Intelligent CIO finds out what makes Samer Saber, Regional Director, Kuwait, Dell EMC, tick inside and outside the office.
What would you describe as your most memorable achievement?
My most memorable achievement was in the first year post the historic merger of Dell and EMC, as we doubled the business and grew our market share significantly across all lines of business without any impact on our customers, partners or our employees.
What first made you think of a career in technology?
I always witnessed technology at the core of any business progress. This phenomenon was evident during the early days of my career and became more relevant with the advancement of technology and the digital revolution that we have been witnessing over the past few years.
What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position?
Leading by example and continuous improvement is the base for all of my management activities. I engage and get involved with my team in many of their activities and we learn together. This is how we improve our outputs year after year.
What do you think is the current hot technology talking point?
Technology is moving from being an enabler of business to becoming the business. Technologies such as IOT, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, are now instrumental and driving industries globally to think and operate differently.
How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office?
Stress is part of the job/any job and I don’t let it affect my life outside the office. Coping with stress at the beginning of your career is not easy. However, over the years as you gain more experience and deliver expected results, you learn how to manage stress.
If you could go back and change one career decision what would it be?
Over the course of my career, I was lucky enough to work for great organisations. The only decision that I would perhaps change is consider joining Dell EMC (EMC at that time) earlier. Now after all these years, I consider myself lucky for making that decision.
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry?
I have been witnessing heavy investments in digital, workforce and security transformation. This includes many aspects and some organisations are moving fast in adapting these transformations.
What are the region-specific challenges when implementing new technologies in the Middle East?
Financial resources are one of the major barriers organisations face in embracing advanced technologies. This is closely followed by lack of initiatives of collaboration between the public and private sector that obstructs the progress towards creating an innovation-focused region.
Thirdly, workforce readiness also impedes organisations to work at the speed of business. Lastly, organisations will be able to overcome these challenges, when adoption of new and integrated technology becomes a part of boardroom conversations, which is changing steadily.
What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months?
The pace of technology evolution on a yearly basis is definitely affecting the way we do our work. Last year, we worked immensely with our customers on their transformation journeys. However, we still have to serve them on their existing platforms to keep their business running and growing.
I see this continuing for the coming 12 months and the more we advance with our customers in their transformation the less time and effort will be needed for legacy systems.
What advice would you offer somebody aspiring to obtain c-level position in your industry?
My main advice is to have and maintain the passion for success and not to limit yourself just to your job role.
