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. Careem makes a permanent shift to "Remote-First" - LinkedIn I mean, now were not getting growth because that thing is no longer working. And this was an initiative that was started by her. WATCH LIVE. Careem has announced its $3.1 billion acquisition by Uber, the largest technology sector acquisition in the Middle East. Shikhar Ghosh: Yeah. So we have at least defined a principle around I and now were figuring out the KPIs that we should put behind it and then we start changing all the dashboards to focus organization on these KPIs. Mudassir Sheikha: So the companies that come closest are the companies in China like Tencent or Alibaba in the way they sort of became the platform that others are built on top of, and they provide a lot of the enabling infrastructure for internet commerce. Mudassir Sheikha: But the contract was sort of written. Now, I dont know how long we followed that contract, which was sort of the sad part. So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. From the moment that Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson first decided to launch their own start-up in the Middle East, they knew they wanted to build something both "big and meaningful." Almost a decade into their journey with Careem, they are succeeding beyond the wildest expectationson both counts. 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. They feel aligned and driven to make it happen. And there are cultures in which, say women, dont have positions of authority or its harder for them to exert authority. And this is not just in growth, but this is in everything. Even a manager who follows the basic good principles that you have, these behave differently because thats the way organizations are. So basically what happens is lets say, you have this great product that customers love. And one of the things that were discussing is should we have anyone do this culture test, right? : You know, we havent tracked it fully yet, right? Its not a subjective thing. Mudassir then moved back to Pakistan and co-founded DeviceAnywhere, a company that was acquired by Keynote in 2008 before joining management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Dubai. A conversation with Careem Co-Founder and CEO Mudassir Sheikha Rumours of the said acquisition have been floating around since December 2018. 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. Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha at the CNBC Evolve Global Summit : So, you know, all of that is driven by the external world, right? You have to be involved in the process, you have to steer the process, you have to ride the process. She came up with that idea herself. 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: Yeah, they dont change immediately but weve actually been pleasantly surprised that our colleague NPS, strongly correlates with our growth numbers. : 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. It completely exceeded our expectations of speed and growth. Sheikha gave himself the ambitious time period of just six weeks to roll out the first iteration of Careem and be in the market at the earliest. LinkedIn Mudassir Sheikha . Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and co-founder of Careem. So we were very hands-on and theres a culture of being hands-on at Careem. Give feedback to our colleagues to keep growing them, and to drive progress in our communities. And the other times are available for meetings, review meetings and so forth. Be super, super ambitious. Those things did not happen as well as they should have. They know what theyre doing and they are extremely driven and in line with the mission and vision of Careem. : So, I think there is some Thats a great question. In 2018 in Pakistan, Careem and Robin Hood Army took the initiative to feed more than 10,000 people across the nation.[51]. And thats pretty much it. Building upon his experience of working in a Silicon Valley early-stage VC fund, and a mobile testing startup that was acquired by $60 million, he started his mission to develop something meaningful after leaving a secure career at McKinsey. And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. It was a very short time to build any kind of technology, and they skipped a lot of features and launched the service. [9] In 2017, the company announced a program to extend maternity leave and hire more women. With the new acquisition deal worth $3.1 billion, $1.4 billion will be paid in cash and $1.7 billion will be in convertible notes into Uber stock. He received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Lahore University of Management Sciences and later went on to obtain a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2007. [1] The company, which was valued at over US$2 billion in 2018,[2] became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber after being acquired for $3.1 billion in January 2020. 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. What ETA do you get? Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah. The things that we commit to our wives that we will do on a weekly, monthly basis. [30] In 2019, the service expanded into Riyadh and Amman, and announced it was also launching in Pakistan. Mudassir Sheikha, CEO and Co-Founder of Careem. The company also has locations in Najaf and Erbil, Kurdistan Region. Processes were working fine three months ago but theyre not working now. Because you have to be looking at things and deciding when to intervene. Now, I dont know how long we followed that contract, which was sort of the sad part. