Planning for succession: Raymond Bou Samra interviewed about his career as Group HR Manager

Raymond Bou Samra – the Group HR Manager for 17 years- has been responsible for directing and successfully developing the human resources infrastructure at Midis Group. As Raymond now occupies an advisory role, and Elie Oueiss moves into the HR driving seat at Midis Group, we interviewed both Raymond and Elie to explore their thoughts about the challenges of the past, present and the future. Our first interview is with Raymond, who talks about the successes of the past, and how those have helped shape the Midis Group we know today.

Q: The Midis Group has grown a great deal over the last three decades. Over the years, what have these challenges meant for you?

A key challenge was to be able to identify skilled but motivated candidates who were a cultural fit. You could always find candidates but to have people who are motivated, and a cultural fit, is a bit more difficult. Basically, we enjoy working with people who are looking for long-term challenges, who are entrepreneurial, who are willing to take a lead, to be future leaders. We really value people with initiative, and who look at their job as being a partner in the business.

Q: Is the job of an HR manager at regional and local level different from being HR manager of the whole group?

Well, the job has changed throughout the years and the role of the group HR manager has developed since I started 17 years ago. Back then, the concept of an HR manager was basic. So development and growth started with introducing and strengthening the HR presence and role at the Head Office. And then I worked across the entities, to introduce them to the role and to make sure to market that role and to preach it.

I visited most of the affiliates across countries in the Middle East, Central Eastern Europe and Africa to understand how they deal with their HR situations and for me to comprehend their needs and assist them in overcoming their challenges.

As the tasks developed, it was fascinating to find out about the different types of jobs and roles of our people. From that point on, it was about identifying and unifying job titles, organization charts, and so on, and then we developed one set of policies and HR processes applicable across the group.

Following that success, as business expanded, and new trends emerged in the IT industry, the HR role at Head Office developed a more strategic aspect. This meant that we had to evolve more functional roles, and the HR team expanded regionally and locally, until reaching the present HR transformation plan that Elie Oueiss is leading.

This exciting new phase will support the level of growth we have achieved so far and will carry us into the future. Digitization of HR means that the Group is adopting more integrated systems – mainly the SAP “SuccessFactors” solution – and that will help us manage the processes, to understand them, and to go further and standardize the approach to HR matters.

Q: Midis Group HR policy has succeeded in many ways, one of which is employee retention, with many people staying in the Group for a long time. What part has HR played in this success?

We rely a lot on entrepreneurial spirit and positive business initiatives from our people, but the Group also presents a diversity of internationally-renowned products and brands, and we enjoy the confidence of our international vendors and suppliers. The financial stability and the development of the businesses is offering career growth to employees. So this basically what is behind our success.

Q: The Midis Group recruitment approach seems perhaps to be less about the candidate’s CV, and more about character and what the candidate can bring to the team and the group. Is that a deliberate policy, or has it evolved over time?

It is a deliberate policy to acquire business-oriented people who add value to their jobs in a frame of integrity and self-development. With empowerment, the Group offers its employees the opportunity to become their own boss, if proven eligible through the years. A lot of our managers are career managers. They start as employees and develop their roles throughout the years to become leaders, and at a certain point they might become partners in their entities.

That’s what often has made them more eager and ambitious to continue – they become part of the organization. So that’s the big motivation that we work on, and it has been successful for the last few decades.

The roots of these values show in our company name. Initially, we were called MidEast Data Systems – MDS as an acronym. Then in our re-branding process about 11 years ago, we added two ‘I’s to the acronym to become what is our corporate name now, MIDIS. Those extra two ‘I’s stand for Integrity and Innovation.

Q: Over the years, what aspects of the job have been the most pleasurable, or the most successful?

I have always kept an open door for communication with employees and managers, and I always have gone on frequent visits getting closer to the people, listening to them, talking to the managers. In order to make sure management and employees identify further with the group, visiting them was a key task.

This has been successful and continuous at several levels -starting with messages from the Chairman to all employees, consistent communications from the head office team to departments at entities and by directly connecting with employees as needed. This has strengthened the relation and communication between the head office team and the teams on the ground, making sure everyone is aligned with the group goals and objectives. This is what I consider the most successful and the most pleasurable aspects to me at least.

Q: Looking forward to now, and advising from an external perspective; does it free you up to do things slightly differently, what are your thoughts on that?

Working at the Midis Group for so long has been a wonderful experience, but first of all, I believe in rotation; I believe we cannot hold a job and stay in it forever. With time, age, development, your productivity at a certain point goes from one level to another; so in order to remain productive, you may have to step back, look at things from a different perspective and give opportunities to colleagues to take their chances in moving forward.

From that perspective, I thought that it would be more interesting and more productive to give that opportunity to younger colleagues, though I’m still here on an advisory level.

It will be important to work alongside the new team, to help them understand what the situation has been like in the past and how they can take it from that point on, in communicating and coordinating with executive management and teams as well as with the various entities across the different countries. So sharing my business experience with the present HR management and serving as a bridge to senior management with a new HR transformation process is a task that I’m happy to respond to.

Q: What advice would you give to Elie Oueiss as he takes over responsibility for managing HR across the whole Group?

Elie is very dynamic and full of energy and will make sure that plans are put into action and are being implemented correctly. I wish him and the HR team a great rewarding success. Of course, there will be obstacles, some resistance to change in some places. Therefore, my main advice to him would be to listen a lot and then move forward with his plans.