EP 6: Stavros Paraskevaides: The challenges of steering BMW and Rolls-Royce in Saudi Arabia

What this episode covers

This week on The Auto Ethnographer podcast, host John Stech speaks with Stavros Paraskevaides, located near Athens, Greece. Stavros recounts the challenging eight years he spent in the Middle East and how he managed a wide array of cultures within a distributor operation. He now puts those learnings to use for clients at SP4A Advisory, a consultancy he founded in 2021. Stavros led BMW and Rolls-Royce at the brands' largest distributor in Saudi Arabia, a large company with multiple locations and over 1,500 employees. These employees stemmed from the Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia, bringing with them many traditions, work ethics, and cultural differences. He also worked for another distributor in Qatar, responsible for the Hyundai, Genesis, and Chevrolet brands. Here, the challenges were similar. Prior to his Middle East journey, Stavros worked for Mercedes-Benz in several countries including his native Greece where he rose to Managing Director of the brand. He also led Sales Operations for the brand in the United States where he found Mercedes-Benz USA to be a vastly different scale than what had known in Greece. He speaks about his experiences during his first overseas working experience during the podcast. His career originally started with Toyota Motor Company in Greece before making the move to Mercedes-Benz. SP4A Advisory:  https://www.sp4advisory.com/ MotorWerks Garage:  http://www.MotorWerks.gr [http://www.motorwerks.gr/]