GET TO KNOW...
On the lighter side of things, we ask the
industry experts what makes them tick. . . .
Samer Saber,
Regional Director, Kuwait, Dell EMC
W
What would you describe as your
most memorable achievement?
My most memorable achievement was in
the first year post the historic merger of Dell
and EMC, as we doubled the business and
grew our market share significantly across all
lines of business without any impact on our
customers, partners or our employees.
What first made you think of a
career in technology?
I always witnessed technology at the core
of any business progress. This phenomenon
was evident during the early days of my
career and became more relevant with the
advancement of technology and the digital
revolution that we have been witnessing over
the past few years.
What style of management
philosophy do you
employ with your
current position?
Leading by example
and continuous
improvement is the
base for all of my
management activities.
I engage and get
involved with my team
in many of their activities and we
learn together. This is how we improve our
outputs year after year.
What do you think is the current hot
technology talking point?
Technology is moving from being an
enabler of business to becoming the
business. Technologies such as IOT, Artificial
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INTELLIGENTCIO
Intelligence, Virtual Reality
and Augmented Reality, are
now instrumental and driving
industries globally to think and
operate differently.
How do you deal with stress and
unwind outside the office?
Stress is part of the job/any job and I don’t
let it affect my life outside the office. Coping
with stress at the beginning of your career
is not easy. However, over the years as you
gain more experience and deliver expected
results, you learn how to manage stress.
If you could go back and change one
career decision what would it be?
Over the course of my career, I was lucky
enough to work for great organisations. The
only decision that I would perhaps change
is consider joining
Dell EMC (EMC at
that time) earlier.
Now after all these
years, I consider
myself lucky for
making that
decision.
What are the region-specific
challenges when implementing new
technologies in the Middle East?
Financial resources are one of the major
barriers organisations face in embracing
advanced technologies. This is closely
followed by lack of initiatives of collaboration
between the public and private sector that
obstructs the progress towards creating an
innovation-focused region.
Thirdly, workforce readiness also impedes
organisations to work at the speed of
business. Lastly, organisations will be able to
overcome these challenges, when adoption
of new and integrated technology becomes
a part of boardroom conversations, which is
changing steadily.
What changes to your job role have
you seen in the last year and how do
you see these developing in the next
12 months?
The pace of technology evolution on a
yearly basis is definitely affecting the
way we do our work. Last year, we worked
immensely with our customers on their
transformation journeys. However, we
still have to serve them on their existing
platforms to keep their business running
and growing. I see this continuing for
the coming 12 months and the more
we advance with our customers in their
transformation the less time and effort will
be needed for legacy systems. n
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