Alumni Success Story - Mahmoud Hesham Elaraby, ZLOGb 2020 and Sr. Head of Fleet Management at El-Araby Group

Alumni Success Story: Mahmoud Hesham Elaraby, ZLOGb 2020 and Sr. Head of Fleet Management at El-Araby Group.

Hello Mahmoud Hesham, we appreciate your participation by sharing your “Success Story” with the followers of the center.

As your last name reveals, ELARABY was established by your own family back in 1964 and now has become one of the largest industrial and commercial corporations in Egypt, the Middle East and Africa. That’s impressive! What’s the formula for success?

Understanding customer needs, diversified Portfolio, and trusted Customer service are the key elements of success. Our approach to sustain our growth relies on, but not limited to, having the right talents on board empowered by continuous learning programs, managing operation efficiencies, carefully selected strategic partnerships, investing on new technologies that strengthen our value proposition, succession planning, and embracing teams diversity.

One impact-driven value that completes our unique success formula is our belief that God uses us to make the world a better place. Accordingly one of our main measures of success is the number of employees which directly reflects societal impact. Currently, ELARABY family of employees consists of more than 40,000 employees and our ultimate goals is to reach 200,000.

With more than 40,000 employees and a brand portfolio of 14 global brands with 25 product categories and more than 4,000 variations., ELARABY’s figures continue to grow by exporting to over 60 countries across the globe.

I imagine that must be quite a challenge, logistically speaking… what does your work entail?

Currently I am Fleet Management Sr. Head in Elaraby Group. My role entails, but not limited to,

• Assessing our supply network design and selecting where to open new facilities if needed.
• purchasing, maintaining, licensing vehicles for customer and retailers’ deliveries, RDCs replenishments, and their reversal flows
• Deciding whether to buy or rent trucks
• Increasing operation efficiency and customer satisfaction

And to do so efficiently, as I mentioned earlier, we use the latest technology to plan, monitor and track the execution.

Besides the above role, I am part of Elaraby digital transformation committee, Elaraby OCM Lead in a mega project, and mechanical engineering syndicate board member.

You managed to combine your professional career with the studies in supply chain management, taking first the 5 online courses and, afterwards, enrolling in the in-campus period at MIT in USA and ZLC in Spain. Did the MicroMasters methodology fit well into your schedule?

The MicroMasters methodology is perfectly created for professionals. It took me 18 months for the online part and 6 months for the on-campus, Boston and Zaragoza. You start with experiencing the online education in a different way created by top tier faculty with flexibility that fits all. Then you enjoy 3 weeks in Boston, world’s educational capital, where you get introduced to notable diverse leaders and visit startup companies with new technologies in place. And finally, you get to stay in Zaragoza in Spain where you will get to meet ZLC top tier faculty staff and enjoy the perfect country.

What do you highlight about your time studying the blended program? Did the program give you the confidence to tackle new challenges at work?

Knowledge is power and team’s integration leverage that power. Supply Chain is very broad science that integrates different activities to plan, control and execute in order to finally deliver the end user the right product at the right time in the required quality with the optimum cost. Learning this science while practicing it allowed me to have a broader vision to what is needed across the entire company. Accordingly, I led a team appointed to revisit the End-to-End Supply chain planning, and we came up with a various of improvements to be implemented in the near future.

Any advice for those Micromaster students who are thinking about enrolling in the on-campus period at ZLC?

My advice before enrolling; you need to have passion and commitment. And be excited when you get your acceptance and widen your space to meet an elite group of faculty, peers and locals who will give you the knowledge and experience of experts, the trust of your friends, and the warmth of your family. Enjoy the on-campus experience as much as you can ?