Ibrahim Mohammed and Pankaj Gupta join us to discuss a new role, Regional Growth Director, that Ibrahim has taken up.
“My name is Ibrahim, and I’m into the strategy consulting business. I generally serve in the mid-market segment working with the CEOs and board of directors to help them grow their businesses. I’ve been a member for the last six years and currently serving as the president of BNI Synergy and continuing with the same role in the next term.” Ibrahim says.
“I wear two hats; one is the SMC Global Securities, a listed company out of India. We are into the domain of providing access to financial markets, forex trading, bullion trading, and equity markets for the last 16 years. I’ve been in BNI for over eight years now. I started as a member, became an ambassador, director consultant, and now, executive director of BNI Deira Dubai. I am always thinking, what is next for my members, what can I do for them?” Pankaj says.
“He is a strategic consultant who works with the CEOs & executives and leads them to new successes. We are all experts in what we do. But then there is a window to step back and go into the balcony and strategize our growth. So we can be hard and smart workers. That’s where this thought came from. Every chapter president is leading a role as a CEO of that chapter. “Why not have somebody who can help strategize the growth rather than just have it as it comes, right?” That’s where we said we will have a Regional Growth Director.” Pankaj discusses the new role that he will be welcoming Ibrahim into.
Two Roles. One Direction.
“Ibraham is going to be leading with the presidents of the chapter. As you already understand, we already have a Director Consultant. So a lot of members were worried about conflict. To make things clear, one is Regional Growth Director. The Director Consultant will still lead and consult the chapter’s vice-presidents the chapter’s operational heads. I’ll be focusing on bringing new groups and launching chapters. Measuring is very, very clear in BNI. The first is counting the number of visitors in the next six months. That’s a direct impact. Secondly, I really respect Ibraham. He has picked up a target of a minimum of two new inductions each month in any chapter. So that’s our goal. He’ll be leading through various strategies.” Pankaj highlights the functional aspects of having a Regional Growth Director and Director Consultant working in tandem.
“What inspired me is the challenge itself and my passion as an individual. I am a growth-oriented person, so I love seeing people and organizations grow, and it fits so well with my own business, which is about the growth of small & medium enterprises. I’d like first to appreciate Pankaj and thank him for the opportunity, and I hope that I can do justice with the role and whatever capacity god’s given me. I’ll be able to grow the entire region and come up with a grand vision with you.” Ibrahim expresses his thoughts on taking up the new role and thanks Pankaj for the opportunity.
Formula for Success
“As Jack Welch put it, 4 E and 1 P is the key formula that we will be replicating. The presidents will need physical, mental, emotional Energy and then be able to Energize the crowd, the team, the members. Then the third E, they’re going to have to be making some tough calls with all the members. Pankaj Bhai sets a very good example of making tough calls. When it comes to being decisive, I think we always have someone to go to because he always has that decision power. Then, the fourth E is the ability to execute, which is the most important term. The P here is about passion, absolute love for the game, love for the members, and love for life. If you have those juices in you, I think you will make a great president! It’s a six months term. It’s a fast-paced game. You may not be able to execute many ideas, so you need to pick two or three key ideas for that term and go at it with your execution power.
Four things are important in execution. The first thing is focus, so we bring down the focus from six months to 24 weeks since two weeks are holidays, week by week focus. For the presidents, day by day focus. Number two. You need to make sure you have leverage and identify the two or three key activities that you can do to produce the maximum amount of results. The third one is the engagement of the members, energizing the crowd by putting the scorecards out there. The fourth one is the accountability of the four disciplines. These are global principles. If they are applied, you are bound to succeed.”
Ibrahim shares some key tips and principles that he has gathered from his strategy study with the presidents.
“I am always a firm believer that whatever you get to learn in BNI, you are wasting your time if you are not utilizing that in your business. I have grown tremendously in my personal space and business by utilizing whatever I have learned from BNI into my life. Plan week by week, be energized, try and replicate the same learning in your businesses. You can achieve a lot in your business in six months. That’s my give back to my presidents and the leadership team. They have to understand whatever they are doing here. Whatever they are learning here has to go back to their businesses.” Pankaj concludes by sharing his wisdom to the chapter presidents and urging them to adopt the same strategy into their personal lives and business.
