Ahmed Nounou, co-founder and CEO of Garment IO: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Ahmed Nounou (LinkedIn), CEO of Garment IO.

My name is Ahmed Nounou and I am the co-founder and CEO of Garment IO. Garment IO digitizes garment factories’ operations and utilizes AI to help them make better decisions. My day revolves around talking to clients, understanding their needs, and trying to solve their problems. I am also very involved with our team in designing solutions that will fit clients’ needs and exploring new avenues beyond our current client base.

We’re expanding to Morocco next week. We already operate in Saudi Arabia and we’re always trying to explore other territories.

Before Garment IO, I was working as an international consultant based out of Dubai. I was flying on a weekly basis to see clients all over the world. It was a good, well-paid job that I had for ten years and then I started to lose the passion. I had to choose between staying in this stable job with a high income, or listening to my inner voice telling me that this is not me.

It all started with my upbringing. I spent every summer in my father’s factory — my family has been in this industry for a while. I graduated as an electronics engineer, worked a couple of years in an engineering company, then decided to shift to the family business. My objective was to transform the factory from local production to exports. I learnt a lot about the industry, starting from the business side — trying to get clients and financing — through to operations and how to manufacture and compete at an international scale.

The main issue in the industry is that factories operate at very low efficiency and have a lack of actionable data. I had no idea what was happening on the production lines unless I was on the production lines — you don’t know how many pieces you produced and you don’t know where the bottlenecks are. Without this insight, production costs can end up higher than your selling price.

A good factory operates at 60% capacity. You don’t know how well your factory is doing unless you have this live actionable data upon which you can make smarter decisions.

I wake up around 6:30 am. I read EnterpriseAM first thing in the morning — sometimes even before I get out of bed — to know everything that’s happening and get the highlights.

Then I go to the gym, have my morning coffee, and start my workday. I’m trying to spend the first 15 minutes of the day making a plan for my day, writing down the most important things that I need to get done before doing anything else. Then I start with the most important calls I need to make, followed by meetings, whether with outside clients, my team, or other partners.

One of my personal goals is to spend more time with my family, seeing my girls grow. That’s one thing that is very important to me. On the professional level, I want for Garment IO to become a regional and a global company in the near future. We also want to grow on the sectoral level by tapping into other industries.

Maintaining a work-life balance can be a bit challenging for me because I spend so much time at work. Most of my family recently moved to Canada, adding another dimension to work-life balance. I spend around one in every three months in Canada, where I take advantage of the time difference to finish work at around noon and have the rest of the day to spend with my family.

When the workday is done I like to meet people, go out with friends, or do something mentally undemanding. That, and sports. I am very active and try to do activities throughout the day.

I watched the TV series The Diplomat recently and I highly recommend it. I’m also a fan of Ted Lasso.

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