International superstar

A career across the globe has been Faisal Mahomed’s passport to project management success, Matt Scott discovers.

Now a global telecoms giant, BT has come a long way from its humble origins as part of the General Post Office, a UK government department. 

One man benefiting from this growth is Faisal Mahomed, a young programme manager rising rapidly through the ranks at BT. His career to date has taken him from London to Latin America via Africa and back again.

Mahomed’s first big break came little over a year after joining BT’s graduate scheme, when his potential was spotted by one of the corporation’s managing directors.

“When I started, I initially worked in a transformation role within one of our lines of business, with responsibility for a specific product,” Mahomed explains. “Over the course of the first year, we managed to turn the performance of that product from decline to double-digit growth. A structured, carefully managed plan was key to the strong turnaround. From that point on, I moved, as one of the managing director’s high performers, to the Global Telecom Markets consulting team. That’s really where things started to kick off for me.”

Global leader

Mahomed’s first international role was leading the transformation of the front-end installation operations for one of the major telecoms operators in Ghana, as part of a wider transformation agenda involving process redesign and operations management. This was followed by a move to Cameroon, to lead a product transformation project aimed at redesigning a local operator’s product roadmap and go-to-market strategy.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Mahomed looked at ideas for how he could grow BT’s business in new ways, and develop his career at the same time.

“One of the key areas that the consulting team did not support at that time was Latin America,” Mahomed says. “I put together a business case of market opportunity in Latin America, as well as a clear plan of how to achieve it. The managing director signed it off and I was told to go and deliver it, so I packed my bags and had to quickly turn my fancy PowerPoint into a mini business venture.”
Mahomed was helped in this ambitious endeavour by his love of travelling, which had previously led to a spell backpacking around the Americas, and a passion for languages – he is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

“One of the trust factors in launching these propositions in Latin America was the fact that I was from the UK hub and I was able to speak the language and understand the culture on the ground in these countries,” he says. “It was also a time when BT was looking to grow in that particular region, so an opportunity to do that was very welcome. But what really helped was my language skills. I would never have been able to work in Cameroon without speaking French.” 

Once in Latin America, Mahomed was responsible for selling and delivering transformation projects to other telecoms operators in countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica and Argentina. These projects included sales-channel redesign, the landing of a submarine cable and a field transformation project. 

The unknown quantities involved in setting up brand-new operations made for an exciting time: “When you are starting up something new in a different area, you wake up every morning and get out of bed knowing there is no structure in place. You have to go out and make something happen. That’s quite exhilarating.”

Biggest savings

Now back in the UK, Mahomed is responsible for group cost transformation projects. During the past year, he has delivered one of the largest transformation savings as a result of forensic commercial reviews, coupled with meticulous programme management of the unit. He says his career path, involving many different departments, business partners and even continents, has helped shaped his professional development and make him more rounded and credible with senior colleagues.

“In my view, you can go up in quite a linear way in your career, whereby you specialise in one function and rise quite fast,” Mahomed says. “But there’s another way, by which you get diversity of experience and an understanding of a number of different functions around the business, that gives you a more generalist path. Although it may take longer to progress, it makes you a lot more rounded and, in some cases, more flexible. 

“I personally subscribe to the latter path. I’ve spent time in marketing, operations and programme management; all those experiences are helping me progress quite quickly now. It’s good for the individual, but it also gives credibility. I believe it’s good for the individual and the company. Senior stakeholders trust you more, while you can use the knowledge and experience to drive real change.”

So what next for this rising star?

“BT has recently completed the purchase of EE and is reorganising its lines of business. This year, I want to make sure that the new organisation within BT is operational,” he says. “Beyond this, I plan to continue to strengthen my experience, each time delivering even bigger transformations.
“That’s where I’d like the direction of my career to continue: an even wider portfolio of transformation, covering full end-to-end business change.”

And with the way his career his developed so far, no one will be betting against him doing just that. 

Faisal Mahomed
Age: 31
Organisation: BT Group
2007: Joined Mars Chocolate as trade marketing manager
2009: Joined BT as channel manager
2011: Moved to Ghana for a fixed network transformation project
2012: Lead consultant for sales and marketing project in Cameroon
2013: Lead consultant for a channel redesign project in Costa Rica
2014: Lead consultant in PMO office and submarine cable landing in Colombia
2015: Back in the UK as a senior programme manager in BT Group’s Cost   Transformation unit

Matt Scott is a business and data journalist.