Ahmad El Tannir, General Manager, Al Masaood Oil & Gas • Interview

With the pandemic completely changing the way businesses operate, Al Masaood Oil & Gas adapted accordingly and shaped a new future for itself.

How has the pandemic affected Al Masaood Oil & Gas company?

The first effect is the human factor, or the fear of catching the virus. Al Masaood Oil & Gas cares deeply about its employees and their health and safety. First and foremost, we are a service company, and our people are our most important asset. We set the tone for our employees, and this optimistic outlook is facilitated by the government’s guidelines. In addition to government precautions, our clients, including ADNOC and its subsidiaries and other IOCs, implemented extra safety measures that we need to consider. This was a top priority for us, even if it means we have to work at lower capacity. We came up with an agreement with ADNOC that involved keeping employees onsite and moving them only according to the service orders we got on rigs. That was successful in terms of mitigating the risk of movement and transferring contagions to other sites. The government has been consistent in supporting the private sector and family businesses through its initiatives, particularly those that reduce the cost of doing business. Banks also supported us for our employees, especially in terms of postponing payments for those with loans. A great deal of credit goes to this country, which I consider the best in the world. We live in a haven—both business- and people-wise. We have adapted in many ways and maintained a positive outlook.

How has your company leveraged and accelerated the integration of technology in this new business environment?

I have always believed in technology and its positive impact on business. Al Masaood Oil & Gas started an internal initiative four years ago to transfer all of our in-house transactions to digital technology. We started at the beginning with the sales, finance, PR, HR, marketing, legal and compliance, and ethics departments. Then, we moved into the service division. It makes us well prepared for any type of business uncertainty or failure in business. We can track it, investigate, work on the proper solution, and rectify the issue. We have been successful in doing that for the last two years once we completed the ERP process. This technology and the video conferences allowed us to remain connected during this period so that we could stay up to date on what is happening.

What is your immediate mid-term plan to mitigate the risk of the effects in 4Q2020?

To mitigate the risk of the effect of this wave of the pandemic, we have to consider business practices before the pandemic and after as completely different. We cannot plan, design budgets, and set up targets the same way we did before. We are in a market of adapting to change. Most of our sales—from mechanical, electrical, and chemical supplies and so on—have been affected due to shipping and the closure of ports and airports. Companies have had two approaches: wait for things to go back to the way they were before or adapt and shape the future. From day one, we were selling products and solutions that could prevent and detect COVID-19 or protect people. That was very successful. There were incentives, and they got paid through those. Everyone was motivated, and we paid 1Q and 2Q2020 sales incentives even during the challenging time. They will be paid for the third and fourth quarters on time as well, as long as they meet their targets and budgeted revenues. The business practices overall are different than they were before, and that will affect us negatively or positively, depending on the leadership of every company. I am captivating the innovation, the power of being optimistic, and taking these initiatives with the support and blessings of our board members, who are all always positive and strongly believe in the UAE government’s vision and the economy along with ADNOC’s vision.