Speaker 1: So organizational change management is one of the key factors for success in a digital transformation, if not the most important factor for success in a transformation. It's true for any organization in any part of the world, and that is also true for companies operating in the Middle East and Northern Africa. In today's video, we're going to talk specifically around the organizational change and cultural aspects of digital transformation in the Middle East and Northern Africa. My name is Eric Kimberling. I'm the CEO of Third Stage Consulting. We're an independent consulting firm that helps global organizations throughout the world through their digital transformations, and I'm here today with Ash Ali, who's our vice president of the Middle East and Northern Africa. We're going to talk here today about organizational change and culture in the region. Ash, thanks for being here today. Oh, thank you, Eric. So one of the things we advise clients on, you and I have advised a lot of clients on, is that whole balance between software best practices and preserving a company's secret sauce and just finding that right balance. And if I'm a software vendor, and say I'm an American or European software vendor, it'd be really easy for me to come into the MENA region and say, I know you're an organization that has 100 plus years of experience, but my software has the best practices that you should be adopting as an organization. some of the things you advise clients in the MENA region on how to how to navigate that whole tightrope or that that fine line between those two

Speaker 2: extremes? I think one of the biggest differences and it's like you mentioned you know the best practices and companies coming in and saying look this is the way that you have to do it to have that best practice and again going back to what you mentioned you know from a different standpoint and again I I've been there, what impressed me is building that secret sauce. Each of those companies, many of those companies, put so much effort to be able to build something. And we'll go back to the foundation of what we do from a process standpoint to build that secret sauce, that thing that differentiates them not only locally, you know, within the MENA region, but globally as well. Making that transition to Industry 4.0 and now suddenly leveraging all that new abilities that will enhance what the company's doing. It needs to be driven by what they do. Not every single company needs to be re-engineered, to be taken from, you know, scratch. And don't get me wrong, there's companies that do need it and it's a great thing to need, because you're now upgrading. You're now not only upgrading from a technology standpoint, but now building that competitive advantage. And you're taking that secret sauce that's there in some way, but trying to maintain it. And it's a challenge. Again, if I compare it to a lot of the companies in the West. But there, I do commend. I even want to refer to companies that I've been a part of that, you know, when doing a best practice-based build-out of your global organization, if I tell you the number, if I try to list out the number of best practices that come out from the business units of these global companies that come out from the business units located in the MENA region, it's impressive. Nothing to do with the system, but that they've built, and I don't want to bore people, but a cost process that suddenly now a company in California that has another business unit related to that group, that suddenly they're going to take that cost process, relate it again to what we do, that gap that might exist from taxes and all that, costing and all that different accounting discussion. But the point being that they have a lot of them, that secret sauce that you don't want and it happens a lot, We're going to that industry 4.0, now changing your systems landscape or upgrading it, modernizing it, that a lot have gone the other way, that they've lost from their secret sauce. So I think for an inventor community, which I wish more would do it, very few do, unfortunately, is not go in with that lack of respect to what's been built, with the understanding that they're sitting in front of individuals. whether they're sea-level, whether they're board-level, or individuals that are executing the actual effective process, that they take the time to understand it, and even recognize that, you know what, I'm not going to go from a current state, you know, to talk our language, a current state process landscape, and expect a future state that's going to be night and day different. You might realize that the system you're using today isn't giving you that current state, secret sauce component that's not doing in the right way or the best way. I think that perspective, you know again looking and taking that respect to what exists and living that company's business before making that move to having, and I'll be simplistic, the guts to say to that client that no you need to do it this way because it applied for a beverage company and I'm talking to an an electronic manufacturer in Egypt or in Libya or Syria or Jordan, no. Yeah. Time, I mean, this is, and I'm not, you know, they might be right at the end, that same vendor, but to be right after taking the time to understand and not coming with that attitude that this is the way you need to do it, that I wish was more common.

Speaker 1: Right, and especially if you, you know, you look at being American, you've got a couple hundred years of history as a country, and a couple hundred years of culture that's been built, and it's hard enough to change a culture within a company within that country, but then you look to a company in a region like MENA where there's thousands of years of culture that have been built over time, and all of a sudden you bring in an ERP system that's gonna totally transform that culture, allegedly, that's not gonna happen overnight, and you may not want it to happen at all. So it's just how do you leverage things like artificial intelligence or industry 4.0 or whatever the best practice might be that might help you. How do you balance that with not overdoing it and not just throwing out the culture that you've spent all that time building and it becomes part of your secret sauce and your identity. Exactly. That's a hard part for a lot of companies.

