What truly shapes a leader's style when navigating diverse global cultures? Discover insights from Amadou Diallo, Group CEO of Aramex, as he shares his unique perspective on leadership and organizational culture.
Diallo emphasizes the profound impact of humility, cultivated from his village roots in Senegal, on his approach to leading across continents. He believes this fundamental mindset is key to understanding and connecting with people, regardless of the environment.
This episode delves into how to authentically grasp an organization's culture upon arrival. Diallo shares his strategy of engaging with former leaders and visiting key locations to gain a deep understanding before implementing change.
Explore how to foster a unified, resilient, and high-performing workplace culture that embraces global perspectives. Learn how to leverage a company's origins and unique heritage to inspire a shared vision.
#LeadershipCulture #GlobalLeadership #OrganizationalCulture #WorkplaceCulture
Diallo emphasizes the profound impact of humility, cultivated from his village roots in Senegal, on his approach to leading across continents. He believes this fundamental mindset is key to understanding and connecting with people, regardless of the environment.
This episode delves into how to authentically grasp an organization's culture upon arrival. Diallo shares his strategy of engaging with former leaders and visiting key locations to gain a deep understanding before implementing change.
Explore how to foster a unified, resilient, and high-performing workplace culture that embraces global perspectives. Learn how to leverage a company's origins and unique heritage to inspire a shared vision.
#LeadershipCulture #GlobalLeadership #OrganizationalCulture #WorkplaceCulture
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TechTranscript
00:00What you feel through the looks of the people is different from what you feel when just talking to the
00:05people.
00:06The emotion that you get from engaging physically with people is different from the conversation that you can have.
00:19Welcome to Culture End by InCaribia, the podcast exploring the people, ideas, and conversations,
00:26redefining workplace culture and future of leadership.
00:30Today, we're delighted to welcome Amadou Diallo, the Group CEO of Aramex and a truly global leader whose career spans
00:38Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
00:41Before joining Aramex, Amadou held senior leadership roles at DHL, where he delivered strong business growth, improved customer satisfaction, and
00:51employee engagement.
00:52He championed diversity, women leading more than 70% of the business under his leadership.
00:59A Sinhalese national and a polyglot, Amadou's impact extends far beyond corporate performance.
01:06He actively supports initiatives advancing girls' education, food security, health care, and community development.
01:13Amadou, welcome to Culture End by InCaribia.
01:17We're excited to explore how leaders can build cultures of unity, resilience, and high performance across borders.
01:24Thanks for having me, Andy.
01:25It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure.
01:28You know, when I went over your profile and your LinkedIn, I was very taken back by the impressive background
01:41that you've built yourself.
01:43You've led many major organizations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia.
01:49How was or how has working across such different cultures shaped your leadership style?
01:57Well, I think that, you know, first of all, thanks for having me.
02:00And, you know, when you're walking through all of these places, if you look at it from outside, it looks
02:07like, you know, something extraordinary.
02:09But I come from the village, you know, I come from a village in the south of Senegal.
02:14And one thing that has always kept alive in my brain is that I'm a man from the village.
02:21So that means that for me, regardless of the environment in which I work, I still come with my village
02:28people mentality.
02:30And I always leave it with my village people mentality.
02:33That means that you look at any space as a small space.
02:40You look at the space with the people living around, with the infrastructure that is around, with the mentality that
02:49is around.
02:50But you always look at it from your perspective of a village guys.
02:54So, you know, it's a lot of humility.
02:55And I think that if you come with humility, you will live with humility and nothing will really change in
03:00you.
03:01Amazing.
03:02I mean, humility, humility, humility.
03:04And this is sometimes we overlook this.
03:08And, you know, we follow the titles versus the impact that you have on people and organization.
03:16Very inspiring, Amadou.
03:20If I was to ask now more on the technical or organizational side of the conversation, when you join a
03:28new organization as a group CEO, you know, someone who's leading the pact, how do you understand the culture of
03:36this new organization?
