Fadwa AlBawardi, Founder and CEO, Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi Consulting Office
As Michelle Obama once rightfully quoted, “There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.” Hailing from different walks of life, women cater to a diverse spectrum of roles, which are unified by a common thread — their unmatched fortitude in the face of challenges and obstinate refusal to accept defeat. Today, women are no longer confined to the hearth and home. Rather, they are trading in the fairytale glass slipper for a chance to shatter the glass ceiling.
Chartering unknown territories unabashedly and fearlessly, they are playing the role of enablers in every sense, all while donning multiple hats and proving their mettle in every sphere of life, and the entrepreneurial path is no exception. These incredible women are conquering the business world with innovation and brilliance, empowering their communities and leaving an indelible legacy of excellence for generations to follow.
Today, we are introducing one such inspiring personality, the founder and CEO of “Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi” Consulting Office, Fadwa AlBawardi who exemplifies the image of modern age Renaissance woman leader. Fadwa is a highly organized, goal-oriented, independent, and hardworking perfectionist, always ready to put all her energy and stamina to complete the task at hand. Her remarkable efforts with strategic expertise are transforming the business technology consulting sector, making her one of the most influential newly-emerging business leaders in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Fadwa takes us back to tell us her story on her course to be where she is now and be able to help pave the way for many other aspiring woman entrepreneurs emerging with immense potential to change the world. We are proud of the work she has undertaken and we are honored as we share her fascinating story as an inspiration in this exclusive space.
A Prolific Journey with a Series Of Milestones
A Leader, Journalist, Founder/CEO, and a Bestselling Author, Fadwa AlBawardi is a woman of many virtues. She perceives her journey as a series of milestones that shaped her to become the entrepreneur she is today. She is a Certified Strategy and Business Planning Professional as well as an Information Technology and Performance Management Senior Consultant with more than 21 years of experience working with several Saudi Arabian organizations. Throughout her career, she has held multiple leadership titles such as “Director”, “Manager”, “Project Leader” and “Senior Consultant” in both: The Information Technology as well as Strategy and Performance Management departments.
The multitalented leader has also participated as a speaker and a moderator in several local and international conferences. In fact, she is frequently invited by the Saudi media, through TV and Radio channels, as a guest to talk about the Saudi digital economy, technological advances, as well as strategic planning-related subjects. Fadwa is also a Certified Trainer in Information Technology and has conducted 5-day “Data Strategy” training courses in one of the highly-professional KSA technical training academies, as well as online lectures on AI strategies to several organizations. Starting as a programmer to being a project manager for business intelligence, then a department manager in data governance, followed by becoming a consultant then a senior consultant in performance management, strategic planning, and information technology, her burgeoning career is filled with striking achievements.
Just like her remarkable career, Fadwa’s educational background is also quite impressive. She earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Boston University in 2003 and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the American University in 1994 in Cairo. The avid leader has also completed a Strategic Planning course from Harvard University in 2019 in the United States and has been awarded two Strategic planning certificates in UAE.
The Emergence of “Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi” Consulting Office
Fadwa was excelling in her career, successfully serving her leadership roles in the corporate world with utmost perfection. However, it is the shifting tides toward women’s empowerment in Saudi Arabia that propelled her to take the entrepreneurial plunge. As the empowerment of Saudi Arabian women is at the heart of the Kingdom’s ‘Vision 2030,’ there has been major support from the government to all Saudi women to pursue their dreams to the furthest extent. There has been facilitation in all governmental paperwork for women to be able to finalize all their entrepreneurship and business paperwork, entirely on their own. This encouraged Fadwa to take the leap of faith and establish her own consulting office, after more than 21 years of working in different organizations.
And today, she is a renowned Saudi Arabian Entrepreneur who has managed to successfully establish her own Consultancy office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to provide consulting services in Digital Transformation & its strategies, including AI strategies, Business Intelligence, Data Governance, Digital Economy, and Strategic Planning. “My Entrepreneurship efforts aim to help individuals, especially researchers and academics, and private & governmental sector organizations, build their strategic plans and improve their strategic and operational performance by identifying & analyzing key issues, providing recommendations to resolve them, as well as planning KPIs/OKRs to monitor performance progress,” asserts Fadwa. The astute leader laid the foundation of “Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi” Consulting with a vision to help provide valuable strategic knowledge to those who need it. Her mission is to enrich knowledge, to be an extra brain within the team, and to make a difference through consulting.
Delivering Professional and Customized Consulting Solutions
Incepted in 2022, “Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi” Consulting is an ambitious newly-emerging consulting office specializing in business, consulting, technology, and strategic planning. Under the aegis of Fadwa, the innovative consulting office provides professional advice/consultations and strategic solutions in three key areas: Strategic Planning/Management Office (SMO), Performance Management Digital transformation, and digitization strategies. It helps create strategies related to digital transformation, as well as artificial intelligence (AI), data management/business intelligence strategies, and research related to the digital economy. It assists clients in creating KPIs and OKRs relevant to the benchmark strategy. It also analyzes business processes and together with relevant stakeholders, prepares a complete plan for Improving the Performance Management System. As a part of its Strategic Planning/Management Office (SMOs) solutions, it enables clients to participate with relevant stakeholders, in building the strategic planning document for the next 3-5 years and to undergo a process of gap analysis and identification of strategic risks and interdependencies. Fadwa aims to reshape the industry through the value-driven services of “Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi” Consulting and make a positive impact on people’s lives and communities.
