Fakhri took on a massive workload in 2014 that included building a summer house for his family, pursuing postgraduate studies at Nottingham Trent University which was fully sponsored by his employer BP, relocating to a new apartment, and leading a critical project at work. Despite the stress, he successfully completed construction of the summer house, graduated with commendation from his postgraduate program, relocated on time, and led the critical work project ahead of deadline. Fakhri learned that with commitment and priority-setting, an individual can achieve more than expected even under a huge workload.

1. A great riskA great risk
2014
Fakhri Gurbanov for IE Application

2. Introduction
 Building Summer House for Family
+
 Postgraduate Studies at Nottingham
Trent University
+
 Apartment relocation
+
 Critical Project at Work
=
MASSIVE LOAD  STRESS

3. Building a House
In August 2010, after one year with BP, I
realized that my income was sufficient to
start investing in something important and
substantial. I knew that my family always
wanted to have a big house in a suburbs of
my city – Baku. But before we never had
enough money and time to do this…
So I invited a group of builders, calculated
a budget and kicked-off this important
family project.
At the beginning it seemed to be much
easier task, than it eventually turned out to
be in reality.

4. NTU studies
In February 2011, when I was fully engaged with my work at BP,
and construction of the summer house for my family, I got an
unexpected offer from my line manager.
She said that Nottingham Business School is going to start a new
cohort of the ‘Postgraduate Diploma in HR Management’
(PDHRM) programme for HR Professionals from Azerbaijan,
and BP is willing to fully sponsor my studies in the programme.
That was “once in a lifetime” offer, which would open up a great
career frontiers for me, as well as give me opportunity to study
professional HR in one of the UK’s leading business schools.
So despite of being loaded with work and construction activities,
I’ve happily accepted the offer and submitted my application to
NTU the same week.

5. Relocation
It was March 2012, while I was juggling balls of work, NTU
studies and house construction, trying to drop none of them, when
I’ve got another unexpected offer.
My apartment was in a very old block of flats, and I was not
happy about it at all, so I tired to sell it for a long time, but I
couldn’t. Suddenly I got a call from my real estate agent, saying
that there was a client. The same evening the client paid me an
advance payment and requested to move out within 3 months time.
I firmly realized that it would require a
lot of time to search for a new
apartment, but I couldn’t decline this
rare offer.
So I signed the deal…

6. /Progress update.../
May 2012 :
the house construction was over, and moved into refurbishment
stage, which took even more attention to detail.
I moved out my old flat and successfully bought a new one – but
it was in a new block of flats, and also required refurbishment. I
temporarily lived in my friend’s flat.
I successfully passed exams on all modules of the PDHRM
programme, but had the last and most important module ahead –
an individual Management Research Report (MRR).
Plus business as usual at work…
I prioritized MRR over all other issues, and fully focused on
research…

7. Critical Project
In May 2012, as explained in the previous slide, when I was
focused on my MRR preparation, a serious problem occurred with
one of a critical contractors to BP’s onshore operations in
Azerbaijan.
My line manager saw me being over the top with work, studies
and personal stuff, and wouldn’t involve me into this problem, but
the Vice-President of Onshore Operations, who liked my
approach to work a lot, required that I deal with this problem
from HR department.
The case required significant amount of time to participate in
cross-functional meetings with Legal, Supply Chain Management,
Finance, as well as working out the detailed transition plan to
minimize impact on operations…and implementing the plan.

8. Critical Project (cont’d)
Honestly, I had a chance to push back and ask to delegate this
project to someone else…
But a personal ambition, and fear of losing the Senior Vice-
Presidents trust and confidence in my professionalism, didn’t
allow me to take this step.
So I took a risk to lead the transition project for the business.

9. Outcome
I don’t want to spend more of your precious time on the details of
how I managed to get though all of that…But what I want to
focus instead is my results.
I’ve successfully :
Submitted my MRR in time, and following that graduated from
NTU with commendation;
Successfully completed the transition project ahead of the
deadline;
Completed the move to my new flat just on time;
Completed the refurbishment of the new house…This one was
with a delay, but the family enjoyed it next summer, and I hope
we will enjoy it for the years to come…

10. And here is a proof

11. Lessons Learned
At the times I was exhausted and stressed. But this greatest risk
I’ve ever taken to deliver multiple equally important objectives,
has ultimately become the biggest learning of all times.
I realized that there is no limit to what an individual can achieve,
when things are really important for you, and you are committed
to succeed.
I would like to finish this story with
a proverb, which is very popular in
my country:
“Never leave that till tomorrow
which you can do today.”

12. Thank you