Randa Ibrahim Abdou, Founder and CEO of Marketing Mix and the co-founder of Creative Lab, grew up in Cairo, the daughter of a university professor and writer, and a stay-at-home mom who was active in Egyptian politics.
They taught her that, “nothing in life comes easy,” and that she would have to work for the things she wanted.
Her entrepreneurial flair became evident at a very early age. “When I was a child, I used to read two books a day. In the morning, I would buy a book for 15 piasters, then by midday, sell the book for 11 piasters, save up my proceeds, and go buy another one,” Randa laughs.
With a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication from the American University in Cairo and a Master of Science in International Marketing from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, she was quickly scooped up by the multinationals after graduation. She gained experience as an Account Executive at Americana Advertising, a Market Research Planning Manager at Proctor & Gamble Egypt, and the Marketing Manager at PepsiCo Foods Egypt.
Her decision to start a business was prompted in 1996 when PepsiCo Foods offered her a move from the marketing department into business development. Wanting to stay in the marketing end of the business, which she loved, she started thinking there might be an opportunity to carve out a niche for a new kind of marketing support company in Egypt, one that would serve the unmet needs of local companies that could not afford to have their own in-house marketing departments despite being in great need of marketing and brand-building support.
As the potential to have her own company became more real in her mind, she decided to take the plunge, quit her job and started Marketing Mix, “Egypt’s first private marketing consultancy business created by a practitioner with multinational marketing experience,” as she describes it.
Her friends thought she was crazy! She was trading a safe job with a steady pay cheque for an uncertain future with no guarantee of ultimate success! Randa admits that the decision was not without risks. “Although I believed in myself and I was confident I could do it,” she confides, “I did keep asking myself, ‘what if I fail – then what?’ But soon she was approached by her first client and from that point on stayed focused on serving the client well and building the business.
“I started from home”, she says. “I had my computer, my phone, my fax – I didn’t need much start-up investment.” For the first six months she worked alone. “It was tough having to do everything all by myself,” she admits, “but I couldn’t afford to hire anyone, and I knew that I was building something for me.”
Early in 1997, when she really needed to bring in someone with marketing expertise to help her, she convinced, Mohamed Khalifa, a man she had met while working at PepsiCo to join her as a partner. And in 1999, the growing company took in a third partner, Ahmed Abdoun.
Businesses: Marketing Mix; Creative Lab
Marketing consultancy firm and advertising agency Years started: 1996, 2001 Location: 28 Tiba, 5th Floor, Mohandessin Employees: 28 Volume of business: Total client marketing
budgets approaching LE 75 million Ph: (20) 012 1042 189 Email: info@creativelab-adv.com Website: www.creativelab-adv.com