Vice President of Strategic Support - Saudi Arabia
Subway
Total years of experience :14 years, 3 months
It's a senior leadership position at Shamel Food Company the Master Franchisee of Subway in Saudi Arabia. This position delivers through six major departments and functions serving other business functions and goals; Human Resources, Franchisees Relations, Business Development, Training, Administrations, and Facilities Management. Primary role was to plan strategies, set objectives, review performance and major approvals. It's engaged with all stakeholders of the organization; franchisor, partners, vendors, franchisees, employees, regulators and government authorities to provide support for over 200 stores. These Tasks includes, but not limited to;
- Oversee staff operations, business planning, and budget development of strategic and tactical programs.
- Supervise strategic support functions in coordination with the franchisor and the franchisees to deliver business activities and monitor
- Supports organizational goals and objectives in accordance with strategic, tactical, operational plans.
- Conducts research and analysis of organizational trends including review of reports and metrics.
- Monitors and ensures the organizations compliance with regulations, targets, strategies, new programs and recommended best practices.
- Reviews and modifies policies, objectives, and practices to maintain compliance and advancement.
- Lead researches to optimize business practices and methods, including technological tools.
- Review and manage major approvals, monthly, quarterly and annual budgets.
Smart Prints is a Saudi Startup specialized in software development, with major focus on self-services and business intelligence solutions for; retailers, QSR's, hotels, clinics and other service providers.
I'm a co-founder leading the business supported by a team of dedicated experienced programmers and business developers. In a short period of time, we succeeded in adding main player in the target industries to our clientele, yet the journey and steady improvement is continuing. Our main products are self ordering kiosks for restaurants, self-checkout kiosks for retailers, and self-check-in for hotels and clinics. Beside that, Smart Prints is well-trusted and innovative in providing integration services and processes optimization with new techniques.
The position continues at Shamel Food Company as the master franchisee of Subway in Saudi Arabia and reports to the CEO, with over 95% of the efforts dedicated for Subway activities. As Director of Human Resources, including Administration and Facilities, and Training, generally it is to lead major tasks
implement strategies, monitor and direct activities. Major tasks are;
- Plan, direct, and manage all human resource initiatives, such as recruitment, compensation, benefits, training, and employee relations.
- Collaborates with senior leadership to understand the organizations goals and strategy related to staffing, recruiting, and retention.
- Plans, leads, develops, coordinates, and implements policies, processes, training, initiatives, and surveys to support the organizations human resource compliance and strategy needs.
- Collaborate with other department managers to deliver employee training programs, ensure compliance, and facilitate performance management.
- Ensure employees' adherence to company policies and procedures.
- Facilitate HR team in dealing with the day-to-day problems and complaints from department employees regarding employee benefits, payroll, and paperwork.
- Implement human resources strategies through talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee retention and performance reviews.
- Oversee employees' training and coaching and required changes in alignment with the overall strategy.
- Lead training needs analysis. And review training results.
- Monitor trends in training techniques, and lead industry researches and new training programs development.
Arts Windows was an online marketplace providing e-commerce for some branded products that range rom eyewear, perfumes, some cosmetics and watches. My role was to set the strategy, source the products and supervise the business development. Due to the severe competition and the expansion of the giant players, the startup was at a very low scale to compete at the rise and acquisitions of giant comprehensive companies, which forced the business to give up.
Subway represented by Shamel Food Company as the master franchisee of Subway in Saudi Arabia. Shamel has been operating for more than 30 years and still progressing. Training Manager role is to develop, facilitate, supervise training programs for over 150 stores which are detailed in;
Identify and assess the training needs of the organization through job analysis, career paths and consultation with managers.
- Develop training programs that address specific business needs.
- Develop training manuals that target tangible results.
- Implement effective and purposeful training methods.
- Effectively manage the training budget.
- Evaluate organizational performance to ensure that training is meeting business needs and improving performance.
- Assess employees’ skills, performance and productivity to identify areas of improvement.
- Drive brand values and philosophy through all training and development activities.
- Effectively communicate with departments' heads, trainers and management.
- Create a curriculum to facilitate strategic training based on the organizations goals.
- Select and manage resources, including working with both internal employees and training vendors to develop and deliver training.
- Manage the technologies and technical personnel required to develop, manage and deliver training.
- Keep abreast of training trends, developments and best practices.
Pizza Hut represented by Mawarid Food Company as the Master Franchisee of Pizza Hut in Saudi Arabia along with another operator in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It operated up to 190 stores at sometimes.
My role as an assistant training manager then as acting training manager was to develop, supervise, facilitate training programs, which are partially detailed in;
- Set plans and targets for the function for the whole year.
- Participate and liaise between Human Resources and Operations team to source, train and endorse newly required workforce.
- Coordinate with Operations and Human Resources for the succession planning for all operations positions.
- Prepare, Lead and Implement training programs for soft skills and new products.
- Plan, train and supervise the onboarding of some managerial positions.
- Route across the kingdom to ensure proper practices of standards, in addition to the right implementation of campaigns.
The function had different tasks to improve that are targeting key accounts in order to reach to the target, and keep upselling. The wide role was to ensure, stable sales requests, proper delivery, and well-presented goods on the shelves. However, my major task was to reorganize the sales force distribution, to optimize sales and reduce cost, and most importantly to ensure availability in all outlets in an attractive display.
It is a business optimization function linking three major functions; sales, supply chain, and planning. The role was to supervise the weekly plan of products distribution to 15 warehouses across the country. Then to receive and analyze urgent requests and unplanned requests from sales, and to fulfill these requests through coordination with warehouses and planning teams.
A business development role with a combination of business and academic background, working for Obeikan-Cambridge which is a Joint Venture between Obeikan Education and Cambridge University Press.
Major Tasks;
- To penetrate the market and reach out to potential clients.
- To initiate relations, and close business deals.
- To educate clients about the products and the uniqueness about Cambridge curriculum.
- To build a data base of clientele.
- To analyze the needs in the market for potential products.
- To manage business accounts and up-sell to the existing clients.
- To provide extra services to clients through partnership with other services providers.
Certificate of Specialty in Strategy