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Alain Bejjani, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim welcome to Stanford and
to The Industrialist's Dilemma.
>> Thank you.
>> Tell us about Majid Al Futtaim's business today in 2020.
>> We like to define Majid Al Futtaim as being in the business of
creating great moments, whatever and every day, it's our vision.
And this is something that continues to be relevant.
We do that through providing a modern lifestyle to our customers.
And that ranges from providing spaces where people meet and
experience each other through shopping malls, hotel, residential developments.
As well as grocery retail, leisure entertainment, cinemas, ski slopes,
indoor snow parks and ski slopes, consumer finance and other business of the like.
>> Digital is increasingly impacting all parts of your business from shopping
to movie entertainment, how is Majid Al Futtaim dealing with these changes in
how consumers are shopping and consuming media?
>> Well, it's a great opportunity, because what technology allows us to do
today was just unthinkable a few years back and digital is another dimension,
another medium to interact with our customers.
So we're getting smarter.
We're getting better at that.
And we are infusing a digital and
technological dimension into the relationship that you have with
the customer through what we call today the omni channel dimension.
That is something that in itself is allows us to better understand our customer,
become more customer centric than ever, and
also be connected to our customers through longer periods of time.
So we understand the customer better and you are able to provide to the customer
what they actually want, at the time that they want it, in the way they want it.
This is something that all organizations have to be able to do,
by being faithful purpose, by being technologically enabled.
And I think this is a condition for success going forward.
>> The company has a very large footprint across the Middle East and
North Africa, how do you think about recruiting and
people development in that part of the world?
>> Two things. One is basically grooming your future
leadership from within, so this is something that's extremely important.
We, at Majid Al Futtaim,
are very committed to do that, through our Leadership Institute,
the School of Analytics and Technology, our School of Great Moments, etc., etc.
And this is something that we continue to do day in day out.
The other thing that is extremely important,
is through the work that we do to build our international reputation,
is to be able to attract global talent, or talent of global stature.
But also to promote regional talent of global stature.
This is why the standards that you apply to ourselves, the bar, where we put
the bar, and what it looks like and our continuous reinvestment, our commitment to
our people, is something that allows us to be an organization that's interesting,
that stretches people but also provides opportunities for people to grow.
>> You've been the CEO now for over five years.
What's been the biggest surprise since you took over the business and
have you seen it change in your time in running the organization?
>> I've always heard that say the consumer moves the faster,
markets move slower and companies moves even slower.
It's always a surprise to see how slow we are as human beings to accept the change
that we actually lead when we are the customers, so
the same person who is the customer leads change.
And when this person comes behind the desk,
suddenly you become much slower at adopting, and adapting, to it.
It continues to be a great surprise for me.
>> As a leader, what do you try to do to keep your organization moving quickly
in a rapidly changing world?
>> I would say a number of things.
You have to and that's what I try to do continuously.
One is you shouldn't settle for anything that's, nothing's good enough.
You have to be able to, at the same time, acknowledge and
recognize the progress that you're doing, but continue to push the path forward.
I think a leader has also to have the ability to create a burning platform,
even though it may not come across as obvious, because short of being
able to continue to transform, change, adapt, and continue to be fit for purpose.
I think it's it's very difficult to continue to succeed in this world.
>> Conversations I've had with you and
with your leadership team over the last several months.
It's been very interesting to hear how you see the business
going forward over the next five to ten years.
How do you think the company looks in 2030 when we're sitting back here at Stanford,
and we're doing our third case on the company,
what will the organization be like at that time?
>> Well I hope in 2030 we'll be doing our tenth case on the company.
>> [LAUGH] >> So [LAUGH] I hope the company will
continue to be interesting enough and have enough content to stimulate people.
But I think and I hope and I'm working tirelessly as well as the team against
having an organization that will become, by 2030, even more globally relevant.
I think that comes as a result of scale.
So scaling up our business is something that
is extremely important in a world of trillion dollar companies.
You can't anymore be relevant if you don't have scale.
Because if you don't have scale you can't compete.
So if you want to be in the conversation you have to have scale.
>> All right final question for you,
what's the biggest thing that keeps you up at night,
when you think about the company and its challenges, and what are you doing about
it in order to make sure that you will be able to future proof for the future?
>> It's the same question, I would say.
It's how do you make sure that you are able to reinvent ourselves every day?
How do you go every day, and continue to be able to reinvent ourselves?
How do we get people aligned and basically being being able
to confront that challenge and to turn it into an opportunity?
The biggest opportunity we have is that of reinventing ourselves.
It's also the biggest challenge and I think organizations that are able to
crack that problem or organization that will always be future proof.
>> Alain Bejjani, CEO of Majjid Al Futtaim.
Welcome back to Stanford and thank you so much for coming.
>> Thank you for having me.
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