Emerging Leader's Problem-Solving Skills Cool Down a Hot Project

Emerging Leader Masooma Morad has worked her way up from being a co-op student at Advanced Control Systems (ACS) in Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada, in 2010, to her current position as vice president of the company as well as developer of the Yamaha/ACS ice scratcher.

Her development and creation of the product, which was her first project at the company, began with a call for help from Yamaha to ACS, a manufacturer of snowmobile products. Yamaha explained that its snowmobile’s engine and tracks would overheat when the vehicles rode on packed ice, Morad says.

Following several experiments she conducted in the lab, Morad developed a product made from 304 stainless steel rope jacketed in a polyethylene tube with a strong replaceable carbide tip at the end. As a set of two, one end of each tube attaches to each side of a snowmobile on the rear suspension rails. The other end contains the carbide tip designed to drag on top of the

Emerging Leader Masooma Morad takes pride in Advanced Control Systems’ community involvement. She has started numerous initiatives with local entities such as sponsoring young snowmobile racers on the Canadian Snowmobile Association and sponsoring kids to ensure they participate in summer camps. She is also committed to integrating sustainability into the company’s products. Photo Credit: Advanced Control Systems

compacted snow, spraying snow into the engine to cool it down. The ice scratcher does the same in both forward and reverse motions of the snowmobile, without breaking the carbide tip or snapping the ice scratcher. If the tip becomes dull overtime, it can be easily replaced without purchasing an entire ice scratcher.

The product was a huge hit in the industry when Morad developed it in 2010. In fact, it is now a common product that most snowmobile OEMs have implemented. “By the time I thought to patent the product, other manufacturers had already caught on and duplicated it.”

She says the most challenging aspect of the project was creating a tip that was not so brittle that it would break on hard ice and, at the same time, one that did not have a strap that was too loose so that it would bounce up and hit the engine.

Morad beams as she recalls the project. “It was one of the best experiences and one in a million that I would ever have,” she says.

“I have hired newcomers who could barely speak their languages, and I was able to speak with them to teach them how to operate a machine,” Morad says.

According to her nominator, these projects are what motivate Morad. “Feeling a fervid sense of purpose, whether in her product creation or simply searching for solutions, she is always looking for customer’s unforeseen needs. This gives her a joyful feeling of accomplishment and perception of being on the right path in life,” says Roudaina Chahrour, digital marketing coordinator at the company.

But customers are not her only concern; she cares a great deal about her new employees as well as her local community. She is a mentor to many who come to work at ACS, which she describes as a discrimination-free environment. Because Morad knows seven languages, communication is not often an issue when working with people of different nationalities. “For example, I have hired newcomers who could barely speak their languages, and I was able to speak with them to teach them how to operate a machine,” she explains.

Morad would like to thank her parents for giving her opportunities she would not have had if they had not immigrated to Canada. “My parents left everything in Afghanistan and came to India as an Afghan refugees, then immigrated to Canada because they wanted better futures and better education for their kids,” she explains. “My dad has his Ph.D. in mathematics, and my mom was a teacher.”