Speaker 2: And you mentioned a great point. All of them were great points. Thank you. about when going in with the history that's there. You're talking about a region, like you said, this is a very different culture than every country, every region has its own. So when recognizing that culture, whether I'm talking to a company in Syria or talking to a company in Abu Dhabi or any of the countries, there's a certain degree of respect that needs to be provided. there's a certain degree of, and it's easy for me to say it, as an Arab-American, I understand what to do, what not to do. But when I compare it to American companies, which many will send out a team from any part of the US, it's not assumed that when going in there that the level of aggressiveness, what we were talking about a little bit before, a vendor coming in and saying, this is the way you're going to do it. Now imagine that with you know a local company that has a local presence that's coming in from the West but as a mandatory requirement it has that cultural not only awareness but the cultural presence that is a genuine part of that local entity of that same US company. That I can say, again being part of the region, was at least during my time, which is not too long ago, that it wasn't only a rarity but something that forced me to make overseas calls to the US when I'm sitting in Cairo looking for that right D365 partner or the plug-in that I'm gonna put as an application to sit on the peripheral. It's finding that local and I'm not going to say like local presence as much as that local presence along with the local cultural understanding it was almost an impossibility in many cases and when it was able to be found again vetting that becomes much it becomes a lot challenger than vetting you know 30 solution implementation partners in this certain thing if I'm sitting you know back in New York or sitting in Texas. So that, you know, that cultural component clashing as well or overlapping, I'm using that word loosely, with the business aspect of it as well. It's a very unique thing that comes natural, you know, for those that understand it, those that have lived it. But I think, you know, that cultural, I don't want to say the word obstacle, but for many it is, it becomes that life or death. That the client can easily end up, you know, not receiving the services that they should be receiving. That it becomes more, the turnover becomes challenging. I mean, again, I've been in that scenario. Consultants have come and gone. You know, when I work with clients, I tell them, you know, whether we're talking about myself, or a team member that I have, or those vendors that you've given me the pleasure to manage. If you're not getting the service on a Monday that you're not happy with, and we'll use a Friday because it's the best time to do it, on a Friday you're gonna say goodbye to that consultant, have a great weekend, that consultant's not coming back on Monday, and I'll be the one next to you to advise you on that. Now hopefully I don't advise you on me being that, but that's a, you know, again you you don't want to deal with that. But again, suddenly it's part of the risks that is that consultant coming in from the States or coming in from some place in Europe? Do they have that understanding? And again, not just awareness, but that level of genuine respect.

Speaker 1: Right. So. Sounds like we need to do a whole follow-up video on organizational change and cultural change

Speaker 2: in that region. 100%. And one of the things, by the way, on that note, and I know it's a bigger topic, but the organizational change in the US, It's one of the challenges that we face. In Europe, that organizations still think of it as just the people side of it. It is the people side of it, but so much more into it. You know, how do you take this process that's suddenly different, that's not gonna be automated on a factory floor, and ask that person that has never touched a device to suddenly now scan barcodes, and how he's gonna close, you know, the production of this thing that's starting in step A, And once it ends as a finished product, that suddenly finance sees work in process. This is night and day compared to, before doing this physically, taking the product, assembling it, nobody knows what's going on, and it just somehow makes it. So again, that's the value proposition that these, that Industry 4.0 provides. And then where to do it becomes a different thing. But it all goes back to the same thing, the level of change. what do I tell that same group of 150 floor, people that are on the floor actually producing what pays our bills if I'm part of that company, that how do I explain to them that, and in a way that they actually not only hear it as words, that this is something that's gonna make your job easier. You know, we're all people. Maybe you're gonna have a few that think that, you know what, oh, I'm gonna lose my job. You know, robots are coming in, which is, before getting into this territory, I would say that. So it's absolutely understandable what comes in, but it all goes to that OCM. We could talk about change agents as we're doing a project, going back to the life cycle of implementing a project the right way, business process owners, which we'll have a different conversation on that. But that change, taking an actual process approach, because we know it, again, that repeatability part, that maybe 100% is not going to apply, maybe 80%. But providing it, especially in the Middle East with these projects that are, in a certain extent, a lot of areas will be making a night and day change. Again, preserving that secret sauce, but now automating it and not losing that large, I think the largest component of the secret sauce, the people. It's all about them, and yes, the company to make more, to do better financially, but they're the people. I don't want to say who I'm going to steal this quote from, but no matter what company we're looking at, whether it's the US, whether it's Europe, any company on the globe, those three pillars, no matter what, no matter how you want to look at it, and it is that product you produce, that process of how it's actually being executed across the organization, that group of processes, but then the people. You know, if you think about it as a table, any one of those legs is not gonna keep the table up. So that people component, have as part of your target in the project, that people component. And again, there's a way to do it, but if you're asking a firm or an individual that hasn't done it before, they'll tell you what the, you know, everybody knows what they know, but they also don't know what they don't know. Right. So it's that area that focus on people requires that different sort of approach, going back to what we were talking about before, and putting it as part of that life cycle of the project that gets them what they want at the end, not a system that they're not gonna like, that the people don't wanna go and touch, or that they haven't felt part of the process. All that has to be taken into consideration from day one.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, those are great points. Sorry, it was a long answer. No, that's all right. I appreciate you being here and thanks for your time here. I've included contact information for both Ash and I in the links below. If you'd like to talk about your digital transformation or your potential project in MENA or anywhere else in the world, we've included our contact information below. I also include a link to download our 2020 ERP report, which is a good place to start if you're looking for some general tips and best practices for how to select and implement ERP technology in the new coming years. So thank you very much for your time. Hope you have a great day, and we'll talk to you soon. ♪