Excellence Foresight with Nancy Nouaimeh
Welcome to Excellence Foresight, the podcast that guides you on the journey to building top-performing, sustainable, and future-ready teams and organizations. We explore how to plan for excellence, dive into the latest trends, and share practical insights for achieving success in today’s rapidly changing world.
Our mission? To fast-track your journey to excellence. It's a challenge, but with the right strategies and understanding of unique organizational cultures, it's achievable.
In each episode, I’ll share insights from my 24 years of experience in diverse, multicultural settings. Plus, we’ll have inspiring guests sharing their stories and the lessons they've learned in their own quests for excellence. Whether you’re a leader or a team member, this podcast is your roadmap to success, helping you and your organization thrive by embracing best practices and future-focused thinking.
Excellence Foresight with Nancy Nouaimeh
Steering Towards Excellence: Unfolding the Journey of Sustainability and Quality with Nasir Hameed
Listen to a conversation with Nasir Hameed, the expert behind driving quality and sustainability initiatives at NAQUA (National Aquaculture Group), KSA. With 20+ years of experience in Canada, USA and the Middle East, discover how his expertise, blending the food industry and government sector, has shaped his unique perspective on the essence of excellence in an organization's every facet. Nasir emphasizes how clarity, respect, and relentless scrutiny can fuel an organization's journey towards excellence. You'll learn the pivotal role of leadership, the importance of engaging stakeholders, and how positive reinforcement can nurture a culture of excellence.
This episode also delves into the significance of excellence in personal, professional, and system-based practices. With Nasir, we uncover two instances of excellence in his company that have been game-changers - the integration of artificial intelligence in feeding systems and a global proficiency program for quality assurance. As we explore the intricate world of the aquaculture industry, we delve into the complexities and stakeholders' roles in shaping its success. You'll also learn about the importance of a well-rounded workforce in sustainable development and the ambitious goals of boosting per capita consumption of fishery products in Saudi Arabia. So, buckle up for a deep dive into sustainable industry solutions, organizational excellence, and stakeholder involvement.
Hello and welcome to the Excellence 4-Side podcast. I'm your host, nancy Noemi. My mission to make excellence an everyday habit. Whether you're striving for organizational leadership in a digital and sustainable world, or pursuing personal excellence, you're right where you need to be.
Speaker 1:In today's guest episode titled Sustainable Industry Solutions Empowering the Workforce and Engaging Stakeholders, get ready to be captivated by the presence of Nasir Hamid, the driving force behind NACWA, ksa, sustainable Initiatives. Nasir holds the esteemed position of Chief Quality and Sustainability Officer, overseeing corporate quality, food safety and regulatory affairs in Pakistan. Before he became an integral part of the NACWA team, he has contributed his expertise to global giants like Cargill, pepsico, nestle, aghdiya and many others. I had the privilege of meeting Nasir and welcome Nasir here today last year at the World Food Safety Summit in Jeddah, where his unwavering dedication to organizational structure and sustainability initiatives left a lasting impression. Get ready to dive into the world of sustainable industry solutions with Nasir Hamid. Nasir, welcome, we're so pleased to welcome you in the Excellence Foresight Podcast today. Why don't you start by telling us a little bit more about yourself?
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, nancy, and for your time and your concern and really.
Speaker 2:I'm honored that you have found it beneficial that we speak on the topic of excellence and also on industrial sustainability, which I think is not only just the hot topic to discuss but the need of growing industries and progressive industries all over the world.
Speaker 2:So, like you gave the introduction about myself, a food science and technologist professional to begin with started from Pakistan and onward to USA working for Cargill and working for different countries within Cargill really gave a baseline to my career to understand the global scenario and the challenges within the agriculture and food business sector and operational sector.
Speaker 2:And not only that, but working for PepsiCo as the Asia Pacific head of quality and new product commercialization again opened up the areas where the growth is, where the population is, where the really rubber hits the road when it comes to sustainable requirements and industrial accidents. Plus, a little bit background in the government sector, in the public sector, being the chief of national food safety is filing for Canadian food inspection agencies in Canada. And then for the past almost eight, nine years of my involvement in eco culture world, in the fisheries, industrial development, quality, food safety, regulatory side, compliance, certification, environmental and total sustainability management leadership role and also working on the core establishment, the baselines for the people processes, premises and, building on that, towards the accidents that you always refer to. So that's a little bit of the background that I wanted to share.
