● “Talents grow on passion and bring success to companies
- Al-Ghamdi communicates with the next generation leaders about “Global Oil Industry and S-OIL’s Success Strategy.”
- “Korea’s refining industry plays a pivotal role in the development of the national economy such as in areas of energy security, tax payment, and exports, etc.”
“The most important quality of successful people is passion. You have to put in everything that you have in order to do what you want to do. Talents are those who concentrate on the area that they get pleasure from and do their best to become experts. Talents with passion are the energy that drives a company’s growth.”
S-OIL CEO Othman Al-Ghamdi has been spreading his communication management to universities. The Saudi CEO, who is proactively preaching “pro-Korea management” under his Korean name of “Oh Suman” has given a string of lectures at universities in order to impart his dreams and visions to students and to help them chart their career paths after graduation.
◆ “Talents grow on passion and bring success to companies
Invited by Korea University Business School (MBA), he gave a special lecture under the topic of “How S-OIL is differentiated in global oil industry” in the evening of May 31. Explaining S-OIL’s challenges and success strategies to become the most competitive, integrated energy and chemical company, Mr. CEO requested young talents to become leaders who cope with change with passion.
On May 23, he also gave a lecture at Yonsei University under the same topic. Although the lecture was planned to be given in English without interpreters, 200 or so applicants flocked to listen to his lecture. According to the university, even after the 90-minute lecture was over, questions ensued for about 30 minutes, drawing fervent response from the audience.
CEO Al-Ghamdi assessed that the volatility of the oil market is growing due to the influence of the financial market.
“Oil prices are generally influenced by facility investment, oil producers’ military and political conflict, and OPEC’s moves,” said the CEO. “But recent oil prices are fluctuating greatly in a matter of hours, or even minutes, especially because the financial market also influences oil prices.”
◆ “Korea’s refining industry plays a pivotal role in the development of the national economy such as in areas of energy security, tax payment, and exports, etc.”
He lauded the Korean oil industry as having achieved “astonishing success” and explained that it played a pivotal role in the national economy such as in areas of energy security, tax payment, and exports, etc. by reserving crude and oil products.
He noted, “Although Korea does not produce a single drop of oil, it is equipped with the world’s sixth largest crude refining facilities and has positioned itself as the world’s fifth oil exporter. Last year, domestic refiners generated 57% of their sales through exports and when petrochemical products are combined, the oil industry is the No. 1 contributor to Korea’ exports.”
In addition, CEO Al-Ghamdi analyzed in detail secrets of success behind S-OIL’s growth into a global refiner. Though S-OIL was at disadvantage as the late comer to the domestic refining industry, he said, it overcame challenges and obtained good results by differentiating product quality(launch of high-octane gasoline for the first time in the domestic refining industry), implementing creative marketing(“S-OIL song” and GOODOIL character), adopting export-oriented strategies(the first company to turn petroleum products into an export industry), making timely investments(upgrading facilities, No. 2 Aromatic complex), securing the world’s largest production capacity(fifth-largest crude cracking facility among single factories in the world, second-largest PX production facility in the world, second-largest lube base oil production capacity in the world), and creating synergy with Saudi Aramco(stable supply of crude oil, optimization of international markets, sharing of personnel).
The CEO also presented future growth strategies for S-OIL as the company’s top management. “S-OIL’s biggest strength is its insight, which enables it to find the best investment time, and its bold initiative. This ‘success DNA’ will continue to take effect,” he said. “We decided to carry out the RUC/ODC Project in 2015. It was not an easy decision to start the five trillion Won mega project when the global oil market was in a slump. At that time, most oil companies reduced their budgets and cancelled their investment plans. However, we had strong confidence in this project, the biggest petrochemical project in Korea. Based on its world-class facilities, S-OIL will secure the best operational efficiency and cost competitiveness.”
S-OIL CEO/ Othman Al-Ghamdi
CEO Al-Ghamdi, who took office in September 2016, is attracting huge attention in the business community as he has shown great leadership by maximizing S-OIL’s production and sales efficiency, and thus, making the company achieve record-high results under difficult business conditions like global economic crisis and by creating the best working environment where each and every employee can fully demonstrate their capabilities.
CEO Al-Ghamdi majored in chemical engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia and earned MBA at the same institution. He assumed key roles in operation, engineering, maintenance and project throughout his 25-year career at Saudi Aramco, which is the national oil company of the Kingdom.
He previously served as Engineering Head at Saudi Aramco’s Riyadh Refinery and Operation Manager at Ras Tanura Refinery. In particular, he developed insight into the Asian market and global business capabilities while working at Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Company, the joint venture Saudi Aramco established with Exxon Mobil and Sinopec, from 2004 to 2008.