03:38And what areas you will focus on changing versus, you know, units or departments where you want to preserve?
03:49How do you know this is something that I want to change and this is something I want to hold
03:54on to?
03:55I think the most important part to understand in any organization is the culture.
04:01And, you know, obviously, you cannot understand the culture of an organization if you just come in and have a
04:08few one-to-ones.
04:09So, for me, you know, before joining RMX, I reached out to any previous CEO that has been running RMX
04:15to understand from them what were the opportunities or the challenges they faced.
04:19But also to understand the culture that they have instilled.
04:23So, you know, I met with the founder, Fadi, you know, so I met with Osman, who was the last
04:29one to run the organization.
04:30So I tried to converse with everybody.
04:33And then when I joined, the first thing I did was to go to Amman.
04:37You know, usually you go to New York or you go to some fantastic places.
04:41I went to Amman.
04:42Why did I go to Amman?
04:43Because I thought it is important to understand department by department, office by office, what is the true culture of
04:51the organization?
04:53And I think once you understand the true culture of the organization, then everything gets easier to take care of.
05:03And in the context of RMX, so, you know, you come from Syria, you have been in the U.S.,
05:08you are an American, but you actually come from this region.
05:12So I come from Senegal.
05:14You know, Senegal was representing Palestine since I was born at the U.N.
05:18So, and when I went to Amman, what came up to my mind was that, you know, Christianism was born
05:30around Jordan.
05:34Islam was born around Jordan.
05:37The monolithic beliefs were born around Jordan.
05:40And they went global from that region.
05:44RMX was born in Jordan.
05:47And for me, the culture that I want to instill is that, you know, if we come from a region
05:52where most of the beliefs of the global people has been expanded from,
05:58we can also create a logistics platform that comes from that place and should not be super complicated as if
06:03you are coming from the more complicated places, you know, in Western Europe or in America.
06:09And that core belief is the core belief that we want to keep in the mind of all of our
06:14people.
06:15Because, you know, when we are young Muslims, African, growing up in Europe or growing in America or in Asia,
06:23you're faced with a lot of underestimation.
06:26So I think that we have a big opportunity to impress.
06:29So, and that is what we are trying to push.
06:30You mentioned something about the one-on-ones.
06:33You had met with the previous founders to, you know, understand the culture of the organization.
06:38How often do you do one-on-ones with your, you know, leadership team or skip-level team?
06:46So I meet my people.
06:48So every time I come to the office, you know, I take a big value in going, walking around and
06:54saying good morning to each and every individual that is in my office.
07:00Why? Because what you feel through the looks of the people is different from what you feel when just talking
07:08to the people.
07:11What you, the emotion that you get, you know, from engaging physically with people is different from the conversation that
07:18you can have.
07:20And for me, you know, the formal one-on-one, I have it every two weeks with my colleagues.
07:26But it is more for an update on where we are.
07:30But the permanent one-on-one is really engaging physically with all of our colleagues, be it the person that
07:35is in charge of security, be it in connection with the people who are at the reception,
07:41anybody that is working in the organization, because, you know, if we are all simple units that are participating to
07:48the growth of an entire organization,
07:50then it is a better engagement than if you are complicated people running the business.
07:57You know, RMX operates in many communities, languages, markets, very diverse, obviously.
08:05And I think we've all used one time or another used RMX.
08:09That diversity is probably a challenge.
08:14How do you, you know, maintain that diversity without losing the local sense of the language, the community, the market?
08:27Thank you. That's a very good question.
08:29You know, so the diversity is a challenge, but it is the biggest opportunity that we do have.
08:34So, for instance, if we are operating out of India, we have to be more Indian than any other company
08:39that is operating out of India.
08:41If you are operating out of China, in China, we have to be more Chinese than any other organization that
08:46is operating out of China.
08:47And we want to be the same in Egypt, in Morocco, in Ghana, Nigeria, in any other place that we
08:52are operating in.
