INSEAD offered a global perspective that was unique and differentiated.
Omar Zaafrani

Omar Zaafrani

omar
Nationality/Passport: Emirati Year of graduation: 2022 Current Role: Senior Vice President of Group Communications & Brand

Fun fact about yourself: 

I grew up in multiple countries, influenced by various cultures - including European, Middle Eastern and North American.

Undergraduate School and Degree: 

Concordia University, Bachelor of Arts, English Literature

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? 

I helped write a case study for the Page Society about organisational and cultural transformations, which is being complemented with a culture change guide I am developing with my peers at the Society. The guide will help professionals undergoing enterprise-wide transformations and cultural change with strategies, frameworks, measurement tools and tactics that can be employed to help ensure the success of their programmes.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? 

I’m most proud of the role I played in helping transform the United Arab Emirates’ most significant organisation. At the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world with approximately 50,000 people, I built a communications and brand function that helped drive an enterprise-wide transformation programme that encompassed organisational consolidations as well as a shift from a house of brands to a branded house.

This also included a proactive and transparent communications and repositioning programme that helped reshape ADNOC’s reputation and brand. Over the past five years, ADNOC’s brand equity has grown by over 150%, making it the most valuable brand in the UAE and the second most valuable in the Middle East, according to Brand Finance.

Who was your favourite Executive MBA professor? 

My favourite EMBA professor so far has been Charlie Galunic. He is a great educator and reflects his teachings of leadership and organisational behaviour in his teaching style. Most importantly, he is a reflection of the values he aims to teach and pass on.

Why did you choose INSEAD's Executive MBA programme?

I chose INSEAD for two reasons:

  • The first time I was introduced to INSEAD, I was 11 years old and my father just returned home from a week-long executive programme at INSEAD that his company had organised. He was raving about his experience and said to me, “I wish that you will be able to do your MBA at INSEAD one day”. That stuck with me and ever since it has always been in the back of my mind as I considered how I shape my academic and professional development.
  • INSEAD’s global footprint reflects its curriculum and the experience it offers. Importantly, I felt that INSEAD offered a global perspective that was unique and differentiated.

What is the biggest lesson you gained during your EMBA and how did you apply it at work? 

The biggest lesson I learned is the importance of team dynamics and Professor van Der Heyden’s Fair Process Leadership model. These lessons and learnings helped me strengthen the dynamics of my team, while embedding the Fair Process Leadership model to support and enable my organisation’s transformation programme and helping strengthen trust in our culture.

Give us a story during your time as an EMBA on how you were able to juggle work, family and education? 

Early in the programme, one of the modules coincided with a significant work-related commitment. Every year in November, my organisation hosts the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC), which is one our industry’s leading global gatherings and conferences. Every year, ADIPEC has required my full attention and involvement, especially given that it is one of our key annual milestones that was core to our positioning and branding strategy. Unfortunately, on this occasion, I had a module taking place at the same time and as such I had to decide whether to defer the module in order to lead my team in delivering the project or to attend the module and juggle ADIPEC in the background.

I made the decision to attend the module instead of juggling ADIPEC, but I made sure that my team was fully prepared to successfully execute our strategy. Importantly, I used the opportunity to demonstrate to the organisation and its leadership the strength of my team and their ability to deliver in my absence. Although I checked in daily, my team did a phenomenal job by working together and delivering a successful ADIPEC event, which was fully virtual for the first time in its history because of COVID-19.

What advice would you give to a student looking to enter an EMBA programme?

If you want to get the best out of the programme, which for me meant extracting as much value as possible, then don’t underestimate the amount of time and effort required.

Doing an EMBA is a lifestyle change, so embrace it.

What is the biggest myth about going back to school? 

The biggest myth is that all employers will be supportive and encouraging. While I was fortunate to have an employer who was supportive, it did require a significant amount of stakeholder management. For my classmates, many faced equally challenging, if not more challenging, situations in having to maintain social and political capital in the workplace, while being absent from work on a monthly basis and having to balance work and school commitments.

What was your biggest regret in business school? 

Not fully leveraging and capitalising on the tools and resources available from INSEAD from the very beginning.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire?

I admire my classmate and friend Julio Rosales for his contagiously positive outlook on life and for always exuding positive energy, irrespective of how challenging circumstances may be.

What was the main reason you chose an EMBA programme over part-time or online alternatives? 

I did not consider a part-time or online alternative as I felt meeting new people, making new friends and expanding my network was core to fully benefiting from an MBA programme. While sometimes the programme feels like it’s online given COVID-19, INSEAD has done a great job in making sure to organise and convene classes, while offering a programme with as little disruption as possible.

What is your ultimate long-term professional goal?

My long-term professional goal is to pivot from solely a communications and brand professional into a broader organisational leader who specialises in turning companies around.

Today, we live in a fast-paced and constantly evolving business environment. I believe that an organisation’s long-term sustainability and success is going to become contingent on its ability to transform and leverage market trends, new technologies, and opportunities. By leveraging my skills as a communications, culture change and brand professional and capitalising on my experience in organisational transformations, I want to help lead companies through change and strategic shifts to ensure their long-term competitiveness.