Speaker 1:This is excellent. No, sir, thank you very much. I mean you have a blended, diverse experience in different sectors, different countries, different geographies. You mentioned people, you mentioned processes. In the single model, we focus on the purpose, people and process, and I would like to start by this question Do you believe in pursuing excellence? We talk a lot about excellence, we have big concepts and we have frameworks that talks about that, but do you really believe that we can achieve excellence? I mean through your journey? What did that journey taught you about excellence?
Speaker 2:I think, being a practical leader in the industry, I believe in having a clear vision of whatever level of excellence you want to achieve. It is going to be relevant to your organization, to your scope of work and the scale of your work. So I think the idea can be implemented and I will say the concept can be adapted to every level of the industry and of the sector that we are working in. But it should have one role, one role model steps that we should take For example, having a clarity from the leadership on what is to be achieved, why it is necessary for that organization to do any step or do any project or to take any initiative. Around that commitment, you must have clarity on your resources, your time and motion planning, stakeholders, collaboration and cooperation.
Speaker 2:Within that, Clarity on the stakeholders who are really the people that you will like to have as part of your team and the people that you can rely on, lean on when it comes to the challenges and the risks during that journey. From there, you must monitor each and every step, make sure that it's achievable, it's time bound, it's resource conscious, it's business-oriented and also respectful manners means to your stakeholders on each and every step. Depending upon the people that you are working with, it can be floor level, farm level, on the road and the people who they are sitting with you on the strategy desk all have the same respect and same honor when it comes to listening to them, learning from them and adapting to their positive feedback and then capturing the results. It's very important, no-transcript, to keep capturing the results. Keep showing the positivity on every result and every step that you are taking, so that the motivation becomes a part and norm of that journey to the accidents.
Speaker 2:For me, once you have started looking at profitable, sustained results, keep them. Keep them there to shine, to show and to sort between negative and positive in front of your people. Highlight them or stage them for that success for them, and then make it a habit, not just for one time, two times, three times. Once a good thing has become your habit, it will become a routine for the people. You would not have to then push them anymore, and soon. You have reached that level. I think you have put your foot on the steps of accidents right there. That's what I feel like.
Speaker 1:Not that this is an excellent answer. I was listening to you talking about clarity, talking about respect. These are things we teach in the Shingo model and we try to tell organizations and leaders you need to look, you need to listen, you need to learn what's going on in the organization to be able to take the right decisions, to be able to give the right resources to your people and facilitate that journey towards excellence. I liked how you framed it. I liked how you spoke about excellence and now I would like to talk a little bit about the future, about sustainability. If organizations are building a strong foundation now, do you think this is the past to building stronger communities and more resilient and sustainable organizations in the future? How do we link excellence and sustainability?
Speaker 2:For me, sustainability comes first. You need to show that your efforts are sustainable. Your efforts are not for today, but they are for future. People can rely on those, people can build on those. You are initiated, you are projects. Your profitability processes are sustainable in a way of not only just scalable profitability, but also to be there for the future that may bring the challenges for you. So you need to build them accordingly.
Speaker 2:For example, what is happening in Saudi Arabia? We have Vision 2030, which means that we need to sustain and to develop all those initiatives which takes the food supply chain, food security of Saudi Arabia, national citizens and inhabitants, not only for today, but beyond their expectations of how population will increase, how the immigrants will come to Saudi Arabia, when the labor markets and the chemical conditions are improving day by day. So, for example, in aquaculture, we have taken that mentality in our mind. We started growing the fisheries products and developing the systems, not only for the next couple of years, but also for 10, 20 years. Vision in our mind, with the population, with the inhabitants and with the challenges that we may have from the food supply chain and food security. So future development, having sustainable system, are very important and when you relate them to excellence.
Speaker 2:In my mind, the excellence would be that that area of sustainability, or those areas of operations, production or supply chains that you have considered as your challenge in the future, you are making sure that you have the right resources and right platforms to develop those initiatives and projects today, and from two years, three years, four years, when they become mature, you can then tell we are going towards the excellence. Excellence, in my mind, would be that people can adapt to those ideas which you have matured. People can learn from those initiatives that you have gone through, from a very hard time and you have learned those. So excellence is something which is sustained, result-oriented, profitable, successful and adaptable for the other people. If people cannot adapt it, then I think we are lacking behind something in that accident. So it should be flexible, achievable, sustainable and adaptable for the people. So this is where I relate sustainability to the accident stages.
