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66 Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise

Mashaweer

CASE STUDY

M ashaweer is the first personal service achieve his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering

company in Egypt. It’s purely dedicated
from The Arab Academy of Science and Technology
(AAST), graduating in 2008. Part of his undergradu-
to saving its clients’ time and effort
acting as a personal assistant 24 hours ate degree was spent doing a year abroad in Carleton
a day. The personal assistant is a rider with a motor- University in Ottawa, Canada. During the summers
cycle who runs any errands for individual clients or of his undergraduate years, Ahmed completed sev-
corporations at any given time. The most common eral internships in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
service they provide is buying groceries or other Mohamed Wahid also went to AAST graduating in
goods from stores, paying bills, and acting as a courier. 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in construction engi-
Mashaweer’s success relies heavily on their flexibility, neering. Aly El Shazly attended St. Marks School for
and they have often received unusual requests that his entire school career, he then went on to Alexandria
they have fulfilled in order to gain customer loyalty – University where he studied business and graduated
including: going to the gym to tell someone to turn on in 2007. After college, Ahmed El Kordy went on to
the phone as someone is trying to reach them, deliv- work at his father’s import/export business. Mohamed
ering presents to a client’s fiancée every 15 minutes, Wahid went on to establish a company called X-trade
and carrying a client’s shopping bags from the car to for trade and contracting, followed by a marketing and
the house. advertising company called Green Media. Currently,
Mashaweer is an essential service for the Egyptians he’s a main shareholder in both, in addition to being
because traffic is a problem that everyone in Egypt the vice-chairman of Green Towers, a real estate com-
faces, making it difficult for an individual to get a pany with a net worth of about $16 million.
couple of errands done on the same day. Mashaweer’s Wahid thought of the idea of establishing
service has achieved such success in Alexandria and Mashaweer while he was preparing for his wedding.
Cairo, where traffic is an issue, saving people one of His bride-to-be was overwhelmed with errands that
the most valuable commodities out there; time. The she had to get done within a few days and he started
service is able to give people more quality time to wondering what she would have done if she couldn’t
spend with family or friends, instead of taking care afford having a full time driver who did all of her
of the daily errands that usually take up half of one’s errands for her. While on his honeymoon, he kept
day. They also act as a security or safety measure as thinking about this idea and how much time people
they perform people’s errands in unsafe times, such could save and what a valuable service it could be, so
as the period after the revolution or simply late at he decided to call his friends to start transforming the
night. Most individuals cannot afford having a full idea into an actual business plan. After developing
time assistant to perform their errands whenever a business plan, the three entrepreneurs decided to
needed. Mashaweer’s agents act as full time assistants go into the implementation phase and actually build
for every individual at a part time cost. this business. They started small and grew organically
Since starting the company in Alexandria in 2010, as the demand for the service increased. Each of the
Mashaweer has since expanded to Cairo and oper- three entrepreneurs invested $5,000 into the project
ates around 600 orders per day. They plan to expand to total a starting capital of $15,000. They started with
even further geographically within Egypt and to other only 3 motorcycles, 6 riders, and a hotline.
countries in the region as well as enhancing and As the three friends realized they had actually suc-
increasing the services they provide. ceeded in Alexandria, they decided they wanted to
The idea of Mashaweer was created by Mohamed move to the next phase by establishing Mashaweer
Wahid (24 years old) and then co-founded with his in Cairo. When they decided to expand to Cairo, they
partners, Ahmed El Kordy (25 years old) and Aly El decided to adopt a completely different strategy.
Shazly (27 years old). They were all born and raised They wanted to be able to cover all of Greater Cairo,
in Alexandria. Ahmed El Kordy and Mohamed Wahid as a whole, and not just specific areas, from the very
met when they both transferred from different schools beginning. During the Revolution in January 2011
to IGCSE Academy (AAST) for high school. Ahmed El they started gathering market research to expand in
Kordy finished high school in 2 years and went on to Cairo and started investing heavily. Since business

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