DUBAI: When Mohamed Abd El Azeem quit his job after more than 10 years in the marine engineering business, you can hardly say he took the obvious next step.
Having worked at companies including the National Marine Dredging Company in Abu Dhabi, the 36-year-old Dubai resident changed tack entirely – and went into the cosmetics business.
But while that may seem like a tidal shift in his career, the Belgian-Egyptian entrepreneur says that, in terms of management skills, it doesn’t really matter what sector you are in.
For him, the principles of running a business remain the same whether you’re dredging canals or designing cosmetics.
A business is a business,” he says. “All the criteria, the angles and the way you do it has to be done in a very similar way. It doesn’t really matter what products or services you are selling, or how big you are. At the end of the day it’s the same thing.”
Mr El Azeem worked as a finance manager for his former company in Abu Dhabi for three years, but during much of his spare time was also setting up LeSoie, which sells personal care items including hair products and facial creams – but not make-up.
It has three branded stores in the UAE and ambitious expansion plans globally. LeSoie stores all run under franchise and Mr El Azeem aims to open 25 outlets a year, concentrating on the Middle East, eastern Europe, and countries such as China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and India.
While working at his former job in Abu Dhabi, Mr El Azeem was also studying a part-time executive MBA course at Hult International Business School – something he says prepared him for work in any sector.
After you do an MBA, you are really up to the standard to operate any business, to be in any corporate or a family business, or be an entrepreneur,” he says.
After he graduated from the two-year course he immediately quit his day job, and started working full time as chief executive of LeSoie in August 2014.
The business handles everything from the formulas for the cosmetics – which are manufactured in Belgium before being shipped to Dubai – to the design of the packaging.