08:53So, we have to have standardized processes, but we have to be very local.
08:59Why? Because if you cannot connect with the community, the local community, it will be very difficult for you to
09:07be understood
09:07or to understand what you're doing with the community, what you're building for the community.
09:11And if you can't understand that, then it will be difficult to engage with the customers who are coming from
09:16the community.
09:16It will be difficult to engage with the partners that are coming from the community.
09:19So, and I think that as a company that is coming from the global south, we should be better prepared
09:25than a Korean company,
09:27a German company, an American company to understand the value of respecting the local culture,
09:34the local community, and the local uniqueness that you have to bring in every community
09:39so that everybody that is coming to you feels at home in any place you're working.
09:43So, for us, we use the diversity as our opportunity.
09:47We use the diversity not as a challenge.
09:50We use it as the platform that allows our technology to connect with the community.
09:55So, and that's how we'll be, you know, further cultivating it across all the countries.
09:59The saying goes, think global, act local, in a way.
10:04So, you know, what I'm hearing is that relying on local, you know, resources, expertise, you know,
10:15somehow fixes this issue by, they know what's best in their own markets.
10:21Correct.
10:21So, you'll always have community where you are challenged, you know, in terms of compliant processes,
10:26where you need to bring somebody that is independent inside the organization,
10:30not to lead the organization, but to be part of the organization to be able to show a mirror.
10:36And that is really just to bring your processes.
10:39So, I think that you can have globalized processes, but you have to be very local in the culture.
10:45And that is like the minimum respect that you have for any country that you're operating in.
10:48And I can imagine also compliance would also become another layer of challenges.
10:54Each market has its own compliance issues, right?
10:57Yeah.
10:58Every market has its own compliance issues.
10:59So, you know, we have compliance, the approach of compliance that is coming from the Western world,
11:03but we also have the approach of compliance that is coming from our world, you know,
11:07and, you know, halal and haram in the Islamic religion is longer,
11:15longer than compliance has been invented in the international schools where it is being taught.
11:20So, and what we try to do is really utilize what is actually coming out of our market,
11:25and it's really, you know, thousands of years in our civilization to use it as a vehicle to explain to
11:33the people,
11:35do anything that is halal, be ethical, like the religion is actually teaching you,
11:39and it is both the Christian and the Islamic religion, be humble, that's what is our religion is requesting from
11:48us,
11:49exercise sadaqa, so serve the community, that is what the religion is.
11:53So it is not something that we have to learn from any international business school,
11:57it's something we learn when we are babies, you know, growing up.
11:59So I think that that is what we are trying to vehiculate across all the markets.
12:04You know, your RMX is in the business of logistics,
12:07and this is an extremely challenging business where, you know,
12:14the expectation is that my delivery is in the next 10, 15 minutes,
12:18and, you know, we live here in Dubai, we know that, you know,
12:21when we expect a package within 15 minutes, half an hour, you have it.
12:25How do you execute on this without the employee burnout?
12:31I mean, is there pressure top-down so that you can deliver on the expectations of the consumer?
12:42So, you know, I mean, logistics has become more and more complicated in terms of what are the expectations,
12:47and, you know, you have a lot of e-commerce companies that are bringing even more pressure
12:51in terms of lead time to deliver.
12:54But there are always operational components that you can put in place to be able to be fast.
13:00So, for instance, you know, when you are receiving your goods that you order on some e-commerce platform
13:07within one hour or two hours, it's because there is a fulfillment center that is not far away from where
13:13you live,
13:13and people, delivery champions, we call them, you know, organization that are sort of assembled around that place
13:19that are in charge of a segment of the city that where it needs to be delivered.
13:24So, it is not that, you know, everybody is going to one center and then rushing around the city.
13:29Everybody is coming from one distribution center.
13:32You know, we have more than 38 offices, so people are coming from 38 different places to be able to
13:36deliver.
