We have had this wonderful opportunity to interview Mr Mazen Farah this week. During the interview, we learned a lot about Mazen Farah himself, his company HEED, their ideas and goals, and the path of their journey throughout the uncertainties.
Mazen Farah is the Founder and Managing Partner at HEED. He founded HEED in 2011 and took it from a consulting firm with a few consultants to an international consulting firm with a diversified international portfolio of clients with over 15 full-time consultants between Dubai and Beirut. HEED’s core specialty is in driving revenue growth management and integrating science, technology, and people in every element within the commercial arm of the organization to the end-to-end customer journey. The company is also available on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.
With high determination and a passion, Mazen Farah wants to help organizations achieve immense success and grow not solely through sales and marketing but with a sustainable revenue growth model. This article includes an interview with Mazen Farah where we get to know about his company as well.
Explain the background of you and the company in detail.
We are an international management consulting firm with a niche specialization in sales and marketing. Furthermore, we are successfully aiding organizations across the globe in adapting to the new market dynamics and clients’ changing behaviour by putting science, people, and technology into the heart of what we do.
We pride ourselves on having a diversified portfolio of success stories in various industries, sizes and locations, with a significant increase in our client’s revenues within all executed projects. In addition, we believe this is one of the reasons considered as their entrusted partners for why 80% of our clients are recurring.
Why did you start (or want to be the head of) this company?
To many, a successful commercial organization combines proper branding, marketing, and an adequate group of salespeople. However, this is a wrong perception for having a successful revenue growth framework.
When I was pursuing my MBA, it was very difficult for me to find sales or sales management courses that weren’t marketing driven. When referring to the book, it would include topics about designing sales organizations and designing scientific commission schemes, but the professor barely addressed such topics. It was mainly because such courses were recently integrated into the curriculum, and unfortunately, the professors did not have adequate knowledge or experience regarding the topic.
Through my intensive experience in sales as well as a recruiter hiring salespeople, I further believe in Jack Welch’s perspective, “Irrespective of what hiring actions and plans one take, sales teams will be in best case divided into, 20% top sales performers, 70% middle, and 10% bottom performers.”
I have seen traditional leaders rush to push more salespeople into the market, give them higher incentive schemes, push more on marketing, and expect better results.
The above misperceptions were behind the fruition of HEED, with a mission to aid organizations in driving revenue growth based on a sustainable, predictable revenue growth model and not based on a push strategy with a group of top sales performers, marketing, and branding.
What are your goals?
It has become apparent that company executives and leaders are more in the belief of this need. As a result, we pride ourselves on and strive to continue our contribution to this paradigm shift.
On the tangible side, we are looking forward to expanding, opening another branch in Riyadh, and doubling our team by the end of 2023.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We had to overcome two big external crises in a very short period of time, which really made me rethink believing in luck and miracles.
In 2019, our headquarters and most of our business was based in Beirut, Lebanon. Unfortunately, we lost 60% of our contracts overnight due to the revolution that took the city by storm.
We quickly recovered and adapted, opened an office in Dubai and expanded to KSA. However, we were then hit with another crisis, the Covid Pandemic, further halting our progress, obliging us to adapt to a new norm of business. Thus, shifting our life from traveling constantly and face to face interactions with our clients, to being grounded to online meetings.
However, I always say “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.
Give us one word that describes you the best.
People call it determination or perseverance; I like to call it the Sales Spirit.
What makes you excited about Mondays?
When working internationally with clients from different regions and time zones, we are unsure if our week begins on Monday or Sunday. Nonetheless, I always tell my team that the day you come to work, not to be eager to learn something new, it’s better not to come.
In the consulting business, the learning curve is exponential, and when you see the results of what you’ve designed, built, and aided in executing for your client, the feeling of happiness can’t be described.
What do you value most about your culture and vision?
This pandemic was a great test for all of us—a test to reflect our true values. To me, people come first.
We have a very dynamic, positive, and hardworking team with a fighting spirit that truly believes in our company values and future vision. I am insisting on this because it was their determination that aided us to push through this entire turbulence of uncertainty.
Tell us about a project that forced you to be innovative and creative.
After the pandemic, all projects we took on forced us to think outside the box, be more creative, and unconventionally conduct our business.
What do you feel is the biggest strength of yourself/company right now?
As a company, I believe the team, values, and company culture are our biggest strengths and have allowed us to prosper.
What are the key values that helped you overcome the roadblocks/challenges in your career? Tell us something about your memorable incident in your leadership.
One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned through tough circumstances is that you can reach anywhere with adaptability, determination, and belief in a company’s mission.
How do you see the company changing in two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?
Unfortunately, uncertainty became a new norm in today’s business world, and regardless of how agile we considered our organization, we are currently restructuring for greater agility and speed of execution.
We plan to end March with an event for the entire team to launch the company’s new direction, strategy and transformation plan. We will take this opportunity to reconnect and unify the team through this team gathering, which has become crucial considering the hybrid working model we follow at HEED and the team being spread across several countries.
Where is your leadership going? What benefits do your clients get from your company in this competitive world?
Our mission is to greatly impact the clients we work with. Therefore, we always strive to differentiate ourselves from other consulting firms, from being good thinkers and delivering proven and demonstrable solutions and processes.
What are the services/solutions or products that your company offers at par with the current industry standards? Tell us something about your upcoming products or services?
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been constant debate between business owners, Chief Growth Officers, and sales leaders about how to react to such a crisis, which rapidly made “business as usual” obsolete.
For over 11 years, with more than 40+ successful projects in aiding clients in driving their revenue growth, we’ve been known to be the subject matter experts in sales and marketing. We call it customer understanding and market dynamics. So, we feel responsible for aiding clients to ride the hive and help them embark on a successful customer digital transformation. Thus, we added this service and shifted our focus to aid clients in integrating science into sales and putting science, technology, and people at the heart of what we do.
Based on our years of experience, our joint consultant experience and R&D, we have released a new Revenue Growth Model(c), which is the new base for HEED and any organization for driving their revenue growth.
Connect with Mazen Farah on LinkedIn!