Erwin Bamps is the Chief Executive Officer of Gulf Craft, the UAE-based yacht and boat maker.
Erwin Bamps, Chief Executive Officer of Gulf Craft
What are your favourite things to do on the weekend?
It’s my nuclear family that gives me purpose and strength, and the weekend is reserved for them as much as possible. It’s irrelevant whether we have been out shopping, on a day trip or just hanging out at home, as long as we talked and laughed a lot, that will catalogue as a great weekend.
What do you consider to be your favourite hobby?
Travel and exploration – whether hiking, flying, kayaking, sailing, off-road wadi bashing or simply strolling through small streets – is highly ranked, allowing to open the mind and meet new people. My passion for prosumer-style photography to document some of it, just seems like a natural extension of that. After all, and forgive me for the pun, it is continuous impressions and exposure that form us. And preferably carrying a light meter and weaponed with my Canon 7D.
What can’t you live without?
A challenge. I definitely prefer to walk the road less-travelled – the riskier, but usually the more rewarding proposition as well – guaranteed never to be boring either.
What do you consider the secret to your success?
Equipped with a strong engineering background and analytical mind, it is mainly people and negotiation skills – add a serious dose of patience and perseverance, too. That has proven to be my biggest assets to create and develop brands and organisations. I “live” my work, knowing that it’s mainly unbridled enthusiasm and honest relationship building with employees, partners, suppliers and customers that will sell and deliver the product afterwards. We are living in the era of customer engagement after all. Moreover, I’m a strong supporter of flat management structures and management-by-walking-around. I tend to thrive in recession times, when bold calculated-risk decision making and quick opportunity identification gains you essential market share in critical times.
What advice would you offer other budding entrepreneurs (people starting out in your business)?
Think differently. Don’t focus on the product, but on the approach to market and the implementation of your internal procedures and systems. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it that makes the most impact. Additionally, when it comes to hiring and retaining talent, I have learnt to pay a lot less attention to acquired technical skills, but focus far more on people’s attitude to work and their colleagues. People and motivational skills are top-rated in my handbook. A company’s vision and mission should be lived by its employees, and while being directed from the top, it should be shaped from the bottom up.
How do you achieve a work/life balance?
By not trying to separate them and measure them in the first place. I believe there is no ideal work/life balance, and I see a lot of successful business people frustrated in the relentless pursuit of that so-called perfect balance, still feeling that they are coming up short in the end. In my experience it’s all about quality and not quantity, on both fronts, and about blending it rather than separating it. Work isn’t something that resides outside of life, it is an integral part of it.
How do you relax after the working day?
Through the front door, a ‘honey, I am home’, a refreshing dip in the pool, and then there is nothing more relaxing than enjoying a home-cooked dinner with my wife, and her telling me what her day has looked like. Admittedly, being a bit of an audiophile, listening to music together, streamed throughout the entire house – with the volume button positioned carefully not to be waking up the kids, is what helps me to decompress after a long day being submerged in work.
If you weren’t running this company what else would you be doing?
I would probably be running a boutique hotel in an exotic environment with a rather limited number of guest rooms all of which having an individualised interior and a fantastic sea-view – meeting and serving people, building a network of friends rather than clients, aiming to deliver them unique, personalised, unforgettable experiences. Now that I come to think of it, actually not unlike my present-day job content.
Reference: The National, by Mr. Andrew Scott, published August 7