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and the transaction is expected to complete by the first quarter of 2020. Mudassir Sheikha: But there was a process, right, where we were even testing people on values. And weve had these cases now where we have actually internally debated some of these principles and when we go and interview someone and we find someone that is amazing and very tempting to get that person on board, but not the right values fit, then we have the courage to make the call and say, look, were happy to keep on looking until we someone thats a values fit. : Right. What gets done in the country? : So they are writing agreements with their families now? On day one, literally on day one, one of the first things that we did was we created the first version of our values. Lets hire people that will run this country. : Yeah, so a lot of the interviews are done, if theres a very local candidate, the results are done by the local person, right, thats going to be the manager for that person. So that person can translate and say look, hes ambitious. So they say theres seasonality and theres this and that, so I cant do monthly, even. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. How do you think about that? When is this going to get better? So I come in, Ive only been there three months. And then you go home at? I should have the ability to fire the service provider if the service provider is not performing well. Vince Staples net worth, height, age, family, dati Muni He (golfer) Wiki Biography, age, height, boyf What happened to Stephanie Soo? You have to be at a certain scale to be competitive. So that says that this is by far the most effective sort of way that you can do it. Regulators are typically national. We are a business that whose process and systems are behind where we are as a business. The idea for a transportation service oc. "Sure you can open a retail store, but it's going to be difficult to make it into a large business - a billion-dollar . : Somebody that we had in class one day was talking about profitability as being like jet fuel for an airline. You cannot have the same level of person, quality, systems, all of that, at each local branch. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, so a lot of the interviews are done, if theres a very local candidate, the results are done by the local person, right, thats going to be the manager for that person. Because if you wow them, then they will wow your customers, right? Mudassir Sheikha: A certain relative scale to be competitive in the offering that youre providing, not in anything else. It will slow you down in the very, very beginning because it requires some thinking. Thats a very unusual thing. And then become a lot more involved in the hiring and the onboarding process. Shikhar Ghosh: Right. [2] In Saudi Arabia, women make up 80% of the company's customers. : 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. So that person is living in that context, right? You know, all of that. Shikhar Ghosh: So, you know, this sort of working on these very short time schedules and intervening when things go off, so youve got dozens of markets. Personally as well, but also reinvent the way that youre doing things. So growth was a big, you know, weekly growth rate. The next year it was why just the GCC? The entire company is looking at these numbers. So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. : Yeah, because one thing you have to realize is there are some net worth effects in this business. : So we have two frameworks that weve come up with. We were providing a 24/7 transportation service. Mudassir Sheikha: So this was the other mistake, per se, right? So these are the four things that well do to win. : So look at the Netflix deck, right, which most people respect. 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. Fundamentally, we . We created some values and we just left it there. We signed it. So thats been a huge focus for me for the last six months. It has been over years and Careem has not built some of the features in the original bucket list. And then things would break again and wed buy another six months and then things would break again. Versus what is it that someone on the ground has the autonomy to make their own choices. : Building a structure. 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. Shikhar Ghosh: So, you know, all of that is driven by the external world, right? Shikhar Ghosh: But the way it manifests might be different in each of those cases. Basically these are starting routes for now. [25] Careem is planning to have a female workforce of 20,000 by the year 2020. 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 we tried that. And focusing on people is not just focus on individuals, but focus on the culture-. So analytics just as an example. So just like the buses that we had in the subcontinent where you open a thing, it tells you this is the nearest bus station, go ahead walk to that bus station, the bus will be there at this time. : Experience is an interesting one, right? : where I think the burden becomes higher is sort of to reinvent yourself. [11] In January 2018, they became the first ride-hailing service to launch in Baghdad. Do you think this acquisition will positively affect Careems operations in Pakistan? 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. Mudassir Sheikha: And on the captain side, similar KPIs. And the something new, initially, was markets. [47][48][49] According to investigations conducted by the company, there was no initial evidence of fraud or misuse. So shes making all the decision. Now youve got a sales force, theyre doing their thing. : And a lot of the values around taking ownership start to kick in and people are like, look, this is an opportunity. https://hbsaccelerate.wistia.com/medias/cscc8k9qrv?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640. So thats the way we are approaching those things which require more scientific planning, thinking, and doing. : So this was the other mistake, per se, right? Because you have to be looking at things and deciding when to intervene. So the kids I generally see on the weekends. And then you say, so what does that translate to what people have to do? When we did the OS, we have these seven principles now. Mudassir Sheikha: Or weeks. How does $15b compare to net worth of 100 richest Qatari men? Growth is an output. We are a business that whose process and systems are behind where we are as a business. 