NBK Insider November 2010

NBK Insider November 2010 Issue 29

EARTH Calling

Dear colleagues, I would like to talk to you today about the impact we have on our planet & the need to reduce our carbon foot-print on it for the future generations to enjoy life just like we enjoy it today & our ancestors did before us. I will start by talking about my personal experience with the global warming. I remember growing up in Beirut as a young boy where I used to enjoy the 4 seasons to the full. Every season had its special magic with the colors & activities that accompany it. Our autumn used to start in the September months when temperatures start dropping & colors of trees turning to beautiful yellow and rain quenching the thirst of the dried soil. Moun-tains caps would wear their beautiful white gowns from early November every year. As a fervent skier, every Christmas break was a skiing holiday in the mountain. All this is changing now with rain becoming scarce, snow over the mountain tops lasting for much shorter periods & ski season being reduced to a maximum of 2 months in a year from the previous 4 months I used to enjoy. Skiing during the year end break has already become a memory from the past. All these changes are happening in the span of one generation & can be felt in different ways across our planet. If we think about it, I am confident each & every one of us has experi-enced somehow climate change in their own lifetime. Yet, it is shocking to learn that there are still people & governments around who are completely unaware, careless or have doubts in humans’ impact on climate change. They are still ignoring their responsibilities for reducing carbon emissions & for providing a better planet to future generations. I believe that we all have a responsibility in doing so, both as individuals & as civic groups. Reduction of car-bon footprint starts from one’s own & can be achieved in many different ways and as easy as changing our habits of commuting through car pooling, driving cars will lower emissions, recycling of paper, plastic & every-thing we consume & use in our daily life, reduce our energy & water consumption, be it at workplace or our home. There are many websites that we can visit to help us understand better this issue but also to learn how to reduce our carbon footprint & preserve the environment. Finally, I will leave you with a question that we all need to ask ourselves: What would our legacy be to the future generations, starting with our own kids, if we do not take immediate & efficient actions to provide & preserve the resources of our planet for them to enjoy, just like we & our ances-tors before us did.’

Yann Lassade General Manager Qatar Automobiles Company

“What would our legacy be to the future

generations?”

NBK IN THE NEWS

November 2010 Issue 29

Nasser Bin Khaled Automobiles' Mercedes-Benz Pre-Owned Vehicles Website Goes Live

NBKA names grand winner of Mercedes CLS in promotion

NBK Medical Equipment at Qatar Health 2010

placed on making the customer experience the most re-warding and comfortable possible. The free service packages as well as the opportunity to win the latest Mercedes CLS model reaffirmed the com-pany’s position at the forefront of automobile offerings during Ramadan, with the promotion also being valid on Mercedes-Benz Proven Exclusivity (used) vehicles.

Continuing with its long line of spectacular customer based rewards initiatives as the exclusive dealer of the luxurious Mercedes brand in Qatar, NBKA has announced the grand winner of its recently held Ramadan promotion. In an innovative Ramadan rewards scheme which also included free service packages, Ashraf Awamleh was drawn as the proud new owner of a sparkling and spec-tacular Mercedes-Benz CLS. After being handed the keys to the outstanding luxury vehicle, the new owner was un-derstandably elated, saying that such rich rewards were an unexpected reward indeed for the loyalty to NBKA show-rooms. The promotion ran throughout the holly month of Ramadan and continues a strong legacy of customer-based incen-tives on the part of NBKA, where a continuous focus is

NBK Automobiles management team has recently at-tended an intensive training programme for this unique website. Customers visiting the website will have access to details on all of the vehicles available.

The NBK Automobiles' Mercedes-Benz pre-owned vehi-cles website is now live. The visually-enhanced, multi-purpose website comes to complete the comprehensive Mercedes-Benz experience for customers in Qatar and provides the latest information and data on the models, buying process, points of sale and after-sale and promo-tions. This exclusive site www.qatar.mb-usedcars.com is run by UK's Motor Track which also manages the websites for Mercedes-Benz in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia.

