People powering AI

He may be at the helm of an AI company, but that doesn’t mean Nader Kassir underestimates the power and value of a human touch.

“People are the key to any progress we are making,” the SAS Regional Director, Upper Gulf, enthuses. “As strong as the growth we are making in Qatar and the Upper Gulf is, it’s not my efforts. It’s the effort of team collaboration.”

Kassir has been in the driver’s seat for nearly two years at SAS and already has a two-decade-strong background in tech with industry giants like GE Digital and Dell. Having obtained his graduate degree in computer science and a master’s in data management and acquisition, he has found the transition both exciting and enlightening.

“I joined SAS for a reason: because I considered it a big challenge, and I strongly believe in the power of the brand,” he tells The CEO Magazine. “I also believe that the brand did not get its fair market presence in Qatar and the Upper Gulf in general.”

As the first General Manager assigned to lead SAS’s Qatar and Upper Gulf region, Kassir was well aware that he had an immense responsibility resting on his shoulders.

“The only challenge I’ve faced has been building a new team completely from scratch,” he reveals. “I hired all resources, some who I knew from within the Qatar market, focusing primarily on their acquisition and what they have achieved.”

Open dialogue

The blank slate became an advantage. For Kassir, leadership shows its worth when expectations tighten: empower the team, be transparent about what can – and can’t – be delivered, and always prioritize open dialogue and active listening.

Managing a group of employees with no prior experience working together turned out to be a double-edged sword in many ways, simultaneously complex and an incredible opportunity to create an utterly unified culture.

“I highly encourage speaking very openly between each other,” Kassir explains. “In my opinion, active listening and empathy are crucial when it comes to leading your team. The real value of leadership and the right communication plays a crucial part when things are not moving in line with the expectations of higher management.

“And this is where the leader plays a major role. The key to this game is the right team, an empowered team and transparency when it comes to what we can deliver and what we cannot deliver to our customers and partners.”

While AI is expanding and evolving at a rate that many people can barely fathom, the key players have been working on this innovative technology for decades already. Amid the AI hype, SAS brings decades of proof.

“There are lots of buzzwords related to AI, with every software company to some extent claiming that they can deliver end solutions,” Kassir points out.

“SAS has been in the business for almost five decades and over the past 50 years, we’ve delivered different applications within AI, built lots of models and are supported by subject matter expertise in multiple areas.”

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Indeed, the company’s demonstrated strengths are founded on decades of domain models and statistical expertise.

“Historically, SAS has been known as a global leader in data management and AI and has been practically delivering real-world use cases under the broader umbrella of AI for many years,” Kassir explains. “We are the de facto when it comes to fraud, anti-money laundering and risk management.

“The shift that’s happened with SAS technology over the past couple of years has been the introduction of SAS VIYA. So we are shifting the discussion not only by offering specific solutions but also a complete platform to take care of data management across the whole ecosystem of data management and advanced AI to build models that can practically deliver any use case.”

This transformation unleashes its immense potential to be incorporated into each and every industry, even those with strict regulations and complicated operating systems, such as the public sector, law enforcement and healthcare.

This means the company is developing both niche, SAS-specific solutions, as well as a platform to integrate its technology and open-source or third-party applications, Kassir adds.

Collaborative partnerships

As any leader worth their salt knows, a business will never be able to thrive without the aid of solid partnerships.

“For SAS to be successful, we need to align with the right players,” Kassir emphasizes. “We are trying to make SAS an open platform where it can sit in any environment – a private or public cloud, anything. We want to give our customers flexibility.”

The benefits from these collaborations with organizations such as IT consulting company Databorn are wide-ranging, but according to Kassir, the most substantial plus is a quicker reach to the customer.

“If you want to close a deal at a national scale, you need to come up with a value proposition that is differentiated from others,” he explains.

“That’s where SAS, through owning a very strong technology platform and aligning with a strategic firm, will make a big difference.”

In a global landscape where, while AI’s capabilities are accelerating, many of us still don’t know how to properly utilize it, Kassir views the team operating behind the scenes as the company’s secret weapon.

“We need to be extremely transparent and very honest when it comes to our discussions and negotiations with both customers and partners. And we need to be fair. We need to be credible as human beings, and we need to be responsible for our own brand, as well as any brands we represent,” Kassir reflects.

“I put a lot of importance on the individual relationships – that’s what matters. The human touch, our own credibility – I would say it’s our motto in every engagement.”