We didnt take it to the extension where it should have gone. Mudassir Sheikha: And it takes time, it takes thinking. Theres questions that you ask and then, you know, based on the responses that you get, you can get a feel for it, right? So that, you just trained the organization to be on it. : Then we realized that we should become the public transport system for our cities because the public transportation systems were not existent like they were in Europe and the U.S and elsewhere. Mudassir Sheikha: Theres no fixed time but generally nine, ten p.m. Shikhar Ghosh: Okay. Mudassir Sheikha: So thats been a core challenge for the last year almost, for us. So you want them to behave differently if its a critical problem versus its not a critical problem, and so on. Mudassir Sheikha: Some of the people processes is another part of it. And experience is both captains, customers. Mudassir Sheikha: One is like, look, youre not at home much, so youre leaving at six a.m. sometimes, many times. And now we had five different ways of running Careem because these five different leaders were not working in a consistent, coherent way. 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. : So thats been a core challenge for the last year almost, for us. Sheikha and his team did not only focus on providing tech training to these captains. Friday is the day that I-. Mudassir Sheikha: So, I think there is some Thats a great question. Mudassir Sheikha: So literally for the first few months of Careem, we kept phones with us when we were sleeping so if someone calls at three a.m., the phone that rings is the phone that is next to me and it wakes up my wife and it wakes up Magnuss wife as well. And one of the things that were discussing is should we have anyone do this culture test, right? And then our families could raise the flag as well and say you guys are not abiding to the contract that you signed with us. : So we want to start focusing people on the right KPS and then growth will happen. You've reached your 2 free content limit for the month. And the something new, initially, was markets. It would have made us, you know, correct a lot of the hiring decisions. I dont know remember what Magnus had. Turned out they were just false assumptions of the market. Processes were working fine three months ago but theyre not working now. You know, now is that something that you defer to the local, or is it something that you say, no, as a Careem, we have certain values that supersede anything thats local? And if you were in a different industry, you might think about growth differently? But my view in looking back at this is it would have saved us a lot more fires. They know what theyre doing and they are extremely driven and in line with the mission and vision of Careem. But youre building a structure to do that. So after CVC, we said lets start-. And we are basically funding her and we are supporting her to make this thing happen. You know, whats the completion rate of the trip? And automatically are starting to get absorbed in what the system does, versus what people do. Some of the Careem executives other than Mudassir Sheikha, Magnus Olsson, and Abdulla Elyas whose net worth will skyrocket after this transaction are likely to include: Ankur Shah , Chief Finance . You go through that deck, you know, I think in literally half an hour, you get a very good sense of what this organization stands for. Most of them were living in groups in a single room and working the entire seven days to send money back home. So I think the answer is in the competitive nature of this industry. Not, you know, head of HR or not people person. Almost 300 employees of Careem will become millionaires, after Uber acquired the Middle Eastern ride-sharing company. [14] In August 2018, Careem said they would be launching bus services, starting with cities in Egypt in December of the same year. Its an output of you doing all the right things, right? So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. Those are also very respectable growth rates. [8], In 2015, the company acquired a Saudi-based home service company and Abdulla Elyas joined Careem. Shikhar Ghosh: Two years ago. The numbers dont change immediately. 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. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah. The first is the default location for any activity is the city. And the more I get into it, the more I realize that if you just get this right, then this thing will start running like a machine. [42], Uber and Careem faced heavy criticism in Egypt at the beginning of 2016 by local taxi drivers for operating without official taxi licenses. Mudassir Sheikha: And the second framework is if the function is not done at a city level, what role does the country or Dubai play for that activity, for that function. Youre constantly thinking of whats happening in the business or Its actually even more frustrating for them because youre there, but youre not there. Drive experience for our captains and customers thats going to bring growth. But even at relatively high levels in that organization, you had no idea what a business was producing, right? Basically these are starting routes for now. but