We recently interviewed Dr. Mohsen Tomh, CEO and Senior Architectural Designer of Options Engineering Consultancies. With over 22 years of expertise in this field, firstly as a project manager and later as an executive manager. Besides that, he also holds experience in coordinating with contractors and subcontractors at the supervision stage. He can build complex models by using a wide range of technologies. Let’s learn more about him and his journey through this interview below.
Career Path That Led To Current Position
We started the interview by asking Dr. Mohsen Tomh, “Which career path led you to where you are today?”
He replied, “I have a personality that takes every moment of my life seriously. I don’t say “Forget it” to anything. I make a daily schedule and follow them meticulously even though I have entrusted my work to professionals. Although business and management planning is essential to me, I always pay attention to the existence of the human element in success.
I started working at a young age; I spent fantastic effort day and night to reach my goal and ideal. With the support of my family, I received a good education under the conditions of that period, but I was not satisfied with it; without being overshadowed by anyone, I set up my own business in Dubai in 2010, and the secret of this success. If you ask what is the secret of this success, working is my biggest passion.”
Dr. Mohsen Tomh added, “My love for the country and young people is even more important than us in every moment. These principles have brought me to where I am today. As I said, as an architect, my most prominent guide until the last moment of my life is to leave value to the world.”
Inspiration Behind This Journey
Behind every successful company, inspiration acts as a significant boost toward building the same. So we asked, “Which inspired you to develop the idea of your company?”
Dr. Mohsen Tomh shared, “Options Engineering Consultants is a family company. It has a perception that it is passed down from father to son, but we have friends from within our team who are involved in this management.
Managing the business more institutionally than the standard family company or family architecture office format is essential, but this is not a one-shot thing. It would be best to generate ideas by constantly expending energy on the subject. The age needs to evolve the functioning of the office in that direction, to strengthen the brand value, and to institutionalize.
Even the most established companies in the Middle East have existed for the 2nd and 3rd generations; there are no big brands that have lived for 7 or 8 generations like abroad examples, so if your goal is to become a world brand in the field of architecture and design, you should first work in a planned manner, focus on success, and the rest, it will come by itself.”
Evolution Of Priorities
Priorities of a business may evolve with time. So we asked, “How have your priorities in terms of business evolved since you first started?”
Dr. Mohsen Tomh replied, “There is a famous saying, “The most valuable thing is the accumulation of knowledge. Architecture is a profession and discipline that contains many elements of life together. The practice of architectural work is not the only one. Of course, their applications are different if the person does not produce projects or designs. If you ask how it is from my point of view, One must constantly be dealing with himself. He must need help with realizing himself. It should be open to innovation and better. All sensitivities exist in following the current and contemporary and questioning oneself.
It is imperative not to be discouraged because it ends as soon as you give up. It may be a familiar phrase, but walking that path is essential. It is impossible to predict precisely when that road will end and how long it will be. The general acceptance is that it does not end, you walk, and there is no place to arrive, but the direction is significant. It requires perseverance; it requires perseverance; it requires not giving up; it requires effort. The job ends when you get bored and quit. As I said at the beginning, “Everything starts with knowing.”
Challenges and Key Points To Overcome Them
Challenges are an inevitable aspect of any company. How the team manages to overcome these challenges matters the most. We asked, “What are the most challenging situations your company overcomes?”
Dr. Mohsen Tomh shared, “When you open an architectural office, you think you can only do architecture, but unfortunately, there is no such thing! You need to know about finance; you need to understand management. At the same time, if your company is in a region like the Middle East where competition is very high, your company must be positioned as a brand in that region. Forms an important part.
In other words, you must be doing the departments in big companies in this business, petite, within your organization. There is a belief that when everyone has their own company, they will work less. Contrary to this belief, you work more. “You have more responsibilities in your own office, but since the office is like your child, it is easier to face the troubles.”
“What is the key strength to overcome it?”
“One of the most essential requirements of being a successful business person is to give importance to expertise. Whatever you do, trying to be the best in that job and collaborating with those who know it best is my understanding of business. Therefore, the best person in a subject finds him more than he deserves. I give, and I bring that person to the company.
And after finding and bringing in competent people, I think that the key to success is to listen to my managers very carefully, to apply the decisions taken to life and our projects, and also to know how to manage overtime and accounts well; capability.” Dr. Mohsen Tomh replied
Unique Features
We were intrigued to learn about the unique features of his company that make it unique from others. We asked, “What makes your company stand out from all the other businesses in your industry?”
