It seems that globalization and competitiveness in today's world, accelerated the development of institutional thinking and value creation, which sparked a real competition between companies to achieve excellence through leadership.

This was clear from the level of competition in the Young Executive of The Year Award in its 2014 edition, which was won by the Executive Director for Corporate Affairs & Sustainability and Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Savola Group, Tarik Ismail, at a recent ceremony held in Dubai.

Industry experts believe that there is a surge of interest in companies, on quantitative and qualitative levels, in the creation of young organizational leaders that are able to predict the needs of companies and the development of strategies and cope with the challenges of globalization, especially that the performance of the executive leadership has become the cornerstone for measuring the performance quality of organizations.

Economists have previously alarmed the necessity of creating young leadership models that are familiar with the core functions, more related to the technological revolution, related to the issues of globalization and the opening up of markets and competitiveness, and give them a real opportunity to continue the development of companies and assume future leadership.

Abdulraouf Mohammad A. Mannaa, CEO & MD, the Savola Group, commented: “We at Savola nurture and support our younger generation, enabling and empowering them to become leaders of tomorrow. Our group success is emulated in the development of our employees, and Ismail has shown outstanding leadership skills, a great ability to motivate his teams, and this award is a source of pride to all of us.”

Ismail said:“I could not have achieved the heights I have without the support of the group’s leadership, senior management, Mannaa, and my team, with whom I share this award.”