NBK Medical Equipment is gearing up towards Qatar Health 2010, one of the region's biggest healthcare events organ-ized by Hamad Medical Corporation and starting on the 15

th

of December at the Qatar International Exhibition Centre. Medical Equipment will showcase a booth with a gamut of the latest health-related equipment and solutions and cut-ting-edge technology. Don't forget to visit the booth and show your support!

NBK IN THE NEWS NBK Prime Ride inaugurates showroom; launches new Brabus

On the 8th of November, 2010 His Excellency Sheikh

Nawaf Nasser Al Thani, Chairman and CEO of Nasser Bin Khaled and Sons Holding Company will unveil the Refined 2011 BRABUS SLS at NBK Prime Ride Showroom at Ras Abu Aboud Street. The unveiling of the BRABUS SLS marks an important day for BRABUS brand in Qatar.

Sheikh Nawaf commented on the occasion saying, “This day is another landmark in the achievements of our company. It ensures our commitment to excellence and to providing the Qatari market with luxury sports cars. The addition of Brabus tuned Mercedes-Benz cars to our extensive business portfo-lio, reiterates our continuous commitment to deliver world-class automotive options to our Qatari clients and position NBK as a leader in the luxury sports car in Qatar”.

In another innovative development aimed at strengthening its position as the top automobile option in the country, Qatar Automobiles Com-pany launched the latest ASX model at the opening of its new Mitsubishi showroom in Doha. The new ASX car launch in the newly inaugu-rated showroom was attended by members of the media as well as various distinguished dig-nitaries, such as HE Mr. Yukio Kitazume, Am-bassador of Japan to Qatar, HE Sheikh Nawaf Nasser Bin Khaled Al Thani, Chairman and CEO of NBK and Mr. Tofukuji, General Man-ager for the Middle East of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, who all hailed the new showroom as a perfect location for customers to find out more about Mitsubishi’s latest model, the ASX, alongside a wide array of powerful 4x4 vehicles and sleek city cars. The ASX (Active Smart Crossover) is the brand new vehicle from Mitsubishi designed to define driving in the next decade. It is the smart, effi-cient, new compact crossover with a con-science. It comes with a petrol engine and a choice of two- or four-wheel drive and the ClearTec low emissions package includes Auto Stop & Go technology. The new showroom opened to the public on the same day.

NBK IN THE NEWS

Opening of QAC Showroom

H.E. Kenjiro Monji, Ambassador of Japan

QAC Staff

Paul Maryan, Yann Lassade, Mr. Tofukoji,HE Monji

Khaled Shaaban and Yann Lassade

Sheikh Nawaf with NBK staff and guests

NBK IN THE NEWS QAC holds internal raffle draw;

proceeds go to charity in line with company's CSR programmes

QAC held recently a raffle draw to get a chance to win exciting prizes. Exclusively for QAC employees, Zeina Ahmadieh and Salim Khan walked away with Nokia Mobile and DVD player respectively. Proceeds of up to QAR2,240 were raised for charity and were donated to Dhreima. This falls in line with NBK and QAC's corporate social responsibility and our commitment to community outreach.

On Monday, November 22, 2010, QAC hosted Mr. Abdul Aziz Al-Kuwari in its new state-of-the-art Mitsubishi Showroom. Mr. Al-Kuwari, a pro-fessional rally driver, who has raced across the Middle East and Turkey, and other international countries, was exhibiting his winning Mitsubishi Lancer Evo that landed him the first place in the Qatar Rally 2010. Mr. Al-Kuwari thanked QAC for its assistance, posed for photos, signed autographs for the gathering fans, and answered the questions of the media. He also expressed his astonishment with the new and sophisticated Mitsubishi Show-room. “I thank QAC for all the support it has showed me”, said Mr. Al Kuwari. He further added, “This kind of encouragement is essential in the promo-tion of sports in Qatar and the region; and QAC is playing a key role in this field.”