Keeping Customers above All
The remarkable business leader firmly believes that no venture can thrive without understanding the needs and perspectives of its clients. Thus, as a dedicated professional who strives to deliver the very best to her clients, Fadwa has been working tirelessly to attain client satisfaction since the very beginning of the consulting office. She started crafting her marketing plan for her services on the same day when she established her consulting office and finalized all her paperwork. Leveraging the social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter, she reached out to a wide audience which enabled her to showcase her consulting office and bring out the website https://fsab.sa.com to a good number of visits and clicks. “The customers who approached me, and I signed agreements with, were mainly non-IT companies who aimed to extend their services to include digital transformation consultations. I gladly signed with them MOUs to help with that area, as a senior consultant through my office. In addition, I was approached by one of the best training academies in Saudi Arabia, so my office can help in providing technical training courses, which I have successfully conducted,” elucidates Fadwa.
Moreover, she was also invited by local and international organizations to participate as a keynote speaker, a panel speaker as well as a panel chair, in some major technical conferences that took place in Saudi Arabia. “I plan to continue with more similar activities, and in the coming few years, I might consider the idea of expanding from being a consultancy office currently, into a bigger-scale company, through a partnership with one of my client companies. That’s an idea to ponder upon for the future,” she adds. Under the indomitable guidance of the innovative leader, “Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi” Consulting has soared from one feat of success to the next by offering services that are embodiments of insights derived from clients’ needs and requests.
Vanquishing Challenges with a Level-Headed Approach
Challenges are a part and parcel of an entrepreneurial journey. But learning to overcome these challenges is the key to success. As a persevering and determined entrepreneur, Fadwa confronts each such entrepreneurial challenge head-on with four key attributes— intelligence, skills, passion, and integrity. First of all, she aims to analyze challenges with her intelligence and strives to come up with innovative ideas to successfully navigate through the situation to emerge victoriously.With technical skills, she aims to be up-to-date with the knowledge related to the technical tools and skills that any new project requires. “In addition, with passion, spending an extra hour or two would never make me feel like a burden as I enjoy what I do. Waking up early, every day, to start my work is something to look forward to, to love my job, and not just think of it as a source of funding, opines the passionate leader,” says Fadwa.
Celebrated for her visionary aptitude and innovative drive, Fadwa brings forth unparalleled integrity, into each endeavor she embarks upon. This helps her build trust with those around her and those who newly try to build communication bridges with her consulting office. “My actions and words are always the same. Having integrity creates sustainability, and enables me to overcome challenges in my professional and personal life,” she adds. Fadwa knows that challenges will adorn one’s path of success in business and thus, embraces an effective level-headed approach to win against such challenges.
True Entrepreneurship Is To Be Able To Make a Difference
While some define entrepreneurship simply as a fancy term for converting an idea into a successful venture, for Fadwa, being an entrepreneur is more than just being a business owner. The avid leader believes that entrepreneurship is about the impact you leave and having a distinguished fingerprint in the business that is valued by those who work with you. She strives to lead by example and create an impact on the clients with a winning work culture driven by its core values.
Though several core values have been ingrained into her consulting office culture, Fadwa strictly adheres to a key aspect— the empowerment of any team that I would work with. “Delegation and building trust is very important, without micro-management. Besides this, resilience is another important value, since it is critical to know that success could happen after several attempts, and not necessarily from the first try, therefore one should not give up and should be able to stand up once again and recover in case of failure or major challenges,” affirms Fadwa. In her role as a leader, Fadwa not only makes sure that her consulting office runs well, but she also never stops inspiring others around her. She is constantly seeking out innovative approaches to aid others in developing their talents.
According to the leader, having a vision facilitates adopting the values that are essential for anyone whom she works with. However, it is the collaboration with clients as well as the encouragement of innovation and creative ideas to meet the strategic objectives, that leads a consulting office on the path to success. And this has to be done with passion. As the leader of the enterprise, Fadwa strikes to infuse this collaborative culture into “Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi” Consulting Office to effectively breed innovation and change. Apart from collaboration, Fadwa believes that there are two impactful values that leaders must incorporate into their organizational culture, which are “diversity” and “inclusion.” According to Fadwa, a leader should include all related stake holders in discussions, and gain a deeper perspective from the different opinions of the diverse group, in order to gain insight into the bigger picture, during brainstorming sessions and important discussion meetings. Keeping all the above values as the cornerstone in all of the strategic decision-making process at “Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi” Consulting Office, the zealous entrepreneur is spearheading the consulting office towards growth and success.
