MIDDLE EAST
have our budgets and ensuring we’re onboarding the correct partners and suppliers, and we also know that we have a duty to make sure the end product is a
1991
Year founded
high-quality one.” Again, says Farid, the work that the procurement team has put in over the years to build relation-
1,800 Approximate number of employees
ships is paying dividends. “We often work in a live environment, so we need people who we can call in to come in and fix an issue at 2am, or ensure a delivery is made in the middle of the night. We need to have that flexibility and
those working in other industries. As Black puts it: “We’re not working in a
that’s when we need something to be free of charge or if some-
manufacturing plant, or for a bank; we’re
thing goes wrong and we need a
working in a fast-paced and competitive crea-
new camera, so it’s important our
tive industry. It means we have to be really
suppliers understand our needs.
dynamic, versatile and slick at what we do.
“We cannot have suppliers that
“Procurement in this region can often be
we don’t have that kind of relation-
very fast, transactional and functional, so it’s
ship with, because the outcome
often about pricing structures and cutting
or the effect that it could have on
costs. But, we work in an environment where
one of our shows on the commer-
the content and quality that we put on-screen
cial impact it could have could
has to be good. The production values on
be huge. So, we ought to be very
shows such as Arab Idol, The Voice and Top
careful when we deal with our
Chef have to be first-class, so on one hand we
suppliers, that we are getting w w w. s u p p l y c h a i n d i g i t a l . c o m
157