The New Mitsubishi Showroom Welcomes the New Qatar Rally Champion

Yann Lassade, Hussein Abdelatif, Abdul Aziz Al-Kuwari and Ihab El Feky

In The Spotlight

Riding with

JOY! This month, we speak to a very interesting lady! Joy Dizon, H-D PAM Manager, in other words Parts and Accessories Manager at Harley-Davidson! Can it get more exciting than that? A very enthusiastic mother of two, Joy shares with us her great thoughts about balancing work and family lifestyles and takes us through a hu-morous overview of her job at NBK!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself? I’m a hardworking woman. Married with 2 grown-up kids! How did you start your career at NBK? I started as Motorclothes Manager of H-D in 2007. TA year later I became the PAM Manager. PAM as in Parts Accessories and Motorclothes. What are your responsibilities as Parts and Accessories Manager? As a PAM Manager, I see to it that what Harley customer wants, we have it in order to satisfy their needs. Customer service plays an impor-tant role here so I make sure that our customers are being treated and served right. I also help in the marketing aspect, joining differ-ent activities to promote the good image of Harley Davidson.

How do you cope up with stress at work? We can’t avoid being stressed each day. I just think positive. And look at the brighter side of each situation. Every mistake is a lesson learned. Learn from it. And be sure not to do it again. How do you keep up a good relationship with your customers and more particularly with male customers? It helps to have a cheerful disposition to keep a good relationship with each customer. Besides I love my job. The customers can detect that. Of course, they won’t hesitate to trust my judgment with their requirements, be it for clothes or parts. Majority of our clientele are male customers. Dif-ferent nationalities and with different back-grounds. Each one is unique, but all customers are dealt with sincere customers service. But


ALL customers have a common denominator: That is, they ALL love Harley-Davidson! And that makes things easier. How do you manage your time between work and home? Simple. When I’m at home, I forget about work and when I’m at work I forget about home. When did you learn to drive a big bike and why? Ever since I remember, I love motorcycles. I learned how to ride back home when I was 12 years old. I just love riding a motorcycle. I get more relaxed when I’m on the road. I love the wind on my face.

You don’t look like your age, any (beauty) secrets in making yourself look young? No secrets at all. No opera-tions or secret creams. I just stay happy and as I said earlier, I always think posi-tive. Corny as it may sound, but I believe that laughter is always the greatest medi-cine. I always see the good side in people and all the adversities that comes my way. There must be a les-son to be learned some-where. You can’t go through life without thinking that this is like a having a never-ending learning process. Yes, I admit, I have one greatest secret: I always put on a sincere smile. It is con-tagious. Try smiling.

What’s your greatest dream? My greatest dream is to see my family con-tented. I want to grow old gracefully. Not neces-sarily rich, but genuinely happy. If there is one thing you want to change in your life, what would it be? Nothing. All the mistakes and achievements that I had made me what I am now. That is why when I wake up each morning, I thank God for giving me another day.

HR NEWS New Employee Orientation Training

A Total of 49 new employees of our organization attended the New Employee Orientation Train-ing held in 06th OCT and 18th OCT at the NBK auditorium in the main office. Participants were given an overview and history of our organization, how it played a big role in the de-velopment of Qatar, and the industries, products, and services that NBK touches on. They also learned more about living in Doha which can help them learn and understand what to expect and how to cope with the new culture and environ-ment. This was also an opportunity for everyone to meet fellow employees from other divisions and depart-ment promoting camaraderie and belongingness in the NBK family.