13:39We give particular care to the well-being of our people because, you know, if you don't take care of
13:48the people,
13:50not only will they not be productive, but you're giving yourself chances to not go to Algema
13:58because you have to respect the people.
14:00If you don't care about the physical wholeness of the people, if you don't care about the respect that the
14:08people deserve,
14:10then you're destroying your own organization because the quality of the deliveries will be different,
14:14the sparkle in the eyes of the colleagues that are delivering will be different, and the customer will feel it.
14:20So, what we are trying to do, and then maybe you have seen it,
14:22you know, we celebrate all of our delivery champions across the entire network.
14:27What we are trying to do is really to build an environment where our people, they feel safe,
14:32they feel respected, they feel valued, and not overstressed,
14:37because if they are overstressed, then the quality of the service will not be good.
14:42So, we are organized really in different zones for the e-commerce part,
14:46but, you know, our business goes way beyond the e-commerce part,
14:50so we have a lot of goods that are coming from China, coming from America and Asia,
14:55different size, because we do freight, we do supply chain,
15:00and we do the international B2B express and e-commerce.
15:05People always talk about the e-commerce part,
15:09but e-commerce is not the mass of the business that we do.
15:11We do a lot of the other parts of the businesses that I mentioned.
15:15You know, you mentioned customer experience or customer satisfaction,
15:21but I'm also hearing employee satisfaction as well at Dynamics,
15:25and I think you were once again rewarded as a great place to work,
15:31which I think speaks to the spirit that you have in the organization.
15:34So, you know, so for us, for me, you know, if you don't have happy employees,
15:39it's impossible to have happy customers.
15:42If you don't have proud employees, it's impossible that they give the extra mile
15:46to go and deliver to the customers.
15:49If you don't have respected and well-treated employees,
15:53it is impossible to have your parcel or the packages that you're delivering
15:57in good condition when they're being delivered to the customers.
15:59So, indeed, we believe that you have happy employees, happy people.
16:05They will make sure that you have happy customers
16:07who will make sure that you have happy P&Ls.
16:11At the end of the day, the P&L, absolutely, absolutely.
16:14You know, in your previous leadership roles,
16:17I think more than 70% of the business was led by women.
16:23Did you have to take deliberate decisions on hiring women
16:30and what advice would you give to other leaders
16:34who might be watching this podcast on what they need to do?
16:37Did you, you know, say, I am intentionally going to hire a woman
16:43because I believe, you know, ABC,
16:46and that's what made you reach that 70% percentage of women in the roles?
16:54Yeah, so, you know, I'm happy to explain that, you know.
16:56So, you know, when we are growing up, I can't tell you at least from my country,
17:02you know, when we are growing up, our dads are less around than our mothers.
17:08When we are going and getting educated, our mothers make sure that we are clean,
17:13you know, going to school and coming back, that we are fed, that we are studying.
17:21They go to the meetings when there are meetings that are requested,
17:24the parents, teacher meetings, you know, the dads are less present than the mothers.
17:30So we grow up in a society like that, right?
17:34And then we become like, as boys, you know, ah, you are a hero,
17:38but we forget that you are not the hero, your mom made you a hero.
17:43And then when you check our sisters or our daughters,
17:47their performance at school is at a different level than the boys.
17:52Yet, when we come to the corporate world,
17:54we have to set up programs to talk about gender diversity
17:59in order for us to recruit the people who actually made us who we are.
18:03So me, I strongly believe that, you know, the people who made us who we are
18:07are actually the people who can make our businesses also better.
18:12Why? Because they will be talking about the business like caretakers.
18:16They will be taking care of the people like caretakers.
18:19They will be having honest conversation on the quality of the service.
18:22They will not be over-exaggerating what they have done.
18:25I know, you know, I have boys, you know, I hang around with boys.
18:28So, you know, we tend to over-exaggerate everything that we're achieving.
18:31The ladies don't do that massively.
18:33They're extremely honest and extremely humble.
