Companies, Snakes & Ladders: Success in the Arab Corporate Jungle

By Mamdooh M. Al-Radadi

No matter the stage of your career,‘Companies, Snakes & Ladders’ is the book for you – from getting through your first few months, to raising your profile or helping you realise your ambitions! Understand the type’s of employees and customers you’ll come across, and more importantly how to manage them! Discover the tools to succeed in your first few years, and how to continue upward 5 years beyond! Find out how to make yourself stand out of the crowd in only 30 days, and why quality is so imperative to achieving your goals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781619274266

Book preview

ISBN: 9781619274266

DEDICATION

To my mother and father, my angels, from the deepest well in my heart I love you endlessly.

To Sultan my handsome smart cool son.

To Leen my beautiful smart daughter (because she insisted to be mentioned in the book, and deserves it also).

To Ibrahim my nephew and son, who is not with us anymore but is within us more than ever. This may he would have been 9 may Allah bless his soul.

To all my family and friends that made me what I am and most of all believed in someone called mamdooh.

To every student out there with big dreams, to every employee trying make it happen, to every soul that wants to discover its true potential.

Mamdooh Al.Radadi Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, The summer of 2013.

INTRODUCTION

Congratulations on graduating, or not. You are now either thinking about getting a job, have one but are confused, manage a team of new hires, want to learn more about the wrong things to do the right.

Maybe you're just checking out the book for its attractive color? Maybe you actually are in need of some serious, hard facts and guidance on how to succeed much faster and most of all much safer?

This book is good for all of the above.

The experts in the world have come to a conclusion that in order to be considered an expert in a field, any field for that matter, you need around seven years of working experience in that field or ten thousand hours of research and reading.

I am thankful to have double that in work experience, and I think well over ten times the amount of research and reading required, you are in good hands and in most cases I speak from experience.

My first book focused on the delicate banks and success in them made easy; Banks, snakes & ladders

The design of this book has been made as simple as it possibly can to reflect the way I usually deliver information, I am sick of jargon and sophisticated methods of writing and speaking. The simplest forms always deliver.

A quick story about companies, graduates and employees in the region: Saudi Arabia has recently launched a massive initiative to get the educational system on par with world benchmarks and most importantly to meet requirements of the very organizations that will hire these graduates.

You see, sadly the output was focused on old systems that date back to the forties or seventies to be polite. The days of worker mentality are over, the days of a thinking society is well into play.

When you teach children to memorize, know the basics, they will eventually have a lot of non workable memorized stuff and a lot of basics like everyone else. A copypaste kind of thing, if you may.

The question was more like Why are companies hiring foreigners and not saudis? What is wrong with our graduates? and the sneaky system was laughing behind them as they questioned it.

Things like soft skills, communications skills, etiquette and netiquette for this day and age, observational and analytical skills? dealing with different people, and not an Our team vs. The different people mentality was the real challenge.

The whole country is starting to realize and take action, it will take time but it will also deliver stronger output that organizations will fight over when the time comes.

In the meantime, you have this book that will give you all that and more instantly, yet step by step building a solid foundation to take you as high as you wish to climb. Yes, and it will help you identify the pitfalls, snakes and dangers, guiding you to the smarter, faster and professional way.

This book is beneficial for:

Students, job seekers, entry-level, middle and senior management. The book is also good for employees in any organization, CEO's and any other title that begins with a capital C, owners of companies, local and international readers (the laws in this book are almost all universal), and last but not least universities and colleges to see what their students are going to be really up against.

BREAKING IN!

One machine can do the work of fifty men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man- Elbert Hubbard.

To ensure you know what you are doing in life, you should do something that was invented ages ago, something called research. You might call it digging for information, stripping down the information, putting the pieces together, and making sense of the numbers, etc..

REMEMBER THIS:

If demand for great workplaces is extremely high, the forces of economic supply and demand favor these great workplaces.

When the commodity is in high demand (job seekers in general) it's a job hunters market.

Please note that I said job seekers/hunters in general. For super stars, ready and able, creative people, thinkers & doers here is where the theory switches sides.

There aren't so many qualified, exceptional job seekers out there & they always will have the upper hand in the business deal. For that to happen, the candidate needs to first acknowledge that he is a rare breed!

Some people know how to break in, some don't.

Now I presume, since you are reading this, you are already exceptional. Exceptional people deserve the best, and I hope I candeliver.

