Maya Scribbles

Draft - "Behind the curtains" tour in Kuwaiti banks!

2009-03-10T03:42:00.001-07:00

This is the fourth bank I'm working for during my 6 year experience in IT. Time wasn't equally spent in All banks, but I have been around and dealt with all banks and I can say that I have seen enough! During my last 2 jobs transition, I was aiming to leave Financial sector and go for telecom, and at the final step, I would turn down the telecom offer and go for another bank, I guess it's my destiny to be an engineer-banker

anyhow, here's my quick Bank-Guide for our local banks. (by order of appearance in my professional life :p )

Gulf Bank : I haven't spent enough time to comment, but I always thought there's something fishy about Gulf Bank, and I guess I wasn't wrong (hint , recent news)
one Colleague once described working there are as سوق الجمعة (Friday Market). well it could be, coz things go differently every time! They have a very high turnover rate , staff quitting everyday, however, that made their HR team really good! they are the only ones who make exit interviews , and I think Commercial bank recently adopted this..

Commercial Bank : They have gotten somewhere during the last 5 years (of course with my help ;p) . but seriously, they have established real good products, better reputation, and stronger existance in the kuwaiti market..but they're still growing, and in need of "better quality" and reliability.. sometimes they have this great product , but only if it works 24/7! It's a great place to learn if you're a fresh graduate, you will love it..

National Bank : or better off "the bubble الفقاعة" where it's really shiny from the outside, but inside there's nothing!! hawa .. all these Ads best bank and so on.. but inside its just another bank with a worse mess maybe..

it's a very very mature banks and closer to becoming a wezara .. you'll find people who have been there for at least 20 years and still holding on to the same position(hint hint .. certain nationality), and to get something done you need to talk to 1500 ppl , all of them will tell you it's this guy ! no it's this guy! when really no one knows! they're very very organized .. they love paperwork, signatures, and bluffing of course is a needed skill to be hired.

Only go there if you want to slack without being noticed, and maybe spend time in starbucks all day, as the best knowledge you'll gain is knowing all type of starbucks products. Their customer service is going down the drain because of the newly adopted WEZARA style service.. It is hard to keep up the "best bank" reputation and they gotta do something about it.

Being too big is not necessarly good, I think it's time for a Spin-Off.. I don't know how that is possible in a bank situation, but I'm sure a business structure expert will find out

Boubyan Bank : I'd rather call it the baby bank :) and it IS a young baby compared to all the sheyyab in the market.. being a baby means a smaller environment, less exposure, limited resources, and lots of experience because everything is startup, kinda. An advantage of being in Boubyan is that all staff here are a collection of other banks experience, so each comes with a mindset, and when cooked together I think you'll get the best part of each bank coming into one big best thing.

Did you notice they just rebranded the logo 2 months back?! It wasn't me I swear

next items are based on my interaction experience as a "banker" and a "customer" , not my work expeirence:

BKME : a very promising bank in terms of "customer service".. I guess part of it because it's small and things can get done by talking to 1 person and not 100.. Their service actually is miraculous when it comes to online banking issues. Their recent "Branding" made a huge difference, and their products are very good.. Working there would be a nice experience , yet lots of work because it's not as organized as other Banks, but they have a friendly environment I can tell..

KFH : or as my dad calls it , the OCTOPUS. I'd rather call it "No woman's land" . It wasn't classified as a bank until recently, but it has the best rates for many products. it was the bank when you want to do islamic banking, probably still is , although KIB and Boubyan are kicking in, but it's gonna lose some of its customer base soon if they dont do anything about their business model , I think they make money out of "fees" more than anything else.. that's easy to do when they were "monopolizing" the market, being the only islamic, they can charge whatever .. and the poor kuwaitis wanna live with حطها براس عالم و اطلع سالم .. and pay the fees hoping all their money is handled in a 7ALAL way just like the meat they eat. when KFH is really abusing those customers by charging higher interest rates, fees on stepping into the branch! (kidding) .

Working there, if you're a lady you only have the branches or card center, that's it! as if women can not do anything else? or no no wait, they can not MIX the aliens from Mars & Venus!

Burgan Bank : I'd rather call it "على البركة" as all other kipco companies.. they're all "go witht he flow".. a total mess from inside, but nice shiny advertisments.. but the mis-organization inside is really messing up their customer service.. Can you believe a customer lead coming in for saving account and credit card, and being ignored twice? so much for their sales team! oh no, and one of their sales team actually had the guts to say "I don't really know much about Credit Cards, I'll check and let you know" , and I assure you will never get a call back..

Working there... ? well as I said it's a bit messy and things tend to get lost because they have a high turnover rate.. I think Burgan was a leader in Banking technology back in the times, but too bad it lost it .. it takes alot of effort to maintain a technology product and keep it up-to-date

Their latest re-branding was a very nice look, but the launch of it was so smooth , hardly noticed

Ahli Bank : I had no interaction professionally or as a customer .. maybe soon I'll have a review , or please comment if you can!