18:35And in general, they're also much more compliant
18:40than boys when they're running businesses.
18:43That is my experience.
18:44So for me, it was not following a program
18:47or having some sort of a, you know,
18:49illumination coming from any intellectual.
18:52I did it intentionally because I know inside myself
18:56that our sisters actually do perform better than us
19:00in many domains at school, in engineering, in mathematics.
19:04So therefore, they must also be able to perform better
19:07in any business that we do.
19:08And I just have to, you know, second that even within
19:13Howie Media Group, we're at 52% women.
19:17And I truly believe what they bring into the conversation
19:21is a human aspect of our decision-making.
19:26And that sometimes I feel is lacked by the male leadership.
19:31So, yeah, I totally agree.
19:35You're fluent in several languages.
19:38I always say language is an investment you make in yourself.
19:42French, German, English, and Fulani.
19:44Hopefully Arabic soon as well, right?
19:47Do you find that language is an area where it makes it easier
19:53to communicate and accept others linguistically
19:59but also culturally?
20:01So, yeah.
20:03You know, me, I personally believe that it is important
20:05to know as many languages as possible.
20:08Because, you know, if you go in an Arabic family
20:14and even if your Arabic is not perfect,
20:18if you can speak a little bit of Arabic for the introduction,
20:21it unlocks the opportunity to have an open conversation.
20:24If you can do that in Mandarin, if you can do that in Japanese,
20:27it unlocks the opportunity of engaging at a different level
20:30in a conversation.
20:31And when you understand, you know, we all have learned philosophy.
20:38So, learning German has allowed me to read the philosophical books
20:42in German.
20:44And when you read the philosophical books in German
20:47or the organizational books, you know, from Weber,
20:51then you understand the rigor that is put in place
20:54in putting complex organizational structures
20:56to be able to be efficient in the operations.
21:00And that complexity is even in the language.
21:03You know, if you speak French,
21:06you understand the creativity that is connected to the French language
21:10that sometimes creates creative organizational complexities
21:14that you might not need.
21:16The same is with English, you know.
21:18So, if you have the proper BBC English-speaking guys,
21:22you know that, you know, you'd be talking faster
21:24than you actually can organize yourself.
21:26But I think it is really important to understand the languages
21:29so that you have a deeper understanding of the culture.
21:31If you have a deeper understanding of the culture,
21:33you have a much better penetration in terms of engaging commercially
21:37with any population than if you don't understand the languages.
21:41And for us, I mean, in Africa, we have French, English, Spanish,
21:45Portuguese, you know, Arabic that are like core languages
21:49that are spoken everywhere.
21:50So, if you understand those,
21:51then you can treat these 1.4 billion people.
21:55That's nice.
21:56You know, your background and your belief in diversity
21:59is, you know, well documented.
22:04How do you make sure that diversity is not a checkbox?
22:09You know, many people or leaders have a hard time
22:12or they believe that it's just a matter,
22:14yes, I have diversity in my organization.
22:17How do you make sure that diversity is not a checkbox,
22:21that it's actually actionable strategy, execution,
22:26when you speak of diversity?
22:29Well, so, you know, you can have diversity
22:31and then you have a Chinese guy sitting in the room,
22:33you have a Senegalese guy like me sitting in the room,
22:35you have a Syrian guy sitting in the room,
22:37and then you have an Algerian sitting in the room,
22:38then you think you are diverse.
22:41But that is just physical presence.
22:45As long as you cannot unlock the brains of the people
22:48so that they can tell you from their perspective
22:51what they think is a solution that you should adapt
22:53so that they have a diversity of opinion on the table,
22:57then diversity is useless.
23:00And for me, you know, it is really all about
23:02how to actively engage to understand,
23:04okay, if I want to do something with somebody
23:07that is coming from Shenzhen,
23:11what do I need to understand about the Chinese culture?
