Saudi careers: GE eyes talented women university graduates

GE has had a number of discussions to promote partnership with the Saudi universities. It wants to take advantage of the talented people who are graduating from the universities and will continue to look for opportunities to collaborate, says John Rice, vice chairman of GE. “We see the Princess Nora Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) as one of the jewels in the Kingdom for developing talented women who can work for companies such as ours,” Rice told Arab News in a face-to-face interview.
Asked for his views on the work performance of Saudi women, especially those working in GE, Rice said: “We are exceptionally pleased with their performance. We have Saudi women who work for us at the GE Manufacturing Technology Center in Dammam. We have lots of talented Saudi women who work for GE not just in the Kingdom but in other countries. We are very pleased with their caliber.”
Stressing GE’s commitment "to do more," Rice underlined the focus of the company to support the Kingdom in enhancing energy sector efficiency and promoting localization.

With GE’s presence in Saudi Arabia for nearly eight decades, Rice said he liked to visit the Kingdom in January every year.
In the interview, Rice presented a detailed overview of the company’s operations in the Kingdom and its growth strategy with a particular focus on supporting the energy sector to strengthen operational efficiency.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: We are at the start of a New Year. What are GE’s new plans for the Kingdom?

A: We are always looking for new opportunities. The work we do here continues to expand and we work with our main partners to find out what’s new on their agenda and how we can complement that with our industrial Internet strategy and digital technologies. This, in fact, is one area we are pursuing in the Kingdom. Industrial Internet is about integrating big data and advanced analytics with big iron (heavy machinery) and we see tremendous opportunity for industrial Internet technologies to scale up productivity and efficiency.

Q: What about the renewable energy sector? Is GE supporting the Kingdom in this?

A: We expect to contribute to renewable, especially as we have the world’s largest wind business with operations in 30 countries around the world. Another key area of focus is energy efficiency, which we can support through our advanced technologies in turbines. So we look to be associated in the renewable space as well as support the Kingdom in boosting energy sector efficiency.

Q: Do you have any specific initiatives in this direction?

A: We have a variety of initiatives in strengthening energy efficiency; we work with Saudi Electric Company (SEC), for example, to help determine how to better utilize existing power generation capacity and how to make it run more efficiently and more effectively.

Q: You are investing about $1 billion in the Kingdom. Do you have plans to increase that?

A: It’s our next step and $1 billion is definitely not the last of our investments in the Kingdom. We understand that there’s expectation that there will be more and we will continue to look with our partners at ways where we can expand our presence in our investment here in an effective and responsible way.

Q: You have set up a business process center exclusively for women. How is it progressing?

A: The center is exceeding our expectations and we have 400 women working there currently. They work on business processes, account reconciliation and payables; they work to support of our business not just in the Kingdom but over 37 countries around the world. The work that these very qualified and very competent women do support our efforts globally. It is a great example of what we can do in partnership with Saudi Aramco and Tata Consulting Services (TCS).

Q: We have in the Kingdom the world’s largest women only university…

A: It’s one of the reasons that caught our attention and helped us realize the importance that the Kingdom was attaching to development opportunities for women. The discussions that started a few years ago led to the creation of the business process center in Riyadh along with our partners Saudi Aramco and TCS.

Q: Are you cooperating with the university or are planning to for any partnership?

A: We have had a number of discussions to promote partnership with the universities. First and foremost, we want to take advantage of the talented people who are graduating from the university and we will continue to look for opportunities to collaborate. We see the Princess Nora Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) as one of the jewels in the Kingdom for developing talented women who can work for companies such as ours.

Q: What do you think of the performance of Saudi women and those working with you in the Kingdom?

A: We are exceptionally pleased with the performance, not just the woman in the center. We have Saudi women who work for us at the GE Manufacturing Technology Center in Dammam. We have lots of talented Saudi women who work for GE not just in the Kingdom but in other countries. We are very pleased with their caliber. We also are pleased with the observations that we get from our partner TCS, which operates over a hundred facilities around the world that perform activities similar to what we are performing in Riyadh at the business process center. They report that the quality of the work at the center compare favorably with the centers that they operate around the world. So that’s an even better report card.

