He's fit, tanned and poised and wouldn't be out of place on a poster advertising the high-end boats and yachts that his company Gulf Craft Inc makes. But Erwin Bamps is no poster boy. He has a master's degree in electronics engineering, and specialised in laser physics and microwave technology.
"I started my career with a company in Japan, then moved to Europe where I represented them in the functional and technical support," says Bamps. "However, I realised that although I was a trained engineer my main interests lay elsewhere - working with people. I wasn't the kind of person who liked to sit in a corner and fiddle around with microchips. I liked finding solutions, so I later went into sales."
His jobs took him to many countries including Japan, China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia. His career trajectory taught him the importance of leading a multicultural workforce. It also primed him for his work at Gulf Craft - where he leads a diverse team.
Building boats wasn't his passion, but succeeding at whatever he did mattered and that stood him in good stead at Gulf Craft. Presently the COO of the company, Bamps' ambition is to make Gulf Craft Inc a top international brand. "Along with my chairman, Mohammad Bin Hussain Al Shaali, I would like to prove that the Middle East can be a strong manufacturing base," he says with confidence.
Work
I would call myself a global citizen today having lived in three continents, but all that came after I started working and travelling, or travelling for my work, if you will. I was born in Belgium and lived my entire childhood in one place. Belgium is a state without a government in the strict sense of the word, and really doesn't have a very strong nationalistic feeling - it has three main languages, Dutch, French and German. I speak Dutch at home, but if I bicycled from my village 5km south, I would have to speak French. People in the south speak French and up north they speak Dutch while in the East they speak German. In Belgium we have no national language, perhaps that is what started me off on the road to global citizenship.
I worked for a Belgian company for three years, and the language we spoke around the meeting table was of course English! People come from different parts of the world - the UK, India, China and Africa.
I grew up in a multicultural environment. Belgium's in the centre of Europe, a very good example of what Europe is about. I grew up in an environment where we had to learn to adapt.
So it was no surprise that when I started working after completing my masters in electronics engineering it was in far off Japan. I worked in Japan for some time, then transferred to Europe. In 1995 I branched into sales and this took me to India where I joined a company called Bharati Communications. We hadn't sold a single product in the Indian subcontinent. The problem was nobody understood the technology there yet. So the first thing I had to do was organise seminars for some of our junior salesmen who were fresh university graduates. We told them to go out and teach people rather than ‘sell'. The selling came in the process of educating our customers. It was interesting and I ended up working with Essar Telecom of the Hinduja Group. From there my work took me to south-east Asia and then the Far East - Vietnam and Indonesia.
This experience taught me not to be scared of different or difficult markets. I learnt to go in there and try to understand their needs. The human factor is important.
I moved on to join a Hong Kong-based company that had an office in Dubai. The management asked me to come out here to run the Dubai branch because they thought I was suitable for the position since I had worked in different cultures successfully. So in 1998 I landed in the UAE and took up the position of general manager.
I joined Gulf Craft Inc in 2002. It was the first time for me in this industry, but after nine years the company has grown tremendously, from one shipyard to four. We had 220 employees then and have expanded to 1,400. We have grown dramatically in terms of sales. What attracted me is the company's vision, a Middle East firm trying to take on the world.
Play
I think I am a very ambitious person. I believe that there are many more opportunities in this world than we see on the surface. Whenever I look forward I see far more work to be done, rather than rest on what's behind me. I think that comes with age. The older you get the more you realise that you know very little. The world is becoming increasingly smaller but that doesn't make it simple. Faster communication in a smaller world makes things more complex.
I dream of promoting understanding among people from different cultures. Respect for each other is one of the most important values that offer opportunity for business.
This is something that takes guts, of course. When you are young, you are not afraid. You may even be a bit over-confident. It is the willingness to take risks. I am not a person who takes unnecessary risks. I do take risks, but I am not foolish. I like to take big calculated risks. I joined this company because of the vision of the chairman, the growth in the region, and the opportunity to build brands. There was also something else. I believe that there is an opportunity here for young people, who have guts, some skill sets but especially ambition, to do things that you may never be allowed to do in Europe, for example.
