From December 2017 to December 2019, I worked in Senior Business Development at Ernst & Young LLC (EY) in Oman. In that role, I helped bring robotic process automation (RPA) to the Omani market. I also contributed to a 10% revenue increase. I worked on digital transformation projects with several ministries and the Information Technology Authority (ITA).
This essay explains what the role was, what RPA is, and what the work taught me. It is part of my career.
The role
I joined EY after a short time in economics research at the Central Bank of Oman. EY is one of the world's large professional services firms. My job was business development. I built client relationships, found new business opportunities and helped grow work across several service lines.
Business development in a professional services firm starts with the client. You must understand the client's problem before you can offer a service. You must also understand what the firm can deliver. The work sits between the two.
What RPA is
Robotic process automation is software that does repetitive computer tasks. A software "robot" follows the same steps that a person follows on a screen. For example, it copies data from one system to another or checks records against rules.
RPA works on top of the main systems of an organisation. It leaves those systems in place. That is why it can start quickly. An organisation does not need to rebuild its systems first.
My part was to bring RPA to the Omani market. That meant explaining it to organisations in Oman, one conversation at a time.
Work with ministries and the ITA
I also worked on digital transformation projects with several ministries and with the ITA. I completed the ITA's Summer of Code programme in 2017.
Government work has its own pace. A ministry serves the whole public, so it must be careful with every change. A good proposal respects that. It shows a clear first step and names who owns the result.
What the work taught me
A new technology needs a plain explanation. Most decision makers buy a solution to a problem they already know. Call RPA "software that does the repetitive work your team does every day". The conversation becomes easier.
Start small and prove it. A small first project with a visible result builds trust. After that, the next project is easier to approve.
Revenue follows relationships. I contributed to a 10% revenue increase as part of a team. In professional services, clients come back to people who understood their problem the first time.
Automation is a management decision. The software is the easy part. The hard part is to decide which process to change, who owns it and how to measure success.
Where it led
After EY, I joined Oman Aviation Group as a Specialist Business Planner in December 2019. In the same year, I started to lead BHD Group as founder and CEO. BHD Group carries the name of my grandfather, Haider Darwish, and its founding year is 1894.
The lessons from EY stayed with me. Today, BHD Group runs on in-house systems, including an ERP, a WhatsApp platform and AI agents. The same rule applies: find the repetitive work, then let software do it.
Related: Why we built our own ERP instead of buying one and How AI agents help run a real business in Oman.