Fadi Abi-Nader, Vice President – One Demand Global Emerging Markets at Mars Wrigley: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Fadi Abi-Nader, Vice President of One Demand Global Emerging Markets at Mars Wrigley.

My name is Fadi Abi-Nader and I am Vice President of One Demand Global Emerging Markets at global confectioner Mars Wrigley. I’ve held the role for four years, overseeing marketing, sales, digital commerce, and data and analytics.I cover everywhere in the world minus the US, Canada, continental Europe, and China.

I joined Mars back when the Egypt factory was just a piece of land. I moved from marketing to sales and eventually became the general manager overseeing Egypt plus Libya, Sudan, the Levant, Malta, and Cyprus. During that time we covered a number of crisis events, from the 2011 revolution, to the financial crash in Lebanon, to the embargo on Iran. I learned to manage, develop, and grow a team amidst adversity and keep everyone engaged.

Two trends I’m seeing in the EM snacking industry: Health and wellness trends in emerging markets are over-indexing those in developed markets; and EMs are leapfrogging developed markets when it comes to digital commerce. You can do more in emerging markets with your mobile — especially payments — than you can in most developed markets. That’s something that companies like Mars need to build upon. Another big question is how can big snack companies like Mars provide healthier foods that our consumers want at affordable prices.

I don’t need to be in one place but I choose to live in Egypt with my family. I handle the region and am traveling a lot. At the moment I spend close to three weeks in a month on the road, which is more than I usually would as we are making up for time lost during the pandemic. I try to make a weeklong visit to each country within my region every year, learning from and engaging with the team. I spend time learning the local market on the ground — meeting consumers, visiting the city, and holding meetings or one-on-ones or being at the factory.

I need to stay alert and energized so I exercise nearly every day. A trick I learned from travelers for feeling refreshed — even after a 24 hour flight — is to go to the gym and work out for 30 minutes. I always love to run in the morning and plan my runs in advance. When I’m in a new city, I search for the running routes that locals take. In Egypt, I use a personal trainer. While exercising I’ll listen to a podcast — I tend to gravitate towards religious podcasts or sermons, or music, and I will read Enterprise after I finish.

Constant traveling means staying focused and intentional is essential: Every morning I spend 15-20 minutes planning for the day ahead. I recap my agenda, prepare the sequence of meetings, and the key points to address. I also set myself a daily set of targets that might not be on the agenda — for example, if I need to land something, get someone to agree to a project, or get funding.

What I like about being in the Middle East is the agility and ability to deal with ambiguity — we’re flexible. Likewise, I like the importance of work-life boundaries present in other cultures. I used to miss half of my holiday balance but now I try as much as possible to take all of it.

I make sure to take Friday off , even though my job includes working in markets that don’t. While it gives me all sorts of problems as I have a number of meetings on Friday, I make it very clear that I live in Egypt and Fridays are when social things happen.

Sundays are the best day of the week for me as I don’t have any meetings scheduled and I get so much work done. It tends to be the day I focus on thinking and strategy and catching up on emails.

I started to become more planned and organized when I began my global roles. I learned from mentors and coaches that you need to be organized to take on a global role that requires traveling, working from home, and dealing with a massive array of stakeholders. My day is usually so packed that without the time in the morning, I would get to the end of the week and realize I had missed a few things.

I live by this advice: Instead of ruminating about a potential negative scenario that hasn’t yet happened, consider the probability of that event happening and what you can do now in the moment to reduce the chance of it happening — not avoid it, but reduce the probability. If there are no immediate actions that come to mind, then don’t stress, because the problem is out of your control.

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