So, we wanted to know how are you so omnipresent, or, if there is a skill that you have.

No! The skill is taking risk… So, if you are into entrepreneurship and you don’t want to take risk, you might as well just become and stay as a government employee. That’s what I say. So, if you look at the rate of success of startups, it depends on what part of the world because, in the US and Europe, it’s a lot more mature than it is. But, for example, in the Middle East, the rate of success of startups, it’s usually One and a half out of 10 startups make it and when you say make it, they make it beyond 5 years. So, the reference of you making it is usually 5 years and breaking even. And the European or I would say technological cultures, it’s okay for investors to wait 10 years before returns.

And in this part of the world, they want to buy an apartment. They want to rent it the next month, and they want to collect the rent at the end of the month. You know? So that’s so you try to bring them into, think about growth and don’t think about dividend. It becomes a lot, more difficult.

But I think the VC, arena has changed, and a big part of that change is coming from family offices. A lot of family offices are becoming, investors into startups and, public funds. And you see a lot of companies, also government companies, creating their own, I would say, VC specific for certain, cultures. So, the diversity comes with risk, appetite, but also, you know, assessing the potential.

You know? If there is no potential, then there is no, appetite to invest. You know? Absolutely. Yes.

So, you know, you should see some of these guys when they come and they do the pitch. To me, as much as it becomes, reality to them that it’s not easy for you to get money from me, but the reality is that they realize that there is high expectation once you get that, money. You know? All the investments we have are on the right track.

Some of them are a bit delayed, not as well but one thing I do and I usually gather them on an annual basis, and I let them understand what each other is doing, decide the fact that they are on 2 different, or different businesses. So, you have to have the appetite to risk. You have to have the engagement, the constructive engagement, and that not the management engagement. Because if you invest into a company that you’re going to manage, you might as well just not invest because you should believe in the founders of that company, what is their mission, what is their ambition, what is their goal, and how are you going to be able to support them from a strategic, perspective less than it is, day to day business?

All of these businesses, I usually have, one calls a week. You know? I learned that the most efficient calls or meetings is usually 45 minutes or less.  Anything above 45 minutes. That’s why if you go back to university days, most of the classes you never had a class that is 1 hour. And if you go get a massage, the most efficient massage is the one that’s 50 minutes, not 60 minutes. Because you say, why 50 minutes? Why it’s not 60 minutes? And, so you take that into reality, and when the when the time runs, some of them, they say, can we extend, you know, for another 10, 15 minutes? I say no because we agreed we’re going to cover it in 45 minutes. But we can have a call, separate call, or we can wait until next week. So, there’s also, like, efficiency in the picture.

One piece of advice that I give, to people is that stay positively engaged. Look at the cup half full, not half empty. Absolutely. And once you have that, visibility and belief, then the sky is the limit.