From startup to corporate: Egyptian style

Business Today is an interesting magazine. They usually present a rosy image in most of their stories about the business sector in Egypt. If you're depressed and think there's no hope in the economy or the business community in Egypt, then start reading this magazine. If you live here, you'll find it too rosy and extra positive (that's why I kinda stopped reading it!), if you live abroad, it might encourage you to come back!

They have a story about a favorite company of mine, which I must say is turning into a real success story. This month's cover story is about ITWorx. One of the very rare successful technology companies in Egypt. I'm measuring the success mostly by growth and fit management. Their management seems to have finally pulled their act together after years of struggle and fooling around, and they've finally built a strong base for real growth.

The company started out with a group of geniuses (in my view) back in 1994, but that is never enough to have a start-up take off and mature. Its not just building the product that's important, its how you build it that counts. For years they struggled to manage the company, and manage the few extra number of employees they keep hiring. One of their downturns was in 2002 when they laid-off 40 of their 140 staff (I was dissapointed to see them call this a 'restructuring exercise'). Their biggest asset in my view, which has been there since their start, is their technical savvynes and willingness to get into any endeavor (this does count against a company though).

Even a group of geniuses can turn a good thing into a big mess --but not for too long apparently (if 5 years is not long). Things seem to be turning around big time for them. Still mostly serving big name companies in the US and Europe, but they've established a good name for themselves now, becoming more trusted for the services they provide, and they're finally starting to get a grasp on the importance of quality. They've hired back most of the people they laid-off before, and are hiring more people in an exponential rate (relative to Egypt). They've gone from about 200 to 350 employess in the last year alone, and they're not only doing silly services and sales tasks. Some of what they do is real work.

They're becoming one of the few local companies that believe in their employees, empower them and invest in them, believing that they are their core competency.

They had moved their headquarters earlier to Boston, USA to serve their logistic and sales needs better, but it is a local Egyptian company still. They're the first Cairo-based software company to go open a branch in Alexandria in order to attract the strong graduates from Alex Univeristy who don't want to move to Cairo. They're openning new offices in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Their 3-story building in Nasr City Free Zone is packed with engineers, they're looking for a second location in Cairo. They're finally in a position were they can handle such enormous growth. Only 3 people from those who started the company are still present there today, but they've managed to keep their same spirit which they started with.

I've only heard once before about the other company mentioned in the Business Today article, Open Craft, but I'm very curious as to how it will progress. Some of the other tech start-up companies I'm looking forward to seeing where they're heading are Mentor Graphics Egypt (I consider it a startup) and SysDSoft. One of them is having an extremely messy start management-wise, but if they're able to overcome that like ITWorx did, I'd love to watch the outcome. The other has a typical Egyptian rigid management, which you wonder how long it'll take them to overcome it (if they ever do). But both are visionary and doing very interesting work --real work.