What’s the story behind your business?
Created in a time and place that offered unparalleled opportunities, Khidmah has quickly grown to become one of the nation’s leading fully integrated property management, facilities management, owner’s association, and lifestyle solutions provider, delivering the entire range to manage your real estate assets. Corporate, institutional and individual real estate investors choose Khidmah because of our ability to create a customized approach to real estate asset preservation, without the need to outsource any of your assets maintenance or management needs while maintaining the quality.
How did you get started in the business? Where were you before you became CEO?
Before Khidmah, I served at the Asset and Property Department as Manager of Operations and Property Management in Sorouh Real Estate. I also spent time in the office of Presidential Affairs with the duty of housing for UAE Nationals. I had a vision of streamlining property management and facilities management business into one single point of contact. The opportunity came as Sorouh has grown its residential, commercial and retail assets at a rapid rate. As Sorouh realized this, a new unit has to be established to fill the gap between these two industries in Abu Dhabi. In 2008, Khidmah was born so that we may fill that gap and serve more people.
What most excites you about working for your company?
Turning the challenges into opportunities is what excites me to go to work. Knowing that what we do improves the lives of the people who trust us is worth all the challenges that we face every day. It’s always an exciting feeling when you know that you can make such an impact to a lot of communities.
What are the company’s plan for the next five years?
We always aspire to be known as a company that only delivers the best quality in the work that we do in the UAE, and hopefully the GCC. We also plan to concentrate on our venture in KSA and expand to touch more markets across the globe.
The word ‘innovation’ is constantly overused in today’s business world. What does the term mean to you and your company?
For us, innovation is incorporating all the available technologies in our daily business processes so that we can serve more people better and improve their way of living.
Are there any specific examples of how your company has innovated in the market?
Over the past couple of years, we have always strived to improve our services through technology, innovation and sustainability. We always make sure that we use environment-friendly products and tools to conserve energy and to reduce the harm that our operations may have on the environment.
One example would be the project we have done with the Western Region mosques. We implemented the idea of sustainability by changing the lighting system to LED and using the ablution water for landscaping. We also used thermo-detection systems for cooling and lighting.
How has SAP helped your company in its mission of innovation?
SAP has helped us in streamlining most of our processes in a single application as we were using many applications to achieve the same goal. Having a single system has given us a better perspective, efficiency, and dynamics to evaluate and take decisions. In addition to that, each division used to see only a part of their job on the whole process. But currently, they can see the whole picture and their effect on the total process. This did not just improve our efficiency as an individual, but most importantly, it has improved our teamwork greatly which improved our organization’s goals.
Do you believe some companies can ‘over-innovate’ or ‘innovate for innovation’s sake’? Are there dangers to this way of thinking?
Yes, I believe everyone is capable of over-innovating. Every business desires to make things better for their clients. While there is nothing wrong with that, sometimes over-innovation comes with costs that we might not be able to think of in the present. That becomes dangerous when our clients or consumers get affected. Over-innovation may also affect the way we control the quality of our services. We have always been hands on when it comes to delivering these solutions to our clients. We are very meticulous and detail oriented. We serve people with what they need, and most of the time, no two cases are similar. Some details may be different and may be overlooked by automated systems. We always strive to innovate to improve our efficiency, but not all innovations may lead to that immediately. Some might need more time and focus in order to propagate.
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