Quality counts

Abdulqader Obaid Ali believes every worker in an organisation is responsible for quality and, furthermore, is a vital source of advice worth tapping into. He should know; he swept workshop floors to get where he is today. The chairman of the Dubai Quality Group tells Lorraine Chandler that Dubai can teach the world a few lessons about quality

Abdulqader Obaid Ali is, as he should be, the perfect representative for quality in Dubai.

Born and bred in Dubai, Ali has worn a number of hats in the quality field. Long associated with the Dubai Quality Group, he is now its chairman, in addition to heading Ideas.Arabia, a subgroup dedicated to improving 'suggestion schemes' (review processes based on staff feedback and suggestions) in UAE companies.

But that's just in his free time.

Until recently the manager of Quality Assurance of Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal), Ali is the director of group internal audit and quality for the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC). He is passionate about quality and about the role employees play in maintaining high standards and achieving new heights of excellence.

After school, Ali received a scholarship to study in the United States, where he graduated in electronic engineering from Arizona State University. Returning to Dubai in 1984, he was offered a jobin Dubal.

His years as a student taught him self-sufficiency and drove him to work hard. He didn't mind getting his hands dirty on the job either, cleaning machines or sweeping the workshop floors early in his career.

Ali started out working in instrumentation but after his induction period, he worked in IT, where he was rapidly promoted.

He had always wanted to continue his education and was contemplating distance learning when a wonderful opportunity came along.

The British Government launched the Wilfred Thesiger scholarship to honour the legendary explorer.

Nominated by Dubal, Ali became the first recipient and received the award personally from Thesiger in London. It wasa moment he will never forget.

After an intense year of studying for a master's of science in technology management at Stirling University, Scotland, Ali returned to Dubal where he soon moved into IT management.

Forever seeking further education, he went on to complete an executive management development programme at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

"I learned there that there are always two sides to an issue and also about the importance of balancing your work and life. You have to continually plan for the next phase in your life, even as far as thinking what you will do when you retire," he says.

After Lausanne, Ali moved into quality, having spent over 15 years working in IT at Dubal.

One year later, he was asked to work in HR and after another year he transferred back to quality, a field close to his heart.

Ask him when he left Dubal and he can name the exact date: July 31, 2005. After over 20 years, it was one of the most difficult decisions he has ever made. He was headhunted to run internal audit at PCFC and he's enjoying the challenge.

Ali has been involved with the Dubai Quality Group (DQG) for about six years, and was elected chairman in February 2005. When I meet him, he is excited about a conference in April that will bring organisations from the UK, US, Germany, Australia, India and South Africa to discuss suggestion schemes.

As far as he is concerned, Dubai can achieve the same standards as any other international city.

While he is eager to talk about increasing quality awareness and controls in Dubai, 47-year-old Ali is less easily drawn on the subject of his personal life. A father of six, he guards his family's privacy and is politely reluctant to disclose the names of all his children.

Highly intelligent and committed, Ali is very much in control of himself and what happens around him. He appears relaxed while we chat, but gives careful consideration to any tricky questions, laughing warmly when he feels he has managed to get his point across.

He seems to dominate the room, yet when he stands up, I am surprised to see that he is not very tall at all.

I
I initially wanted to be a doctor but I didn't have the patience to study for so many years.

I think when you graduate abroad it's a different experience from graduating here because you learn more about life and become more mature because you have to do everything yourself. As a student I always worked, tutoring electronics and maths, and later Arabic.
 
I don't believe Dubai's success has happened by accident. When I was growing up, the country had a vision to invest in education and I was only one of many who got scholarships to study abroad.

People are the biggest asset of any society and it was the (UAE's) best investment to send our nationals abroad for education. That forward-looking approach has made Dubai what it is today. Our success today is the fruit of what was planted decades ago.

I don't believe retirement should be just about playing golf. There's an invisible line (drawn up) in society that (rules you to be) useless once you hit 60.

In the past, there might have been some truth in that, but nowadays people are running marathons at 60. You've got a wealth of experience at that age.

Look at how Shaikh Zayed was working until he died. I think you need to start planning for retirement decades before, thinking about how you can harvest your experience.

I wake up every morning looking forward to my day. I feel that I'm contributing and adding value to my work. It's not the hours, but the commitment you put in.

I have worked in IT, quality control and HR. I feel that to be a manager, you've got to try different fields and I've enjoyed it all thoroughly.

I'm a caring person and I respect other cultures. Perhaps my biggest fault is that I'm too accommodating. I wish I could say 'no' more often.

I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day. It's hard to find time for everything you want to do. I rarely leave work on time but I try to work 'smart' and do what needs to be done.

I feel you have to make sure work doesn't eat you up, but that's easier said than done. I love my job because I'm always learning new things and meeting new people.

Me
Me and my father:
My father, Obaid Ali, has been an inspiration to me. He didn't receive an education himself but if he had one aim in life it was that my brother, sister and I would all finish university.

My sister, Fatima, studied medicine in Bahrain and it was quite unusual at the time to send a daughter abroad for study. My brother, Khaleel, studied law, and is now a lieutenant general with the police.

It would have been very easy for us to leave school and go straight into good jobs, as many nationals did at the time. My brother had the opportunity to train as a pilot in Abu Dhabi before finishing school.