Dr. Mohsen Tomh shared, “It is challenging to keep success in Dubai, one of the most attractive spots of the Middle East. If you work with 10 people, you are like a family, and it is easy to deal with. We know this situation, and our position is challenging at the moment. If you exceed 100 people, you have a problem managing the group. If you have come to such a point, you should always have a big job in hand. We need a job.
Also, you must deal with everyone in the group at a different rate. Some you can’t reach and remain indifferent.
You are also affected by crises, you pay the price after all, and they are not always satisfactory enough to meet expectations. Everything will only sometimes go well. But right now, we have work to do; the situation is magnificent.
Furthermore, slowness is the biggest enemy in this industry. I also have zero tolerance. My time is valuable. It may be a manual error; there may be minor differences. But no big mistakes. In this case, you can test everything from the smallest object to the whole.”
KPIs For Measuring Success
“What KPIs do you use to measure your business success?”
Dr. Mohsen Tomh shared, “As a philosophy of life and an understanding of architecture, success is the natural result of working with determination and seeking.
The design process includes much interdisciplinary coordination. These are technical disciplines, consultancy, and rules disciplines with particular criteria. For example, in a stadium design, our design is shaped in line with the requirements determined by UEFA. The rules brought by LEED and BREEAM certificates are considered when designing ecological projects.
When all these disciplines, engineers, and architectural construction technologies are combined correctly, we must ensure good interdisciplinary coordination to produce structures that will not cause any problems and live healthy for a long time.
And this interdisciplinary coordination is as valuable and meaningful as the skill of designing a structure. The fact that we carry out all these processes on many projects with different functions simultaneously brings different experiences.”
Building Strong Bonds With Employees
Having a strong bond of trust with the employees encourages them to be more productive than ever. We asked, “How do you build trust with your employees and boost productivity without causing burnout?”
Dr. Mohsen Tomh shared, “Our work schedule is essential. We prepare our work schedule every week, publish it internally at the beginning of the week and hold meetings on Sundays where we check where we are in the work schedule. Since we coordinate not only engineering disciplines but also 15 different disciplines, there is a lot of correspondence and email traffic apart from drawing. A single project can have 100 email subjects per day.
Being careful when choosing the people you will cooperate with, the people you will work with, and your partners, establishing good business relations, being an establishment, owning your job, and not sacrificing your ideas and value judgments, I think this is the crucial point of this business. Your environment can trust you.”
Adapting To the Latest Technologies
Technology has become one of the top-most priorities for succeeding in any industry. Besides that, a business must follow all the latest trends to ensure growth. We asked, “How do you stay on top of new technologies and trends in your industry?”
Dr. Mohsen Tomh replied, “When we look at the century we live in, we see that the structure of architecture is changing. To understand this, we have to look at the world. Life in the world now works in a different order. After 10 years, professional groups whose names we do not know will come to the fore. Arguments for architectural drawing are changing. More than 2-3 dimensional drawings are needed for today’s buildings. When appropriate, 5G dimensional presentations and model studies are indispensable.
As OEC, we closely follow technological developments. For example, our office has a laser cutter and 3D printer. Creating the infrastructure for working with different forms has become a critical issue today. We can effortlessly embody a design we think. The fact that we know that we can easily explain any object we believe to others creates a runaway imagination that enables us to have the chance to do different things. Showing the product designed in architecture in 3-5 dimensions is the best way to describe that product.
Something that is transmitted without seeing can have different connotations for everyone. Although this adds to the impressiveness, the situation is different in architecture. “There is the design aspect of the architecture, where openness is important; there is the manufacturing dimension, where the detailed solution is also important.”
Advice To New Entrepreneurs
“What advice would you give to starting entrepreneurs?”
Dr. Mohsen Tomh shared, “Architecture is a whole that needs to be nourished in every field, together with culture, art, and many other units; Within this whole, it is not necessary to channel only art, economy, engineering, technology, or only the science of architecture within itself.
All of these areas should be gathered in a single line, blended. Because architecture is a profession that is open to movement in the developing world, It requires inexhaustible research and development.”
Dr. Mohsen Tomh added, “We were barely trying to find something in the university library inherited from Noah Nebi. Young architects who grew up in this generation must travel, see, research, dream, read, and understand from the moment they embark on this road.
If this profession is done with pleasure, the person’s perception will progress based on it. Therefore, architects and prospective architects will make selections in every place they go, in every book they read, and in every movie they watch. With the return of this perception, while shaping their imagination in their inner world, they will blend their knowledge and reflect it on every line they create in every museum, park, and building they visit. If this job becomes a lifestyle, a hobby, it will give pleasure to the person and lead him to success.”
Find Dr. Mohsen Tomh on LinkedIn.
Find Options Engineering Consultancies on LinkedIn or visit https://www.optionsec.com/
