Dr Najib Khatib is the Chairman and CEO of Khatib & Alami (K&A), a leading multidisciplinary consultancy firm. With over 26 years of experience at K&A, Najib has played a pivotal role in steering the company through global challenges and driving its growth and development. Under his leadership, K&A has been involved in numerous high-profile projects, including the Bahr Al Baqar Wastewater Treatment Plant, recognized as the world’s largest wastewater treatment plant by the Guinness Book of World Records. Najib’s vision and expertise have positioned K&A as a pioneer in adopting new technologies and delivering outstanding quality and value to clients.

The Road to K&A

After graduating from a Lebanese American High School in Beirut, Lebanon in 1985, partly due to the ongoing civil war of that time, Najib travelled to the US to study his major of choice, Civil Engineering. Starting as a freshman in 1986, he continued his academic graduate studies obtaining a Master’s Degree in Construction Management, then another one in Transportation Engineering, and continued until earning a Ph.D in Transportation Engineering from the School of Engineering in 1995.

Najib then returned to his home country, Lebanon, and joined K&A Consolidated Engineering Company as a design engineer in the Transportation Engineering sector. As his PhD dissertation was on delivering Transport solutions using the digital technology of Geographic Information Systems, he focused on utilising this technology in several aspects of engineering.

In 1998 he was transferred to the UAE to gain experience on a variety of construction supervision projects. Najib had developed a desire to expand the services that K&A offered as well as the countries the firm offered them. He started doing targeted business development activities in 2001 and was successful in winning major international tenders in the UAE, Morocco and other locations K&A did not have presence in at the time.

“I worked long and hard with teams I put together and delivered some of the largest projects the company had ever worked on. Those activities continued to increase the credibility I needed to build amongst the many partners and seniors at K&A at the time,” recollects Najib.

Such activities continued and he was promoted gradually to assume additional responsibilities until Najib was invited to become a partner and member of the Board of Directors (BoD) of K&A. In 2011 the BoD, consisting of 9 partners voted him unanimously as the CEO of the K&A Group.

He continued expanding both the services K&A offers and the geographies it offers them, while also focusing on the duties of a CEO until the BoD voted for him unanimously to become the Chairman & CEO of the K&A Group in 2017.

Hurdles Along the Way

Najib encountered many challenges along the way, some internal and others external. He had to set a series of objectives for his professional career with the understanding that any major failure would seriously affect his credibility negatively, both within the company and to clients, as well as potential clients. Partly for such reasons, he significantly increased his daily working hours early in his career and over many years to acquire the knowledge to perform certain tasks necessary to the plan he had set for his career development.

This dedication and commitment attracted some motivated Engineers and Architects from multiple sectors to work with Najib more and offer greater support as it was becoming clear to many that the benefits to K&A and to their professional career development were not merely the vision he had, but that he was working hard to ensure the vision he had for K&A was materializing.

Over a few short years, those who supported these efforts could see the positive effects that were being reflected. This also reflected in the number of satisfied clients that kept increasing, along with the revenue and the number of employees of K&A.

During the relatively early years, Najib also focused on developing healthy cooperative partnerships with highly specialised multinational companies on pursuing and winning projects, thereby increasing the knowledge transfer in certain disciplines that K&A was a relatively recent participant.

During the 28 years at K&A, Najib’s resilience grew significantly, while it was always part of his character. During challenges, one can stay motivated by continuously working towards objectives that improve several aspects of the company, from continuous learning to ensuring the entire services of the company stay abreast of the latest technological developments, to focusing on projects that benefit the communities we serve, including developing more Corporate Social Responsibility, (CSR) programs, sustainability etc.

“Obstacles and setbacks are a natural phenomenon present in almost all sectors of the economy, especially those that participate in growing or advancing it. Such events require careful analysis and understanding of the real reasons behind them and the courage and flexibility to minimise their impact through well-thought-out strategies like most things in life, they are not usually permanent if one is able to adopt timely counter measures, they should be able to overcome them,” says Najib.

Adapting Transformative Technologies

K&A has always been on the frontier of adopting new technologies and was among the first Engineering, Architecture & Planning companies in the region to adopt the use of computers, starting with mainframes in the 1970s to PC’s in the 1980s and transferring all of its work to software that was being relatively rapidly developed to help solve complex problems faster, increase efficiency, accuracy as well as connectivity and standardization soon afterwards until the adoption of systems across the Cloud.

When GIS became available as a digital tool in the mid-1980s, K&A quickly adopted the platform developed by the American firm E.S.R.I and became its exclusive distributor in several regional geographies, whereby one of the conditions of such exclusive distributorship of what is now known as ArcGIS was the ability of K&A to provide the complete suite of training programs developed by ESRI to any potential client. K&A immediately set up an internal GIS division that developed the expertise to implement GIS-based solutions within a short time and was successful in offering such GIS-based solutions customized inhouse to a variety of geographies and has won several international awards in multiple sectors based on digital solutions which elevated helped it to become a Platinum Partner with the predominant GIS-based platforms currently adopted worldwide and developed by ESRI.

