Interview: Edmond Hamati talks about his journey so far in Midis Group

In December 2020 Midis Marketing Administrator Edmond Hamati (24) was featured on the LinkedIn profile of the Lebanese American University (LAU) Adnan Kassar School of Business, where he studied. On LinkedIn, Edy talked about his start at Midis and what the LAU learning has meant to him.

To find out more about his career and aspirations for the future, Edy agreed to be interviewed for the Careers section of the Midis Group website.

My pathway right now is going through marketing and operations, though my current projects are focused on System Integration and Distribution. It’s busy; at Midis, I have two positions. My first role is Group Marketing Administrator, where I am part of the Central Marketing Bureau that oversees the alignment and cross collaboration of Marketing initiatives across the different lines of business, and I am the Marketing Executive for iSTYLE in Morocco – Apple Reseller.

My work at iSTYLE consists of planning and executing marketing initiatives along with Yara, our marketing consultant. I am also involved in operations including training sales executive, achieving target sales etc…

The spirit of the retail line of business is what catches me the most because one can be very creative; you can work on a lot of campaigns, different marketing strategies within influencer marketing, social media marketing like Facebook, Instagram, Google as well.

I love the contact with the customers; I’m in the showroom most of the time. I believe that in order to be a good marketer, you always have to be connected to your customers, to get direct insights and to be on top of the flow of operations which allows you to modify your service or your product campaigns according to what works, and what doesn’t work. This is what makes it interesting! The human touch, and retail marketing is all about that.

Q: What’s so great about the way Midis Group works?

What’s really great is that they take your ideas into consideration, even if you’re an intern. When I started, I proposed a marketing project and the management directly gave me the opportunity to drive it. They really give you a chance and you feel valued as an employee.

You are not limited to your current responsibilities, they explain the whole scope of work and if you have something valuable to propose they’ll just help push you forward.

The diversity of cultures at Midis is incredibly great. You could be talking to colleagues from Spain, then collaborate with teams from Czech Republic and later Dubai etc. This makes work very exciting – learning new things, new cultures and how to deal with new people.

Q: Apart from that success – what things did you find challenging about joining Midis – what was difficult?

When I first started, I only had a little background in marketing but it was not related to technology, so that was very challenging. I was learning a lot every day and became familiar and passionate about technology. But what was quite challenging was to understand the different lines of business that Midis drives, and it has been so insightful to learn this. .

This makes it very interesting for someone my age; it was “new ground” to me and every day presented a new challenge, either in sales or in marketing. That pushed me to learn Facebook, Google and Apple courses. I have now over nine Google certificates!

The challenge now is managing my time between my university Executive Master’s degree at ESCP Business School/ESA Business School, and my role at Midis and iSTYLE.

Q: Is there someone who you work with who you see as a role model?

Actually, Bashir and Lucie, whom I work with, teach me a lot. Guiding me and advising on how to proceed, keeping me on the right path and I’m very grateful for that. They gave me exposure to the management, and helped in getting my ideas heard. They have both been a great role model.

What also is inspiring is to see how the group has grown from a local company, into such an international organisation. And the key, the main inspiration, is our CEO – Mr. Bustros – with his vision and drive. He is truly my main inspiration and motivation.

Q: Do you think there is something special about Midis, that you do not really see in other companies?

Of course – it is that fact that Midis really values you. They listen to your ideas and give you the opportunity to showcase them and to grow – here, your manager doesn’t bring you down, he tries to build you up.