🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates.
Interviewer: Mr. Nasser, It is a pleasure to welcome you today, and we are honored to present you with the Prime Global Awards appreciation award in the category of landscaping.
Mr. Nasser: You are most welcome, and I am pleased to be here today with you.
Interviewer: After years of experience in several fields, how can you introduce yourself today?
Mr. Nasser: I was very lucky to grow up in a very good family, my father and mother were very loving people, and they taught all of us how to have a manner, and a lot of morals we have learned from them, and that really shaped my personality, and my brothers and sisters’ personalities'. I wasn't the type of student who is always on his desk, I was always out of the group trying to do different things and trying to travel, and that gave me a lot of experience in the future.
Interviewer: How did you start “Green Scapes”?
Mr. Nasser: I started it by coincidence, and one gentleman offered his willingness to open a landscaping company with a local partner, and I started with him from the beginning where he had a lot of connections, and that was successful. After a couple of years, my partner decided to go back to America, and at that time I had to take a decision either to keep the company or to close it, and I decided to keep the company, and by that, I started to learn from the beginning as I wasn't involved hundred percent since the beginning. I struggled at the beginning, but slowly I gained experience in landscaping, and I built it up till we reached the level where we are today.
Interviewer: Could you share some insights into the challenges that “Green Scapes” faced while undertaking major projects like Expo 2020, Emirates Hills, Arabian Ranches, and other projects across Dubai?
Mr. Nasser: In landscaping, there are a lot of difficulties, because we come in the last stage. In big projects usually, the main contractor will always be late, and by the time we reach to start the landscaping work we need to speed up the sources, the manpower, and sometimes there is not enough time, so sometimes we struggle and work 24 hours to finish the job on time, and 99% of the time we reach our goal, and we will be ready with all landscaping work at the opening day of the projects.
The other challenge is that the landscaping work is manual, only a little bit of machinery work is there, and that is taking a lot of time, and a lot of manpower which is very expensive.
The other challenge is that landscaping work takes a lot of time to start the invoicing process, as we have to do the earthwork, the irrigation, then the plants, and while doing those stages you may be left for 6 months without advanced payment or invoice, which needs big sources of cash. Our company become stronger over the years, and we can pay the supplier on time, and pay our staff on time, which will give us power in the market because we are reliable, and a lot of suppliers want to work with us because we are reliable, and payment will be on time always.
Interviewer: Could you highlight the main services currently provided by your company?
Mr. Nasser: we provide full landscaping work for the projects, which means that we do the earthwork, irrigation, survey, designs, plant supply, water force, lakes, maintenance, big pump stations, and others. I would say that we are very strong at the design of the irrigation, and we are very strong in controlling the sites. We have proved to our customers that once you sign with us, we will deliver on time without any disappointments, so we have built trust through the experience with our clients such as Emaar, Nakheel, municipality, and other big construction companies like Khansaheb, Al Futtaim and others. A lot of landmarks jobs have been done in Dubai, and once you see it you feel proud, as from a small company you reach almost 1500 laborers.
Interviewer: Where do you see your company in the future? And what are the upcoming projects?
Mr. Nasser: I think the future is more to have more modern landscaping rather than classical ones, and I think Dubai is reaching a place where new ideas for fountains rather than classical ones are required, and new designs for gardens rather than classical ones, and those modern ideas are coming slowly, as not all of them are accepted yet, but most of the new villas and new projects are avoiding the classical lighting, classical fountain and they are trying to have something sharp, unique, modern, more practical and more fine finishing rather than classical finishing. In our company, we can design this type of landscaping, and we have done a lot of projects, mostly Emaar where their work is really modern, and I think we completed it successfully.
Interviewer: After years of hard work and success, what is your message to the young generation?
Mr. Nasser: For The new generation, they have to study the idea, and a lot of people are rushing the idea where they think that they will be successful, but if they did not study it well, then once the job is started they might see a lot of obstacles coming from different directions, also they have to be patience and they have to keep working on their idea, not just being excited and then leaving the idea, they have to be there, they have to be patience, they have to learn, they have to do researches, they have to go to exhibitions, and in our days the sources are much easier and there are a lot of techniques you can search about it using YouTube, google or to learn from other people mistakes, as the internet provides, different options better than when we started.
I can see a lot of locals are coming up with new ideas, and that will be great because they have seen a lot, their dream is big, and their energy is more, so by that, I think they will be more successful.