Over the next several years, ever-increasing technology development continued and was adopted throughout all sectors of K&A including BIM, SCADA systems, Lidar, specialised software, IoT, smart cities, etc…amongst others. “These technologies were primarily integrated in-house and continue to have an impact on the built environment, especially when integrated with AI models to increase the number of potential solutions as well as the efficiency, accuracy and sustainability amongst other objectives within the built environment,” shares Najib.

Ensuring Sustainability in Projects

The general subject of sustainability is ingrained in the core values of all employees & partners of K&A from the most junior to the most senior. A significant percentage of the company’s staff are certified by various accredited agencies from across the world. While K&A tries on projects within all sectors to include at least basic principles of sustainability to the extent possible, it is the nature of the industry which is based mostly on providing technical and financial proposals in response to public or private sectors “Request for Proposal” (RFP) whereby the potential client clearly states the scope of work required from the consultant such as K&A, including whether they are seeking a project that is officially designated a certain level of sustainability according to the regulations of the country the project is in.

While the level of sustainability has a minimal impact on the cost of design services, its impact is more significant on the construction cost, which is something that clients must be willing to accept. While constructing, a sustainably designed project is likely to save the project owner some costs on operation and maintenance (O&M) over the life of the project. Potential clients may have a variety of strategies for how the marketing and usage of the constructed facility will be used.

“Generally, the position of K&A is that projects we are involved in should have a positive impact on the communities we serve,” says Najib.

The Leadership Values

Najib’s leadership philosophy is based on a few consistent principles. It starts by adopting the principle of leading by example, whereby nothing is requested from anyone that he has personally not performed at various stages of his career. It continues through continuous learning and hiring the most qualified staff to ensure the company continues to advance in the right direction. It also includes open and transparent discussions with other seniors within the company, irrespective of nationality, sector, management style, objectives etc… so that such discussions should always end up to the benefit of potential clients, and employees and assist in the competitiveness of K&A in this competitive industry that is changing at a fast pace due to the ever-increasing pace of technology advancements and some other issues.

“We have several internal programs where the aim is to assist to continue inspiring and motivating our various teams to want and continue to deliver outstanding quality and value for the benefit of their professional careers as well,” he shares.

For Najib, leading the successful advancement and growth of the company based on solid and positive values is the most satisfying aspect of his work professionally.

Imperative Skills and Competencies for New-Gen Leaders

According to his experience and through observing and sometimes discussing such subjects with other leaders, Najib feels one needs to have rigorously undergone and succeeded at every level they have assumed after joining the industry. It is critical for leaders in the Consultancy field to have an in-depth understanding and knowledge of at least the major stages for obtaining work, the bidding process as well as the various delivery methods, in addition to other corporate matters. 

“Leaders need to keep an open mindset and listen to others, while also having the knowledge to guide and advise his/her senior teams. Leaders need to continue learning matters important to their field or will lose the ability to lead effectively while continuing to make a positive contribution to all stakeholders involved,” he says.

Strategic Expansions

Regarding expansions, Najib shares that expanding a company’s services across different regions is relatively less complex than expanding the scope, expertise, and experience of the company’s services, especially organically, that is without having to acquire another firm that already has the required expertise and experience desired.

K&A has been successful at expanding its scope of services mostly organically through adopting a series of internal policies. While such an approach can come with certain levels of risk, it can be mitigated through the senior management and leadership across the firm following some strategies and policies developed and updated over the years to minimise the occurrence of such risks. Developing existing services across different regions requires a focused business development approach or M&A that leads the company management and seniors to develop relationships within the targeted region and an in-depth understanding of the priorities and objectives of such a region.

Readying for the Trends and Future

Najib observes a wide variety of emerging trends that are likely to have an impact on the industry in the next 5 years. However, some are dependent on the stage of development or priorities that a certain country or region has. However, he sees the use of various technologies at a faster pace as one of the top trends, renewable energy is another one in some areas. The increasing urbanisation of major cities is another trend, resolving ever more complex transportation issues, and integrating smart technologies within the design is another trend that is increasing, and there are others in all sectors K&A currently works in.

“We prepare in a variety of ways including having programs, hiring specialists, and participating in parts of such trends, amongst other internal and external initiatives. We believe that staying on top of emerging trends is a necessity within this industry,” he states.

He believes the future will come with a different set of opportunities and challenges.  It is not impossible to have a general view for the next 5 years period.  While some priorities may shift, others are likely to continue or accelerate.  However, there remain certain elements that are difficult to anticipate 5 years ahead of time, especially issues over which professionals in most industries do not have control over.

“K&A and I will continue to work towards increasing our ability to adapt to future changes over the next 5 years while doing the best we can to continue being one of the innovative firms within this industry, without deviating from our core values centred on benefiting the communities we serve,” he concludes.

Message for Young Professionals:

To young professionals aspiring to reach leadership positions in their fields, Najib’s message is:

“The majority of young professionals need to develop a deep understanding of the requirements needed to reach leadership positions within their profession. They need to also be willing to put in the effort required once they have the understanding. It also requires engagement with others and not simply working for their professional career advancement.”

Quote: “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible”.