COMING UP:

How to find your ideal work place

Interview questions and what companies

and banks look for in your answers

What not to put in your CV

Evaluate your offer and what to expect

Six things to do with every offer

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: Getting your foot in

• Interviews, CV's & follow throughs

• Six Things to do with Every Offer

• Staying in

CHAPTER 2: The first ninety days and what to expect.

• Beware of DOG!

• BET

• CAP

• PUP

• Nine things to remember during your first Ninety days your first year

CHAPTER 3: The next 9 months

• Twelve ideas for first year success

• Fourteen things to FOCUS on during your first year

• Increase your productivity gradually and constantly:

• Increase your bottom line:

• Network both in and out of the company like a bee

CHAPTER 4: The critical first 3 years

• Signs to look for & possess

• People and you

CHAPTER 5: Personalities: You

• The Meyers Briggs personality type test:

• In the other tests, the personalities fall under:

CHAPTER 6: Employee types

• 14 employee types and how to handle them

CHAPTER 7: Manager Types

• 10 manager types & how to handle them

CHAPTER 8: Types of Customers

• 10 customer types & how to handle them

CHAPTER 9: Joining the famous few

• Seven Sure Ways to Stand Out

• Twelve Steps to Learn How to Fly With the Eagles

CHAPTER 10: GOALS

• The importance of goals

• Eight Steps to Ultimate Goals

• The Twelve Universal Laws of Goal Setting*

CHAPTER 11: Time Management

• What do I focus on?

• 8 time management techniques that deliver time after time

CHAPTER 12: Marketing, Sales, Advertising & Publicity

• Marketing

• Everyones in sales

• Advertising

• Publicity

• The Perfect presentation:

CHAPTER 13: Performance checkup

• Why do employees hate them?

• Signs that you are doing ok:

CHAPTER 14: What they forget to tell you at work

• Twenty seven Power Rules for the Workplace

CHAPTER 15: The power of networking

• Wasta

• Four for the road on networking

CHAPTER 16: They call it Etiquette

CHAPTER 17: Quality as a way of life

CHAPTER 18: Making meetings work

• The ultimate meeting:

• What's the real cost of meetings?

• Six types of meetings and how to handle them

• The Six hats method by Edward De Bono

CHAPTER 19: 12 success pillars in organizations

CHAPTER ONE

GETTING YOUR FOOT IN

'The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form '- Stanley J. Randall.

By following this seven-step approach I can guarantee that you will uncover many hidden truths.

Truths which are screaming at you but you're blinded by the offer

Offers are not usually exactly what they promise

Once the milk is spilt there is no use in crying over it

THINGS YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO THROUGH

Fall prey to false promises, and hidden problems

Suffer in trying to find out after the fact

Waste time in a dead end organization

THE 7 STEP APPROACH GIVES YOU:

Uncover the lies

Avoid pitfalls

Stand out with your knowledge

Winner no matter what

Please be warned! The following approach will produce results beyond your expectations.

THE 7-STEP ACID TEST TO RESEARCH A WORK PLACE:

1- Identify your personality & work style

2- Identify your optimal working environment

3- Identify companies that interest you

4- Visit company and just walk around

5- Study balance sheets and check where the spending is going

6- Visit other competing companies, compare and document

7- Conduct a SWOT test on your findings for top three companies

INTERVIEWS, CV'S & FOLLOW THROUGH

The interview is a battlefield or a sales pitch, whichever floats your boat. In both cases you need to win it.

Mamdooh Al-Radadi

When someone comes to me with a CV and it has computers, internet, swimming, football in the other skills area, I just laugh. Your personal skills should reflect your true capabilities, and directly relate to the job you are applying for.

Banks & companies generally, like other organizations, try to find the best fit for their organization. In general, they do this by going over three sets of questions:

General questions

Behavioral questions

Work-related questions

GENERAL QUESTIONS:

General questions reveal information about your attitude, skills, and adjustability levels. Asking questions about family, background, education and interests is the focus here.

Examples:

Why did you choose selling cosmetics as your profession?

Do you have any previous experiences?

Why did you leave your previous job? (if you had one)

Why do you want to work for us?

How long will you stay with us?

Where do you see yourself in five years?

BEHAVIORAL QUESTIONS:

When these questions are combined with work-related questions, their aim is to understand the candidate's nature, work experience, capabilities, ideology, ability to solve problems, and other issues which may arise during his working career.

Examples:

Do you have leadership qualities?

Can you give an example of when you showed leadership skills?

Do you think