Tunis, Tunisia — Gender has never been an impediment to success for three Arab businesswomen who addressed more than 200 women from all over the Middle East and North Africa at the Middle East North Africa Business Women’s Summit in Tunisia May 24.
“If people have some stereotype about what I can do or can’t do because I’m a woman, I can talk to them for five minutes and eliminate that stereotype,” said Randa Abdou, managing director of Marketing Mix in Egypt.
Speaking at the opening session of the summit, Abdou said it was a matter of having confidence in her abilities. She admitted that she was somewhat apprehensive when she left a secure job with a multinational company in 1996 to start her own business, but she knew that it was the right thing to do. She had been successful as a marketing manager in other companies, and she was confident that she could do it on her own.
“I believe it’s not the system, it’s the people who make things happen,” she told the participants, explaining that she did not credit her former employer for her success. “If you have the skills and the character for it, you can easily do it.”
Abdou’s company, Marketing Mix, was responsible for developing the highly successful marketing campaign for Chipsy, Egypt’s local potato chips, which nearly forced the multinational Lay’s potato chips out of the Egyptian market. Indeed, the campaign was so successful that Pepsico, Lay’s parent company, had to buy out the competitor well above its market value in order to continue doing business in Egypt.
Lina Hindeleh, founder of Jordan’s Philadelphia Chocolates, expressed a similar sense of self-confidence. She decided to open a chocolate-manufacturing company simply out of her love for chocolate, even though she had no previous knowledge of the industry. Despite her lack of background, however, she managed to turn her company into the country’s largest manufacturer of quality chocolates.
“I believed in the project. I saw only success as my ultimate goal,” she told the summit participants. “I had a plan. I had a product. I wanted to succeed, and I succeeded.”
Imen Bakhouche, general manager of Tunisia’s Net Concept, believes that being a woman in business can actually be an advantage.
“I can be enriching,” she said. “I bring different ideas, a different approach. Perhaps it’s the mothering instinct. I can be more empathetic.”
All three of the women view their management styles in terms of team-building rather than directing.
“I don’t supervise,” said Abdou. “I advise. I work as an internal consultant for the company.” She said she cultivates a relaxed atmosphere in the office, telling her employees to sing songs or play football at work as an antidote to the high levels of stress related to marketing. She said the neighboring companies with more traditional work environments find her office “a bit of a zoo.”
Bakhouche expressed a similar attitude toward management. “I’m not a micromanager,” she said. “I’m more of a team worker, a supporter, a motivator than a director.”
The women agreed that the key to management is assembling a good team of employees, and they all said their primary concern in hiring people is character. Even before considering a prospective employee’s skills, they look for people who are pleasant, courteous, honest and direct.
Abdou said that she made a mistake early in her business by not investing more in people. She now realizes that it is worth hiring experienced, senior talent. In particular, she has found it useful to recruit employees from multinational companies. She said these people, who have already had successful careers in large companies, are more likely to be dedicated to making a local company succeed.
Bakhouche agreed. “These are people looking for a dream to believe in, a project to take part of,” she said.
Hindeleh spoke of the importance of being proactive in business.
“You should be the leader of the market, not the follower,” she said. “If you are the leader, you have a vision, a plan, targets.” Without a proactive and adaptive spirit, she said, a company is in crisis.
She said her proactive strategy has been the key to her success when she has faced changes in the competitive field. She said that business is a matter of survival of the fittest and that a businessperson must always be prepared to change, adapt, find new niche markets, expand product lines and seek export opportunities.
Hindeleh said this was this was the case when the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement went into effect and she faced stiffer international competition.
“The free-trade agreement can be seen as an opportunity or a threat,” she said. “If you look at it positively and recognize the need to compete, to improve your product, then it can be an opportunity. If you just stand still and say you will be crushed by the international competition, you’re in trouble.”
The participants at the three-day summit come from 15 countries across the Middle East and North Africa, and not all of them have enjoyed the same ease of entry into the business world as the opening speakers.
Hindeleh told the group that she is not afraid to meet male colleagues anywhere at any time to discuss business, but a participant from Bahrain said that the cultural taboos in her country would not allow her to enter certain male domains. Nevertheless, the Bahraini woman said that she has joined traditionally male professional organizations and goes to all of the receptions and conferences she is allowed to attend in order to advance her business.
“Sometimes I get harsh comments,” she said, “but I don’t care because I believe in what I’m doing.”
The Middle East North Africa Business Women’s Summit is sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative, the California-based Beyster Institute and Women Entrepreneurs, Inc. Over three days, the participants will receive training in leadership, management, marketing and finance, and they will be encouraged to establish stronger networks with their colleagues across the region.