23:14So, you know, sometimes us, you know, we are like,
23:17ah, you know, but we cannot go to the hot pot
23:19and then eat Chinese food at international city.
23:22If the Chinese can eat it, you can eat it
23:24because they are human beings like us.
23:26If the Japanese, they can eat raw fish,
23:29even if you don't like it, you can eat it
23:31because the Japanese are human beings like us.
23:33If you want to eat couscous, you go to the Moroccans,
23:35then you can eat couscous.
23:36But if you can integrate all the different cultures
23:39and you can integrate behind the language,
23:42you know, the real element of the culture,
23:45then you really have an easier commercial engagement
23:49with the people
23:50because they are open to do anything with you
23:52because they will be open to have fun with you,
23:54they will be open to laugh with you,
23:56they will also be open to give you business.
23:58But if you are not open and curious enough to do that,
24:01then it will be very difficult for you.
24:03So for me, I believe that, you know,
24:04we learn a lot of concepts in the international schools,
24:07we learn a lot of concepts in marketing
24:09and sales approach.
24:11The one thing that we don't learn is that
24:14culture is more important than process.
24:17Culture is more important than theories.
24:20And when you understand cultures,
24:21you have a much easier penetration of any society
24:24that you want to integrate with
24:25than if you don't have it.
24:27And, you know, for me, coming from the village,
24:31I had to integrate in the capital of Senegal.
24:33I had to integrate in Paris.
24:35I had to integrate in England.
24:37I had to integrate in Germany, in Singapore,
24:39in many places that I have been living.
24:41So, and that is the training that I have needed
24:43to understand that, you know,
24:45if you come from the village,
24:46always remember, you come from the village.
24:48Don't pretend, now I'm coming from Paris
24:50or now I'm coming from New York,
24:51so I know it all.
24:52You never know it all.
24:53Just come like somebody who comes from the village.
24:55Don't forget your roots, in a way.
24:57And I love it that you're bringing up culture
25:00and the podcast itself is culture.
25:03And because I truly believe this is where it starts,
25:06when you open up to understanding others
25:09and you're, you know, you've invested in yourself
25:12to be accepting of others,
25:14this is where diversity becomes key to the organization.
25:18You've described unity and resilience
25:21as important elements of organizational culture.
25:24How can leaders strengthen both
25:26during periods of uncertainty, disruption, and transformation?
25:31This is something that happens every two, three years.
25:34There is something that happens globally
25:36and we have no control over it.
25:38What is your recipe for managing such situations?
25:45Calmness.
25:47Calmness.
25:48So, you know, I mean, we have been witnessing it here in the UAE.
25:55You know, when Allah has not decided that you're gone,
25:59you are around.
26:00And as long as you're around,
26:02be calm and do whatever it takes
26:04to make sure that people are fed,
26:07people are safe,
26:08people are having fun,
26:11and people feel like life is still around.
26:14And for me, as long as we are breathing,
26:16we have an opportunity to have an impact.
26:20And resilience is really deciding to go and have an impact
26:23and not sit down and wait.
26:25You know, and for me,
26:26I always think that life is very, very short.
26:29And, you know, whatever incident happened in our lives,
26:33there are bigger incidents happening to other people's lives.
26:36So whatever challenge that we think we are facing,
26:39there are bigger challenges that are being faced by other people.
26:42So if you just, me, I always think,
26:44if you just remember that 600 million people
26:47don't have electricity,
26:48so they can't talk about technology,
26:50they can't talk about any of the things that we utilize
26:53to listen to news, watch movies, et cetera,
26:56yet they survive.
26:58Over 800 million people don't have access to proper water,
27:01yet they survive.
27:02So who am I to sit down here and complain about something?
27:06So that's what I mean for me when I look at my colleagues
27:09and we see all the situations that we do have.
27:11We have a lot of Palestinian colleagues at Aramax.
27:15I want to say, you know,
27:16if we believe that whatever we are seeing
27:18is tougher than what is happening in Gaza,
27:20then we can sit down and check.