also educated them on professionalism, compliance of rules and procedures, and most significantly, customer service. "You have to think big from day one," said Mudassir. So one of the elements of it is how do I create something new? : Yes, of course. And then you go home at? Many of our customers will value it for long haul routes. How do you transfer that, then? Shikhar Ghosh: Yeah. In an interview with Al Arabiya, Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha says the UAE-bred ride-hailing service will expand its latest fintech venture, digital payments. Shikhar Ghosh: So would it be possible to get us a weekly calendar? Both ride-hailing companies will operate their respective regional services and independent brands. This thing will start putting the right people behind the right rules. And then people start adjusting to the new reality. Mudassir Sheikha, CEO and Co-founder Careem, Middle East and Pakistan's leading everyday Super App, has made a generous donation of USD 2 million to LUMS to establish the "Sekha Scholarship". Share a story with me, asra@techjuice.pk, India Expects Apple to Triple Investments and Exports Over the Next Few Years, Snapchat Explores Newer Ways to Make Money While Sticking to its Roots, Twitter Goes into Meme Mode as Babar Azam, Virat Kohli, Cristiano Ronaldo Lose Blue Ticks, 10 Ways To Make Money Through Virtual Reality, At Auto Shanghai 2023, Honda Unveils Three Electric Vehicles, the Uber acquisition deal worth $3.1 billion, WhatsApps Exclusive Feature For iOS Users:Not For The Android Users, Employees Secretly Using ChatGPT-AI: Threat For Tech Leaders, Potential Of Cryptocurrencies To Accelerate E-Commerce Growth In Pakistan. Mudassir Sheikha is the co-founder and CEO of Careem, MENA's leading car booking service that is based out of Dubai and operates from Morocco to Pakistan. He grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, before graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in economics and computer science . Shikhar Ghosh: So last question and then we can stop here. So the thing that we have done is weve defined a very clear vision of where we want to be in 2030, right? Mudassir Sheikha: And on the captain side, similar KPIs. : And are you able to keep the weekend blocked off? I would like to do this. And who knows what happens in six months? It completely exceeded our expectations of speed and growth. And what is it that the local market has to adapt for its own thing? : I hope thats happening. : One is like, look, youre not at home much, so youre leaving at six a.m. sometimes, many times. : Yeah. Shikhar Ghosh: And this would have been your job. The spectacular rise of the company resulted . : So youve got to take each of these values that you had, in some ways, which is sort of this is the way I want people to feel in many ways, right? I should have the ability to fire the service provider if the service provider is not performing well. This was not translated to what it means for the different functions because I think if you sit down and think of it, you can do the translation, right? [1][2], Mudassir grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. Latest article by Henry Joseph-Grant, to see more click here. Fundamentally, we . You have to be at a certain scale to be competitive. You have to make sure that the questions youre asking are the questions that get asked by the person that is testing for that value fit. Did you have it or did your wives have it? Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, I think its a good question. [3] Careem expanded into the food delivery business with Careem Now in November 2018[4] and launched a digital payment platform, Careem Pay in April 2022. : And it takes time, it takes thinking. Qatar. Its not even the country, right? [26][27], On 26 March 2019, Uber agreed to acquire the company for US$3.1 billion, including US$1.4 billion in cash and US$1.7 billion in convertible notes,[28] making Careem the first unicorn startup company in the Middle East outside of Israel. She came up with that idea herself. You have to make sure that the questions youre asking are the questions that get asked by the person that is testing for that value fit. : Youve been talking about the vision of slowly desegregating the pressure so it all doesnt come to the talk. Or for that matter, engineering. But the question is why minutes and not hours or days, right? So that vision has been defined and that vision has been somewhat detailed as well at the next level. But thats not what generates anything. So we tried that. And now, of course, were many times that size now. Mudassir Sheikha: So when we get a phone call and say hey, whats going in? And then we regressed. This has to have your signature on it. Subscribe at just $0.17 per day to get unlimited access. So this is something that we didnt pay enough attention to at the beginning, that in hindsight we would pay more attention to. And make that real. : When we raised our CVC, we actually promised ourselves that we will get away from that mindset, that were not going to keep patching things because that whole debt was starting to catch up to us. : 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. If you dont deliver them the right experience, and they get a certain quality of experience from within Careem, how can we expect them to deliver an outstanding experience outside of Careem, right? Okay, this is what I want, now do it. Shikhar Ghosh: Give me a sense of what tough means? See Mudassir Sheikha's compensation, career history, education, & memberships. : And this would have been your job. And automatically are starting to get absorbed in what the system does, versus what people do. Or do you think, like, well figure that out? So that vision has been defined and that vision has been somewhat detailed as well at the next level. Entrepreneur and its related marks are registered trademarks of Entrepreneur Media Inc. Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and co-founder of Careem. And you look at that and you say if Im in engineering or Im in accounting, you know, how do I translate that into do I really want a great experience in accounting? Qatari Sheikh Jassim just bid $7.5b for a soccer team. Shikhar Ghosh, Marilyn Morgan Westner, Mudassir Sheikha and Matt Fischer. And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. Now, of course, it could be cause and effect but when weve invested in people and getting people excited, weve actually seen growth happen I those markets. So we made some progress on it and if you think of our position, our strategic position vis a vis others in the industry, you know, we ar a local player that has to compete with someone that has more money. : And then youve got to have some process or approach by which you can even judge whether the person is a values fit or not. : What did you expect it was going to be when you first started? Every 15 minutes we know where a city is vis a vis last week the same time. : Theyre output oriented. : So, you know, you started up the company. Shikhar Ghosh: You know, this mountain, then the next mountain, the next mountain at the same pace, almost because your growth rate has continued at very high rates. : Profitability then is an output, right? But my view in looking back at this is it would have saved us a lot more fires. So you have to work through other people. Mudassir Sheikha: I think 15 minutes or 30 minutes is within the same range. But some of these values are universal too, right? Not, you know, head of HR or not people person. : The second type of role that a country or Dubai can play is a service provider. Spend the first three to four hours just doing the things that Im supposed to do, which a lot of times is thinking through some of these topics that require more deliberate thinking. Today, the company is the largest ride-hailing company in the Middle East and operates in more than 100 cities across 13 countries. : Somebody that we had in class one day was talking about profitability as being like jet fuel for an airline. Mudassir Sheikha is CEO/Co-Founder at Careem Networks FZ LLC. Finances is one part of it. We need to help them if theyre not doing it. Transportation Acquired Companies With More Than $100M in Revenue, Transportation Acquired Companies With More Than $50M in Revenue, Asia Acquired Companies With More Than 50 Employees, Logistics Acquired Companies With More Than 100 Employees, Customer Service Companies With More Than 50 Employees, Polytechnic University of Turin Alumni Founded Companies, United Arab Emirates Acquired Companies With More Than $1M in Revenue, Quinnipiac University Alumni Founded Companies, Number of portfolio companies associated to the Person, Total number of current Advisors and Board roles the person has, The organization associated to the person's primary job, Where the person is located (e.g. You know, if you miss growth in one hour, then its going to be difficult to recover in the rest of the day. But obviously, changing from six countries to the whole Middle East has all kinds of implications on the organization, how you need to organize, who the people are, how big its going to be. : So we have two frameworks that weve come up with. Is it wrong? 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? You dont know when those plays run out, right? So how will we win against someone like that? So these are the four things that well do to win. But the food delivery or the telecom or the anything else that you start is again going to be brand new, with all kinds of new problems. And this was an initiative that was started by her. Shikhar Ghosh: But you didnt even have a performance management process, right? Mudassir Sheikha, co-founder and CEO of Careem, one of the first unicorns in the Middle East, discovered this the hard way. And we feel grateful that weve been able to attract these people to the journey. Careem has announced its $3.1 billion acquisition by Uber, the largest technology sector acquisition in the Middle East. Uber kept the Careem brand, with Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson stayed on as the company leaders. Why can it not be in the Middle East? And if you miss one day of growth, then its going to be difficult to grow at 30, 40% monthly, which is sort of the targets that we had initially. And you have the features that they want, the payment methods that they want, the interfaces that they want. You did something inspirational. Mudassir Sheikha: If you are constantly looking at these numbers and chasing people when numbers are low, then after a certain point, people start looking at these numbers proactively. 