Stamp of success

If you look at everything in a complicated way you'll have a hard time, says Abdullah Al Daboos, director-general, Emirates Post. So, what's the solution? Don't analyse things or look beyond the person or situation. The more you keep things simple, the more you enjoy life, he tells Lorraine Chandler.

Abdullah Al Daboos has an impressive resume for a 40-year-old, after all he's man who has turned a traditional postal business into a world class money-making organisation with its finger in a number of lucrative pies.

I'm a bit nonplussed by it all.

I expected the director-general of Emirates Post to express at least some dismay at how e-mail is edging out traditional letters. I thought he would wax lyrical about the lost art of letter writing and how technology is destroying the postal business.

It was tempting to bring along my old stamp collection so we could sit and talk about the different postmarks that might be lost on the next generation.

It's just as well I didn't, because I'm pretty sure Daboos would have neither the time nor interest in talking about the past, although he would be far too polite and debonair to tell me so.

Rather than fighting technology, he has embraced it wholeheartedly to make Emirates Post so competitive and multi-faceted that it is a role model for international postal authorities.

Daboos is an embodiment of the UAE's drive to succeed. Handsome, genial and very sharp, he is not a man to be underestimated. His trim form contains a certain restless energy.

He typifies all the passion of his growing country, and is proud to be part of the UAE's success.

Daboos earned a degree in business administration at Louisville University, Kentucky, in the United States, after which he worked for a short time at Zadco, a petroleum company in Abu Dhabi, before joining Emirates airline.

It was there that he made a name for himself as a go-getter and a communicator par excellence. As UAE manager of the airline for 10 years, he helped bring together the different air operators, while also chairing the local airlines association and the GCC airlines association.

When former UAE Minister of Communications and Transport Ahmad Al Tayer was looking for someone dynamic to transform the General Postal Authority into a world-class postal organisation in 1999, he knew exactly where to turn.

Daboos is ambitious, visionary and tremendously hard working. Under his control, Emirates Post has gone from processing 250,000 letters in 1999 to one million letters daily, mostly due to increased automation.

There were less than 150,000 post boxes in the UAE when he took over in 1999, but there are now 500,000, and the number is growing.

Four years ago, he set up Empost, a dedicated company for courier and express mail. At that point, the company only had 5 per cent of the local market's express mail.

This has now increased to 70 per cent of the local market, despite the presence of 38 domestic courier competitors.

Net profit in 2004 was Dh125 million and it looks like 2005 may have achieved a 10 per cent increase on this. He points out that this is much more than the original working capital.

Daboos also set up an Electronic Document Centre (EDC), enabling Emirates Post to work directly with banks, utilities and other organisations to convert electronic documents into paper and mail them out to customers.

For example, Emirates Post directly feeds into bank accounts and sends out statements without any middle party.

You can imagine the cost savings for organisations. In fact, the UAE's top 30 companies use the EDC.

He has also set up an integrated marketing company, EMP Marketing, which offers telemarketing, direct marketing and e-commerce promotional activities around the world.

Soon, he's planning to set up a financial services arm to get a piece of the huge remittances pie.

The next step is to enter the logistics market, where Empost will work with retail companies to ship their goods directly out to their shops.

And Daboos is also working on an initial public offering (IPO) that will give people the chance to share in the success of Emirates Post.

I get dizzy listening to the scope of Emirates Post's activities and have to admit it's a far cry from a traditional postal authority.

Quite clearly, Daboos has already thought of every possibility.

I
I have always been competitive by nature. I get bored when I don't have a challenge.

When I start something, I see a picture in front of me and I know what I want to paint. It's simple for me to make the decision and go after my goals. It's nice to have this picture in mind when I start an activity, but I'm flexible about the details and know they can change.

I try to keep life ... as simple as possible.

We live in a fast-paced society and if you look at everything in a complicated way, you'll have a hard time. I don't analyse things or look beyond the person (or) situation. Instead, I try to break things down to their simplest elements. The more you keep things simple, the more you enjoy life.

I enjoy reading business articles and biographies about pioneers like (former General Electric chairman and CEO) Jack Welch, who had a great impact on organisations.

I spend about half of every month travelling, which is too much, according to my family. But business is global these days and you've got to be out there and aggressive if you want the business.

Me

Me and Emirates Post:
I wasn't looking for a change when I was asked to transform the General Postal Authority, but I was excited by the opportunity to create a progressive organisation that would mirror the UAE's growth.

The new name was something we felt reflected our next stage: (ie,) competing in the modern world. The first thing we had to do was change the laws and regulations governing UAE communications so that we could create a more modern, ambitious organisation.

When we launched (Emirates Post) in June 1999, I decided the organisation would have a triangular focus on people, customers and money. So I (looked at) each side of the triangle and decided to work on people first, because the greatest asset of any company is its staff.

We looked at assessment, the working environment, training, tools and financial packages. We wanted to have sharper people and to develop an attitude of readiness to accept challenges and changes.

We set up assessment and training centres and since then we've made a lot of improvements but you never stop developing HR.

