Construction Project Management today is a Gamble (and there’s a way out)
There are those who look to settle in life, those who want a good stable job, and a predictable routine, and then there are people like Helal Elsaadi. The fireballs. Bustling professional nomads who turn the world around for new ventures, challenges, and learnings.
Helal is the Technical Director of WSP in the Middle East. If you’d scroll down his LinkedIn profile you’ll see giants such as Parsons, Jacobs, Al Araab Contracting, and others, making him one of the most experienced construction executives in the Middle East. During our recent podcast, Helal was a circling tornado of insight and experience, and we were moved, shocked, and entertained by his story.
Cultivate your passion
Helal is a Palestinian who was born in Lebanon but grew up in Saudi Arabia in a house with 7 other siblings. He found out he wanted to be an engineer as early as 13 years old whilst observing a project manager of an infrastructure project in his hometown Taif. Thankfully, his passion was well-accompanied by some brains as he was far too comfortable with Maths, Physics, and English to the point where he got to tutor other kids his age at school. Evidently progressive, tech-literate, and determined, Helal has since then been devoted to what he loves most, construction.
“If the younger generation screws up, it will be our fault”
“The dust, the smell of diesel, and the noise of the trucks is music to my ears,” says Helal but it’s obvious that he won’t let the music distract him. He knows very well that beyond the landmark projects he’s been involved throughout the years, there’s an equally important building process at hand, the next generation of leaders. He insists that the younger batch of engineers must be nurtured and nourished like good seeds so that they can give their crops back to the older generation. As Helal asserts, “we need to take care of them, so they can take care of us”.
Are you gambling with other people’s money?
Time is money and that is not a taboo, says Helal, who used to manage the planning for a 2.5 Billion dollar project in Riyadh with seven contractors and thirty-five thousand workers. He jokingly states that, in projects of this scale, “if you blink, you lose a million” and Helal is one of those who will neither blink nor flinch. He has been talking about the importance of emotional intelligence since the early ’90s and adamantly shares that one of the things that separate Project Management with gambling is the skill of knowing how to manage people (alongside money, time, and materials).
If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward
Helal seems like someone who’s always ahead of his time. He was one of the first certified Primavera users in the Middle East and nowadays preaches the importance of BIM and Digital Transformation. For Helal, the world is never in stasis, and fervently encourages you to persistently reflect on one powerful, life-changing question: What have you learned today?
Listen to Helal’s full story here:
