Latest news with #WassimDerbi
Campaign ME
29-04-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
Top brands share insights on shaping talent in a tech-leaning landscape
This April, Campaign Middle East hosted more than 150 industry professionals at its Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Talent & Technology, featuring a morning packed with insights from top brand and agency marketers, and ending on a panel on shaping talent and teams in a tech-leaning landscape. Moderated by Campaign Middle East's Editor, Anup Oommen, the panel comprised of Mariam Farag, VP – Corporate Communications at DAMAC, Ashfaq Bandey, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Mashreq, Wassim Derbi, Head of Marketing, Communication & Training, Hyundai UAE and Ahmed El Gamal, a Senior Director – Marketing in hospitality. Discussions unveiled several concerns surrounding talent within the marketing, communications and advertising industry within the region. Prominent themes to note included shifting from traditional hiring models to a more skills-based approach, the need for continuous and rapid upskilling, the importance of organisational culture and leadership and the challenges in transparency around succession planning. The following article summarises the key learnings from the panel and encapsulates the essence of what the industry in the region must do to stay ahead of the game as new technologies become further integrated into daily practice. Shaping talent and teams around skills instead of experience Panelists across the board agreed that traditional hiring models based on industry-relevant experience no longer holds a candle to the rapidly changing marketing landscape of today. 'I believe that marketers can market anything, products, services, anything,' said Hyundai UAE's Wassim Derbi. He made the case that with the right training, a marketer that is passionate about their craft can perform well in any sector, irrespective of the industry they have prior experience in. Mashreq's Ashfaq Bandey backed this idea and said, 'Traditional hiring models are showing serious deficiencies when it comes to current work environments.' According to him, these models were built for predictability and stability, failing to keep up with the pace of disruption the industry is currently witnessing. 'Roles are now evolving much faster than job descriptions can keep pace with,' he said. The way forward requires a paradigm shift from traditional role-based hiring to skill-based acquisition. 'You need to be hiring based on potential and adaptability and not simply just education relevant experience and qualifications,' said Bandey. Shaping talent and leadership require an open attitude to upskilling and adaptability As the panel progressed, another key point emerged on how adaptability within leadership plays an equally important role in creating a holistic work environment. Bandey cited a McKinsey study that finds that suggest that there's not enough talent in the region. 'The current demand for a digital skillset in areas like AI and advanced analytics exceeds almost four times the supply that exists,' he said, referencing the study. He urges leaders to invest in the talent they already have in these situations. DAMAC's Mariam Farag also suggested that an openness to learning is of paramount importance. 'What I don't compromise on is attitude,' she said. According to her, the 'greatest CV on Earth' and a top education doesn't hold a candle to an attitude to learn fast and constantly come up with solutions and not problems. To her, an ideal candidate for a job as demanding as communications is 'someone that is open to learning, excited about brand building, authentic storytelling, crisis management, content creation, digital transformation and completely available to agility and to flexibility.' Ahmed El Gamal, a Senior Director in Marketing for a major hospitality brand also suggested that leaders should allow for employer upskilling during work hours. 'We should start learning at the same speed a prompt can be generated by AI,' he said. During the panel he put forward a two pronged approach to enable learning at the workplace. First, a focus on the culture of the organisation: 'Have an attitude of learning and failing fast. If you're not experimenting and failing fast, I think that is where there is a gap,' he said, advocating for mentorship from inside and outside the organisation. The second element includes micro-learning. 'If companies start introducing micro-learning tools like Duolingo, on a day-to-day, to get information in, and refresh your skills and start to apply them when the time is right, it would go a long way,' he said. Transparency around succession planning The panel concluded by focusing on succession planning, particularly examining whether the industry carries it out ethically. 'Succession planning usually is not transparent and this creates a negative feeling where you become insecure about your job,' said DAMAC's Farag. She emphasised the importance of loyalty within a team or department, and claims that it's detrimental to a work environment to have internal chatter about successors when a person is still sitting at their desk, completely unaware. Hyundai UAE's Derbi also built on this discussion and said that the task of succession planning should fall onto HR and talent acquisition and that these decisions should not involve senior management. 'Succession planning is very political and always comes with a hidden agenda,' he said. 'I've seen situations when a CEO departs and suddenly all succession planning gets shelved.' He chalks this down to the human nature of picking based on preferences, and not on whether the person has the right skills or qualities to fill the role. 'So if succession planning is to be driven properly, it needs to be planned by HR and not by senior leadership,' he said. Farag also suggests transparency to aide this process. 'You need to implement proper SOPs, and make processes transparent,' she said. 'Your team needs to be able to function without you while you're absent.' Shaping talent and teams in a tech-leaning landscape may sometime seem like navigating an extremely challenging situation. However, the final panel at the Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Talent & Technology aimed to do its part to break down these barriers and put forward actionable suggestions that increases trust, productivity and the quality of work. With transparency, an attitude to learn and a commitment to the craft, the region holds utmost potential to continually evolve towards best practice. To watch the full event, click here.
Campaign ME
26-03-2025
- Automotive
- Campaign ME
Podcast: Hyundai UAE's Wassim Derbi on the 5 Cs crucial to elevating CX
On the latest episode of Campaign Middle East's On The Record podcast, Wassim Derbi, the National Head of Marketing and Communications at Hyundai UAE and Genesis UAE, and the author of Retail Marketing Management, makes the case for automotive marketers to keep the total cost of ownership top of mind, and how the 5Cs of customisation, convenience, communication, care and consistency are critical to customer retention and loyaly. In conversation with Campaign Middle East, Derbi also delves into data-driven strategies, advanced audience segmentation, allocation of budgets within the media and marketing mix, the impact of content creators and media influencers, as well as marketing strategies that should take precedence in the months and years ahead. Referring to the five crucial elements of customer experience, Derbi says, 'Any customer today wants the following. First, they want customisation: we have to constantly personalise communication with our customers. Second, every customer today wants convenience; all these innovative tools that we see in the market today are all trying to win customers through convenience. Truth be told, we all want the end-to-end service.' Derbi adds, 'Next comes communication. We want brands – and the people working with them – to communicate with us effectively, to follow up with us, to give us regular updates proactively on order or related issues. Care, is equally important – because don't we all love to feel important and valued. But most importantly, stay consistent. We might have a great, memorable handover experience, but that memorable experience needs to remain through the customer journey.' Derbi goes on to explain why the total cost of ownership plays a critical role in building brand loyalty within automotive marketing. 'Total cost of ownership for any customer today goes beyond the price of the car to include the cost services, fuel, insurance rates, maintenance and more. All of this goes through the mind of the customer when he walks into a car dealership. So, it's far beyond just the initial price of the car,' Derbi adds. For more such insights from a very intriguing conversation, watch the full video above. CREDITS: Guest: Wassim Derbi, the National Head of Marketing and Communications at Hyundai UAE and Genesis UAE, and the author of Retail Marketing Management Host: Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East Videography: Studio and production: Ahmed Abdelwahab, Studio Manager, Motivate Media Group, and Mark Editing: John Melencion, Content Producer, Motivate Media Group
