CIO50 Australia 2024: Nazih Battal, RASHAYS

Name: Nazih Battal
Title: Chief Information and Technology Officer
Company: RASHAYS
Commenced role: July 2022
Reporting line: Chief Executive Officer
Member of the executive team: Yes
Technology Function: 12, 3 direct
 
When Nazih Battal commenced his role as chief information and technology officer at RASHAYS in 2022, it became clear to him that the leadership team was given a significant level of autonomy to make decisions that they believed would add value to the overall business.
 
“Discussions pertaining to these decisions and deliverables take place in our monthly senior leadership meetings and it was clear that the best approach when identifying business challenges was to move ahead and collaborate with the key leadership team as needed,” he says.
 
According to Battal the concerns with the mobile app were clear and after internal discussions with the greater IT team, the focus was on engaging with the customer service manager and head of marketing to identify what was going well and where they felt changes needed to be made to provide a better customer service.
 
“This involved not only meeting with the team but the added step of going through and reading the customer feedback be it through online reviews or emailed to our customer service team that had taken place over the previous three months,” says Nazih. “This provided a major insight into what our customers were keen to see.”
 
Once this was done, Battal started to engage and work closely with the Head of Marketing and Founders of RASHAYS to come up with a RASHAYS Rewards membership plan that would encourage customers to re-engage with our business, be rewarded for dining in but would also have buy in from the senior leadership team and franchisees.
 
The strategy used was to move ahead and provide feedback to the leadership team after key deliverables – it was a case of “ask for forgiveness instead of permission” as there was a real opportunity to drive membership numbers and improve customer engagement to drive sales.
 
The business has been through significant challenges over the past few years which profoundly impacted its business model.
 
Transitioning to a digital strategy
 
For the company to make this digital transition, Battal and the IT team had to innovate quickly.
 
“I can confidently say that the new mobile app and rewards platform have had a profound impact on our customer experience for the better,” he says. “We now have a sizable membership database that is growing substantially and allows our entire leadership team to have visibility into new and exciting ways to engage our customers.”
 
With the digital transition, Battal says there’s been a fascinating shift, with marketing teams now designing and executing campaigns sitting side by side with the IT team who interpret and manage data-driven targeted marketing.
 
The IT team has been a driving force for all marketing campaigns and their success. This digital transformation means there is more data to interpret than ever before. However, those that can mine and make smart decisions based on it are the ones who will find success.
 
Owning customer insights
 
The launch of the new mobile app and RASHAYS Rewards platform has opened new avenues for the organisation (and specifically the marketing team) to look at customer behaviors and trends regularly to make effective and timely decisions that benefit our corporate teams and franchisees.
 
To be a game changer in any organization you must become the owner of customer insights, says Battal.
 
“It’s not only about data availability, but also how the data is used to ensure a personalized customer experience,” he says. “Customer experience is the shared responsibility of all functions within a company, but especially within a hospitality organization, we need to be the guardians of this experience.”
 
Embracing diversity
 
Central to RASHAYS’ success is the commitment to creating an inclusive workplace culture, where diversity among nationality, gender, colour and religion is embraced and respected, says Battal.
 
“Having worked alongside and managed teams and individuals in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas – this has provided the experience of multiculturism during my career which is embraced by the entire senior leadership team of the RASHAYS group,” he says.
 
Having a diverse workplace culture brings different avenues, ideas and strategies within the team and helps the entire organization to grow and mature in different ways.
 
“With regards to the RASHAYS IT team, we are proud to have a team composed of individuals from all around the world, both onshore and offshore,” says Battal. “We work as a team and celebrate our successes together regardless of time zone and ensure that there are ongoing catchups to keep our culture friendly, united and healthy.”
 
He says RASHAYS is committed to promoting and proud to promote gender equality within the IT team.
 
“We believe that individuals of all genders have equal opportunities to contribute and succeed,” he says. “This commitment is reflected in our policies and practices, designed to ensure that all team members are valued based on their skills, talents and contributions.”