Speaker 1:This is really great. I think when we talk about excellence frameworks, we sometimes feel that they are rigid, that they are maybe limiting us to a certain moment in time and where we are now. But if you have, like you said, adaptable frameworks, if you adapt what you're doing to the needs now and the needs of the future, then you will be sure to have sustainability and sustainable systems in the future. I like how you link things now to the food security now, for example, and what we need for the future.
Speaker 1:I think we've learned a lot from the pandemic. We've learned a lot of good stuff and we became more resilient, but now we need to build for the future. We need to build sustainable systems to make sure that the population in the future is not going to be in the same situation where we work, and having a strong foundation for that is very important. What we build now is something that needs to serve us in the future. I like the way you put that and I think we have a lot of challenges in the region and you've highlighted that very clearly. But the fact that companies are aware of that, the fact they are building learning organizations, I think it's going to help us a lot in the future. You mentioned also in your answer to the first question from your personal or professional experience, have you witnessed the power of harnessing good habits and excellence practices. Can you share with us some examples?
Speaker 2:Yes, sure, nancy. I think from a personal perspective, the best example is your own example. So, very simple thing which I have adapted in my life as a principle to have a positive communication. And when I say positive communication it means that your mindset as a leader, your mindset as initiator or your mindset as a moderator, facilitator of any initiative or any project, must be clear on the people who they are working with you. You set your expectations clear. You set your goals that you want to achieve very clearly with them, listen more than you talk and adapt to the good things as they come along and build on those.
Speaker 2:And another thing is which I think that is a best practice and it has really worked good for me is to not delay when I need to say when you communicate at the right time, you do not linger on. I like to at least pacify the situation, tell that I'm working on that, share where you are and maybe the people who they are questioning or people who they need that information may become your resource to get you through that and they might have half of the answer. It's a very intelligent word, nancy. So people, even our children, when they ask us a question, they have half of answer, or more than half of answer in their mind. So do not delay things, do not let people hanging there.
Speaker 2:This is one principle that I have adapted and you can. You're an expert. I don't know which area of excellence it falls into, but I like not to let people wait for what I want to say. I like to say it as quickly as possible logical, realistic, fact-based. Take my time before, no reactions, but once you have some idea, share it. Don't let it sit in your mind for long.
Speaker 1:I think it touches all areas. This is communication is across everything we do, and I like the fact that you highlighted don't delay, because I see this more and more in the practices of people, that they don't answer. Sometimes they should say, yes, no, wait for an answer, but yeah, they keep you hanging for weeks right Without an answer. So I like the fact that you're focusing on delay. This is really, I think, something that makes a big impact on the person receiving the message. Oh, it has become a habit.
Speaker 2:I said in my opening remarks that once an excellence initiative becomes your habit, that you don't really have to push it, that it becomes part of your character and you do it as a routine. So people sometimes they get to say I have not even thought about it and I saw your note on that. So it really cuts off a lot of learning curve and it shortens the time of an initiative to go forward. That was on the personal side and the people side, on system side, on professional side, there are a couple of things that I want to share that we have adapted and we have shown an excellence in national agriculture group here in Saudi Arabia Years before. I mean you know that in Saudi Arabia the commodities, for example, the feed commodities which we use in our formulation for our agriculture systems, are not easily available. You have to cater them from all over the world, from sustainable sources. We have ASC, bap, global Gap, so many EU regulations, sfda regulations, maba regulations. We have regulations from FTA.
Speaker 1:World Trade Organization.
Speaker 2:WTOs, WHOs, for the commodities movement from all over the world to Saudi Arabia and to outbound inbound situations. So we need to be sustainable. We need to have sustainable operational excellence to manage those situations. In agriculture, feed inputs are maybe 80% of all the inputs and resources that you need, because this is how you grow your animal at different stages of your animal, with the help of having good feed, right time, right amounts. We, a few years back, adapted to an acoustic based, sound based, automatic system of feeding in our pots. So what happens?
