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Dr. Amine Ayad

Dr. Amine Ayad

Thought Leadership Interview:

Dr. Amine Ayad, Retail Executive and Award-Winning Author

By Emad Rahim, Endowed Chair of PM Center of Excellence

Dr. Amine Ayad has over 20 years working in the retail industry. As an entrepreneur and civil engineer, he has successfully launched companies and negotiated exclusive representations, contracts and partnerships both nationally and internationally.

Currently, Amine serves as Senior Director of Strategy – US Innovations at Walmart Corp., and he is a faculty member of the Project Management Center of Excellence. He formerly held senior management positions at Sears and The Home Depot, and is co-author of the best-selling book, Leading Through Diversity: Transforming Managers Into Effective Leaders. Connect with Dr. Ayad on Twitter at @Dr_Aya

You specialize in retail management. Can you tell us how project management skills are important in the field of retail?

Project Management is vital to the success of retail businesses and retail professionals. Opening a new store requires advanced project management skills, executing a promotion requires project management skills, and even improving a process requires project management skills.

What other business related work do people use project management for in your industry?

Think about the life-cycle of products that customers buy from a retailer; say a backpack for back-to-school season or a toolset for Father’s Day: The buyer has to anticipate future demands and place orders to arrive to distribution centers on time. Distribution centers have to schedule trucks and drivers to distribute the inventory to stores. Stores have to schedule employees to unload the trucks and properly place the items on the shelves exactly where the items belong. And have the right amount of registers open for the customers when the customers arrive. All of this requires tremendous amount of planning, executing, monitoring, and closing and / or correction of errors to initiating the work again and repeating the cycle.

Within each of these activities multiple projects could exist simultaneously. For example, recruiting, hiring, and training the right number of employees to meet the business demand of Black Friday is a critical activity that requires project management skills. Changing the planograms or merchandise on the selling floor to reflect the right time of the year and / or the right event requires significant project management skills.

Can you give us some examples of retailers that are applying project management to improve their business model?

Retailers that adopted Enterprise Project Management mindset treat every process as an independent project. This way not only they can track and monitor individual projects but also better understand how each project relates and / or impacts other projects within the business model. This helps executives to select and focus on initiatives that add value and / or fit the competitive objectives of retailers.

Within this philosophy project management isn’t solely the responsibility of project managers; every employee becomes part of a specific project and is responsible for executing specific tasks within specific projects in a systematic way that adds efficiencies and effectiveness. Imagine the benefits that such organizations can harness:

  • Collaboration among different projects
  • Enterprise-wide reporting at task level if needed
  • Centralized documentation and improved compliance
  • Monitoring and measuring returns on investments and benefits of initiatives
  • Not exceeding budgets, mitigating risks, and / or not missing deadlines
  • Maximizing the potential of organizational resources

Personally, I used project management principles and methodologies in my retail assignments as a Retail Employee, Store Manager, District Manager, Divisional Director of Merchandising, and Senior Director of Strategy and Innovations.

You have written and conducted research on the topic of leadership and project management, where do you see the profession going in the next 5 years?

Project management tools are not new and project managers have been using standardized methodologies for managing projects for years, but the future is exciting. Technology will offer new and powerful tools to help in every phase of project life cycle.

  • Imagine the power of the “learning machine” in planning a new project when all learning from all projects are utilized to plan for a project.
  • Imagine the power of the “cloud” in providing infrastructure for different project.
  • Imagine the power of “big data” and “advanced analytic” coupled with the power of mobile technologies and internet in providing accurate and real-time monitoring and reporting.

This is not a view from a distant future, it is happening as we speak. Today, managers and executives don’t have to be behind their desks in an office reviewing data and reports while separated from front-line employees and customers. They can review reports and data while on a plane traveling to a business unit and / or while on the selling floor or production floor reviewing the execution of business initiatives.

Can a person without a traditional project management background get into the profession? Can you provide some guidance?

Absolutely! Companies and universities offer training programs leading to obtaining project management skills and / or professional certifications. Even without formal education, many entry-level jobs exist within organizations including but not limited to: Project analyst, project coordinator, and / or assistant project manager. If a person is entering the workforce and / or planning a career move, project management can be a great option.

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