We have tried to retrain people rather than replace them (with) technology.

We put a lot of emphasis on productivity, rather than a large number of staff. We have 1,100 people, and we try to do more with the same people using technology.

We've also improved the calibre of our workers and (are) focusing on training, adding value and paying them more. Then we looked at customer (needs). We knew we needed to use the latest technology to improve our level of service.

We also added services like bill payment, immigration services, money orders, driving licence application, degree verification and other services that would make us a ?one-stop shop'.

We also set in motion a programme to constantly assess customer satisfaction.

Then we needed to look at money - because, after all, we need to be profitable. We wanted to simultaneously generate more revenue and cut costs.

We've used advances in technology to keep us ahead of competitors and we've developed a completely integrated system from point of sale to operations, cutting out any waste in the middle.

We've increased the number of letters processed by us and at the same time improved productivity. By offering innovative and improved services, we've been able to generate a lot of extra revenue.

We also improved confidence in our products by improving our reliability; if you post a letter in the UAE (for an addressee within the country) before 5 pm, the recipient is guaranteed to get it the next day.

Our Electronic Document Centre (EDC) is proving a tremendous success, as (many) top companies find they can outsource billing and other mailing requirements with full confidence.

Similarly EMP Marketing was launched this year to sell our services and products to the world.

A lot of our success is based on acquiring companies that fit our requirements. We're not here to outsmart anyone. If you want to be competitive and fast, acquisition is the way, and if you find the right synergies, you've got a recipe for success.

Me and Ahmad Al Tayer:
Ahmad Al Tayer approached me in 1999 to transform what was then the General Postal Authority into a profitable and progressive organisation.

I learned a tremendous amount in the four years I served under him. He has tremendous dedication to the country, and is a fine example of leadership in our community.

Me and my parents:
My parents played a major role in shaping who I am. My mother, Aysha, died a year ago, but I have her to thank for teaching me to be generous. She always encouraged us to give to the needy.

My father, Ebrahim, can get along with anyone - from a labourer to a businessman, from the youngest child to the oldest man. He enjoys going to the fish market and chatting with the traders there; I can't count how much fish we end up eating as a result!

He has a very simple, humble manner that he has passed on to his children and this is something I deeply respect.

Me and sport:
I'm a sports freak. If I don't exercise, I don't feel right. I love running, swimming and playing basketball, but it's hard to find the time. I exercise about one-and-a-half hours every day, usually in the evening.

Myself

The postman is such an institution around the world, but not in the UAE. Why is that?
Well, the UAE is such a mobile place, with people constantly moving around. There are seven emirates and each has its own unique addressing system with a different (set) of codes.

Ideally, the municipalities should come together to adopt a universal system. But in the absence of this, I aim to have a network of post boxes every five kilometres. The UAE is a (rapidly) growing country, so it's a challenge to do this, but we just keep increasing our coverage.

Has technology destroyed the old postal system?
Postal systems around the world say technology is a challenge for them.

On the contrary, I think technology can be used to advance the system. We use it to track and trace our products. It's true that personal mail has declined because of the use of the internet, but business mail has increased tremendously because of the growth in global business. For example, the parcel business is growing 35 per cent every year.

Opening post used to be an occasion of joy as you got to hear from loved ones. Today, it's more about getting bills and junk mail. What about the joy of letter writing? Is it dead and gone?

It's true there is more business mail than personal mail in your post box nowadays, but we work with the Ministry of Education to run competitions on the joy of letter writing. We sponsored this year's competition to write a letter to an imaginary friend and thousands of children (participated).

The winning entry was a tremendously moving letter from a 12-year-old girl who imagined she was in Iraq and pleaded with her friend to stop the (bombing). We were almost in tears reading it.

People used to write a letter, post it and wait for a reply. Nowadays, you e-mail and expect a reply five minutes later. Where's the fun of anticipation, the virtue of patience?

The new 'internet generation' of children and teenagers has lost the ability to write neatly. Most handwriting looks like the scrawl of a one-year-old, because young people are more focused on keyboards and mobile (phones).

Technology is wonderful, but children must also learn to use their imagination and improve their spelling, reading and writing.

Once upon a time, mail was carried by horse; then there was pigeon mail. Now with electronic communication, people have started calling it snail mail.

Well, I use e-mail, but I would prefer (receiving) one letter over 200 e-mails, and I think many people (today) feel like that. People don't have much time to write letters, but sometimes they write on postcards.

There's no doubt e-mails are much quicker. I'm a member of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and one of the things we talk about is quality.

If you send a letter to the UK, I can guarantee it will be dispatched within 24 hours, but I cannot guarantee what will happen at the other end.

We want specified standards so people can know when their mail will arrive and postal authorities should be penalised if letters are not delivered on time.

Is all this fast-paced communication good for us?
I like technology but ? life was simpler in the past.

Nowadays a manager sends his secretary an e-mail asking for (a cup of) coffee, and that's taking away the social aspect. I'm a big advocate of technology but I'm also a big advocate of people.

At the end of the day, people need other people, and technology is not a substitute.