HR to Develop NBK Staff‘s Performance

The HR Department (Training and Development) rolled out its first series of training programs in the last week of October and first week of November by way of four Customer Service Excellence courses for the sales team in the Luxury and Casual Divi-sions of NBK Fashion. The program was re-quested as a high priority course by Nancy Saad (GM of NBK Fashion), Ahmad Khcheich (Lead Manager: Casual Divi-sion) and Diana Karaatanassovoa (Sales and Marketing Manager: Luxury Division). The course outcomes were laid out by Diana to ensure that the program met the needs of NBK Fashion and two pro-grams were then de-signed accordingly by NBK’s Head of Training and Development, Lance Rooney. One course was designed for the sales team in the Zai and Loewe outlets (Luxury Division), and an-other similar program was written for the sales team

in the Metropolis and Quiksilver outlets (Casual Divi-sion). Each course was 2 days in duration, was fa-cilitated by Lance and was attended by 20 sales staff in the Casual Division (10 per program) and 18 sales staff in the Luxury Division (9 per program).

On each of the 8 training days, the sales teams were also treated to morning and afternoon refreshments by Manakish and lunch by Sil-ver Café al Saad. The program participants, therefore, experienced a course which fully met their job requirements and which was delivered in a highly in-teractive way, with much pair work and group work built around role play and job simulation activities. The delegates worked with the ‘Fantastic Service Equa-

tion’: a best practices model of customer service to build consumer loyalty in the retail sector and in-cluding the following elements: Greeting the Cus-tomer, Determining Customer Needs, Meeting Cus-tomer Needs, Making the Experience Memorable, Checking Results and Leaving the Door Open for the customer to return.

Course Designer and Facilitator, Lance Rooney, explaining

the self-monitoring and peer-monitoring Customer Service

Excellence contract to Casual Division sales team.

Finally, delegates are asked to indicate overall whether they ‘Highly Recommend’, ‘Recommend’ or ‘Do Not Rec-ommend’ the program to other staff within their division at NBK. There is also a box for delegates to write any addi-tional comments concerning the program and facilitator. As far as this Customer Service Excellence program is concerned, the evaluations from the 38 sales staff attend-ing show that the participants responded extremely posi-tively to the program. Neither the program nor the facilita-tor received a single ‘Not Competent’ score from a possi-ble 538 entries. The course was also evaluated as a Highly Recommended course for NBK Fashion by all 38 participants. When asked by ‘Insider’ for his thoughts on this first train-ing program roll-out, Lance told us “It was a lot of hard work to design the program from scratch and then to train it for almost 8 consecutive days, but the reward lies in the excellent feedback received from the 38 participants on the four programs. It was a real team effort between the HR Department Training and Development (Group HR Manager, Hesham Sabri and T&D Assistant, Lucya Abraham), NBK Fashion management and Prime Food and Beverages, and just shows what we can achieve as a team when we work together. I look forward to deliver-ing a similar quality service to our other divisions in the near future to continue our collective efforts to drive NBK forward.” Great feedback from some of the participants: "I learnt a lot of new things in terms of customer ser-vice. The programme included many interesting ideas that helped further our knowledge and increase our performance. This has been a very memorable training experience for me at NBK." "It's very interesting to be part of such an evaluation process. It has added to my knowledge, ideas and even my skills. We hope to see more of these pro-grammes rolling out in the future." "I am thankful for NBK's efforts to organize this train-ing programme. Mr. Lance you did a great job! Thank you so much."

Participants also learned how to; recognize the assumptions they often make about customers which provide a barrier to sales; understand the fears customers may have which prevents sales staff delivering excellent customer service; effectively cross-sell re-lated products; deal with angry customers; and identify environ-mental, policy and internal rela-tionship factors which create bar-riers to customer service and then make recommendations to the NBK Fashion management team.

It is, of course, very important that the effectiveness of a training program is objectively measured in order to pro-vide accurate Return On Investment data. Therefore, be-fore this particular course, Diana and Ahmad conducted a baseline survey for benchmarking purposes and, after it, will use various indicators such as sales figures, numbers of newly registered customers, numbers of return custom-ers and customer feedback (i.e. numbers of thank you vs. complaint letters) in order to measure its impact. As far as the training programs themselves are concerned, from this point forwards, and regardless of whether a training program has been delivered in-house or by an external training provider, it will be the policy of the HR Department (Training and Development) to allow all par-ticipants to evaluate the effectiveness of both the program and facilitator. Therefore, Lance has designed a one-page evaluation form which asks the delegates to rate the program itself according to 7 criteria and the facilitator also according to 7 different criteria by indicating a ‘Highest Competence’ score (3), ‘Strong Competence’ score (2), ‘Competent’ score (1) or ‘Not Competent’ score (0) for each criterion.

