Mudassir Sheikha: So we just need to now build that operating system, we call it the Careem operating system, thats going to enable us to build this thing and realize the vision. Like, okay, yes, if we had done something differently back then, then this would have actually saved us a lot more time. : Where things started breaking, we put processes in. I think one is weve been able to build a leadership team thats a lot more capable than what we had ever before. They decided to have a conversation with the cab drivers in the Middle East. And, you know And its not something that is easy to do as well, right? So if theres an activity that needs to be done, the first place that it actually should be done is the city. You know, if you miss growth in one hour, then its going to be difficult to recover in the rest of the day. We signed it. It drops you at a predetermined location. But youre building a structure to do that. : And a lot of the values around taking ownership start to kick in and people are like, look, this is an opportunity. So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then youre not even providing a competitive service to the customer or the captain. So that expectation-setting held us for at least the first two years. So you have to work through other people. We sent it to each other. So they say, you know, you can focus on profitability like you focus on jet You need it in order to keep the business and so on. Or do you think, like, well figure that out? Shikhar Ghosh: So last topic that I want to go through is as youve grown, the issue of you know, what do you keep in the central place that you can learn from everybody? Mudassir says that when the offer came up, he and Magnus looked to their original purpose for guidance. : Yeah. It was when it breaks, were going to fix the problem that broke. 3 Consequences of Hypergrowth & How to Prepare "You have to think big from day one," said Mudassir. : And were going to fix it only enough until the next time it breaks. Shikhar Ghosh: And at that point, investors are expecting a certain degree of formality and all of that. Mudassir Sheikha - Author Biography | Entrepreneur Do you have a demand issue, do you have a supply issue? Mudassir Sheikha: You are serving people in different teams in different locations. : So well hopefully create these type of initiatives-. Four of us sat down, Magnus, Sara, me, Saba, and we basically wrote down what we called the boundary conditions. So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. But rapid growth created internal strain. Not, you know, head of HR or not people person. So we have these three value pillars and there are 12 values. And that seemed like a big business in the Middle East back then, right? So its this thing of saying what are the central functions that you want everyone to do more or less the same way or following the same principles? Shikhar Ghosh: And the cause-effect relationship is never completely clear. Careem is a Dubai-based super app with operations in over 100 cities, covering 12 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia regions. It will slow you down in the very, very beginning because it requires some thinking. : Also the size of the fall is much bigger. Shikhar Ghosh: So in 2017, what was your revenue? : So you want to do the values in a particular way. Then we empower them to the right resources to do this and we support them and do this, right? While Careem started off as a car service for professionals, it morphed into a ride-hailing service for the masses. We just thought get the right people in place and they will figure out what to do. You can say, okay, wow for someone in finance means your customers are not just the external customers, which is you have a limit of external interaction as well, but a lot of your customers are internal, right? And if he do them well, then a lot of the metrics start improving and we started seeing healthier growth happen as a result versus just trying to see, hey, I need 10% growth tomorrow. So lets say some city needs to grow 30% a month, which means seven percent week on week and theyre only growing three percent week on week when I look at the screen, then theres clearly an issue, right? They all knew it was going to be tough. Mudassir Sheikha: A certain relative scale to be competitive in the offering that youre providing, not in anything else. Shikhar Ghosh: Yeah. And then it sort of, things are in place, youve got product market fit. But thats not what generates anything. : So if I could start all over again, I would take that exercise and complete this a bit more. Mudassir Sheikha: Where things started breaking, we put processes in. : So that part, in hindsight was we underestimated that challenge and we didnt invest enough in it. In your case, its been constant. They did not want to be another ride-hailing service. : The people processes, the structure. And then become a lot more involved in the hiring and the onboarding process. : Someone, one of our colleagues that worked with us on the OS, he asked me, do you know where Mackenzies revenue was? Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and co-founder of ride-hailing app Careem, one of the hottest startups on the Asian continent. : But we unfortunately are in an industry that is-. Mudassir Sheikha: So we want to start focusing people on the right KPS and then growth will happen. So I think the answer is in the competitive nature of this industry. Theres a lot of learning that happens across all these markets thats common, even though theres differences. And the other times are available for meetings, review meetings and so forth. : Yeah, so it wasnt really that you said, oh, if were going to be this many people, we need all these processes, lets design the process. The things that we commit to our wives that we will do on a weekly, monthly basis. Shikhar Ghosh: And the competitions telling themselves the same thing, so its this constant movement. : But you didnt even have a performance management process, right? Mudassir Sheikha is the co-founder and CEO of Careem, MENAs leading car booking service that is based out of Dubai and operates from Morocco to Pakistan. We want to be the platform that enables internet commerce in this region. July 2012 Careem is launched by co-founders Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson September 2013 Careem secures funding of $1.7 million in a round led by STC Ventures You know, all of that. And in the beginning, we were not able to hire a lot of senior people that would proactively see that things would not work and reinvent proactively. So analytics just as an example. The organization always spoke about other things, right? So it was difficult to get the caliber of people that we were hoping to get. Anything outside of it, we want it to be as local as possible. Its not a subjective thing. Shikhar Ghosh: So even if you create new businesses, if the operating system is robust enough, then it will morph into that. Mudassir Sheikha - | Every 15 minutes we know where a city is vis a vis last week the same time. : So quick question, why do you have to hit such high growth rates? What will happen? Women were legally allowed to start driving on 24 June 2018, and Uber and Careem women drivers were able to start working on the same day. They want to work at multi-nationals and get a stable career. Mudassir Sheikha: The kids are asleep. Careem is a Dubai-based super app with operations in over 100 cities, covering 12 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia regions. And the quality experience is the quality engagement part. : Or weeks. It requires some implementation. Youre not going to get it exactly right every time, but youre going to get If you ask the question every time, then you can start calibrating as well. We sent it to each other. How do we recruit people? Second is be of service which is the whole serve our customers, serve our captains. Shikhar Ghosh: But for example, if you have something that says that people who work for us should have opportunity. In 2012, he left to form a new company with ex-McKinsey colleague, Magnus Olsson. Or for that matter, engineering. And what have you learned about that? Shikhar Ghosh: And then shes the one who has to think through all of the day to day things and build a team and do all these things. And in the very beginning, even the people that were doing different things were sitting very close to us, so we knew everything that was happening. [12][13], It was announced in February 2018, that Careem has acquired RoundMenu, a restaurant listing and food ordering platform that operates across the Arab world. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, because one thing you have to realize is there are some net worth effects in this business. So how do you deal with that? Generous, the meaning of Careem, defined the ethos of this ride-sharing startup. So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. Once we do this, we can actually start doing a lot more than passenger transport. So I come in, Ive only been there three months. And sort of it was within range, right? He is one of the prominent billionaires of Pakistani origin with unknown exact net worth. So thats the way we are approaching those things which require more scientific planning, thinking, and doing. So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then . Its an output of you doing all the right things, right? I just got on the phone with her early today and shes saying theres another small team that is doing something similar that she would just like to get on board full time. [32], On 4 May 2020, Uber Eats announced they were exiting the United Arab Emirates and that their services would be offered through Careem Now. Dubai's Careem rides high after $3bn Uber buyout If theres a super compelling reason for this thing to be done at the country level, then well do it at the country level otherwise well keep it at the city level. This deck probably took a long time to build and Im sure it gets iterated every now and then. If we become cheaper, they will match our prices and go even below because thats the game they can play. And she basically created a team and went after the opportunity. You know, if you create the right operating system then individuals take the initiative and so they have to deal with the startup phase and all of the two year cycle and all of that. [16], In May 2019, Careem announced the acquisition of UAE-based bike-sharing startup Cycle which will re-brand as Careem Bike. : So in the Careem operating system, one of the principles is invest in experience to get growth. And then one thing led to another. They feel aligned and driven to make it happen. So its this thing of saying what are the central functions that you want everyone to do more or less the same