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. But my thing was, look, I enjoy problem solving. Let me just be out there and make sure that we are hitting our growth numbers and we are competing and we are doing the right things. [7], Sheikha is married with a family. There are review meetings that I do and now I actually block the times on my calendar to do thinking. From that came Careem. Right? Shikhar Ghosh: And the KPIs were mostly output-oriented? I get this question all the time from people-. The first is the default location for any activity is the city. Legal, regulatory thing? Like many things that we should have done differently, whether it is in financial processes, or the technology side, they were starting to leave a lot of skeletons that we were then having to go back and fix. And the quality experience is the quality engagement part. Client satisfaction, repeat work from those clients, and there was a belief that if you focused on these things, then they dont have anyone to follow, right? If Qatar's Sheikha Moza is worth $15b, she's undervalued. You have to be at a certain scale to be competitive. Shikhar Ghosh: Somebody that we had in class one day was talking about profitability as being like jet fuel for an airline. But youre building a structure to do that. But for them, Riyadh is probably much lower in the pecking order. Mudassir Sheikha: 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. Because a lot of times what happens is some strategies or things that work for us today and give us growth today will not be the things thatll give us growth six months from now because weve sort of played those things out. But for you, it feels like its more that this is what you have to do to be competitive, but from a pure sort of market share and all of that perspective. And she basically created a team and went after the opportunity. : So quick question, why do you have to hit such high growth rates? Shikhar Ghosh: So, you know, all of that is driven by the external world, right? They start believing lives are due to some extent. We didnt really define what these values meant, what kind of behaviors we expected, took enough time at the beginning when people joined to onboard them properly on these values. So they are starting to become a part of the product. When we did the OS, we have these seven principles now. And I just have to trust that the person on the scene is going to do that? You have to keep finding the next thing thats going to give you a differentiated product, a better product that will command a slight premium on prices because we arent able to be cheaper than them. Anything outside of it, we want it to be as local as possible. : 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 who's more known worldwide for their important work, Moza or a bank CEO? Shikhar Ghosh: So whats an example of an input KPI that would affect growth? : But there was a process, right, where we were even testing people on values. The acquisition of the entire company means that these shares will be acquired by Uber as well creating millionaires. So growth was a big, you know, weekly growth rate. But for the most part, the thing that changed is instead of managing and doing things directly, we started becoming a lot more KPI- focused and when there were big deviations on the KPIs, then we got super, super involved. And basically what that meant was every leader that came in started running their units in ways that made sense to them, based on what they had done prior. [17], In April 2021, Careem launched Careem Pay, a digital wallet for money transfers and withdrawals in the UAE. Europe, Menlo Park, China), Where the person is located (e.g. Shikhar Ghosh: But the way it manifests might be different in each of those cases. [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. But some of these values are universal too, right? And then become a lot more involved in the hiring and the onboarding process. : So, you know, all of that is driven by the external world, right? And the front line for us is the cities. : Yeah, they dont change immediately but weve actually been pleasantly surprised that our colleague NPS, strongly correlates with our growth numbers. This is something that you as the CEO need to own. Mudassir Sheikha: The first principle is driven by mission and values. Mudassir Sheikha: So this real-time nature of the real time transparency allowed us to catch any issues a lot faster and then react to them. Mudassir Sheikha: The biggest learning and the biggest surprise has been around people leadership, right? The task at hand was to find a meaningful purpose for the business they wanted to build. Shikhar Ghosh: So at what point, you know, we hear many companies go through two years of growth, right? [3], In 2012, he left McKinsey & Company to form Careem with ex-McKinsey colleague, Magnus Olsson from Sweden. And they give that thing for 20% less than what youre giving. Mudassir Sheikha: And