Potential customers/employees/HRs of other companies who are hiring from them
Pros
Money is invested into medical benefits (EXTREMELY good coverage for employee and family), travel (Business Class), lots of cake-cutting, dinner and dance, food and drinks activities.
Cons
This note is for all applicants who are considering a position in this company, HRs of competitors and customers who are considering doing business with them. Make your own judgement if you want to join/hire/do business with them. First of all, this is a UAE government-owned organization. And it is 100% (both direct and indirect). Hence, even if the interviewers claim that this is a private/Singapore company, that is totally untrue. The power of control lies in the Owners, and everything is done with the Owners as top priority. Customers are secondary. Cost-cutting is the mandate so that the maximum profit goes to the owners, even if it doesn’t make sense. Marketing budget are spent sparingly, and returned to the Owners, unlike normal commercial companies where 100% of the marketing budget is fully utilized on marketing activities to raise profile and generate more leads. The rationale is Owners will save money. Hence, between a customer’s request that will cost money and Owners’ preference, the latter will take priority. The fact that the CEO used to be a plant manager that focuses on cost-saving spell a lot about the organisation’s priority. There is no strategy in this company. Event is the only publicity tool that is given the maximum budget to run, despite strong feedback for many years that this is a waste of time, effort and money because it doesn’t generate leads at all. It only serves as a platform for competitors to check out your products. Event is heavily endorsed by the senior management because it is the chance to invite Owners to come and cut ribbons (yes, they still like to cut ribbons at exhibitions – which is so passé). Based on what I understand from the marcom team, no budget is given to digital, print advertisements and public relations. Hence, poor sales folk bear the burden/responsibility of coming up with ways to sell the stock (how much stock they pump out everyday determines how much you need to sell), without the help of any marketing plan. It is pretty strange because coming of other companies, revenue-generating units often have the loudest say (since they support the entire company). Career progression is none to speak of because of emiratization. But this is a given so you should not expect any promotion right from the start. Emiratis without any knowledge nor experience will be helicoptered to senior roles heading a department. This will remain the rule of law. Do expect majority of the people now in this company have poor work ethics and low quality of work, especially the marketing centers. For headhunters/human resources departments of other companies, do test employees carrying a marketing/application marketing titles on their skillset/knowledge. You will be surprised how ignorant they are in creating a launch plan detailing pricing, timeline, budget, key message, target audience – they can’t. They dump all these onto another department to do for them, which is only 10% of their manpower. There are the delusionalists Reputation is poor among customers – angry customers have described this company as “arrogant”– be it SEA or China. Customer Service Team staff bear the brunt of clients’ anger so it is quite bad. Weigh for yourself which is more important – upfront income/benefits or career development – if you are offered a job in this company. Consider the type of after-sales service you are going to get if you are considering this company as your supplier. Think thrice (not twice) and do very good background check if you are considering a potential hire from this company.