The Leader Who Transformed Al Rahmani - Case Study Example

The leader who transformed Al Rahmani Case Study on the leadership of Ibrahim Established in 1917 as a very small trading store in UAE, today Al Rahmani General Trading Company LLC is the market leader for building materials and interior decorative items. (AlRahmani.com, 2011) Though Al Rahmani was established by late Abdul Rahman Al Rahmani, the father of late Haji Yousuf Al Rahmani, the man behind the immense success of the company is Ibrahim, the youngest one of the four sons of Haji Yousuf Al Rahmani. He grew the company to be an undisputed leader from that of a normal trading store in UAE. Today, Al Rahmani has outlets in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain, Ras Al Khaimah and Muscat. It is also expanding into the Sultanate of Oman. Contributing their products to almost all the major projects of UAE, Al Rahmani was a partner to all the development stages of UAE. This case study makes a clear analysis of how Ibrahim turned over the company to become the market leader of the industry. The leadership qualities exhibited by him at various situations can be seen in detail. Al Rahmani faced a period of stagnation in growth during certain period after it was being inherited by the four sons of Yousuf. It was an unofficial store when business was carried on by late Abdul Rahman Al Rahmani. Yousuf grew the business and helped to bring a brand value for the company. Al Rahmani got recognized in the country during his period. The business was then passed on to the four sons of Yousuf. Naturally when the business got inherited by four sons, it gave rise to different thoughts. Al Rahmani continued to stay in the business during this period. Three sons worked just to stabilize the business than to expand it. No new policies came in and the growth was close to stagnation for Al Rahmani. All the three elder sons only focused on improving the operational excellence of the company. Even during this period, Quality and Operational excellence were maintained with high responsibility by Al Rahmani. The customers were very much satisfied with the company. Al Rahmani stayed as the most reputable construction goods store in the country. It was the vision and foresight of the youngest son Ibrahim that transformed the company to become the largest construction goods trading company in the Middle East. Ibrahim was not at all satisfied with the objectives of his elder brothers. He understood that simply stabilizing the business will not help the company in long term. He advocated for market expansion and growth along with operational excellence and quality. All this was not accepted by his conservative elder brothers. This was the first instance in which he had to deal with a major leadership challenge in the organization. Ibrahim was clear about what he want to do for the long term benefit of Al Rahmani. He started working with his own thoughts and beliefs for achieving the objectives. A good leader has to carry on the objectives that are beneficial for the company even when those policies are not acceptable for some group of people. Ibrahim achieved his goal by gradually buying his brothers’ shares in the company. After a certain stage Al Rahmani came to the sole ownership of Ibrahim with the major shares being held by him. The result is just evident from the industry. Al Rahmani became the largest construction goods store in the Middle East. Ibrahim’s strong philosophy on leadership is what helped him to be successful in what he did. Ibrahim is a strong believer of Theory Y leadership. Ibrahim had a very high level of self actualization need that describes the great vision he had for Al Rahmani. His vision and effort for success passed on to the employees of the company. Ibrahim had strong belief in his employees. He believed that all the employees are self directed and motivated. Ibrahim describes leadership as the force that compels a person to strive in order to be best at what we do. Ibrahim wanted to do best for the company than what his brothers do in the company. He also says leadership as the skill that commands respect from others. All the employees at Al Rahmani consider Ibrahim as a great leader. Ibrahim is vey lenient and humane towards all the employees of his company. As a result the motivation levels of the employees are very high and none of them has a bad story to tell about their leader. The most exceptional qualities of Ibrahim are clear vision and immense tolerance. The power of his vision has already been explained. His ability to tolerate when something went wrong helped him to be a rational thinker and decision maker. There were many instances that proved his skill of tolerance. One such instance is an interview with Al Rahmani. Being the head of such a large company, he is a very busy person. It was during one of such busy day that I approached him for an interview. Usual behavior from a busy person like him is the hurry to finish off the interview and carry on the work. But Ibrahim differentiated himself from most other leaders in this characteristic. He considered me as an important person and attended to all the questions with great patience. What impressed me most was that he even unattended many phone calls and allowed no visitors to the room where the interview was being held. He maintained good rapport with me on every second during the meeting. He seemed to be very calm in his approach even when there are various day to day problems with his company. One great advantage of this approach is that there is no work pressure being felt in the company. This is despite the fact that Al Rahmani is facing the after effects of the economic downturn facing the nation. In a normal case if the topmost manager is at pressure, he expresses that to his subordinates, from them to the next level and thereby to the entire company. But Ibrahim does not believe in all such complexities. This is what makes Ibrahim one of the most undisputed leaders of his generation. Ibrahim’s story embodies that a person can be successful with a strong belief in one’s own abilities and vision. If Ibrahim was to accept the ideas of his brothers and continued to be in the company with the same vision there wouldn’t have been a successful organization like Al Rahmani and a successful leader like Ibrahim. As a leader some of the crucial challenges he had to face are structural issues and organizational symbols & vision. In terms of Ibrahim, these two issues were more or less similar. Structural issues generated as a result of lack of vision by his elder brothers. Therefore, vision became the major leadership challenge he has to deal with. Again, Vision here has different implications as well. Has the entire brothers had the same vision of growing and expanding the business, the company would have had split into different divisions under the same brand being looked after by all the brothers. More political issues would have happened in such a case. Ibrahim took the right step in gradually buying the ownership of his brothers in the company. It is not just important to have a vision. But the strategy to adopt for implementing the vision is of prime importance. There were chances of a huge organizational conflict in Al Rahmani because of Ibrahim’s different approach compared to his brothers. But with a clear focus Ibrahim implemented the strategy by not hurting any of his brothers. The case of Al Rahmani is a good story for every family business to look for. References “Al Rahmani General Trading Company LLC.” Alrahmani.com. 26 November 2011. “Theory X and Theory Y.” NetMBS.com. 26 November 2011. Heathfield, S, M. “Leadership Vision.” About.com. 2011. 26 November 2011. Read More