Q: GE recently honored the winners of an innovation challenge in the Kingdom. Can you give more details and why is it important for Saudi Arabia?

A: Along with Aramco Entrepreneurship, we launched a global competition to promote a culture of technology-based entrepreneurship and venturing in the Kingdom in the area of seawater desalination using renewable energy. We seek to identify new ideas to solve problems, in this case related to water, water use and water purification, and it was very successful. The idea is that solving problem requires collaboration; it requires the efforts of the talented people around the world. It created the opportunity to bring new ideas into the Kingdom in terms of water. It also presents people from around the world to what’s happening in the Kingdom and how they can contribute. From a GE perspective it was very successful, and we saw the creation of new ideas for solving problems. From a Saudi Arabia perspective, it’s a wonderful example on how the Kingdom can be open to the best ideas from anywhere to solve the problems. The competition received hundreds of entries from over 32 countries. It is also an example of how the innovation process takes place. Water use and desalination, and challenges related to that are top problems not just in Saudi Arabia but globally. You need the best ideas from everywhere in order to solve them in a good way, in an environmental responsive way in a class effective way. And these forums encourage the open transfer of ideas.

Q: Can you tell us the winners?

A: The winners come from the United States, Italy and The Netherlands in addition to a team from the National University of Singapore with the researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia).

Q: You have set up a center for employment. But what about training; do you have a center or are you planning to set up one in the Kingdom.

A: We offer training across all of our businesses; we have partnered with the Ministry of Health to train hospital administrators. We train our own employees in all of our facilities not only the basic skills but also in leadership. We also work with Universities to support their efforts. We sponsor KFUPM students who want to do interns in other countries and we have a full range of activities in the Kingdom that support skills development and leadership development of our own employees plus students at the universities. In fact, at the business process center, we trained all the women to develop their skills. We hire engineers from the universities and we put them through our engineering training programs. We hire finance and HR people out of school to go through our finance and human resource training processes. Training and developing people are at the heart of what we do in the Kingdom.

Q: What about other social responsibility initiatives and what are you doing in this respect in the Kingdom?

A: We define social responsibility broadly. What we sponsored with Saudi Aramco on the global challenge is really an effort to encourage the creation of businesses. These technologies won’t necessarily be used by GE but the idea is to create an opportunity for people to showcase their ideas which will lead to the development of small and medium enterprises. So we look at that effort as a way to perform a socially responsible activity because you are creating industrial opportunity for people potentially. We see that as part of our social responsibility. In health care, about three years ago we worked on a program of MoH focused on breast cancer awareness by deploying mobile clinics, encouraging women to undertake screening. This again is another example of how we cooperate with different ministerial entities and customers on raising awareness on critical issues.

Q: The oil price has dropped more than half of what it was six months ago. Does that affect your businesses in the Kingdom?

A: The answer to that is ‘No.’ In some countries, our customers may reduce their capital expenditure, which could have an impact for us. So, the impact really is mixed depending on the business that you refer to. In general, we can manage our way through despite the lower price.

Q: Do you see more prospects for further expansion in the Kingdom?
A: Yes, of course.

Q: In which field?
A: Saudi Arabia is a Top 10 country for us among 170 nations that we operate in. Our infrastructure business, aviation, health care… the work that we do with Saudi Aramco in oil and gas, and for SEC in power generation… these are all growth areas. Our businesses here are related to infrastructure and it is set to expand. We are thinking of investing more and increasing our contribution to the Saudi economy.

Q: Is there anything you would like to add?
A: I would emphasize the significance that GE attaches to the work that we do here, the importance that the Kingdom is placing on economic diversification. We are committed to the Kingdom and we are prepared to do more.