Group HR Manager, Hesham Sabri, welcoming NBK Fashion

Luxury Division Group 1 sales team onto the program.

NBK Fashion Casual Division Group 1 with their certificates, accompanied by Lead Manager

Ahmad Khcheich (left), Head of Training and Development Lance Rooney (centre) and

Training and Development Assistant Lucya Abraham (right).

NBK Fashion Casual Division Group 1 taking part in a

team-working activity.

NBK STREET

How you can help preserve our environment and save our planet Earth ?


Marem Ambray—Internal Audit NBK Holding Below are a few basic things that I put into practice to help preserve our environment and save mother earth: I don’t smoke. It is an obvious knowledge that smoking is not only harm-ful to the body of the smoker but it pollutes the air every human being breathes. “We need to breathe, but no one needs to smoke.” I avoid littering. If I have a small candy wrapper or any piece of rubbish to dispose of and

there isn’t a bin nearby, I keep them inside my pocket or bag until I reach a proper garbage can. Some peo-ple may think that it is okay to throw rubbish that may decompose later, but even this too, if not thrown in the proper bin, is harmful to our health as it attracts pests and bacteria.

Back home, I plant trees and do gardening and recycle stuff, i.e. by using kitchen garbage that decom-poses as organic fertilizer.

George Delfino - Sales Advisor NBK Automobiles

I can help preserve our environ-

ment by having a Garbage Segre-

gation system in my own room.

Garbage accumu la t ion is

seen anywhere it will eventually creep its way to the

streets of metropolis. For now, garbage is

STILL manageable to a certain extent. Nobody

should wait till it finally happens that no more dump-

ing site can handle the situation. That’s why all of us

should Practice garbage segregation now. It should

be a habit. It should be taught to every child in the

whole world.

Sherif Gali - Services Coordinator NBK Real-Estate I can start from my home by conserving energy. I make sure I turn off unneeded lights even when am leaving the room for a short time. When am not using electrical appliances like Aircon and TV, I make sure I turn off the switch. At the office, it will be good to recycle papers as it will not only save hundreds of trees but cut the company’s cost as well.

Mustafa Alim Nur - Store keeper Zein Before I leave the house, i turn off all the lights and other appliances. When there are appli-ances that I seldom use, I unplug it from the switch. I also make use of email and prefer pa-perless billing more. By doing most things online, we can save on receiving paper items each month in the mail. Just imagine how many trees we could have save if we received less paper bills and wrote less checks.

Ronald Celades - Accountant NBK Holding To name a few, I think I would be able to help preserve the environ-ment and save our planet Earth with the following: 1) Joining to Organizations with having the same objective “To save planet Earth” and help for the campaign 2) I should have strong commitment to attain the ob-jective 3) Be aware and vigilant about the current condition of our Planet (we can get info from TV, Newspapers & Magazines, Internet and etc.) 4) Planting more trees and cut less 5) Strict implementation of Governments Regulation relating preservation of environment 6) Be a law abiding citizen most especially for the protection of our environment

EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH

Mutaz Dwedari

Abdulghany El Ghazawy

Shameen Ali

Month of September


Khalid Hassan

EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH

Mohammed Shifan Abdulraheem Jimmy Uadan Mohammad Taiseer Safiya

Nicolas Tumbokon Ramzan Nazir Ahmed Laxmi Chaudhary Fuad Abdulie Hassan

Month of October

Get Inspired


Spilt Milk Story

Have you heard of the spilt milk story? Well, we

all know there is no use crying over spilt milk. But this story is different. I would hope all parents would respond in this manner. I recently heard a story about a famous research scientist who had made several very important medical breakthroughs. He was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter who asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person. What set him so far apart from others? He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother that occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor—a veritable sea of milk! When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture, or pun-ishing him, she said, “Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?” Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said, “You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel, or a mop. Which do you prefer?” He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk. His mother then said, “You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let’s go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it with-out dropping it.” The little boy learned that if he

grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a won-derful lesson! This renowned scientist then remarked that it was at that moment that he knew he didn’t need to be afraid to make mistakes.Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment “doesn’t work,” we usually learn some-thing valuable from it. Wouldn’t it be great if all parents would respond the way Robert’s mother responded to him? Every memorable act in the history of the world is a tri-umph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or `any occupa-tion, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new mean-ing. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of me-diocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles.

“Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something

new”


Runway Review

NINA RICCI Effectively, this Fall is Peter Copping's debut as a full-fledged runway designer after spending a dec-ade as Marc Jacobs' right-hand man at Louis Vuitton. Though he's been at Nina Ricci since last spring, this collection was the first to be given an official on-schedule show since Olivier Theyskens left the house. Copping's take on Nina Ricci is much more flowery and safely feminine, full of pretty, just below knee-length satin slipdresses.

ELIE SAAB

See-through ombré net and peekaboo lace styles, as any ce-lebrity stylist could tell you, will never fly with the fashion police! But when Elie Saab tamped down the excess in favor of understated goddess gowns and just-revealing-enough jewel-tone se-quined columns, it was easy to picture the results on a red carpet sometime soon.

NBK Fashion AW2010 collection is set to wow!

NAEEM KHAN Opu len t ly beaded, fu r -trimmed vest, an evening powerhouse that Khan has made a go-to staple.

Health News

4 Best Herbs for the Brain

1. Turmeric Brain benefit

This mustard yellow powder is an antioxidant and a powerful anti-inflammatory. In India, where turmeric is eaten daily in curries, the risk of developing Alzheimer's is 25 percent

lower than the risk in the U.S. In lab studies, mice that were fed curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric) developed fewer amyloid plaques, associated with Alzheimer's, than rats that weren't. How to eat more Add turmeric or curry powder to any curry dish and to egg salad. Include up to a teaspoonful in pea soup or your fa-vorite lentil dish. Add turmeric to casseroles and in place of saffron in paella and Spanish rice. 2. Sage Brain benefit

A member of the mint family, sage is a known memory enhancer and may protect the brain against certain processes that lead to Alzheimer's. It may work by protecting acetylcholine, a chemical messenger in the

brain that's critical to memory. In a British study, healthy young adults performed better on word recall tests after taking sage-oil capsules. How to eat more Add to omelets, tomato sauce, butternut squash, roasted chicken or pork. Steep 2 teaspoons dried sage in just-boiled water for a strong cup of tea that provides a thera-peutic dose.

3. Wasabi Brain benefit

Wasabi, a member of the mustard fam-ily, is the hot green condiment served with sushi. It's an excellent source (also found in horseradish and broccoli) of a compound found to help nerve cells grow extensions known as dendrites and axons, which help cells communi-

cate with each other. How to eat more Great on fish of any sort. In specialty stores, buy wasabi in a tube or as a powder. Add a little bit to ginger-, teri-yaki-, or peanut-based sauces; deviled eggs; salad dressing; coleslaw; and crab cakes. 4. Garlic Brain benefit

Garlic thins the blood to help prevent blood clots and may slightly lower cho-lesterol. It contains compounds thought to protect neurons from injury and dis-ease by stimulating the production of

chemicals that help cells withstand stress. How to eat more Add lots of minced garlic to just about any marinade or salad dressing. Add sautéed garlic to chicken, beef, pork, tofu, pasta, or vegetable dishes.

Most herbs and spices have medicinal benefits, and a handful are thought to boost brain health. Aim to get more of these four in particular.

Please email us with your thoughts and comments at [email protected]

Documents

NBK Insider November 2010