The Majlis Episode 15: Work Culture & Technology at Red Sea Global with Sultan Moraished

hi everyone welcome to the Magus my name is and with me today I have Sultan mid Sultan thank you so much for being here mine thank you for having me thank you Sultan is the group head of technology and corporate corporate Excellence at Red Sea Global which is the developer behind Red Sea and Amala which are two large tourism developments along the northwest coast of Saudi Arabia and there's a lot to talk about with regards to Sultan's role in Red Sea but before we get too much into that Sultan I wanted to ask you how Red Sea fits into the larger context of saudian vision 2030 uh actually I like this question uh Red Sea does not only fit in the in the larger Vision let see is a core in the vision uh 2030 and I would like to uh to highlight that all the Red Sea outcomes deliverables uh we are developing a city between om and uh the scale of Belgium and we are developing as well an ultra luxurious location at Tamala as much as we are or all the deliverables of these uh projects that we are developing are directly connected to uh the Saudi Vision directly connected to the outcomes of of the objectives and uh the uh the pillar sorry the pillars of the vision uh 2030 and as much as I talk about red SE Anala as much as I am trying to uh tell you uh how good are they and what are they uh adding to to the ecosystem I will never uh give it as as much as our marketing department so I encourage everyone uh who listens to this podcast to go and check our website check the social media account uh to see exactly the deliverables and the hotels that we opened we open three hotels in Ry project we are about to open two inshallah before end of this year uh and also uh if they if anyone is having the opportunity we would love to have them visiting the site inshallah and like you mentioned there's so much happening at Red Sea and you know we we use the term Giga project to describe this kind of um you know ambitious accomplishment what what exactly is a giga project you know how does it differ from the running of a typical company or or a municipal government uh Giga project is a project that's that's actually covering a size of a city so when we speak about a giga project we don't speak about a company we do not speak about a corporate uh that that serves a certain sector we are speaking a cityz scale uh project everything should be developed from the beginning uh developing the uh the infrastructure developing the uh the assets building the buildings and making sure that the ecosystem Works uh the way that the outcome of this project uh is is driving them and this is what I mean by a giga project um you it's not a normal organization it's not a normal ecosystem you are going to be dealing with every uh uh stakeholder that you have within the country you you should have the support of uh the Bas economy in delivering your your objectives and at the same time building a sustainable uh destination or or a project uh that will last for ages uh in the future and the and also we learn from the mistakes if there are any mistakes that has been done in the past in these projects that we have bu and of course when we're talking about the city level we're building a lot of things from scratch but there's also an existing population and an existing you know life there right so how do you tie the developments of Red Sea with the existing group based on the experience that we had um we wouldn't have achieved any of the the the the success that we did without their support uh honestly um the the communities that we that are resonating around the projects that we are building are all supportive they're supportive by Nature om and wedge people they are amazing uh they will always offer assistance they will always contribute to the projects they will make our life easy when when when we when we are trying to get uh get this these projects done and that's what what I love about about these communities the hospitality in their in their DNA and uh we are extremely proud uh of the outcomes that we are doing with their help and support so what type of work are you doing with these communities exactly so um in terms of you know education partnership with the local communities everything in education we the the Ry Global uh did a lot of partnership with Prince M University and uh and other other vocational trainings uh to make sure that those people are are um Ed well educated so they can work directly in the project and we have actually uh the first patch are working within our hotels that that we launched uh this year uh it's it's so amazing to see people that used to study uh with you for four years and and and now they're working within the destination that you are building because it's going to be theirs in the future and uh they are living the dream with us and we are really proud to see them uh you know interfacing our future future guests with regard to partnership we're always in Partnerships with with the locals we try to get whatever we can uh from them because in the end we are not bringing something that's uh that doesn't work with with the local ecosystem uh the the hotels that we are building the assets that we are building are going to be sustainable if we are in collaboration with the local communities are going to be sustainable if we are getting the support of the local communities and we have the right Partnerships between uh both of them uh one of the funny examples that we have not funny actually this is this is an example that happens everywhere which is the mango season and in om um whenever it it comes you will taste the best mangoes ever in the country and it's all from the communities they are the one who's bringing those those M goes to us and we believe that um this is not the end of it it's just the beginning everything going to come or going to be sustainable when we have this partnership with them why and we are actually expanding and having uh all our collaborations with with the communities that's that's so important to work with the community and build together instead of you know sort of building on top of them and just imposing things and that I think speaks to the broader question of um the the work culture in Saudia and how that's been shifting and I know as head of corporate Excellence you're very passionate about sort of Shifting