Magida Beydoun, the Chairman and General Manager at Copytech sal speaks about her experience in the regional print industry
Tell us about your leadership style and philosophy.
My personal leadership philosophy is based on establishing mutual trust with everybody in my team to reach company targets. I believe that sharing my personal leadership philosophy will help my team develop an understanding of what I expect from them. Above all, I believe that following these principles will allow me to positively impact the lives of those around me.
My leadership philosophy:
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Teamwork, Communication and Sharing
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Trust & Credibility
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Consistency & Dedication
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Determination & Professionalism
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Motivation & Learning
My role as General Manager is to find all the way how to improve office culture and create a positive work environment among the whole team members.
What made you choose Printing and Graphics Industry as a career opportunity?
Just after my graduation, I joined a big group of companies dealing with the office equipment products, at that time office equipment included the telex, fax, calculators, typewriters beside the analogue copiers as the group was the official distributor of Konica Minolta (previously Minolta) in Lebanon.
From the first task as assistant to the logistics manager, to junior accountant, senior, chief and then finance manager where I stayed for more than 15 years until the post of General Manager became vacant. This was an opportunity for me to change my career path despite the big difficulties and obstacles that I have to face and the tremendous responsibilities that I should carry to overlap this challenge. However, I was willing to take the risk as I was confident that I will succeed in my new role.
How has your unique background prepared you for success in the industry?
Since I started my first job, I have been known to be a dedicated trustworthy person with a positive attitude, dependable, flexible when it comes to change, punctual at all times, sharing my skills with co-workers and colleagues, insisting to get things done on time, and a great passion to read & learn.
This does not mean that I was workaholic or afraid of losing my job. I loved my job. And today, at the beginning of every work day I feel energized by what I do and I am certain that I can make a difference not only to my team but also to my customers. I believe this is something that you cannot learn at school but by yourself.
What was your most interesting job?
It is true that I am coming from a finance background where revenues and margins are the most important factors to do business. But my successful years of experience has helped me to formulate new ways to grow and lead the business as I was fully aware of whole operations through all divisions besides the perfect understanding with all staff members and the most interesting part for me was to learn the technical language which is an essential part in the printing industry and listen to the sales team arguments and then build a productive bridge of opportunities between them.
What advice would you give to women looking to break into the field of print and related industry?
I can truly say that being a General Manager in a printing business company which is known as a male-dominated industry is not an easy task. Because as a woman, I had to prove always that I am better than any other man in the same position, so the comparison is always there. But I had always liked the challenge, the post of GM gave me plenty of opportunities to learn and have a complete overview of the company. Now here I am on my 7th successful year of leadership as General Manager of the company.
I would advise every woman to grab any business opportunity, take the risk, face criticism, survive failure and understand that perfection is never required. Sometimes it might be a tough assignment but we should never limit ourselves and move forward bravely. I strongly believe that women will never advance in business until we break the obstacles of differentiation of gender inequality.
What is the greatest transformation in the printing that you’ve witnessed in your career?
The printing industry, like many other industries, continues to undergo technological changes. The greatest change was the digital transformation which is the booming topic of today. Digital transformation is not an easy issue to define in brief, in fact, it is a complex system of market requirements, mentality, and implementation that should be executed on the whole different levels of the business without exception.
What are your thoughts on the next transformation in the print and graphics industry?
The introduction of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things (IOT), as devices are becoming increasingly intelligent and may be connected, monitored and managed remotely. This world of smart devices has the potential to improve business efficiency, reducing operating and maintenance costs.
In my opinion, protecting the print environment of today is challenging due to its complexity, specifically with the mixed fleets that compromising the outdated old and new devices. Dealing with the present print market can be confusing and challenging, due to the fact that old strategies for making profit are losing the viability. This doesn’t mean that we have to give up, simply we should keep a close eye on our processes and create new ways to attract more businesses & prospects.
Are you involved in any sort of volunteer work? Can you give us some details?
Unfortunately, no, I have been focusing on my career rather than my private life, but sometimes I am participating in volunteer activities for the orphans and people with specific needs.
What’s next for you in terms of your career in the printing industry?
I have a number of products and solutions that I should focus on in the next years as there are a lot of changes happening in the printing industry.
We will continue increasing the value added of our products as a distributor of Konica Minolta to respond more adequately to market needs and hence bring more services to our company to accelerate our growth in the market. For instance, Virtual & Augmented Reality (VR -AR), the Industrial Printing (Label & Packaging), the Print embellishment system (Foiling /Varnish), 3D Printing, workflow solutions and services like DMS (Document Managed services) & ECM (Enterprise Managed Services) that should be developed to meet our market requirements.
Finally, I would like to say that I am proud to continue our long-established successful partnership with such a great company like Konica Minolta with all its tailored made and scalable solutions that meet every type of business beside their remarkable and fast extension to IT business services. I have confidence in my team by showing them that I am there alongside to assist them on daily basis and listening to everyone’s comments or concerns
I am really happy when I see that my day-to-day efforts are encouraging my team and that the company results are improving. Seeing my staff fulfilled and my customers happy is also something I find very motivating. When I became a General Manager, I was overjoyed but not surprised because I have always felt and believed that I can handle my responsibilities and succeed in my role.