An Avid Journalist and a Bestselling Author
Apart from acing her role as the ingenious visionary CEO of “Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi” Consulting Office, Fadwa is also an avid journalist and a bestselling author. She commenced this journey in the year 2007 and participated as an author in several technical publications, one of which has won “HIMSS Best Book of the Year” in the United States, entitled: “Developing a Data Warehouse for the Healthcare Enterprise” Thereafter, she participated in a Saudi Arabian/UAE book entitled: “Anti-corruption: Challenges of AI and Cybersecurity”, one edition in the Arabic language in the year 2021.
With her wealth of knowledge and impeccable writing skills, she soon became the USA Today’s Bestselling Author, with a chapter in the book “Luminary Leadership” where she shared her leadership experience as a Saudi Arabian woman. She is one of the first Saudi women writers in the fields of technology and strategic planning in both Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kingdom of Bahrain digital journals, namely: the Saudi economic e-journal Maaal (Current), Bahrain Al-Baladjournal (Current) and the Saudijournal Al-Jazeera (Previous). As a weekly Columnist, she has written more than 170 articles in these digital journals. “I started writing articles, in Saudi e-journals, in the year 2020. The subject areas for the articles that I write are mainly: Digital Transformation, Latest Technological Advances, Digital Economy, Strategic Planning, and how Technology is impacting the KSA economy. Then, earlier this year 2023, I was invited by one of leading journals in Bahrain to participate with weekly articles, as well.” shares Fadwa.
Lessons Learned along the Journey
Fadwa’s impeccable journey not only bought her industry knowledge and enriching experience but also a lot of valuable life lessons that she wishes she had known earlier during her entrepreneurial journey, and gladly shares those with emerging entrepreneurs. The first key lesson that she wishes she knew early enough, is that hard work alone does not achieve the level of success that one usually desires. Other factors must co-exist with hard work, such as focusing on building and maintaining excellent network connections with both co-workers and management, at all times. According to the leader, soft skills, emotional intelligence, and social “people-smart” networking are all factors that are as important as technical skills. Another key lesson that she has learned during the journey is—sometimes it is wiser not to share a transparent opinion or point of view on a certain topic, because using the “right words” to express that opinion makes all the difference while successfully conveying the same message, at the end. The third and one of the most important lessons that she feels needs to be taught to all emerging entrepreneurs is that— it is always better to work in silence, and then later let our achievements speak aloud. “This strategy is much better than sharing our work detail plans with those around us, in an earlier stage, before actually achieving a couple of milestones that one can be proud of, and eventually eager to share as successful achievements,” she propounds.
Aspires to Create Value as a Saudi Woman
Fadwa’s entrepreneurial journey has not reached its crescendo yet. She plans to take the venture to new feats of growth and success. In the upcoming years, the ambitious entrepreneur aims to become a decision-maker not merely on the enterprise level but also the national level. “With Vision 2030, the empowerment of Saudi women has been highly recognized, and my ambition is to be able to contribute and share my knowledge at the highest possible level,” asserts Fadwa. She also intends to be a member of the Shura Council in Saudi Arabia, one day in the future. And till that dream comes true, she plans to expand her business and entrepreneurship endeavors to a wider scale to reach out to more Saudi Arabian governmental entities as well as more of the private sector, and offer the best-in-class consultancy services in Digital Transformation and Strategic Planning. And as the consulting office continues to scale, Fadwa also envisions growing as a leader and as a person to take this venture to a new height in the coming years.
She looks forward to extending her professional network to collaborate and reach out to more international companies who work in Saudi Arabia, as well as the companies who plan to open their regional offices in Saudi Arabia. And in order to do so, she intends to continue attending and participating in local and international conferences, during the coming few years. “I like to think of myself as “One of the Saudi-Women Technical Ambassadors to the world, that’s what I aim for. I want to create value, as a Saudi woman,” shares Fadwa.
Sharing the Pearls of Wisdom
Fadwa surely has a promising future ahead. In the coming year, along with leading “Fadwa Saad Abdulrahman AlBawardi” Consulting Office’s growth, she aspires to encourage young women to go against the grain and be resolute and courageous in the pursuit of their goals. Advancing into the future, she continues leveraging social media platforms and making her efforts to be a role model, particularly to young women as well as young researchers in the technical field, who seek consultancy and help with their career paths and research ideas while spreading the positive atmosphere that women leader have, in both today’s era as well as the future.
She encourages young women to follow their unique innovative paths to success in their careers. Sharing her valuable advice with young entrepreneurs, both men, and women, she articulates, “Follow your dreams, work hard, work smart, and believe in yourself and your abilities, then you will be able to reach your ambitions and goals. ”The determined business leader serves her vision in every possible way and encourages women to do the same with her work and words. She has marked a real difference in the world of business and has proved how women can be more than the sum of their clichés. The inspirational story of this multi-skilled visionary is a great reminder that anything is possible as long as you remain resilient and dedicated to pursuing your passion. Her journey has served as a testament to what can be achieved through sheer will, valor, and determination.