KIB : Kuwait International Bank, previously known as Kuwait Real Estate Bank : Since it became a retail banker, I haven't dealt with it. But I really like that they did not really "restart" , even with the logo , it was just a touchup.. it's a good idea because people here tend to believe old stuff are established and better, new companies are not very good.. I believe in the opposite, it's always better to go with "new" stuff because they want to gain customers by providing better services.. except in the case of VIVA , they have services but no customer service exists

Fellow bankers and ex-bankers, please comment and share your experiences!

I just noticed that I didn't write a single blog in 2008 .. well I guess I had nothing to say! :)

Kuwaiti Flirting Techniques made it to BBC : Kurdistan, lagged version

2007-11-04T02:21:00.000-08:00

I read this story on BBC UK website, as if it was something WOW out of the blue! it was funny because the same exact story happens daily in Kuwait o min zimaaaaaaan … starts with a funny blind call and then sweet talk and then evolves to dating and you can guess the rest of the story.
see the red highlights that say "Kuwait" whenever you read them.. it's like I'm watching one of those Ramadan TV series when I read this article

The article was mainly about the current situation that's triggering possible war between Kurds and Turkish in Northern Iraq.

Source link : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7073790.stm

Mobile romance

As international efforts continue to prevent a Turkish military operation in the Kurdish northern region of Iraq, day to day life goes on, including the business of romance.

Ohmed is 28 and doing his Masters in Business Studies at the University of Kurdistan in Irbil.
Nasreen's college friends made use of it for a bit of mischief. They borrowed Ohmed's mobile to ring her repeatedly and hang up before she answered.

Then they teased her about the mystery number in her call log saying there were rumours she was having an affair with a married man and here was the evidence.

The culmination of the plot was to get Ohmed, older and therefore manly enough to be convincing, to phone again, wait this time for her to answer and pretend he was her lover.
"Who are you and why do you keep ringing?" she wailed, only to be told how cruel she was to deny what was going on between them.

Ohmed is a great charmer and even though she could not see his jet black hair and glittering eyes, Nasreen was obviously rather impressed by her first contact with this softly spoken stranger of the opposite sex.

She mentioned to her friends that she would not mind speaking to him again.
A daily, sometimes nightly, ritual began of long conversations, unchaperoned and unconstrained.
Like the nurse in Romeo and Juliet, the mobile was the romantic facilitator, a 21st Century substitute for the go-between, arranging assignations and delivering messages

They fell in love without seeing each other in the flesh.

Then Ohmed drove to her street at a pre-arranged time, got out of the car, and stood near her house pretending to talk on his mobile.
She made some excuse to come outside and they glanced at each other discreetly to their mutual satisfaction.

All this took place, of course, without her parents knowing.
Like the nurse in Romeo and Juliet, the mobile was the romantic facilitator, a 21st Century substitute for the go-between, arranging assignations and delivering messages.

There were moments of disillusionment, of course, when I heard about corruption and tribal politics, about the party members awarded high marks at university regardless of merit, the jobs for people with the right name and the polling booth where ballot papers were ticked more than once.

Fortunately there has been no rude awakening for Ohmed and Nasreen.
He managed to get an invitation to her home through a distant relative so they are now able to meet, though never alone.

Conversation in front of her parents is stiff and awkward but thanks to those lengthy private phone calls, they have probably got to know each other as well as many couples in more liberal societies.

I was worried I would have to leave the region before knowing whether Nasreen's father would give them his blessing.
Ohmed was getting increasingly tense and, as the rhetoric from Turkey grew more belligerent, I imagined him exchanging T-shirt and jeans for military fatigues, a vision of disaster.
But on the romance side, at least, it is good news.

Her father has given his answer and it is yes.

The young couple will marry, perhaps as soon as a fortnight from now.
On that day, during the ceremony at least, their phones will be switched off.

[end of article]

seems like this story has a happy ending , just like all other TV series .. I guess script writers do check out the news!

Blog Action day.. & Herzberg!

2007-10-16T00:16:00.000-07:00

I need to post something here as today is the big Blog Action day! I didn't know until I read it on the RSS feed of SlashDot. I was as clueless as you are now on how such "day" or event would be useful, I have to admit I got a little interested to know what it meant. and I'm a little impressed, not much, but enough to write this post.
read the http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2007/10/15/blog-action-day-individual-action-is-not-enough