way or following the same principles? So it takes them longer to prioritize. And if you were in a different industry, you might think about growth differently? And you have the features that they want, the payment methods that they want, the interfaces that they want. : Now, on the family front, I think it was the first couple of years we had set expectations with our wives, that its going to be very, very tough for the first two years. And this is not just in growth, but this is in everything. It didnt seem impossible to pull off. Why such high growth rates? Mudassir Sheikha shares how navigated leadership challenges, including balancing family needs and establishing culture, while rapidly scaling Careem. So if some opportunity comes up in Riyadh, we will prioritize it above anything else in the world, right? But there was no sight of things getting better. And make that real. Mudassir Sheikha: So the three pillars are to the moon and beyond, be of service, and take ownership. And that will be true of product and itll be true of markets, itll be true of this thing. Growing at a rate of nearly 30 percent per month turned Careem, a mobile-based ride-hailing service, into the first unicorn of the Middle East. Valley building technology startups, where he was most recently the co-founder of DeviceAnywhere, which was eventually acquired by Keynote Systems. but also educated them on professionalism, compliance of rules and procedures, and most significantly, customer service. And what gets done in Dubai, which is our head office. Its Karachi should do something, Lahore should do something and the people that are running those cities need to be empowered to do those things. Even people that werent hands-on in the beginning, after six months, theyre forced to be hands-on because thats the expectation the organization has because we started doing everything ourselves and thats how we built this. There was probably one or two days that I was supposed to be a home where I could actually meet her before she goes to bed. You could almost do any of the jobs yourself. You start at six? You know, you can be ambitious in Pakistan and you can be ambitious in Egypt and you can be ambitious in Saudi, right? Mudassir Sheikha: In fact, if anything, I felt I was busier two years into it than I was busy in the beginning because there was just a lot more to manage. So we started that exercise, but we didnt complete it. And in the beginning, we were not able to hire a lot of senior people that would proactively see that things would not work and reinvent proactively. Mudassir Sheikha interviewed by Shikhar Ghosh, August 30, 2018, at Harvard Business School. Mudassir Sheikha: Building a structure. Mudassir Sheikha: So the day looks like start at four. Mudassir Sheikha: When you start thinking of this a bit more, the more you think of these things and the more that you discuss these things, you start building more conviction behind them as well. What started in Dubai as a grassroots ride-sharing app back in 2012 has evolved into a . Sheikha is an alumnus of University of Southern California and Stanford University. Mudassir Sheikha, Careem Networks FZ LLC: Profile and Biography When did you shift or start shifting towards the input rather than the output metric? Its sugar high that you get in that process. So at what point did you and Magnus sort of say, weve got to have some discussion with our families, think we should balance this out in some ways? That vision keeps getting communicated to everyone that is at Careem, joins Careem. So that, you just trained the organization to be on it. The movement of things as well. Despite the myriad hurdles which arose at different geographic locations, Sheikha established a company-wide culture that helped Careem thrive during the chaos of meteoric growth. : I think that the thing that was most surprising for me was around people and culture. An ever-expanding vision. So the first two years we bought, and I think somewhere in the second or third year, and it coincided with me having twins and I think there was something happening in Magnuss life as well, where I think the wives forced a discussion on us. Comparatively the first year of growth was slow for the company, but the next two years experienced a 30 percent growth per month. How do you transfer that, then? Versus what is it that someone on the ground has the autonomy to make their own choices. You can do it. So scale is important. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah. So thats what the definition of tough maybe was in the early days. [7], Sheikha is married with a family. Full interview with Careem Founder and CEO Mudassir Sheikha Certain aspects of the brand are part of it, but for the most part, we want to empower the front line and have them drive the decisions and only support them as an advisor versus become service providers or controllers. But some of these values are universal too, right? July 22, 2022. : And at that point, investors are expecting a certain degree of formality and all of that. Two hundred employees will become dirham millionaires and about 75 will become dollar millionaires. Can we help you with anything? And that has more engineers than us. Theres always something thats going right and wrong with different markets. : But there was a process, right, where we were even testing people on values. 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