Speaker 2:instead of wasting the feed, instead of wasting those very valuable, very costly ingredients that we are buying, and we are mixing it for our feed from all over the world we adapted this technology which is sort of artificial intelligence which basically listens to the sound of the shrimp and sound of our fisheries inside the ponds and then give only that much of the feed through automatic feeding systems, which is required not to waste the feed and to settle as deposits inside the ponds and not to have overfeeding to our animal to create other quality and animal health issues with them. So that actually has really helped a lot adapting to a new technology, adapting to new system, respecting the technology of the future, adapting to artificial intelligence, building it into a farming system which is people would think is very crude, very raw, and getting the results, economical results which are tangible, showing the profitability, showing the sustainability of not only just from supply and demand perspective but also from production and profitability perspective in our products as well. That is something which we stage for the entire world and we stage for the entire Saudi Arabia and the Middle East Mina Gulf region. But look at it, that, how we adapted and how we achieve that sustainable process and shown the profitability. This is something when you ask for excellence, something to adapt, something to take as a best practice for the industry and adapt on to.
Speaker 2:And one more example very quickly, and that is on the side that I manage and that is the quality assurance systems. We have got into a global methodology proficiency programming with the UK government and some other agencies involved. That is basically that all the analysis. We do over 100,000 tests per year just to support our farming and processing systems in our analytical services in NACWA, in National Aquaculture Group, to make sure that all the results are meaningful, the data is trendable, the data is available at the required time and the integrity of that data is sustained.
Speaker 2:We need to make sure our methods are calibrated with a global methodology. Our technicians are calibrated, our tests that we are doing are calibrated and they are recognized as verified testing and validated testing. So we go under blind testing with hundreds different labs, hundred recognized different labs in the world, and it is managed through a UK system in which the samples are sent, known samples with the known results for the scope of the testing methodologies that we do in National Aquaculture Group are given to all hundred labs and then the results are compiled. Alhamdulillah, thanks God, for the past 12 years we are in upper 99, 98, 99.5, 100% range. So that really tells that this is one. I wanted to share these two examples to tell that when you go through a systematic way of adapting something, creating the results out of that, showing the profitability and sustainable management of that system, then it's adaptable, something can be taken as a best practice, then I think we are towards the road of excellence, sustained excellence in our industry.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Thank you for sharing these great examples. I think they show forward thinking. They show that you're really looking at assuring quality at the source, looking at how you build quality systems, how you build good results and you sustain those results. I like to focus on results and I think you showed a quite a nice loop of planning, doing checking and acting the PDCA which we use in quality. So that's really nice, nasir. I think this is an example of how we build really quality to continuously improve what we're doing and the systems we have in place. And I think these systems, when you put them in place, you're required to engage different stakeholders right internal, external. So maybe we can use that example to see how these stakeholders themselves, the partnerships you build across your work in an organization, helps you have sustainable results.
Speaker 2:I think especially in Saudi Arabia. We are sometime at the mercy of the environmental conditions. We are also. We need to understand that logistically, where we exist in the world the temperatures, soil, climatic factors, all those things they are part of our stakeholders. If you say and these are the stakeholders which are other than the human stakeholder and resources, so if you look at our systems, we need government, government of Saudi Arabia, the regional authorities, for example, fao is also part of our stakeholders.
Speaker 2:We need to understand that the people, who they are our resource, the major resource, are the people working in our farming and people working on ground in our processing and in our supply chain systems. How much you know respected they are in our system, how much they are part of the process, how much they contribute, how much welfare and well being that we are as leaders and as the industry leaders, we are going back to those people and paying them back in that welfare sense or respect sense in labor area, in the technicians, in the farm workers, in our contract workers, in our logistic movers. So, for example, at NAQA, we are more than 4,000, 5,000 people involved in every activity, every day For me. I know that our banks, our investors, our ownership, our directorship, our different leaders at every stage and our lobbyists of the environmental side and the people who they are concerned, the whistleblowers everybody is part of the process and they are our stakeholders and we must carry them along and we must make them aware of where we are and be open to them.
Speaker 2:But I think, as a person who is himself feels like a worker when I'm working at my facilities, from a leadership perspective, we need to understand the basic needs of the people who they are working with us at floors, the people who they are working at farms, because that is the major chunk of our workforce, that is the major chunk of our stakeholders.