27:22But if we know that it is not tougher,
27:23then we should wake up and go and run.
27:26And I think it is not tougher.
27:27So, you know, I think we have to wake up and go and run
27:30because we can't help many people.
27:32Spot on.
27:34Amadou, do you think age and wisdom helped you
27:40to this, where you are today?
27:42I mean, the younger Amadou,
27:45did you ever feel like I can change destiny?
27:49You know, I'm upset that things did not happen
27:52the way I wanted them to happen.
27:55Is this something like if you were to ask
27:57the 20-year-old Amadou,
28:00would you have the same answer today?
28:03So I think that when I was younger,
28:04I was a little bit more stupid and radical.
28:07Wisdom have given me now that I'm calmer, you know.
28:12But, yeah, since I was a young kid
28:16and I didn't get it from myself,
28:18my grandmother used to be helping, you know,
28:23all the ladies living in the village
28:25when they were giving birth, etc.
28:26So I used to hang around with my grandmother a lot.
28:29And that is also the reason why I have
28:31a girls' education foundation
28:33in the village of my grandmother.
28:35So I learned it from my grandmother.
28:37And then, so it is not something
28:40that I've taught myself.
28:41I learned it from my grandmother.
28:43And my grandmother was not an educated person.
28:45She was an illiterate living in the village.
28:47So that is the part of the village
28:49that I'm carrying with me.
28:51You know, you brought up
28:54the girls' education just now.
28:57You have a lot of focus on girls' education,
29:01food security, health, and community development.
29:03How have these experiences influenced a CEO?
29:11You know, I always think that the CEO is a title.
29:15The thing is, you know, what is it that I can do
29:17to contribute into my organization
29:19so that our organization,
29:21with all the colleagues that are walking around,
29:23can wake up, walk, go home,
29:26and be proud of whatever they're doing.
29:28And that's the same thing for the community.
29:30I, you know, I always think of what can I do
29:32to make sure that the people
29:34who are living in my community,
29:37after they have fought for the education or whatsoever,
29:39they can go home and they're proud.
29:41And for me, you know, when you go to bed with pride,
29:45you sleep easy.
29:47If you go to bed with stomach pain
29:49because you didn't do something nice or good,
29:52you don't sleep easy.
29:54And me, I like to sleep easy.
29:56You know, so for me, you know,
30:00any of these activities or, you know,
30:02any activity that I run inside the organization,
30:04so I can't work Saturday, Sunday,
30:05I don't care about weekends and stuff like that,
30:08because any customer that is not happy,
30:11it doesn't make me feel good.
30:13So that's why if a customer sends me something
30:16at 9.30 p.m., I will not be going to bed.
30:19I will try to work on fixing it first
30:21before going to bed.
30:22And I think that it is not because of revenue,
30:25it's not because of customer service,
30:28it's a human being that needs something
30:30and it is not resolved
30:31and you need to help resolve it.
30:33And that's how I look at it.
30:34I don't look at it from a perspective of a CEO.
30:36I was also, you know,
30:37working in the archives in an organization,
30:39I was working in the Department of Finance
30:42for receivables or payables,
30:43so I've been working in different parts
30:44of the organization.
30:45And for me, regardless of where you work,
30:49what is it that is painful for your stomach
30:51and how much energy you put
30:53so that you don't have pain in your stomach
30:55when you go to bed.
30:56And I like to sleep easy.
31:00Shifting gears to, obviously, AI.
31:03You know, it's part of our daily lives now
31:05in every industry and vertical.
31:08How does AI and automation link to the logistics business
31:16and its impact on employees, their culture?
31:20And how do you see the next five years
31:23happening with AI?
31:27I mean, from my experience,
31:29so I was also programming when I was a bit younger.
31:33I think computer science, data science nowadays,
31:38or AI are a lot of tools that are being developed
31:41to make our life easier.
31:44There are a lot of tools that are being developed
31:46to make sure that we have a good work-life balance ourselves.
