CASE STUDY:ARAMEX

Aramex provides comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions. Established in 1982 as an express operator, the company rapidly transformed itself into a global brand. Aramex today is a publicly traded company on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM: ARMX), employing more than 8,600 people in over 310 locations around the globe, and it has an alliance network with worldwide presence. Aramex is also the first company in the region to release an audited sustainability report that outlines its commitments to key stakeholders-communities, customers, employees, business partners, investors, and the environment. The third edition of its sustainability report was released in early 2010.

Aramex employees are encouraged to innovate, be creative, and take risks and decisions that will translate into new products, services, and opportunities. The company has a flat organization and continuously encourages its people to be innovative, be decision makers, and create their own opportunities within the organization. Aramex management understand that their role is to equip their employees with a set of skills and the support they need to be flexible, allowing them to continuously tackle the evolving challenges in a changing environment. Therefore, the company has created a career development program per function and position, where employees go through a specific program in order to develop. This strategy of promoting has resulted in many employees moving up the ladder, growing into and handling different positions and responsibilities where needed.

Aramex's decision-making structure is based on a decentralized model, where each region is empowered to make decisions. This lean, flat business model enhances effectiveness and responsiveness to the diverse local environments, where stations operate as local companies while maintaining a unified global brand. The model also promotes collaborative decision making within a common business development strategy.

Aramex management is structured by type of service and by geographical location. Each main service line and geographical area is assigned a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Country managers and cross-functional country-based 'Aramex teams' are assigned to this coherent network to offer coordination of all Aramex services on a per-customer basis. All company operations are run by teams. This team culture creates a collaborative decision-making atmosphere based on trust, respect, and a quest for shared goals. Finally, the company has a global support office (GSO) in Amman that provides strategic and technical support to the stations around the world, ensuring consistency in the quality of operations and services.

Aramex aims to prevent incidents and the company strives for ' zero' incident accident standard at its facilities. To ensure this, the station security team in conjunction with the HR department conducts departmental and job-specific training to either coach newcomers or update existing skills. If procedures and processes are amended., then the necessary safety training must be taught as well. Despite an increase in the number of stations in 2009, the number of reported accidents per million shipments has decreased significantly. Aramex also ensures that all staff members take part, at a minimum, in bi-annual evacuation safety training at all of its facilities. A number of selected staff also undergo specified first aid and fire-fighting training to combat emergencies that might arise. All newly hired couriers undergo safe-driving awareness training sessions as part of their basic training, in which they are accompanied and evaluated by a senior courier before taking full responsibility for their assigned area. An internal team audits each property on a yearly basis to ensure that it complies with the high safety and security standards set. If irregularities are discovered, steps are taken to address and rectify the issues without delay.

Aramex management-including Corporate HR Manager Andrea Kassisieh, Manager of CEO Operations Reem Khouri, HR Consultant Musa Anz, and Chief Operating Officer Iyad Kamal- believe that students in the Arab countries need to be encouraged to be problem solvers and not just solution implementers. They believe that if this change is to happen in the Arab world, it is them who need to create it, find new solutions and new ways of doing things, and mobilize themselves, others, and the resources available in order to create the changes they wish to see. They take this same approach at Aramex. If employees aren't satisfied with a service, a product, or a situation; they are encouraged to experiment and try to find a new way of doing things. Even if employees make mistakes, this is seen as a way to learn and grow through trial and error.

As HR professional, you are requested to thoroughly analyze the case.

discuss what challenges this article talks about and as a manager point out the problems of aramex and the evidence of it