OUR FOUNDER OF THE WEEK- Every Tuesday, Founder of the Week looks at how a successful member of Egypt’s startup community got their big break, asks about their experiences running a business, and gets their advice for budding entrepreneurs. Speaking to us this week is Mahmoud Khattab (LinkedIn) founder, chairman, and CEO of B.TECH.

My name is Mahmoud Khattab, and I’m the chairman and CEO of B.TECH for the past 26 years, Egypt’s largest omnichannel for home appliances and consumer electronics.

The start of my academic journey was an obligation I needed to fulfill more than it was an earnest pursuit ofeducation. But the longer I spent learning the trade after graduation the more I understood the benefits of continuous non-compulsory learning.

I went on to earn a diploma and MBA in Marketing from City University in Washington and then a DBA in Marketing and Consumer-Based Brand Equity from the Washington International University. During the past 10-12 years I’ve taken six courses at Harvard and one at Columbia University to stay up to date and apply that knowledge to our work.

Higher education isn’t just about honing your skills. It helps you broaden your horizon beyond the limits of personal and local experience. The benefits we’ve seen in B.TECH inspired the learning culture we’ve cultivated there. We don’t just promote training programs — we encourage real professional education.

Where I started my career depends on your definition of the term: If we’re talking about work in general, the answer would be that it began in high school: I started a small successful business with two friends when I was 15 or 16, we printed bumper stickers for cars and sold car accessories.

At first, I wanted to prove to myself that I could do things myself without family’s support. When I felt content with my development and know-how, I joined the family business, Olympic Electric. This was during my third year at university. Afterwards I spent two years in a manufacturing plant and three years at Wall and Floor, a textile company I founded to manufacture, sell, and export silk and wool carpets and curtains.

Around that time, we became authorized resellers of Phillips appliances, and I was made responsible for developing that facet of our company. I spent three years doing so, and my experience working with an international company led me to establish the marketing department at Olympic Electric.

As my expertise grew, I saw that there were a lot of gaps in the market. Through market research, we were able to identify both customers’ and suppliers’ unfulfilled needs.

…and a big issue we spotted was that there was no retail network where suppliers could display their products. And so, in 1997, I helmed the launch of Olympic Stores, a marker of organized retail for home appliances, and in 2001, we rebranded as B.TECH.

There is a lot that sets B.TECH apart, back then and now. The concept of a retail chain, or a power retailer, simply didn’t exist before we established it. We pioneered advanced payment plans for our customers, and our suggested installment plans are tailored to reflect the customer’s budget, taking their income and expenses into account.

Because we were pioneers in that regard, there was a lot of trial and error in the beginning. We had no local experience to draw from and no case studies to rely on in pitches. Access to that information wasn’t readily available — you couldn’t just Google it. We had to create and rework all the processes and workflows from scratch until it finally clicked.

We helped usher in modern trade and retail in Egyptian society and business culture. We pride ourselves in being able to say that any B.TECH branch is only 15 minutes away from any client in Cairo and Alexandria, and we have plans to expand that claim to all Egyptian governorates. Our online platform, in my opinion, is the best and most powerful Egypt has to offer, making our products and services accessible to everyone within the country.

Despite all this, I wouldn’t call myself successful. I can confidently say that we are on the right track — but the more milestones we reach, the more I realize we have so much more to offer to our customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and community. The closest feeling to success is seeing large-scale change based on something you’re a part of.

I think that success, as I view it, is unattainable. It is an endless pursuit, and behind every accomplishment there is a new challenge to conquer, and more work to do. The minute you feel successful is the minute you start stagnating — when you stop moving, you sink.

Changing market norms is on our agenda. We are involved in the retail, consumer finance, tech, and logistics industries. We want to introduce new ways of doing business that enable us to grow and create a high performance culture. We’re proud of the work we do now, but we don’t want to limit ourselves to it.

While I’m fiercely dedicated to my job, I try to fully disconnect when I leave the office. You have to compartmentalize: I don’t believe in integrating your personal and professional life whatsoever. I take my work time very seriously, and I take my family time very seriously. I don’t talk about my personal life at work, and I don’t talk about my professional life at home.

Had I taken a different direction in life, I would have liked to have become either a gardener or a chef. Cooking requires thinking and innovation. You get to make different things, or make the same things in different ways. As for gardening, that stems from my love for nature. It’s also an exercise of taste and beauty. You take care of something and watch it grow and you treat it when it’s not doing well. In both cases, you're not the only person who enjoys it — others can see, taste, feel, and smell the result.

If I have to give one piece of advice to budding business professionals in the retail industry, I wouldsay that if you’re going to study, study failure more than success — learn from the mistakes of others. Use the resources you have, and don’t think that you’re above asking for help.

You need patience to fulfill your potential. I wish I’d said that to my younger self: We live in a world where we need instant gratification, but the best things come with time — pace yourself.

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