YAMANA GOLD
been undergoing a significant transformation for quite some time ,” says AbiDaoud , “ albeit at its own pace and perhaps a little slower than others . This comes down to the cyclical nature . Gold prices plummeted in 2013 , and it forced everyone to rethink our operating model .
“ Technology is one component of that , it ’ s not the only component but over time it has become more and more integral to the way in which Yamana Gold achieves success and will continue to deliver value .” AbiDaoud entered Yamana Gold in 2017 with a core mission to drive innovation and seek out opportunities to leverage technologies to provide value and to support the overall vision of the company , which is to mine precious metals profitably and responsibly .
For AbiDaoud , three core pillars define innovation : people , process , and technology . When organisations think of innovation , they often focus largely on the technology aspect , while AbiDaoud believes the people and the processes are more important . “ For some they seem to fail to recognise the important impact and role that people and process have to play in helping your organisation innovate ,” he says .
“ Technology can ’ t move forward if the people and processes don ’ t move forward with it , so it becomes fundamentally about changing the way we work and the way we operate . Technology in the end is just a tool to do that .”
The people element to innovation should not be understated , especially in an industry that has largely operated in the same manner for decades . Technological innovation breeds a cultural change , but as any transformation has shown , cultural change is no walk in the park . Part of that challenge is communication . Yamana Gold approaches this a little differently .
“ We actually don ’ t have a technology conversation ,” says AbiDaoud . “ When you ’ re speaking about innovation , or doing things differently , we don ’ t even talk about technology . It ’ s about talking about business outcomes in a language that ’ s understandable and relevant
124 June 2018