Mazhar Soorty

Petromin Corporation is one of the leading & fastest growing business conglomerates in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, operating in multi-brand automotive dealerships (Nissan & Stellantis), Automotive aftermarket services (Petromin Express), Oil & lubricants, e-Mobility solutions & Fuel retailing.

As Chief Customer & Data Officer, a role that blends customer experience & marketing, responsible for the functions of MARCOM, PR & Sponsorships, CEM, CRM Technology, and the Data & Analytics.

During the course of his association with Petromin, Mazhar has delivered:

ENTERPRISE-WIDE DATA & ANALYTICS STRATEGY
Building the data capability for today & tomorrow

Crafted the strategy & transformed data into the most valued business asset. Developed the data infrastructure, data flows, advanced analytics engines and talent to build any kind of customer-facing models for acquisition and/or retention.

INTEGRATED MARKETING
Orchestrating engagement along the customer journey

Optimized marketing spend and boosted returns through a three-pronged strategy - Analyze, Predict and Determine actions. Keeping customer central to the thinking, utilized data to enrich customer profiles, predicted customer behavior and intent, & then engaged them through personalization.

CORPORATE PR & COMMUNICATION
Communicating & telling the Petromin Story

Led the development of a strategy and roadmap for the company and its 8 business verticals. Streamlined communication with stakeholders, employees, customers, the media, and regulators with a focus on the brand purpose, positioning & the desired perception.

MOTORSPORTS SPONSORSHIPS
Enhancing Petromin Image and Shaping Consumer Perception

Enhanced brand equity and heightened visibility, by leading Petromin to be the “Official Partner of the Saudi Motorsports Company" - authority that promotes F1 & other motorsports in KSA.
Moreover, also acquired for Petromin Nissan the designation of “The official innovation partner” for the Nissan Formula E team.

Abdul Latif Jameel is the largest independent distributor of Toyota Vehicles in the World, with operations in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, and Turkey. The company has held the leading market position in Saudi Arabia since 1978 and currently holds 40% of the market share. ALJ enjoys a diversified portfolio including Automotive, Financial Services, Land & Real Estate, Energy, Consumer Products, and Advertising & Media.

As Director CRM | Digital | Data & Insights, I am leading the strategic transformation of ALJ’s CRM capabilities aimed at developing best-in-class CRM Strategies and Initiatives focused on increasing customer acquisition, conversion, retention and sales. As part of the transformation, I have been able to realize capabilities around the following key areas;

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Digital Strategy, Omni-Channel Commerce, Digital Customer Service

Developed Enterprise wide Digital Transformation Strategy for enhanced Digital presence and Omni-Channel experience with a focus on achieving Optimization and Differentiation.

Implemented best practices across all digital marketing programs, including: SEM, SEO, display, mobile, video, email and social, with an eye to driving new customer acquisition, customer engagement, and ultimately, conversion

CUSTOMER ANALYTICS & INSIGHTS
Strategy & Transformation, Advanced Analytics, Data Visualization

Implemented end-to-end Data Acquisition & Customer Analytics Strategy. Identified unique customer segments, predicted consumer behaviors; prepared forecasts; determined prospecting, acquisition and loyalty strategies; and defined “next best actions” for engagement

ALWAYS-ON & DATA DRIVEN CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE COMMUNICATION
Personalization, Campaign, Loyalty, Social Media & Collaboration

Designed and orchestrated delivery of personalized, continuously optimized customer interactions and marketing activities seamlessly across touchpoints to maximize conversions, acquisition, engagement and loyalty.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Experience Strategy, Design & Realization, VOC Programs, Customer Journey Design

Created differentiated and compelling experiences that built engagement and lowered transaction costs with customers, employees and partners by putting design and user-focused strategy at the heart

The Balubaid Group is amongst the renowned business conglomerates in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with an annual turnover of SR 3 Billion and an employee base of approximate 1700. It has a diversified business portfolio, mainly categorized into Automobiles (GM & Peugeot), Real Estate, Manufacturing, Food and Beverage, Consumer Financing, and Trading.

