Petromin Corporation emerges victorious at Middle East Management Excellence Awards 2024 for visionary leadership

The teams have successfully executed numerous projects and have attained remarkable achievements with the firm direction from its leadership.

Automotive services company Petromin Corporation was recognised at the coveted Middle East Management Excellence Awards 2024 for its innovative projects and strategy roadmap that was borne out of the strong leadership of its chief officers.

Petromin’s five-year strategy roadmap, known as Petromin Strategy 2025, was developed under the direction of Group CEO Kalyana Sivagnanam. Driven by the goal of providing a holistic customer experience, it reimagined its organisation design to encompass the complete customer journey and lifecycle with the objective of creating an ecosystem and platform that caters to all the needs of vehicle owners.

The company has emerged as a trailblazer in the mobility industry through this roadmap, offering an unmatched portfolio of eight business verticals that comprehensively manage every aspect of customers' automotive and transportation needs, as well as the vehicle lifecycle. It has devoted itself to streamlining the customer journey across sales, after-sales services, fuelling, charging of electric vehicles (EV), and even vehicle resale under the leadership of Kalyana Sivagnanam. 

With a focus on continuous expansion, Petromin has also ventured into parts supply, tyres, and battery businesses, achieving almost complete vertical integration.

Meanwhile, Sivagnanam and the company have also been able to effectively manage the COVID-19 crisis, retaining its entire workforce with full compensation and benefits whilst many other companies opted for cost-cutting measures, such as layoffs. This decision not only boosted employee morale but also yielded positive financial results for the company.

Embracing the latest technologies, processes, and methods with a customer-centric mindset, Petromin is proud to lead the way in low-carbon and zero-emission mobility technologies. Amongst the successes in this aspect is the development of the world's first-ever fully integrated automotive ecosystem, ensuring seamless mobility lifecycle management for customers.

In alignment with its vision to create sustainable business models and achieve “nature positive” goals, the company has launched Electromin — an integrated EV ecosystem that offers end-to-end smart mobility solutions, including EV consultancy, a wide range of EVs, EV charging infrastructure, and community mobility hubs.

Petromin’s strategic shift, which resulted from Sivagnanam’s leadership, reflects the company’s commitment to becoming more than just a provider of automotive services. By incorporating the complete customer journey and lifecycle into its offerings, the company aims to deliver a seamless and comprehensive experience for vehicle owners.

“[He] is a 'true leader' who conducts himself with the utmost integrity and leads from the front,” the company said about their CEO. 

Kalyana Sivagnanam has been hailed as the Saudi Arabia Executive of the Year - Automotive Services for his impacts on the industry and active contributions to promoting sustainable transportation.

Comprehensive strategy for sustained growth

Petromin Corporate Strategy department within Petromin Corporation is the brain of the organisation, driving Value Creation, Innovation, and Sustainability.

Petromin and its Strategy Department have worked on the creation and implementation of a strategy roadmap including numerous value creation projects for the last 24 months, under the active leadership of its Group Chief Strategy Officer, Shoaib Jawaid.

Amongst these projects is the development sustainability roadmap and the first ever MSCI ESG ratings project for Petromin Corporation across all eight business verticals.
The Strategy Team has also successfully completed a comprehensive strategy refresh for 2030 for the organisation and all its eight business verticals. This process has involved the evaluation of Petromin's current performance baseline and business core strengths and the development of an extensive overview of global and local trends, alongside competitor movements impacting Petromin. This assessment has helped the team identify how these trends affect business and corporate strategy, highlighting both risks and opportunities.

Jawaid and the department have also generated new technology-related ideas and heavily invested in their research and development to create more innovation platforms across its all-business verticals. They have partnered with a leading conversational AI platform to personalise the customer experience for its two verticals using advanced chatbots, artificial intelligence (AI), and messaging application programming interfaces across multiple channels. 
The Corporate Strategy department has been instrumental in crafting various multinational OEMs for the distribution of vehicles and parts, hence also diversifying revenue and profit pool for the organisation.

The Strategy Department team has also provided mentoring to King Abdulaziz University students for their summer training programme. Under this venture, they were assigned three major projects to the students, giving them exposure to different aspects of the company, communicating with different department heads, and interacting with other AI tech companies to evaluate opportunities, supporting the implementation of Corporate Strategy. 

Jawaid’s leadership has pushed the Strategy Department team to demonstrate exceptional vision, innovation, and execution for its initiatives and partnerships, which have not only aligned with the company's long-term goals but have also effectively navigated complex market dynamics and competitive pressures.

“The team's collaborative spirit and innovative problem-solving skills are unmatched. Through open communication and a shared vision, they consistently develop and implement successful strategies. [Jawaid’s] leadership has been instrumental in fostering a positive and productive work environment,” Petromin said.

Their collaborative efforts in engaging stakeholders and meticulously monitoring performance metrics have ensured sustained success and resilience and earned them the distinction of being the Saudi Arabia Team of the Year - Automotive Services in the prestigious awards programme.

The Middle East Management Excellence Awards celebrate innovators and key industry leaders that have made revolutionary contributions to their respective industries.