I suppose my attitude to life has a lot to do with having grown in a happy family. My mother stayed home as we grew up. In such circumstances what shapes you is usually defined by your mother. My father was the typical father-figure, the earner, and my mother, the nurturer. I feel that if your parents are close to you during your youth they set an example that is more influential than your educators.
Becoming a parent has also shaped me a lot, with the changes in the responsibility level. But I don't consider myself as the father of only two - I have a four- and a seven-year-old - but a parent of 1,400, my staff. I think I have become a better manager since I got married; I think I have become a better husband since becoming a better manager! It works both ways and I think I stepped up the game again after I became a father. I have become a lot more patient, you realise that life is not black and white. My wife says that I am too patient with the kids and I say that's probably a spin-off of my childhood. I don't get excited easily anymore and to be honest I have learnt a lot from my chairman, Al Shaali, who is also my mentor.
I am the COO of the company, but I also call myself the service department because I service the company. I sign the cheques for the salaries, I do this promotional talk. I talk to colleagues once in a while, I listen to their personal problems so that they feel that the company has a face and they can be heard. I need to continuously arbitrate between people. I motivate them and I am like a catalyst between them so that they can work with each other without stepping on each other's toes.
Dream
All my dreams are connected to my job - of building Gulf Craft into an international brand. When I interviewed for the job I told the chairman that I wasn't a boat builder and that I learnt to swim when I was 31 years old. I also told him that I didn't even enjoy fishing as a sport. If I sat on a boat the whole day catching fish I wouldn't relax instead I'd end up thinking about the other things I could have done rather than fishing.
He said, "I know you don't love boats, it's not in your heart. That's why I want to bring you in. The problem with me is I love boats and if we all love boats we would all think with our hearts. I need at least one person at the top who will think with his head, because at the end of the day when you are producing something and you feel too much for it then you will not be able to be rational about it, whether the product needs to be discontinued or changed. You use economic parameters to judge the products, whether it makes a profit, or meets the demands of the clients and if producing it is still relevant. I want someone to sit with me at the table and disagree. If you continue to agree with me then you are just a reflection of me, but not adding value." That was a valuable lesson, and it is my dream to always fulfil that need.
Another important thing I learnt from him was that it was not enough to be passionate about what you do. When I mentioned that he built boats because he was passionate about them, he said, "No, I want to make money and that's why I am hiring you. Yes, it is a passion of mine and I want to do it. But if I am not making money on this then I would rather buy a boat and enjoy it and do something else to make money. My intention is to try and make money out of something that I like to do."
So if somebody tells me that he is running a business to make profit that is a language I understand. I am an engineer; I am a manager who is trained to optimise profit. I cannot optimise emotional value.
We have gained market share in the past three years. Not only here but also in Europe and Asia. We launched five new models at the Dubai International Boat Show in March.
My dream is one that Al Shaali has: making Gulf Craft one of the top ten manufacturers of yachts in the world in the next ten to 15 years. He wants to create a legacy. I wanted to be a part of it and I have enjoyed the ride so far.
I speak Dutch, French, English, a bit of German and a little Japanese. If I were to go to university again I'd probably learn more languages than engineering. Today what is important is communication. You can get expertise from anywhere but the ability to deal with people is probably the biggest factor for success for any businessman.
When I get invited to speak at seminars I talk about good governance not about boats. About the luxury industry and internet marketing. I talk about manufacturing and emerging markets. I talk about labour empowerment. When people say you are not talking about boat building, I tell them our company is not about boat building. We happen to be building boats, but what we do is business. It is building trust, building relationships with the clients. It's selling holidays, selling a luxury experience. It happens to be on a boat, that's all.
Inside info
For more information on Gulf Craft, visit http://www.gulfcraftinc.com/
