RIYADH — Riyadh Chapter of the Indian Engineers Forum (IEF) organized a l seminar at the Hilton Garden Inn as part of its periodic events in which Amitabh Saxena held an interactive session based on the business best seller "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. Saxena, CEO of Anexas Denmark, is an authority on Business Excellence and Leadership. Saxena was lucid and vivid and had the audience spellbound as he simplified the disciplines of Jim Collins in a comprehensive manner with his PowerPoint presentation. He demonstrated how the good performing companies can become great companies with ample well researched data. He showed how any organization can become great if they successfully try to apply the six principles outlined by Collins in his book. He started with a quote by Collins "Good is the enemy of Great". Hence he advocated that we must come out of our comfort zones and be passionate to become great. He elaborated with examples and anecdotes the main principles of Collins: Level 5 executive leadership, first who then what, and confront the brutal facts, the hedgehog concept, a culture of discipline, technology accelerators and the flywheel concept while quoting Collins' words "‘Great vision without great people is irrelevant". Saxena emphasized that to become great companies we need to follow the ‘Hire slow, Fire fast' methodology thereby ensuring that right people are assembled and then to think of what to do next. Ex[lainign the Hedgehog concept, Saxena said it is very crucial for the success of any company. Generalizing the Collins disciplines he added that we can apply them in various walks of life to excel ourselves. The seminar provided better insight of business strategies and helped many make a paradigm shift. The participants received ‘Certificate of Attendance' jointly from Anexas and IEF. Amir Khan, founder & chairman of Indian Engineers Forum, presided. He said: "IEF provides a platform for networking, career advancement, community service, and technology exchange". He advised Indian engineers to play a vital role in the development of Saudi Arabia, which would definitely help strengthen the relations between India and the Kingdom. Amir also announced that Masood will head IEF Riyadh for the year 2016. Owais Ahmed, past IEF president, said these lectures and workshops definitely bring a change in our working environment. He requested all engineers to join this professional forum and benefit from it. The program was anchored by IEF Executive Member Faraan Ahmed. And vote of thanks was given by Tabrez. Among the prominent attendees were IEF advisory board member Tariq Masood, past president — Owais Ahmed, IEF members — Farhan Hashmi, Dr. Sayeed Mohiuddin, Nadeem (from Dammam), Tabrez, Munis Hashmi and Syed Zia-ur Rahman.