our mindsets from what what the old Saudi work culture was like to to something newer and more ambitious so could you tell us a bit more about that uh the corate Excellence it's actually we have established that department based on a concept that we have um and I I will give it to be honest with you to our CEO and our group uh chief of AD group Chief Administration officer they always use the term or our group Chief Administration use always the term so whenever you want to do something do it for the people but do not expect the return and because of that idea we started building the Corbet Excellence the role of the Corbet Excellence is that you go to a department no one will tell you that I am in need no one will tell you that I have problems but sometimes the problem are obvious so you go to that department you help the department you make sure that you enhance their process from an external uh uh view if there are any um uh Humane side that you should do within the department you should help on it you should facilitate at the end you leave you do not be in the picture so you go to help help the people make sure that the process is being implemented appropriately make sure that the objective of that vision is actually adapting to the company objectives and then leave you do not need to be in the picture when they celebrate because it's their celebration it's their work you are just a tool that's being given to them to succeed and that's the element ofan that I'm talking about uh what we are trying to do or what we are trying to build within the corporate exence and also with the technology that when you do something do not expect the return do not expect people coming saying that this guy is a superhero he helped us I couldn't have done this without him I don't like that because in the end sometimes those people will pray for you a a simple pray will will make your life better and it it is it is going to uh there is an Roi that's coming out of it and that's what I do with life there is an Roi of everything I used to be a banker so Roi is in My DNA um and sometimes there are positive rois and there are negative rois always try to have the positive rois by helping people by enabling them by fixing their processes and imagine if you have the technology within your e system you will be digitizing that and you will be making sure that they have the right right system to apply whatever you are doing uh as an enhancement that's the beauty of of the corporate uh Excellence once you do that once you enhance this culture you are going to have a culture that's healthy culture that's supporting each other and culture that sees sometimes a problem happens they will not they will never escalate they will go and fix and they will actually uh have make sure that this problem is fixed this problem is resolved and instead of you highlighting a problem you are going to highlight a success and you are going to celebrate an um a glory rather than being sad about um a bad thing happens out of the problem that that was there I think that's that's beautiful and it's I mean typically the the logic ofan which you know refly in English translates to Goodwill is not something you would you would see in corporate settings right but when you have a giga project and your your goals are more ambitious than than purely profit that's when you can see people really Foster growth with each other I agree with you 100% And and I will give it to the G project I used to be a banker and the element ofan was not was not there with us when we used to be a Bankers because we have to follow rules we have to follow regulations and the banking ecosystem is strict but when you work in the in the Giga project you are dealing with all types of people if you do not have the Humane part you will never be able to succeed never be able to succeed and and by the way the Humane part is not enough you have to have the technicalities as well so when you are good Technical and you and when I speak about technical I don't mean technology I mean about good in your work yeah and you are nice you will have the perfect uh ingredients to a successful department and to a successful organization and we can see that in the in the Giga project and I can see that in my organization as well everyone is humble our CEO is humble our Chiefs are humble the group heads are humble no one actually lives in another uh in in in another planet and you feel the others in in um in other another the Departments we are blended with each other we talk with each other and you can see that in our uh social media posts and with the people that are posting about the the management that we have within the organization so it's a culture and the Giga project has given us that opportunity to become Humane and to apply the the Goodwill part uh to our to our employees to our communities and to ourselves as well incredible and of course the other part of what you do is the as group head of Technology right and um I think sometimes people have this outdated image of you know the IT department sort of showing up when you when your printer is like broken or something and um what you're doing is obviously on an incredibly massive scale and it's more important work than perhaps what a lot of the rest of us are doing so I wanted to ask you a little bit about that thank you so much because we will be the people that goes when to fix your problem when there is a a problem but that's not the only thing that we do um the the the technology department are people are that are trying to digitize and to make sure that your processes are being translated into a system you will the business usually do not see these people the business usually sees the outcome of uh the the work that the technology is doing but it goes through several phases I'm not going to I'm not here speaking about them because if you are a technology person you know what I'm talking about but let's speak about a very important element on on this um typical anyone can do technology if he's a technologist anyone and there is no difference what is the difference that you make when you become um a CTO or a group of Technology the difference that you make when you make sure that all the deliverables that you have within the technology department are aligned to the or organization objectives and you make sure that whatever is being introduced is introduced to