Speaker 2:The rest of the things can be managed through the systems, but I think that when it comes to core workers, things are managed by the sentiments, things are managed by the care, the things are managed by well being and having a company which I work for who really care about the people and it's not just about the money and profitability. For the years of 42 years of the background and history of NACWA, many years of challenges, many years of going through hurdles, going through the environmental conditions, we have shown that it is more about the people and about the team and our stakeholders than to just a profit, which is important. You can't sustain without that. But I'm saying that the core area in which we and our hearts always are thinking that how to have a satisfied, how to have a resourceful, how to have a meaningful workforce working with you, I think is much, much better and effective part of stakeholders than anybody else.
Speaker 1:Nasser, you've highlighted the well-being of people, and people are the core of every organization, and people are the one who, finally, is going to deliver what you want, to deliver your services, your products. They are the one who's going to exhibit the behavior you want and that culture you want to have in place. So focusing on the people is important. I think it should be number one priority for every organization, especially, I think, in countries like KSA, where we are building capabilities. So we have a workforce which is expat, but also we have local. So having a good culture that helps both coexist and work together and help building the capabilities of the organization is very critical. Do you have any other challenges that you would like to highlight, maybe with us today, in terms of workforce development, building capabilities for the future?
Speaker 2:Yeah, one area that I would like to highlight here, from a sustainable and from excellence perspective, is that future of aquaculture and future of the food supply chain basically in Saudi Arabia would rely on our national resources and it's gonna rely on how much we produce inside. And then how is that profitable for us, for the people's consumption and for our import exports outside? Vision 2030 talks about very challenging volumes of our fisheries to grow and to be available for Saudi nationals and for its exports. To achieve that, we need to work on per capita consumption of healthy fishery products within Saudi Arabia. It has been for the past few years that this focus has become very important. As we grow our productions, it's very important that we should know the consumable channels, the consumption channels as well. The best channel is that we grow products which are adapted and consumed by the national, by the citizens of Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2:At this time, the per capita consumption of fisheries is not matching with our goals that we want to have by the end of 2030, which is closer to 600,000 tons of fishery products production within Saudi Arabia, aquaculture based mostly.
Speaker 2:So for that we need to work on all the stakeholders media, academia, scientific sectors, governmental sectors, universities, research centers, industries, lobbyists, people who are whistleblowers, fishmongers we need to work with maybe 20, 30 different sectors to make sure that we have the awareness and we have the education and we show the benefits of using the fishery products, and to increase per capita consumption, which is not even, I think, 10 kilograms a year, which is very low when it comes to the standards of the world. I mean, people all over the world are maybe closer to 30 kilogram, 40 kilogram, and we do see that the portly consumption here is pretty high in Saudi Arabia, which also changed over time historically, and I think it's time now that we make this our future focus, as fish has more nutritional and health benefits and also it's available. The best healthy products are available within Saudi Arabia, grown in house. So that is one of the future area that I would like to from a sustainability perspective and from operational excellence perspective, in line with the vision 2030 of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 1:I mean, these are beautiful plans, aggressive plans. I think there's a lot of work to do there. We see a lot of collaboration. I've been in Saudi, I worked in UAE. I see a lot of beautiful collaboration between academia and the corporate world and they're trying really to bring those capabilities and build those capabilities internally, whether in terms of systems or people or sustainable systems for the future. So that's really great movement happening there and we're gonna see great results with the expertise of people like you and other people who are putting their focus on the future, who are focusing on the sustainability of what we're doing now and the planet. Nasser, thank you very much for sharing your insights today here, for your invaluable lessons. I'm sure our audience will learn a lot from your experience and from what you've shared and the examples you've shared with us. Would you like to give some last words before we close our session today?
Speaker 2:We do share some ideas. I think we should keep our students alive inside us, learn from each other, build on each other's capabilities and work as a global team. If we keep that attitude, no matter where we are, I think we will be successful and leave a very good footprints for our future. And that is all about the excellence and all about sustainability, all about showing the path, proving it and leaving a good mark for our future and our generations. I think that's what I want to say.
Speaker 1:Nasser, thank you very much for giving us your time today. I had a past colleague who used to say your attitude determines your altitude and, as you rightly said, all together we can really go to higher levels and make sure that we have a sustainable future. So, our audience, thank you all for joining us today and let's be the change we want to see in the world. Let's shape a brighter future together. Please engage with us, be part of the excellence foresight community and stay tuned for our next episode focusing on art and excellence. Nasser, thank you again and bye-bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. Thank you, nasser, bye-bye.
