Feras Al Shaikh, regional director for KSA region at Red Hat, in an interview with Economy Middle East, speaks about how his company enables an inclusive environment where everyone participates in decision-making processes.
He also speaks in detail about the company’s expansion plans in Saudi Arabia, and the significance of the market.
Red Hat describes themselves as Open Organization. What does Open Organization mean?
At Red Hat, we foster diverse viewpoints of employees by placing a significant emphasis on inclusivity, collaboration, and open communication across departments. We promote a culture of innovation and continuous improvement as well as empower our employees by providing them with autonomy and control over their work conditions.
Furthermore, we equally appreciate and reward contributions that go beyond an individual’s regular responsibilities, regardless of their position or title, since meritocracy serves as one of the foundations of our organisation.
Additionally, we attribute greater significance to transparency and involve the participation of our team in our company’s decision-making process. Even if decisions are not always democratic, they are made by taking all the members’ opinions into account.
Thus, instead of imposing top-down control, we embrace contextual leadership, where leaders mentor rather than dictate and focus on cultivating an ideal work environment for employees to flourish. Additionally, our focus on innovation and flexibility enables us to stay ahead of the curve, adapt to the evolving needs, as well as be open to novel concepts and methods.
Considering Red Hat’s evolution thus far, what strategic directions or advancements do you anticipate for the company in the next five years?
Our company has evolved significantly over the years by embracing the power of open-source technology. We anticipate significant growth and have ambitious plans for the next five years, considering the competitive environment, market demand, and technology developments.
Currently, applications and the underlying infrastructure are becoming increasingly complicated, and to make things more manageable, we need to figure out how to navigate this complexity. The infrastructure underpinning these applications will become much more critical in the coming years. Therefore, it becomes a necessity to prioritise management and security since there are several environments, including bare metal, hypervisors, public and private clouds, Linux, VMs (virtual machines), and microservices. In light of this, we seek to offer more manageable and effective solutions to our customers.
Additionally, Linux and open-source development tools are being increasingly utilised to create business-critical applications, and we, at Red Hat, have already established ourselves as pioneers in offering these tools and elated infrastructure.
Furthermore, our enterprise-grade support and open-source solutions demonstrate our dual capability in fulfilling evolving client demands. We are well-poised to take risks, continue our pursuit of long-term success and excellence as well as navigate future possibilities and challenges. Our previous achievements, such as the creation and adoption of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), serve as a testament to our capabilities.
In Red Hat culture diversity and inclusion play an important role. What is your opinion on this topic?
As I have mentioned before, inclusivity and diversity are critical components of our organisation. Our innovative approach to diversity and inclusion is consistent with open-source principles, which embrace and encourage contributions from all our employees. We believe that our endeavors to establish an inclusive workplace, where all opinions are valued and acknowledged, have assisted the company in succeeding as well as fostering innovation and problem-solving. It is not actually what we deliver, but rather how we deliver it by placing a significant focus on open-source principles and collaboration.
We adopt the same approach while we interact with our customers, which has enhanced effective dialogue and problem-solving. This has contributed to better understanding and catering to our customers’ needs, resulting in a positive experience for them.
What are Red Hat’s short-term and long-term plans for Saudi Arabia regarding market expansion?
To increase our market reach and fortify our position, we aim to forge strategic alliances with government agencies, technology firms and local companies in Saudi Arabia. We believe that such collaborations possess the enormous potential to support long-term growth and deeper integration into the local ecosystem. We further seek to adapt our offerings to the unique requirements of the most prominent industries in Saudi Arabia, including oil and gas, finance, or healthcare, as part of our strategy for both short-term and long-term market growth. Over time, we are confident that this strategy will guarantee competitiveness and relevance in key sectors.
Additionally, we will be participating in industry events, conferences, and seminars to interact with the local open-source community. We seek to ensure long-term brand loyalty and immediate market penetration by fostering connections and increasing awareness of our offerings in the country’s market. Providing localised support, training and consulting services in Arabic and addressing the unique cultural and business requirements of Saudi Arabian enterprises are also part of our ambitious plans for expansion in Saudi Arabia.
We will further invest in educational initiatives, workshops, and certifications to empower local IT professionals, which will promote rapid adoption of Red Hat technologies and skill development. In the long-term, this will produce a pool of skilled professionals that can propel the market’s continued innovation and expansion.
What is the significance of the LEAP conference as a platform for the tech and IT industry in Saudi Arabia?
LEAP holds tremendous significance in Saudi Arabia as it serves as an ideal platform for highlighting innovations in industries across the spectrum. It fosters innovative ideas and advancements in technology, assisting the Kingdom in its journey towards a knowledge-based economy. The event also enhances Saudi Arabia’s tech and IT sector’s prominence on the global scene, by drawing interests from foreign investors, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts. Furthermore, LEAP offers innumerable networking opportunities, where industry experts, entrepreneurs, investors and mentors gather to develop prospective collaborations and partnerships.
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By leveraging this innovative event, start-ups can test their concepts and get insightful input from experts and participants, which would help them to improve their products and services. It also offers start-ups access to essential resources including finance, accelerators, and support programs, enabling them to expand and thrive within the Kingdom’s technology sector. LEAP supports innovation and the expansion of the IT industry as well as contribute to the country’s economic progress, in line with the nation’s Vision 2030 that aims to diversify its economy. Its panels, keynote addresses, and workshops with industry leaders play a key role in providing participants with insights into the newest and most promising technological innovations, propelling the tech and IT sector’s growth in Saudi Arabia.
About Feras Al Shaikh
Feras Al Shaikh is the regional director in the KSA region at Red Hat. He joined the company in February 2019 as a key account manager for the public sector.
He has more than 16 years of experience. Prior to joining Red Hat, Feras worked in different multinational organisations such as HP, VMware and Schneider Electric in Saudi Arabia.
Feras has a strong IT background and specializes in networking, hardware, software and building data centers.
He holds an MBA in business administration.