I have been associated with the group in multiple capacities, initially as National CRM Manager - Automotive Division later as Director Corporate CRM and presently as Director Corporate Strategy & Corporate CRM.

In order to support enterprise-wide growth and transformational vision, the management established a strategy function to lead the development and implementation of strategic initiatives related to achieving profitable growth and operational excellence. I was tasked to head this newly developed function, in addition to my responsibilities as Director Corporate CRM, in terms of developing, aligning, and integrating the corporate strategies across various organizational functions and business units.

STRATEGY FORMULATION
- Facilitated the establishment of corporate strategic goals by leading / facilitating teams of senior management in strategy development & corporate visioning planning sessions, gathering pertinent business, financial, service and operations information, identifying and evaluating trends and options, choosing a course of action and defining the intended strategy objectives/outcomes.

- Drove and delivered detailed work on key strategic issues requiring coordination across multiple business units for external opportunities, internal processes, and capabilities.

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
- Proposed most suitable implementation approach substantiated by a compelling Rationale based on analytical modeling results, Business Case for implementation along with detailed Business Requirements designed to allow rapid implementation (processes, systems, reporting, training, and controls)

- Managed and oversaw the implementation process and monitored the delivery of the desired outcomes.

KEY PROJECTS
- Customer Management Maturity Assessment & Strategy Development - E&Y

- Development & Implementation of HR Strategy - Mercer Consulting

- Implementation of Business Process Management using Oracle BPA Tool - Shift Technology

- Organizational Readiness Assessment for IPO - E&Y

Based on the outstanding performance record, in March 2009, promoted to a more strategic role in the organization, and made part of the group’s core leadership team. Tasked with the responsibility of heading the entire group’s CRM practice across all the 6 business streams with the aim to develop and drive Customer Management performance improvement strategies and supporting management systems, covering areas such as Customer Lifecycle Management, Customer Experience, Customer intelligence, Customer Retention and Loyalty.

CRM READINESS ASSESSMENT
Performed Diagnostic Assessment for the 6 businesses to assess their present CRM capabilities, identified requirements (people, processes, and technologies), analyzed and defined customized short, medium and long term CRM initiatives.

CORPORATE CRM STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
Lead the development of the Corporate CRM Strategy across the business verticals by identifying and gaining a deep understanding of which touch points/channels customers use to interact and what are their expectations.

CRM ENABLEMENT & TRANSFORMATION
- Provided functional expertise to the 6 businesses to help them define, develop and implement their Customer Management strategy covering areas such as customer experience, marketing, customer retention, CRM strategy, business processes and contact centre optimization.

- Championed improvements and capability developments to common processes including lead management, Complaint Management, Appointment Booking, VOTC, and Direct Marketing when executing marketing programs to ensure programs are executed on-time, on-budgets and in-compliance with internal processes and procedures.

AUTOMOTIVE CRM PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- Worked closely with the implementation partner (Oracle Consulting) to define the scope and architecture of the CRM solution across different business areas, processes, channels, and user groups to meet current and future business needs

- Supervised and managed all aspects of the Oracle CRM implementation. Performed Stakeholder management, estimating, budgeting, planning, risk/issue management, change management and leadership.

Delegated with the responsibilities of revamping and aligning business processes, strengthening management control and deployment of best-in-class CRM practices for sales, marketing, after sales, and customer service/call center.

PROCESS AND PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT
Carried enterprise wide responsibility for the end-to-end business processes improvement; developed a framework for defining, improving, standardizing and governing all business processes. This was achieved by quickly developing a clear understanding of the main issues with the current suite of processes and putting the plans and activities in place to drive improvement in these processes.

CRM STRATEGIC PLANNING & VISION CREATION
Led the Automotive CRM (Customer Relationship Management) initiative, which encompassed creating a global "CRM Strategy"; covering areas of Sales, Service, Marketing, Customer Experience, Customer retention, and Contact Centre Optimization.

CUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE
Initiated customer data collection at various key touch points with in sales and after sales value streams, thereby acquired insight into customer product needs, purchase and re-purchase preferences, traffic drivers, and most effective points of interaction to drive loyalty.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT
Created a framework to capture and report customer issues, identifying route causes and establishing strategies for resolution whilst ensuring engagement of key stakeholders in solution finding

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT
Implemented customer satisfaction measurement initiative enabling “voice-of-the-customer” data to be translated into product/service requirements.

CMAT™ ROLL OUT
Led the roll-out of CMAT™ at Balubaid, thereby undertook the organization through the benchmarked assessment of the existing policies, practices, people, processes and technology it has in place to determine its capability, against global standards, for Customer Management.

Sigma Motors (Pvt) Limited is assembling LAND ROVER DEFENDER’S in Pakistan with the technical collaboration of LAND ROVER U.K; I was involved with the project from the concept through to realization, initially as Manager Product Development and later held the position of Manager Quality Assurance and Process Improvement.

As Manager Quality Assurance & Process Improvement tasked with a more enriched assignment of driving quality improvement initiative and promoting the use of various quality tools to reduce product rejections, customer incidents, internal process issues, scrap, and rework.

Spearheaded the development of standards and methods for inspection, testing and evaluating incoming materials, processes, in-process production and finished products.

Implemented total quality management concepts and applications of statistical process control, flow charting, cause and effect drawings, Pareto analysis, histograms and scatter grams.

Reduced quality concerns by 50% while successfully lowered scrap rate to below 1%.

Implemented customer concern management system that effectively prioritized customer driven quality improvements and resulted in 60% reduction in complaints

Initiated data driven corrective action implementation mechanism, resulting in increased line efficiency by 12% and reduced waste generation by 31%, saving $200, 000 per quarter.

Value stream mapped critical assembly processes and defined kaizen events resulting in improved first pass yield from 70% to 93%.

Recruited to head the Product Development Department and lead a multi-disciplined team to successful roll-out of indigenization programs for the automotive components/assemblies, through the process of investigation, design, analysis and testing, in order to meet the yearly deletion/local content targets.
 Planned, facilitated, and executed the complete development cycle, from design through to build, for automotive components/assemblies with the suppliers. Achieved 45% deletion level at the start-up of Land Rover Defender assembly.
 Promoted Continuous Improvement and Lean Manufacturing by utilizing a team approach to identify and provide effective solutions to manufacturing problems resulting in higher yield, lower costs, higher flexibility, lower variation and safer work environment.
 Coached and provided guidance to the team member to develop and maintain all appropriate documentation (i.e.; APQP, DVP&R, DFMEA, FMEA, Control Plans, Process Capability studies and Product Delivery Process).
 Acted as a point contact, interacted with Land Rover experts on technical matters to achieve desired quality levels
 Conducted supplier audits, risk assessments and cost reduction programs to drive continuous improvement.
 Assisted suppliers to ensure that selection, development, and validation of manufacturing processes, equipment, and tooling are performed to meet quality requirements.
 Raised quality rating with major suppliers from 60% to 100%, resulted in Certified Supplier Status and no inspection status for goods shipped to vehicle assembly plant.

Started off my career as Assistant manager product development and was responsible for the timely development of automotive components, related to Casting, forging and machining. Worked in close coordination with suppliers to execute; product development plans (from early design phase through to realization), analysis of new product capabilities, devising test procedures and originating methods that will predict product capabilities accurately. Achieved successful localization/indigenization of around 100 automotive parts/components for Suzuki models Alto, Baleno, and Swift.

Analyzed component’s design for best suited and cost effective manufacturing processes, minimum production costs and improved quality.

Conducted engineering analysis during the design phase, including material recommendations (for cost saving) and physical/stress testing of new designs.

Identified critical to quality (CTQ) elements during off tool sample and pilot builds and defined methods of in-production and post production quality assurance.

Implemented a corrective action system to address the top five monthly process issues, resulting in improved first pass yield from 18% to 95+%.

Reduced manufacturing costs by 14% through design and implementation of Poka-Yoke devices

Conducted audits to ensure that suppliers are able to meet requirements for performance, quality cost, and delivery of components

Liaised with suppliers throughout the quality cycle planning, development and production to monitor the progress and provide assistance and resolution to component and process related issues.