My Morning Routine: Karim El Rawas, CEO of Rawas Motors

Karim El Rawas, CEO of Rawas Motors: 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 Rawas Motors CEO Karim El Rawas. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

My name is Karim El Rawas. I am the CEO of Rawas Motors, a family-run automotive distribution and retail business, carrying on the legacy of my late father Mohamed El Rawas. Headed by my father, Motor Trend dominated the automotive scene for over 40 years, primarily serving local dealers as a B2B business and acting as a second distributor for the Mitsubishi brand before the Diamond Motors acquisition. During my undergraduate years, I had to step in and take on part-time managerial roles after my father suddenly passed away. In 2018, I took full control of the business, and the following year, Rawas Motors was born as an entirely separate entity following a top-down restructuring of Motor Trend.

We transitioned from B2B to a customer-facing, B2C retail dealer. We expanded our offering from just one brand to include six standalone dealerships, including Opel, Peugeot, Nissan, Hyundai, MG, and Southeast. Currently, we are heavily increasing our multi-brand showrooms, like our locations in Fifth Settlement and Madinaty. These showrooms allow customers to walk in and compare completely different brands, like an MG, a Chery, a Hyundai, or a Nissan, all in one place.

China’s dominance is undeniable. The supply and massive leap in the quality of Chinese vehicles is the biggest thing we are paying attention to. However, I’m closely observing how legacy European manufacturers — some of whom have been in business for over a century — will react and navigate this new environment. Locally in Egypt, the market is incredibly dynamic. We’ve seen a massive influx of new Chinese brands over the last year, and our job now is anticipating which ones will actually capture permanent market share and which won’t.

I wake up around 8am and immediately make coffee. Then I read Enterprise right away. It’s great for getting in tune before the start of a work day. I head out and arrive at the office around 9:30-10am. The very first thing I do at my desk is check the Egyptian stock market, which is a big hobby of mine.

We kick off the morning with a daily sales and finance meeting to review everything that happened last night and address pressing issues for the morning. Work doesn’t really stop in automotive retail because most car purchases are actually made at night when everyone is free to visit showrooms. In the afternoons, I pay our showrooms visits, talk to the store managers, and see what the pain points or issues are. High seasons — like Christmas, the Eids, and right before summer — are the most rewarding times in the business. We stay in the showrooms until 1-2am, and even at midnight, they are packed with families checking out cars.

Right now, crisis management has practically replaced a “fixed” schedule. Because of that, nothing is technically constant. If there is one constant, it’s that we are always hunting for potential issues and trying to stay one step ahead of them.

Because our family is involved in several businesses outside of automotive, staying organized requires compartmentalization. I used to try to answer unrelated questions all at once, which was a disaster. Now, I strictly block out specific hours of the day for different businesses. Otherwise, you bring your automotive frustrations into a real estate meeting and walk in looking angry without the team knowing why.

I love building and growing things. On a personal and professional level, I’m still young, so work takes total precedence. I want to scale this business rapidly over the next few years. But I am not built for the discipline required to maintain a mature business on a fixed trajectory. Once Rawas Motors reaches full maturity, I think someone else will be more fitting for the CEO role, and I’ll move on to building something new.

I don’t really believe in the standard “work-life balance” for young people. If you’re on holiday, nobody should bother you — otherwise, you’re expected to pick up the phone and have answers ready at any time.

When I do switch off, I love to read. I’m currently reading Ray Dalio’s The Changing World Order, and I highly recommend The World for Sale by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy. I also unwind by heading to the gym or watching a movie with my wife.

The best piece of advice I have ever received is a compilation from both of my parents. My mother always told me to keep on going and keep on trying until it is done. “Try, try, and try again until you get it,” she said. My father emphasized, “If you pursue anything in life, you either give it your absolute best, or just don’t do it at all.” Ironically, right after high school, I wanted to pursue finance, but my dad wanted me to study engineering. However, he said, “If you enroll in engineering just to please me, don’t, because you won’t do it well.” This actually pushed me to study mechanical engineering to prove that I can do it well, and it turned out to be one of the most important decisions of my life.