‘Always put your client first’

We sat down with Sir Charles Shaw, CEO, Bondoni and Tejarah Talks panellist to talk post-Covid corporate culture, risk taking, openness and transparency, prioritising employee well-being and more.

When you think of post-Covid -19 workplace culture, what descriptions come to mind?

Workplace culture is the cornerstone of any successful company. Regardless of the prevailing business environment, culture led by a strong set of values will always stand the test of time.

With the advent of the pandemic, management right across Oman realised they had to change tack. In fact, Covid -19 has altered Oman’s business landscape, possibly forever.

As a result, we have seen companies embed their corporate culture into every part of the business, from staff hiring and on-boarding to continuing professional development. Business leaders in every sector are also promoting openness and transparency and it is this open and flexible corporate culture that is allowing employees up and down Oman to thrive.

Would you agree that culture is central to growth, profit and innovation?

Profit is a product of corporate values. Profit is the way clients say thank you to a company for doing a good job. This is achieved by living a culture that courses through the veins of the business and where focus is firmly fixed on staff, clients, innovation and financial prudence.

Although the culture needs to be explicitly and regularly communicated by management, the values also need to be embedded and woven into every single policy that drives the business forward.

What three corporate values should every start-up have?

Building on what I mentioned earlier, the fewer values a company has, the easier it is for all involved to live and breathe them. The five values that stand out for me are:

o Client-centric – always put the client first.

o Employee focus – recruit and retain people who are the right fit for your culture. A person’s first week on the job is hugely important in the context of culture. It is their first impression and one that tends to be lasting and difficult to change. Bear that in mind.

o Innovation – embrace change. Be fearless. If you want your staff to take risks, you need to ensure management leads by example.

o Financial prudence – conservative financial management in all business circumstances.

o Principled – pay attention to sustainability, climate change, ethics and corporate social responsibility.

As the pandemic eases and the recovery starts, leaders are assessing how their culture responded. Overall, how would you say Omani businesses have fared?

It is probably still too early to gauge. However, companies that survived the pandemic will have learnt huge lessons, and in many cases, which learning curve will have been vertical.

Smart management teams are engaging with staff and getting feedback on the policies introduced during the pandemic – looking to see what worked and jettisoning old-fashioned policies that were unsuccessful. This kind of approach generates new ideas, provides a fresh perspective on company values and positively impacts performance, productivity and profitability.

Environments where people work in silos and are not encouraged to step forward and give their opinion, do not nurture creativity or innovation.

Transparent management-employee dialogue is what is helping businesses right across Oman survive and thrive in the post-Covid era.

What would you say are some of the more subtle cultural changes companies have undergone because of the pandemic?

It was clear from last week’s Tejarah Talks that local businesses understand that as a result of the pandemic large-scale shifts have altered how people work and how business is done. Going forward, a few of the changes I expect to see include more remote working, adjusted hours of operation and greater childcare provisions.

Indeed, companies will be prioritising employee engagement and well-being — treating them as people first and workers second. Companies will be streamlining roles, supply chains and workflows to increase efficiency.

They will also be looking to increase their resilience, agility and flexibility as well as improve communications.

Have any cultural elements been suppressed during the pandemic which need reintroducing?

Working as a team to reignite the esprit de corps that most staff enjoyed pre-pandemic. Face-to-face relationships with all stakeholders. Inclusivity, especially as Omani companies embark on new post-Covid strategies.