Al-Fouad Holding Group was founded in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 1973 as a venture with a wide range of disciplines from engineering and contracting to energy research and pharmaceuticals. At the time of its initiation, Saudi Arabia was emerging from an era where the country largely relied on imports to an era where the society highly valued locally-made products. The Western firms, which had dominated the region for a long time, were also becoming less popular as the locals started appreciating the locally-owned firms. As such, Al Fouad Holding Group had a huge market opportunity in these disciplines. From 1973 to 2000, this firm achieved impressive growth in the local market and faced minimal market competition within Saudi Arabia. However, the period that followed was marked by entry of a series of firms in the industries that the firm previously dominated. This did not stop its growth, but it meant that it had to deal with competition that was becoming stronger. It had to find better ways of meeting its customers’ needs than what it was using during the early days of its operations.
The pharmaceutical unit is one of the most successful business units that this firm is currently operating. The top management of this firm has invested heavily in the business and currently this company is one of the dominant players in this industry. It has embraced some of the latest technologies in its production, giving it an edge over its market rivals. The IT department is one of the most developed departments within this company. Communication has become so important in the modern society that many firms are keen on investing heavily in this area. At Al Fouad Holding Group, the management has been keen on ensuring that it has a fully functional IT department with highly skilled labor and top technology equipment.
The emerging technologies have been disruptive and the IT manager and his team have often been forced to adjust every time there is a major change. This is done in an effort to ensure that there is proper communication within the firm. The IT department has the responsibility of ensuring that there is a seamless communication between this firm and its clients, suppliers, the government, the public, and any other relevant external stakeholders. Internal communication has also been another responsibility, especially between the management and shareholders, management and the employees, and amongst the employees themselves. The marketing department needs to communicate with the production department to determine the amount of products due for the market; the finance department needs to communicate with other departments to know how to plan the finances. This clearly demonstrates how the IT department has been critically important within this organization.
Tasks and Assignments
At Al Fouad Holding Group, I worked in the IT unit within the department for four months. The management of this company had realized that the issue of customer management was of critical importance in the pharmaceutical sector. The products offered in this area were unique and the government has very strict regulations. Any simple mistake may have serious consequences on the affected group. As such, the IT department was established within the marketing unit to ensure that there was proper communication between the firm and its clients. I worked alongside other employees of this firm receiving phone calls from the customers about the products they bought or planned to buy. In most of the cases, their inquiries involved when their products would be delivered, issues about delays, and sometimes prescriptions. The department had installed state-of-the-art equipment to enhance performance. Every time I received an enquiry, I would look for the right responses in the database. For instance, every time a client bought products from this company, they are given a code. My task was simple because I only needed to key in their code into the system and all the necessary information about their purchases would be made available. In case of technicalities, I would transfer the client to my supervisors who had the capacity to handle them.
One of the most important assignments that I had in this department, other than receiving calls from clients, was managing the social media page of this firm. Al Fouad Holding Group has been keen on improving its online presence as a way of improving awareness of its brand. The management has come up with social media marketing strategies to help promote its brand. Although the firm has not put up an official Facebook account where it can interact with some of the users of its products directly, the firm has been keen on monitoring what the users of its products are saying about the quality offered to them. I have been active in social media trying to follow Facebook groups, especially the groups bringing together health specialists and patients of a given health problem to try to gather their views about the products offered by this firm. At times I would use the key words ‘Al Fouad Holding Group’ to determine what bloggers or other online community members say about this firm. This information would be used by this firm to adjust the products or product delivery strategies.
Conclusion
Al Fouad Holding Group is a conglomerate that offers a wide range of products within the country. I worked in the IT unit within the marketing department of the group’s pharmaceutical company. Our work within this unit was to ensure that issues that clients raised are resolved within the shortest period. I learnt that information was very important for the success of a company. I also played an active role in monitoring the discussions in the online platform about the products of this firm and its operations within the country. It demonstrated to me that this firm is very keen on understanding the opinion of its customers and the general public to help it know how to improve its products and production strategies. I learnt that achieving success in the health sector requires an understanding of the dynamics in the industry and issues that are directly customer satisfying.