As part of this assignment we had the opportunity to interview Mr.

Awais Yazdani currently working in the

Construction Industry as the Director of Projects Execution at Arif Yazdani & Associates. Having received his B.Sc
Civil Engineering Degree and a certificate in Entrepreneurship and Management from Purdue University - U.S.A and
working in his role for over 5 years, he was the perfect candidate for us to interview.

We started off the interview by asking him to describe a typical work day in his life, his response to which we found to
be quite impressive. The very first thing he does before even getting out of bed is give directions to his sub-
contractors and labour about the tasks he wants them to accomplish before the end of the day. He explained that this
not only gave them the opportunity to get a head start on their work for the day but also gave him an opportunity to
connect with all his technical staff on a daily basis. He went on to elaborate this by saying that since the nature of his
work requires a vast majority of the people under his management to work on different project sites and not have any
physical contact with him for 2-3 days at times, it is very important to make them feel responsible for the work they
are assigned and the knowledge that their superior assigns them daily tasks on top of their broader weekly and
monthly tasks plays a positive role in keeping connected. When he leaves for work, he has a habit of visiting atleast 1
but up to 2 different project sites every morning in order to physically monitor the work being done and to help with
any technical problems that may arise. His approach towards problem solving, whether it be technical or not, was
something we found to be very eloquent. He says that he starts by first trying to understand the core problem and
getting to its root cause. He then establishes the desired outcome that must be achieved. Once both these start and
end points are clearly understood, he then tries to find the most time and cost effective path towards resolving the
issue.
After conducting his daily site visits, he then reaches the office at around noon everyday where he receives a daily
briefing from the companies HR, Accounts and Procurement departments respective representatives to get an
update about the events of the previous day, to review and authorise anything that requires his permission and also
to give them a general outline of what he wants them to have accomplished that day. He prefers to schedule any
client or vendor meetings for after 3PM so that he gets ample time to focus on all these managerial tasks without any
hindrance.

We then brought up the concept of managerial roles and functions in the interview. He explained, it was his belief that
all four management functions are very closely interrelated and that whosoever completes one, inevitably ends up
doing all four. He gave the example that whenever a new project is to start, he plans and organizes a comprehensive
work order chart describing all the relevant activities that need to be accomplishes, who would be in responsible to
completing what activity, when and how which construction material is to be delivered and setting achievable goals
and timelines for execution. Then once the work actually starts at site, he is then responsible for the daily
communication with the sub-contractors and labourers, giving them tasks as he mentioned earlier and then also
ensuring that the work is progressing as per the timelines and also making sure that the quality of work is up to
standard. As far as managerial roles are concerned, Mr. Awais explained that due to the nature of his work, he has to
display some aspect of all three roles on a daily basis. For Interpersonal Roles, he is expected to be a leader and
liaison both at sites and in the office as he not only leads his sub-contractors, labourers, vendors, HR, Accounts and
Procurement departments but also has to ensure good communication and coordination between all of them. For
Informational Roles, he considers himself a Spokesperson. For Decisional Roles, he says that Resource Allocation
and Negotiation are things that he has to deal with on a daily basis, however sometimes he has to assume the role of
Disturbance Handler if need be.