Sondes Obbaia
General Manager, Cummins Filtration Japan
Citizen of the world, I am constantly aiming at expanding my experience not only in terms of skills and qualifications, but equally important, to develop as an individual in becoming a more complete person.
Reaching one level is a renewed incentive and motivation to go to the next level, to tackle the next awaiting challenge.
Hard working, very dedicated to what I undertake and to the responsibilities to my employer that I have accepted to take, with passion, making it a hobby more than a job.I take my personal satisfaction is reaching my goals and objectives.
As highly positive thinker, I believe that every problem is an opportunity for improvement, and every problem has its solution. My strength is in my ability to turn around issues into win-win situations. Highly analytical in thinking, I like to think of my self as a strategist and a problem solver.
On the other hand, and on the negative side, I tend to loose interest in absence of challenges, thus the need to being constantly challenged to keep my motivations high.
32 contactsSince 2007 I have taken over our Japan office management, as General Manager.
Main responsibility is to managed and grow our Japan business which includes development of new OEM products, OES and aftermarket product, managing our production in our J/V facilities in Shanghai China.
Worldwide distribution of our products, logistics management and development, strategic planning and company restructuring to constantly be up-to-date with our market reality, needs, demand and constraints.
Business planning, development of business strategies, growth, and expanding our customer portfolio.
I have achieved a nearly 50% growth in sales compared to 2006 and we are on our path in meeting our AOP for 2008 despite the overall worldwide conditions that has prevailed since the end of Q2 and tremendously affecting demand from our Japanese OEM's.
2003 - 2006Japan representative of our Small Engines / Recreational Vehicle division. Managing our major Japanese accounts include Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha. Application engineering activities interface between the local engineers and our design and manufacturing team in the US. Product development (intake and exhaust filtration including mufflers), customer and sales engineer. Building and strengthening customer relation, business development, quality management.
During the three years our business had for the first time since the establishment of this division (1998) reached over $100 M in sales over a third of which was business generated with Honda.
1997 - 2003Owner and founder, Joint venture with the Japan's number two travel agency to develop new destinations for the Japanese tourists.
- Business development
- National Tourism Offices representation
- Development of Marketing strategies
- Contract negotiations with governments
- Sales and development of Tour packages
- Tour operations
- Overall business management
Developed 25 new destinations within a period of 4 years.
1989 - 1997Project Manager, development of new technology for Diesel Engines (all categories)
International communications and liaison with Engineering consultant in UK and Austria.
Product Development, structural and flow analysis based on Computer Aided Design.
1985 - 1986Supervised Filtration production line, product development and quality.