the um to the to the business the way that they want and the way that they are expecting and you make sure that you are always an enabler and how the word enabler is easy to be said but applying it is quite difficult and complicated because you cannot be an enabler if the business doesn't trust you you cannot be an enabler if the do the business does not see the value of the technology that you are doing so it's a relation that you should build with your peers you you should build with your management and you should build with your employees and the organization uh people as well the minute that you build that relation and you become the enabler to the organization you're going to be a successful uh group of technology and a successful uh CTO so people will start coming to you instead of coming to you to fix up a printer they will start coming to you with problems I am facing this challenge can you help me in fixing it I am facing this problem with the system can you help me in doing it I have seen that beautiful YouTube talks about a system that can uh um change our our ecosystem can you please look into that Solution that's the beauty of the grouphead of Technology when you become this the person that people comes to sharing ideas sometimes sharing problems and you are going to be always a per person who resolve it not by yourself by the department and when I say resolve it I mean that you make sure that this problem is being resolved and it's it's being resolved forever you cannot put you you cannot give them a painkillers all the time sometimes a problem happen once you fix it twice you fix fix it twice they will lose trust in you so make sure even in your problem solving that those uh problem solving ideas or initiatives are sustainable that they are not going to to repeat in future and once you do all of that you are going to become an enabler when you become an enabler you are going to be a successful technology believe me when you become an enabler they will be able even to accept your ideas one of the the problems that we used to face in in the past that sometimes you bring the best system to the organization doesn't work it fails and you real you you think as as as a group head of Technology why it fails this is the top notch in the market everyone is using it this organization successfully developed it this is this organization Su successfully developed it the only problem with that is that the business was not adapting to the new solution that you are doing because you were not a true enabler uh to them when they believe in you when they believe in the solutions that you are doing and when you know exactly that this solution that you are bringing is going to actually um res or or resolve a problem that they have or enhance uh an operational exercise that they do or operational process that they do they will accept it but do not throw it to them telling them that this is the best in the market you have to use it and that's the recipe of failure in order for you to achieve that again be an enabler let them trust you let them feel that you are there to help them you are there to support them and if they have even better ideas it's okay that the GLA of Technology gets it no one is is perfect in this world sometimes people will come to you with Solutions it was not in your mind and if they are great simply have them within within your organization do not have that ego that all all the Technology Solutions should come from me all the technology initiatives should come from me it can come from others and that's actually the complimentary part of the corporate excellence and that's the Beautiful the beauty of having both of them because you are are observing the journey from the beginning to the end and imagine what the success and the celebration is being done by the business success and celebration is being done by the the the people that you helped either by the introduction of the system or the success that you are doing with the processes that's incredible and it's of course it's not just problem solving I know we were talking about that but I mean there's also a lot of innovation that you guys are working on and it's it's I mean it's a really exciting time to be in Tech because you know all everyone can talk about is AI and the next Industrial Revolution and you you have the opportunity to create an entire city that's Ai and Tech enabled um what does that look like what's exciting to you it is as an idea it's extremely exciting but do we want to do that no why AI usually people when when they innovate and they have a lot of their Innovations in AI they are going to consume a huge amount of power and that will cause an impact to the nature that we have within within our destination you our destination everything is being powered by solar panels so we are environmental friendly destination imagine our data center is powered by solar planner this has not been done in the world so if I am going to have those AI Technologies um and Implement them within within the organization I will exhaust these resources and I will impact the environment so that the the the idea as it by itself is amazing but you need to balance it you need to balance it in the organization you need to make sure that whatever AI solution that you are introducing does not have a hidden impact and anything that you bring to the destination or to the corporate that should it should work it's not for the the sake of just bringing an AI to have an AI City yes that this looks fancy but it's only in the movies in reality the minute that you do that you are going to destroy your nature you are going to destroy your uh um sustainable sustainable approaches within the destination um you need when you are trying to have uh those AIS you need always to make sure that the impact are minimal there are a lot of approaches in doing that by re-engineering the algorithms of the CIS making sure that the data sets are when when you the AI what what does it do usually producing data when these production of data are next to the processes uh the data transformation are not going to be um huge and this will somehow minimize the impact of uh of the nature and so on and so forth that's what you should do use what's good for the environment at the same time do not do not lose it do not say that no it's going to impact my environment I'm not going to use it because using