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. Mudassir Sheikha - | : So at what point, you know, we hear many companies go through two years of growth, right? Both on the captain side and the customer side. Now, when we put that down we of course debated a lot internally. At that point, we were a bit speechless because we felt that things would get better in two years from when we started the business. Well win by having much better people and by having a culture that drives a certain mission and vision type of behavior. And we started that exercise. And then it sort of, things are in place, youve got product market fit. So that expectation-setting held us for at least the first two years. 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? What ETA do you get? Its not a static thing that we reach and we-. : Its an investment for sure, right? : So, yes. Basically these are starting routes for now. 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. CNBC Transcript: Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha Speaks with Hadley Gamble from the CNBC Evolve Global Summit. Mudassir Sheikha: The second type of role that a country or Dubai can play is a service provider. These are the values that we stand for. Like, okay, yes, if we had done something differently back then, then this would have actually saved us a lot more time. : Yeah. He grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, before graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in economics and computer science . [10], In June 2017, Careem launched operations in Palestine as part of a commitment to create one million jobs in the MENA region by the end of 2018. Mudassir Sheikha: Building a structure. ", "Careem acquires Saudi-based home delivery service Enwani", "Dubai's Careem to extend maternity leave, hire more women", "Dubai's Careem says to launch operations in Palestine", "Where does Careem operate? Did you have it or did your wives have it? 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? So amazing experiences. Published Wed, Jun 16 2021 3:40 AM EDT. Prior to Careem, Mudassir was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients on strategy and business building. They start believing lives are due to some extent. So Wednesday, for example, is fully blocked for thinking. [24] Saudi Telecom in this funding round invested in a 10% stake in Careem. And I think Abdulla earlier this year sat down with me and said, look, you cannot outsource values and Careem operating system to someone else. And I think Abdulla earlier this year sat down with me and said, look, you cannot outsource values and Careem operating system to someone else. : So you want to do the values in a particular way. The service scaled rapidly by ensuring dignity and respect for its captains, and safe transportation solutions for the masses. High-growth companies achieving a billion dollar valuation with their ability to defy the odds in the global south are rare, just like unicorns. And the default role is an advisory role. Its an output of you doing all the right things, right? [16], In May 2019, Careem announced the acquisition of UAE-based bike-sharing startup Cycle which will re-brand as Careem Bike. Mudassir Sheikha: 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. He added: "Going Remote-First is deeply aligned with our values of ownership and trust which drove this strategic decision. [40] We created some values and we just left it there. : The biggest learning and the biggest surprise has been around people leadership, right? 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. And so the pressure on the top comes down a little bit. Shikhar Ghosh: Give me a sense of what tough means? We didnt take it to the extension where it should have gone. With over one million captains spanning across 100+ cities, Careem embraced the diversity of different cultures to build for scale. I profile people and startups contributing to the Pakistani technology entrepreneurial ecosystem. We were obsessed with weekly growth rate. And thats what we believe is the biggest opportunity in the Middle East versus just a mobility opportunity or something else. : So the day looks like start at four. Mudassir Sheikha: The biggest learning and the biggest surprise has been around people leadership, right? You can test people on them. 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 this is something that we didnt pay enough attention to at the beginning, that in hindsight we would pay more attention to. I need to get responses in this time, Im going to pay this much money. During its first two years, to compete against Uber, Careem grew at an unprecedented rate of 30% per month. But my view in looking back at this is it would have saved us a lot more fires. Qatar. 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? And who knows what happens in six months? And family does suffer. We need to help them if theyre not doing it. Shikhar Ghosh: So last question and then we can stop here. Mudassir Sheikha: Then you have to live the process. [8], In 2015, the company acquired a Saudi-based home service company and Abdulla Elyas joined Careem. Now, that vision has been defined. Ive got a company that Im working with that does annual. Six months later, competition does the same thing. Uber kept the Careem brand, with Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson stayed on as the company leaders. And sort of it was within range, right? So you always have to, so this is what we keep telling ourselves, we have to always be better than competition. While Careem started off as a car service for professionals, it morphed into a ride-hailing service for the masses. But my thing was, look, I enjoy problem solving. So to the moon and beyond, be of service. You know, if you miss growth in one hour, then its going to be difficult to recover in the rest of the day. The previous model we used with our restaurant partners did not live up to our mission; so, we pivoted. So basically what happens is lets say, you have this great product that customers love.
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