But my father went to Abu Dhabi and begged them not to take him, so that he could finish school. We're all proud of each other because you'll find very few families where all of the children have gone to university.

I have to give my father all the credit for this. He used to come to school to check on our progress. I didn't like it at the time but I now realise that education was our base and without it we wouldn't have got as far as we did.

Me and my family:
I got married quite young, and I have always felt it's good not to wait too long before getting married. I have a unique relationship with my six children but I would never say I am friends with them, as you have to be a parent first.

I'm very proud of all my children - five girls and a boy. The oldest, Sharifa, 26, is a doctor, something I always wanted to be, so I feel I have passed on the baton to her.

She followed in her aunt's footsteps by finishing her medical education in Bahrain. She has also given me my first grandson, Amir, who, at 18 months, is quite a naughty boy.

Another son, Ahmed, graduated from media communications from the Higher Colleges (of Technology) but insisted on working for himself rather than within a company. He has his own production company, Flickershow, and is learning the hard way by standing on his own two feet.

Me and Dubai Quality Group:
I have always had an interest in doing some voluntary work and giving something back to the community. I started becoming active in the Dubai Quality Group (DQG) about six years ago.

Mansour Al Awar, a former chairman, inspired me to join some of the subgroups and from there I went on to become a board member and later the chairman.

The DQG was set up in 1994 and has more than 1,500 members representing 300 major private and government concerns.

The group provides a forum for people in the business community to communicate, a place where all the companies can meet to learn from each other. There are eight active subgroups so that different types of businesses can meet their peers and see eye to eye.

It's the ultimate benchmarking process.

Ideas.Arabia is a subgroup set up for companies with suggestion schemes. These schemes enable businesses to move from local to international levels.

If you think about any company, how often are employees usually asked to make suggestions? We always say that people are assets, but we rarely use their ideas. And yet, they are an invaluable source of information.

So why don't we capture these ideas? That's what these suggestion schemes are about; putting in place programmes within companies whereby exchanging ideas becomes a system. They could be ideas about improving efficiency, costs or service.

Everything is documented and nothing gets lost.

In April, we are hosting our first international conference. World-renowned speakers will be coming to this two-day conference, highlighting the fact that Dubai is at the forefront of quality.

We are bringing the best of the world here for the benefit of all Dubai. It has taken us two years to organise, from its seeds as a subgroup to an international conference.

Myself
How would you define quality?
Quality is about completely satisfying your customer, but at the lowest cost to yourself. That's a win-win situation. You can throw money at projects but that's not always the most effective way of achieving quality.

You need to understand what quality is and the top person has to believe in it, not just by talking about it, but by being actively involved in it. Everyone says they want quality, but you have to be willing to put in the commitment.

Sometimes things in Dubai are described more in terms of quantity than quality. We're always hearing about the biggest rather than the best. What would you say about that?
Well, DQG started as a very small group but now it has matured into an internationally recognised force. The World Benchmarking Forum is due to be held in Dubai in 2007 and I think Dubai has a gained a very strong reputation for quality.

(For) example, it used to take three weeks to get a passport. Now I can get one in 20 minutes. We're one of only three countries worldwide to use the e-gate.

I applied for one recently and it took me less than five minutes to complete the process and it takes only a few seconds to use. That is quality. We are doing things here that haven't been done anywhere else in the world. If you look at ports, an important aspect is taking goods off ships.

Dubai is the first place to have implemented a crane that can take off four containers simultaneously, which is the fastest possible way to do it. I'm proud we're doing that in Dubai.

Is there any advice you'd like to pass on to young nationals?
Young graduates today have to realise that you don't just finish your education one day and start sitting behind a big desk the next day. A graduate can't call himself an engineer until he has at least two or three years' experience.

Managers don't become managers overnight. When I joined Dubal, I started from scratch in implementation. My work finished at 3 pm, and I would usually get a broom and spend about 20 minutes cleaning up.

After about three days, my supervisor said, "You don't have to do that. Believe it or not, you're next in line for my job."

But as far as I was concerned, I was just part of the team. My advice for nationals is that we need to get our hands dirty right from the start. I worked very hard in the early days.

Some days I would come home in filthy overalls, sweaty and tired after a day of overhauling big machines, and my mother, Amma, (God bless her, she died three years ago) would say, "What are you doing? You might as well put your degree in a glass of water and drink it for all the good it's doing you."

You say Dubai is at the forefront of quality and also that employees are crucial in achieving quality. What about workers at the bottom of the chain without access to high quality services? How can they make a contribution to quality when they feel their conditions are inadequate?
It's true people have to be happy to give you their most. Someone in unsatisfactory conditions might only be giving you 50 per cent of his ability.

Look at the changes that have been happening (in the UAE). Up to about four years ago, labourers were transported in lorries, but a law was put in place to change it.

I think (our) leaders have been looking at these issues and changing things.

Regarding wages, logistically you can't just suddenly double wages but there are small things you can do to make employees happier.

First, you have to look after employee safety. For example, now there is a special standard for scaffolding. After ensuring employees are not being endangered while working, you need to look at their working and living conditions.

Everyone should have a clean place to sleep, decent meals, and a place they can relax when they're off duty. I'd like to see companies looking after their workers as best as they can because it's a good thing to do.