it will be more efficient uh in operations and will increase as well uh the revenue to to the destination so the balance is uh the solution and this is the role of the global technology if you understand what the business wants you will you will know exactly what to get to them and if you get if you know what to get to them you can balance it out with the AI and the and and the innovations that we have within within red SE is that it no we as a as an organization are are always open to new ideas are always open to entrepreneurs are always open to new Solutions so if anyone has a solution that he that they feel it can add value to the Red Sea destination we are more than happy to adapt it and imagine if something is being certified by Red SE if we say that this solution works and R SE Global it can work anywhere in Saudi Arabia it can go because we you know and when you introduce a new thing you will have a lot of listener you will have a lot of obstacles a lot of challenges with Red Sea people will work among you but they will not celebrate with you people will work among you to make sure that you your product is successful and when I speak about corporate Excellence again and Technology we are here to help because if we uh if we made sure that this solution AI solution is implemented within uh Red Sea and it's adding value to the Red Sea Community then it should add value in RI it should add value in Jed it should add value in in in the it should add value to in all the cities and that's the core uh objective of of these department so if you have an idea if you have a solution and you feel that it can add value please reach out to us and we'll be more than happy to see a business case and to validate it and to implement it if possible and also to certify it if it works well within uh within ritzy so you can go around the kingdom and use that solution have have you had something like that happen before um not yet but we were exploring three ideas we are in the last stages hopefully it will work one of them if it happens it's going to be uh inshallah a game changer in in the country hope hopefully it it it sees the light soon in inshah insh and uh in terms of other I mean I I like the balance of the sustainability because you don't always need AI for everything and it's it does use up a lot of energy and the fact that you know we're working on solar power is is a very good thing um the other side of tech that's potentially something to be cautious about is the more Tech enabled you are the more naturally open you are to cyber security threats um so how how do you think about that and handle that used to handle a cyber security role in in in um in the past um I used to be a banker for me banking are one of the most strict uh organizations in terms of of of cyber and it security they are always secure because they are handling people's money course so the shift and uh that happened to me when when we join or when I join the Giga project oury Global is that you are working in a highly strict environment to an environment that wants to that wants to deliver so how can you balance out the cyber security within that department and making sure that this department does not become a disabler to the business which is the most important factor cyber security by nature is the disabler you no one if anyone says that cyber security is going to enable you to do your business he's not saying the truth because cyber security are controls and whenever you put a control or something you are disabling it so where is the uh the trick here instead of you disabling the business you always need to think like them put yourself in their side and see if I am disabling you from cyber in this element how can I complement that with a solution that will overcome the the challenge that we did the minute that you do this you are going to make a successful or a protected environment in the same time an enabled environment to deliver their objectives speaking about the city which is a very important topic that's what we do with corporates you can do it with any organization with City the only thing that you can invest in is awareness and the national cyber security Authority is doing a great job in that imagine that when I joined Ry we're having plans to do some awareness campaigns to H now the national cyber security Authority is doing a campaign to the whole country to the whole Kingdom and when I speak about awareness we do not speak about the typical awareness campaigns sending a fishing email uh a fake website this is this can be targeted now andless the Technologies over there can't spot this but we are speaking about the advanced cyber security adts when people sometimes are mimicking the identity of others with AI they will mimic your voice they will mimic your image and sometimes they will mimic you or they will create a fake video of you saying and instructing them to do something or saying something that's the awareness that we need to tell the word that you you will see a lot but you should not believe a lot and always check but at the same time validate there are a lot of tools to validate uh open in the market if you feel that there is someone who's asking you um someone who's pretending to be um a requester trying to um to to do a fraud with you always validate do not answer do not uh reply calling you from a number do not answer to that to that to that call directly just be aware about the situation and whoever is approaching you whoever is trying to um attack you will always have their reasons to convince you and there is no rush if I will tell you one example that happened to one of the employees um they were someone was pretending that he's an a representation of an agency in in Saudi Arabia and he was by by the way he was speaking Saudi fluently that's the trick because sometimes you get calls and they tell you they're from a Saudi Authority but their accent does not he was speaking Saudi fluently the guy was calling me terrified what should I do I told him don't do anything said but he said that if I don't do it they're going to come and and to my house and take me to jail I don't do anything he is actually asking you to share your details because he wants to steal your uh your accounts don't do anything and can I tell you something just call back the number that called you he said I always call and it's always busy I told him