that did not happen at the quality and the rigor that should have happened. Did you think about that? They need to be rallied and they need to be encouraged and they need to be inspired. : So one opportunity for example, one of our early, early colleagues, she realized that bus, Careem bus was an opportunity. Careem operates in more than 100 cities across 14 countries with more than 1,300 colleagues and well over one million captains on its platform. This thing will start creating incentives for people to take risks. Both on the captain side and the customer side. Mudassir says that when the offer came up, he and Magnus looked to their original purpose for guidance. And even if they find those local opportunities at the same time as us, were able to prioritize them much before them. Thats a very unusual thing. : So would it be possible to get us a weekly calendar? So that task was a surprise that in the role that Im playing now, you know, I can look at Magnus and look at Abdulla and say, look, you guys should play that role, even though they do that role but I feel now this is my responsibility now as the CEO of the business. What were the things that surprised you that as you grew, you know, what were the things that you came in and said, well, this is sort of different from what it was, what I was thinking it might be? We were obsessed with weekly growth rate. Why such high growth rates? Be super, super ambitious. Its sugar high that you get in that process. She assembled a team, asked us to fund this thing. What is the quality of customers that were giving him which is measured by the ratings that he gives to the customers. High-growth companies achieving a billion dollar valuation with their ability to defy the odds in the global south are rare, just like unicorns. Mudassir Sheikha: It had some validity, it had some relevance. And the default role is an advisory role. 1/2. You need to wow them every time. And then you say, so what does that translate to what people have to do? Mudassir Sheikha: You are serving people in different teams in different locations. You could drive growth differently and probably the healthier way if you target lesser, lower growth rates because then you can focus on the right things, which might take a little bit longer to put in place, but theyll bring healthy growth. In an interview that took place before the acquisition was announced, Careem co-founder and CEO Mudassir Sheikha explained what the company had to do to adapt the go-fast culture of a start-up as it expanded rapidly. Mudassir Sheikha: The kids are asleep. Shikhar Ghosh: And at that point, investors are expecting a certain degree of formality and all of that. All the employees of Careem had stock options and their company shares will be bought as part of the Uber acquisition deal worth $3.1 billion. So youve done it a hundred times, right? And if you miss one day of growth, then its going to be difficult to grow at 30, 40% monthly, which is sort of the targets that we had initially. Its not a static thing that we reach and we-. In your case, its been constant. How do you transfer that knowledge? [9] In 2017, the company announced a program to extend maternity leave and hire more women. [34] In Saudi Arabia, Careem and Uber have started recruiting women, as part of the Saudi Women to drive movement. This thing will start putting the right people behind the right rules. So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. And at some point, there were many people reporting to me and Magnus said, look, this is not sustainable. We were obsessed with weekly growth rate. Think big. Mudassir Sheikha: So we have two frameworks that weve come up with. Both companies apps will also continue to operate under separate brands. Those things did not happen as well as they should have. : So this was the other mistake, per se, right? And the third one is theres some things that the country or Dubai needs to control, right? You could almost do any of the jobs yourself. Shikhar Ghosh: Youve been talking about the vision of slowly desegregating the pressure so it all doesnt come to the talk. So amazing experiences. : You know, this mountain, then the next mountain, the next mountain at the same pace, almost because your growth rate has continued at very high rates. : Also the size of the fall is much bigger. So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then youre not even providing a competitive service to the customer or the captain. : The biggest learning and the biggest surprise has been around people leadership, right? The things that we commit to our wives that we will do on a weekly, monthly basis. And now, of course, were many times that size now. You go through that deck, you know, I think in literally half an hour, you get a very good sense of what this organization stands for. So how do you deal with that? I think some of these things are tested locally as well. And when you make the hard choice, you know, I can get more revenue by doing this, you know, heres this person who is our best salesperson, but hes a jerk to all the employees.
Lancaster Guardian Court Listings 2020, Danbury News Times Police Blotter, Why Must We Learn To Duel Now Rowan, Articles M