Mohanad Adly, CEO of Spinneys Egypt: 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 Mohanad Adly (LinkedIn), the CEO of Spinneys Egypt. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

I am first and foremost a family man, a father to four beautiful kids — two boys and two girls. Professionally, I’m a retailer. I’ve been in the grocery retail business for over 20 years now. I’m currently the CEO of Spinneys Egypt, which is one of the leading hypermarket and supermarket operators in the Egyptian market. I also serve on the boards of a couple of companies: The local arm of Alamar Foods — which has the franchise rights of Dunkin Donuts and Domino’s Pizza across the region — and Banque Misr’s Misr Capital Investment Fund.

I wake up around 8am and spend a couple of hours at home before I head off to work.First thing I do is take a couple of minutes to go through our trading performance report — a very brief summary of how our stores fared the day before in terms of sales, customer numbers, and basket size. Then I jump straight to EnterpriseAM, which I think is a fantastic way to keep up with business and economic news. I’m all about a wholesome breakfast. Unlike almost everyone I know, I can’t do with just coffee and a sandwich. I have a big breakfast every day, often while doing some more reading.

I do a considerable amount of work at home before I leave for the office, including responding to emails and making calls.

As the saying goes, life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. I studied political science and philosophy back in uni with the goal of joining the United Nations. I applied there when I graduated, but before I heard back, I ended up working in marketing as a favor to one of my friends. He was collecting CVs at the request of his boss, and I agreed to give him mine because I believed I wouldn’t get chosen for the job. As luck would have it, I landed the job and decided to take it as a way to fill time while I waited on the UN’s response. The rest is history — I haven’t left the business field since.

I started my retail career at Metro,which I joined as marketing and purchasing director at 26 before getting promoted a year later to managing director. Because of my early success there, I received plenty of job offers from other retail companies looking to establish and expand their footprint in the market. I joined Azadea Group — which has the franchise rights for a number of fashion brands like Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Bershka — for almost a year and half as country manager. I was then approached by the Spinneys board, which convinced me to move back to grocery retail as CEO. Together with my amazing team, we managed to grow the company from only three stores back in 2014 to its current 25 stores with a multi-bn EGP annual turnover. We have very ambitious plans for further expansion in the market.

I dedicate one day of the workweek to market visits. During that day, I either visit our stores or evaluate new sites for prospective stores. It’s very important for me to engage with the workers at our stores and listen first-hand to feedback from customers. This kind of engagement is how we are able to make things better for our staff and customers, and it’s the culture I try to promote across the company.

I’ve been writing monthly economic articles for Al Ahram and Akhbar Al Youm since 2016. I did a couple of interviews with Al Ahram back then that were received very positively and got lots of reads, so they asked me if I’d like to share more insights in writing. My stories are all related to my field and business in general. I mostly write about the obstacles faced by investors in Egypt and how we can create a more investment-friendly business environment.

My late father used to give me the best advice because it was always tailor-made for me, taking into account my individual weaknesses. One of the most valuable things he taught me is patience, which was one of his greatest virtues. When I was a kid, we often used to go fishing together and we’d wait hours on end to catch something.

Work-life balance becomes more and more important as you grow older. It’s ok to be more career-oriented early on in your professional life, but once you start a family of your own, it’s important to try and spend as much quality time as you can with your children. At this point in life, they are the main reason I’m eager to succeed in my career. I work to provide for my family and to set a good example for my kids, but it’s equally important for me to look after them and witness important milestones as they grow up.

I try to get home from work at least a couple of hours before my kids go to bed so I can spend some quality time with the family. After that, I workout with my gym buddies. It’s the best way to de-stress after a long day at work. I’ve been working out every day since I was a teenager. After I hit 40, my goal at the gym has been to stay fit while remaining injury-free. I’m now focused more on cardio training and less on muscle building.

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