that means that the number that they used is not correct however to be in Comfort share with me the the the details and we will support you we were actually we at that and uh we give him the confidence but the simple or the simple action that happened which is don't do anything was resolving the whole the whole situation no one can threat you in Saudi Arabia no one can threat you if you do not if you did not do anything wrong you are always safe always if you do something wrong then expect happens to you but in the same time as well validate because not because people will always try to use your weaknesses to get uh or to attack you and that's what we did in initially in in Ry uh RI Global we did some small campaigns to the communities of om and uh but now I'm I'm I'm extremely proud to have the national cyber security uh National cyber security Authority doing these campaigns to everyone within the country and they are investing a lot in making sure that the community uh are uplifted in terms of cyber yeah I I totally get that I think when we when we think about AI a lot of people find it scary you know like oh what could AI do to me but it's not really AI itself that's dangerous it's always what you know other bad people can do with AI to hurt you but at the end of the day it's it's still the same technology just more advanced right so the same person who was sending you an email as a Nigerian prince 20 years ago and you deleted that email now you just don't pick up their calls it really is it's the same logic exactly um but it's it's important at a national level to be you know giving out that sort that sort of security and awareness even though we H are blessed with like a an overall much younger population who are more digitally native and you see a lot of um particularly the older population falling for these sorts of scams as they get more advanced I agree with you um which um I think you know we're we're talking again on a national scale and when we talk about a lot of the Technology Innovation and U the general you know best practices happening in Red Sea um all the other G projects that are happening around it we talk about NE in the north nearby G next toiy um how do you see you know models of collaboration and partnership and synergies together uh in Technologies and cyber we talk to each other we share successful stories um it's you know what what the third parties don't know and vendors that if you do something bad in gidea or new you we will know about it so so don't lose your reputation do not lose your reputation just do great to them because uh we will talk and we will speak about this practices we will speak about successful stories we will speak about sometimes problem a problems how and how how they are being resolved that's in Te the technology technology side but speaking about the community it's always you know sometimes people that we feel that we are in competition yeah we are competing with we competing with we are competing with and we're not we are proud of each other I'm as much as I'm proud [Music] of they are also proud of Ry and all the deliverables are going to be connected with each other imagine if you go to cala in in NE and then you pass by Red Sea then you go to Amala go to Al then you come to riy you see riy season then you go to and that's an amazing journey you you know you are having or you are attracting people to come and live different experiences in the same time frame and imagine if you go to the South AB you go to jeda and then you go to the rig the minute that we have all of these introduced we are going to be um I believe the new Europe and we everyone will come to us because they are going to live the whole seasons in one destination different personas this different atmospheres and different experiences you can have 14 15 days vacation people used to go to us to do their their their 30 days vacations now people will come to Saudi Arabia to do that and believe me it will not be enough they will come again and I always believe that we have something that other others don't which is the hospitality by Nature we have that that within our dnas so when we see any any exper believe me the first thing that you say how can I help you exactly I hear so many stories whenever I have people visiting from the States from Europe the first thing they comment on is how kind and open the people here are they support everyone one one one of the the things that happened it was and small but it happened to me I was with my daughter uh going to to Alia and there was one french guy behind me so he was asking about alalia and the tower and and and I want to see the side scenes in in Ry so I heard it I I was like okay I'll I'll pay for his ticket because he's an expert M we went up and he started following me and he started talking he said why you guys are doing this you're not the only one everyone is doing this whenever I start asking about site scenes they always welcome Me by inviting me to dinner to lunch or paying for the tickets that I am in or offering me a drive why you guys are doing this I told him we have it in our nature it's it's and and it's not something to be we don't brag about this it's a normal thing yeah you do it and you live he was extremely thrilled and extremely proud and he said that I hope that we have that culture within our ecosystem everyone there is is afraid of the others they don't talk they don't offer assistance they don't offer uh help and again we'll go back to thean this is our religion our religion is always encouraging us to help each other to support each other and when you when we support you because we want you to see the good side of of of us not the side that's being published uh maybe publicized to you when you are in your country 100% I think um you you really have to come here to see it to understand the extent of the generosity and uh I think it was his Royal Highness Muhammad B Salman who said tourism is the new oil here and I I think it makes so much sense when you see the potential here not not just the the beautiful locations obviously but the people thank you so much Sultan it was such a pleasure to talk with you today and I had a lot of fun the pleasure of mine uh thank you so much and we hope that this podcast will add value to the people that just thanks thank you

2024-12-08 00:15

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