I'm ALL for working from home, I've done it alot.. when I was working in US, and even here in Kuwait .. with all the new high tech stuff, working from home is amazing, most importantly , less traffic, comfy and I believe you can do more working from home. and in my opinion, people who are working hard at the office, will work hard at home.. people who are just reading newspapers and blogs from the office will do the same, and people who are just acting busy, will spare us some traffic when you keep them at home.
However, this needs a total change of mentality in here, everybody believes in Theory X , but we may need to change both the workers and management attitudes to shift towards Theory Y!
another interesting theory would be nice to implement too.. Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory
His theory can be extended in many ways, and he also has an article that expands on this theory, although first written in 1968, it's still valid since "people are still people"! HBR published a reprint which was noted as "most selling" , get it on HBR website
I believe if workers have the right motivation, they are willing to work from anywhere.. and being at home, you may save your self the effort of providing the Hygiene factors at the office!
People who have crappy houses and consider the office more "hygienic", will still come to office. (By crappy houses, I mean they are inappropriate place to perform his job, nothing else)

an old article

2006-10-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

Okay so I got so many request from people all around the globe asking me to write more and more :P well , problem is I can't just write for the sake of writing, I usually re-act to something and write .. so I decided to post a reaction that goes 3 years back .. but it's something nobody in Kuwait should forget..
I posted this article in the university's newspaper, and lots of students were surprised, and sympathized with Kuwait , well I'll leave you to it.. click on the image to see it in full size

Candidates Debate - Slogans Going too far!

2006-06-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

I was too affected by the slogans our candidates use! some are funny, some are dreamy , and some are way too generic!
driving everyday, I used to catch 3 or 4 slogans that were really funny and after finding ones that were a little extreme -funny- I decided I'll put them all down and write my own imaginary debate for our candidates!

there you go :) enjoy
(the bolded text is the actual slogan I read on their posters)

حوار المرشحين حول الوضع الراهن للكويت

العون : إلى متى هذا الوضع!! غداً سأبدا حملة انتخابية جديدة!

العبيد : غداً يبدأ الآن .. و مستقبل الكويت يجب أن يبدأ الآن

الأنصاري: نعم نعم .. لابد لنا من مستقبل!

الغانم : تركوا عنكم المستقبل.. أنا أبي أعيدها كما كانت أوّل!

دشتي : تأبرني مرزوء..لنعيد بناء الكويت معاً .. الكويت هيّ ضيعتنا..

البدر : لنعيدها درة الخليج... نرّجع أيام أوّل..

الحسن : لا لا عجبتني سالفة المستقبل.. لازم نتغير من الحسن إلى الأحسن

الشطي : لحقوااااا... التغيير قادم

الفضالة : سجل يا وطن! صوت اصلاحي قادم

الشايع : عفية عليكم! فالإصلاح غاية و الخمس بداية

((( يصير صراااخ و كل من يلبس برتقالي !)))

الديموقراطيين: نبيها خــمـــــــس

العبدالجادر: لا نبيها لعيالنا..

الخضر : لالا .. نبيها غير..

الوزان : لا نبيها وحدة.. و كويتية بعد..

الرومي : هدوووء! كلكم سكتوا و يلا سجلوا موقف و فروها على قناة نبيها تحالف

العرادة : أنا متابع فلاش.. بس التغيير قرارك.. و ما عندنا HotBird

الابراهيم : أنا أبي "فصل الدين عن الدولة"

ديموقراطي: هذي مو قناة.. سكتي و روحي مشطي شعرج

بن طفلة : يا شباب.. ترى الكويت تستاهل .. ليش ما نشتري ريسيفر HotBird

علاء الدين: إي والله! والريسيفر للكويت فقط

العمر: عدل ..المهم الكويت

الابراهيم : فصل الدين عن الدولة.. (محد يسمعها بس واحد يحذفها بطفاية وتطيح)

البوص : جم سعر الريسيفر .. بشتريه الحين!

المحارب : هي أنت! الكويت ليست للبيع

العنجري : ماكو شي للبيع..لا الكويت و لا أهلها ولا رجالها ولا نساءها و لا شبابها ولا بناتها

الروضان : يسلم لسانج نبيلة.. لأن الإصلاح مسئولية الجميع

العوضي : معا للإصلاح.. معا لمحاربة الفساد..اشرايكم؟

جوهر : راينا من رايك.. أحنا على العهد باقون

الابراهيم : معا نفصل الدين عن الدولة!

المعيوف : سكتي انتي! ها خلاص متفقين؟

العنجري : متفقين على المبدأ

الهارون : حلو.. يلا امشوا معاي عيل.. معا نبحر في سفينة الكويت.. أو ياااااماااااااااااال

واحد مضيّع: وانا بعد ويّاكم!! حملة غراس

الابراهيم : لا لا أخاف من البحر.. أنا أبي المواطنون في قالب واحد مو سفينة!

الشرهان : والله حلوة هذي قالب,.. رؤية جديدة :) (صح النوم)

بويابس: سكتوا كلكم!!! نار الفساد راح تحرق سفينتكم! و ذيج الساعة راح تدقون علي عشان أطفيها!! البطولة تبين في أحلك المواقف.. أنا بس حبيــــــــــــــــــب الكويت اللي يطفي سفينتكم !

تشب القاعة و توصل المطافي..وكل من ينحاش إلا.... فصل الدين عن الدولة