31:50So, you know, you have a lot of AI applications
31:53that are being utilized to replace things
31:55that we do routinely.
31:57So, where is my shipment?
31:59You go, you log into the computer,
32:01you go and look for the shipment information,
32:03and then you send the information.
32:05There is your shipment.
32:06That is something, it is nice
32:09if you're doing it physically,
32:10but if you have to do it a million times,
32:11extremely boring.
32:13So, if you have an AI agent that can do it,
32:15it makes life easier for whoever was doing it.
32:18Same is for your receivables,
32:20your payment that has missed the delay.
32:23A lot of things that we do in life,
32:25in our working life are a lot of repetitive tasks,
32:28and that is something that automation
32:29can help you recover very fast.
32:32The other side of AI is
32:34when you're researching information.
32:37So, when you and I were studying,
32:39we had the books, thousands of books,
32:42and we had the impression
32:43that we're reading a lot of books,
32:44but we knew that we're not really reading
32:451% of the books that exist.
32:48Today, AI can read all these books for you
32:50and give you an executive summary
32:51of what is actually taught about a subject.
32:54So, the ease of access to knowledge is enhanced.
32:59We didn't have that type of ease of access to knowledge,
33:02and I think that the new generation
33:03will have that ease of access to knowledge,
33:05and that is also for the employees that are working.
33:08The number of boring emails
33:09that we have been writing
33:10when we were working in offices,
33:12and then we had to repeat the mail
33:14and repeat the email,
33:16now we can't have an AI agent
33:17that is writing these boring emails.
33:19The number of times
33:20that we were writing these wrong formulations
33:22because, you know,
33:23our English was not good enough or whatsoever,
33:25now we have AI agents
33:26that can actually make sure
33:27that the English that you're utilizing
33:29is well-formulated, polite,
33:31you know, in all the formats that are necessary.
33:33So, for me, AI is going to make our life easy,
33:37and it will make the life of our employees easy.
33:40It will make growing the business easy
33:43if we use it properly.
33:45So, I don't see AI as a big hindrance.
33:50Like all the technologies,
33:51I think that every improvement in technology
33:53is to make people's life better.
33:56So, and for me, you know,
33:57I always say in our organization,
34:00we are working towards
34:02building a better tomorrow for everybody.
34:04So, and AI will help us include more people
34:07that have been excluded into the global market.
34:11I'm going to do my last question to you.
34:16Is there any leadership belief
34:18that you had in your earlier career
34:23that today, when you look back,
34:26you would wish to reconsider?
34:28You would think that, you know,
34:30I should have done something differently?
34:34Well, yeah, sure.
34:35Certainly, you know,
34:36so when I was studying, you know,
34:39when you grow up in the emerging markets
34:40and you go and you do your
34:43Bachelor of Business Administration,
34:44your Master of Business Administration,
34:47you learn a lot, you know,
34:49on how to conduct everything
34:50with 1,500 KPIs.
34:55But there's no learning from those areas
34:59or from engaging with fantastic consultants
35:02that actually teaches you
35:03that there's one KPI
35:04that is more important
35:05than all of these BS KPIs.
35:08And that one KPI is really being able
35:11to look and unlock sparkling eyes
35:14in the eye of the colleagues
35:15that are standing next to you.
35:17So for me, what I've learned
35:20with the experience is that
35:22the best KPI in the world
35:24is the sparkling eyes
35:25of any colleague that is standing
35:27in front of you
35:27or of customers that are standing
35:29in front of you
35:29because that means that everything
35:30is going fine.
35:31If you don't have sparkling eyes,
35:33forget your KPIs.
35:35Anything is not going fine.
35:36I love it.
35:38Sparkling eyes.
35:39Yeah.
35:39Thank you, Amadou,
35:40for a very insightful session today.
35:43Learned a lot.
35:44I hope we see you again soon.
35:46Thank you for having me.
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