Placing people over profits
“What is the point of money without people,” asks Hisham Al Amoudi, group CEO for retail conglomerate Kamal Osman Jamjoom (KOJ) Group. It is an incredibly relevant question, given that retail is a people’s business. Importantly, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, these very people who drive the success of retail are suffering. Are retailers doing enough for their people’s overall wellbeing? That’s probably a trillion-dollar question!
“Every company has its own unique situation and priorities. At KOJ Group, we have decided to choose people over profit.
In the short term, profit is depressed, but we have decided to protect our people and share the pain. That has been our philosophy right since the COVID-19 outbreak,” states Al Amoudi.
Standing together with people
The KOJ Group has made a conscious decision not to make redundancies. That’s saying something, especially since findings from research firm Euromonitor International’s ‘Voice of the Industry: COVID-19’ survey indicates that by March 2020, 16.5% of global companies had already downsized staff to reduce operational costs.
However, at the same time, several businesses – like KOJ Group – have placed their people ahead of profits. “I spend sleepless nights thinking about our people amidst so much uncertainty; but I am also optimistic about not only overcoming the crisis but also emerging stronger if we really, truly stand together with them,” Al Amoudi shares.
To share the pain, Al Amoudi decided to forego his salary. The senior executives at KOJ Group have also sacrificed a portion of their salaries. “In March, when the retail stores closed temporarily, we lost around 50% of revenues. But we paid everyone 100% salary. In April, all of us decided to share the pain. The office staff sacrificed anywhere between 25-and-35% of their salaries. In May, ahead of Ramadan, we decided to pay a 100% salary to our front liners. We will review the situation on a month-on-month basis. The results have been positive, so far; as our people have come up with ideas to trim costs – be that rent, OTB (open-to-buy) forecast and other expenses. It has helped us to mitigate risks and manage cashflow, thereby protecting the business and our people,” he shares.
“Think about it – during the lockdown period, our stores were temporarily closed. Our brick-andmortar sales declined by 90%. Even though losses mounted, liquidity was healthy,” Al Amoudi continued. “As phased reopening of stores began in certain GCC countries, our sales rose, initially by 50%. Meanwhile, our online business grew by over 1,000%. Our liquidity has improved. And these results have been made possible by the support of our great team. Cash is important, but not more than the people who help generate sales, profit and cash. That’s why we are strongly focused on managing our cashflow for at least 24 months to protect our people and bounce back stronger.”
Ensuring health and safety
Alongside protecting jobs, guaranteeing the utmost safety of people – both employees and customers – is a significant focus area for KOJ Group. Besides abiding by the set guidelines around strict disinfection and sanitisation of facilities – both stores and warehouses – as well as social distancing, wearing face masks and gloves, KOJ Group has undertaken several additional measures.
“We have both GCC nationals and expatriates in our workforce, and each person is treated similarly – that’s irrespective of the current crisis. In the Gulf countries, as part of public healthcare, the governments are looking after every person, especially COVID-19
positive cases. On our part, we have ensured that the insurance companies would cover sudden illnesses arising from COVID-19. If for some reason, none of the options work, we have promised to take responsibility for the required treatments,” Al Amoudi elaborates.
Facilitating engagement
Engagement has been central to business success, especially amidst COVID-19 lockdown. Several global retail businesses have shared how through engagement with customers, their brands have been able to survive the crisis. In doing so, people play a crucial role, because a brand’s success depends on its people and how engaged they are.
In this context, Al Amoudi states, “We undertook several engagement initiatives for our customers, where our people played a big role. We created and published videos on health and safety measures that we undertook while packing and delivering their orders placed online. We introduced games on our websites to entertain and engage with our customers, especially during the lockdown. It also boosted our e-commerce numbers.”
KOJ Group has recorded over 2,900% growth in e-commerce in 2020, over last year. “This growth has been driven by our digital transformation journey, which began three years ago. Our businesses – including Nayomi, Mikyajy and Early Learning Center – were ready to serve customers online, while our people – at every level and function – reskilled themselves. Our leaders have leveraged technology to lead change within their respective departments and teams. We have had the right skillsets to undertake the digital transformation journey, since 2017, with our tech-savvy people taking the lead role and helping others to learn,” Al Amoudi states.
In that sense, KOJ Group has been able to infuse the power of people with the power of technology. “We started using Zoom almost two years ago, much before it gained the current popularity. Our people were already working from home even before it became a new norm. All these require a paradigm shift and our transformation journey will continue,” Al Amoudi cites.
Creating a positive work environment
To bring about positive changes and create a safe work environment, leadership plays a vital role. What differentiates a leader is their humility and urge to learn every day.
“I don’t claim to be the smartest, most educated, experienced, knowledgeable or even right every time,” says Al Amoudi. “But I have greater accountability to deliver results, so I am ever-keen to learn from everyone. And to learn, we must be humble and disciplined to work hard and achieve more. As a leader, it is also crucial to own up and take responsibility for our mistakes. When we do that, we lead by example; our people are not afraid to make mistakes and learn from them. We have successfully created a spirit of respect and equanimity in our organisation. Importantly, we work ‘with’ each other; each one of us specialising in our fields. The idea is to complement each other.”
“Our mission statement is to build a successful business that improves the quality of life of our people, creates meaningful jobs in the communities we operate and challenges people to grow ethically while having fun. COVID-19 has allowed us to test how true we are towards our mission and values,” he concludes. ■