Ahmed El Banna, founder and CEO, Lighthouse Construction: 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 founder and CEO of Lighthouse Construction, Ahmed El Banna (LinkedIn). Edited excerpts from our conversation:

My name is Ahmed El Banna. I’m the founder of Lighthouse Construction and the CEO of two companies, including Lighthouse, and the managing partner of a third. I’m 35, married, and a new dad to a baby boy.

All of our work centers around construction: We have a holding company, an aluminum factory, and Lighthouse Construction. The aluminum factory produces and fabricates aluminum products like facades and windows. Lighthouse handles all aspects of construction for our clients, providing a full turnkey solution from design to execution. Whether a client wants to develop an apartment, office, or commercial space, Lighthouse brings their concept to life.

My day job focuses on anything and everything strategy-related in the organization. My role focuses on strategy and overseeing every department to ensure we’re on the right track. I manage both current and future projects, and keep an eye on our finances to make sure we’re always moving forward.

Problem solving is something I have to do almost everyday, whether with issues that arise in the marketing, finance, or business development departments. My job is to guide the team toward a resolution and provide the direction needed to keep things running smoothly.

I didn’t start my career in construction. After college, I worked as an investment banker in Boston, jumping between a few banks before returning to Cairo. I continued in investment banking here, working for a firm under then-investment minister Ashraf Salman. But I struggled to find my footing in Egypt’s investment banking landscape — it was not the right time, given the revolution and political changes.

I strongly believe in ‘learning by doing.’ There are many people who study something in school and end up doing something completely different. I can say that I have already accomplished a lot by doing in my career — and of course I had my father’s backing and years of family know-how that helped me start my business.

My family has been in the real estate development business since the 1970s, and after leaving investment banking I was looking to get into the construction space. I started working with my father and then I found my own footing as the industry grew in Egypt. There was a lot of money being poured into infrastructure and construction projects, and with my family expertise in real estate, I decided to open a business that correlates with this sector, starting both Lighthouse Construction and the aluminum factory at roughly the same time. There were many opportunities in the market and a gap for real, professional, fit-out construction companies that could measure up to the high-end designers and large-scale projects that were coming out. I saw this market gap and that's what inspired my company.

Modernization is the biggest trend in the construction industry right now. The whole market is really being uplifted, with multiple local and international companies moving into the space and bringing modern takes on construction with them. We’re keeping up with these modernization trends in Egypt, with improvements to finishings and construction as a whole. All industry players are trying to move forward and are looking to use new materials.

I wake up and I’m directly on the phone. My wife definitely doesn’t like it, but there are a lot of very early morning phone calls. I discuss any urgent issues and updates with the project managers on-site, and then I start setting up my day. I get ready, and then I take some time to play with my kid. I try to spend as much time as I can with him in the mornings before the office. It’s the best part of my day. At this age a couple of his smiles give me the biggest boost I need — knowing that I have this little guy to come home to at the end of the day really is a motivation of its own.

I then go through my important emails, including the EnterpriseAM newsletter. It's important to see what the news is like each morning, and I especially enjoy reading other people's stories.

Every work day in the construction sector starts with troubleshooting. I wake up to issues in different sites, and I have to manage the progress of each ongoing project and set daily to-dos with the respective project managers of each site. After that, I tackle any problems as they come in a timely manner. A lot of it also includes having meetings with representatives from companies we are currently working with.

Our biggest project now is with the Italian oil giant Eni, so if I am not on-site there I would be at the office tackling issues, setting up project milestones, and organizing progress meetings with our Italian counterparts. The latter part of the day is for planning the week ahead, including procurements and resource allocations across different projects.

From a business perspective, the one constant in my day is tackling problems with a cool head. As in life, I believe it’s important to keep your cool when trying to solve problems. It could be a delayed contractor, materials that are not coming in fast enough, or a milestone that we’re behind on, but we believe that whatever problems arise, we have to take them on calmly with the goal of fixing them in a timely fashion. As a CEO that’s my main focus everyday, and I believe that my job mainly relies on keeping everything harmonious, and everyone in the company aligned and focused.

A checklist is what keeps me focused and organized. I like to write down all the tasks I have to complete, and all the goals I need to focus on, and then just chip away at them one at a time. I set these daily, but I also have one for the week. That’s honestly how I keep myself sane.

On a personal level, I am looking to spend as much as I can with my family. I want to be there for my son and to try and give him the best life possible.

Professionally, I would like to grow all my companies going forward to become the market leader in aluminum fabrication and construction. The goal is to separate ourselves from the competition and to continue to expand into larger projects, improving our brand name and portfolio.

Work-life balance really is a challenge. When running a company you’re working almost 24 hours a day. I’m on the phone most of the time, even after my work day is over. Even weekends are a struggle because it’s not a nine-to-five, you have many responsibilities.

Spending time with my friends and family is how I like to switch-off. I enjoy going out with my family to have a nice meal, meet some friends, unwind and spend the day together.

A book that I believe has been very influential in my life is How to Win Friends andInfluence People by Dale Carnegie. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to succeed. I believe a big part of success will always be how you deal with people, and no matter what business you are in, you will have to learn how to deal with colleagues, employees and employers.

The best piece of advice I’ve received came from my father, which was to always give 100% focus to what I do everyday. Work is extremely important for success and the most important thing is not giving up. He taught me that often things can be very tough as a business owner, you can have tough times like cash squeezes and problems at work, but what gets you through it is resilience.

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