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MCG821S MANAGEMENT CONSULTING - 2ND OPP - JAN 2020 |
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NAMIBIA UNIVERSITY
OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
QUALIFICATION: BACHELOR OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT HONOURS
QUALIFICATION CODE: 08BBMH
LEVEL: 8
COURSE CODE: MCG821S
‘| COURSE NAME: MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
SESSION:
JANUARY 2020
PAPER:
THEORY
DURATION:
3 HOURS
MARKS:
100
SECOND OPPORTUNITY EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER
EXAMINER(S) DR. CHRIS VAN ZYL
MODERATOR: MS. LOIDE SHIKALE
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Answer ALL the questions.
2. Write clearly and neatly.
3. Number the answers clearly.
PERMISSIBLE MATERIALS
1. Business Calculator
THIS QUESTION PAPER CONSISTS OF 13 PAGES (Including this front page)
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QUESTION 1
Analyse the attached case study “Kamal Reggad” and respond to the following aspects:
a) What does the comprehensive SWOT analysis reveal about the company and the
market within which the company operates?
[40]
b) What are the key drivers in the market which influence the company’s performance?
[10]
c) Which key aspects within the company itself need to be changed in order to adapt to
the market?
[10]
d) What will your first proposal look like that you will submit to the company?
[10]
e) Provide an overview of how you will manage this project (Project Management).
[10]
f) What recommendations will you make to change the client company’s situation or
performance?
[10]
g) Provide an outline of the Final Consulting Report that will be submitted to the client
company.
[10]
TOTAL MARKS: 100
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Kamal Reggad and e-commerce
entrepreneurship in Morocco
EL OUDe Tyee eee saree
SE
a
Abderrahman Hassi, Dalal Rachid and Badr Lahrichi
Abderrahman Hassi is
Assistant Professor of
Management at Al
Akhawayn University,
Ifrane, Morocco.
Dalal Rachid and
Badr Lahrichi are both
based at the School of
Business Administration,
Al Akhawayn University,
lfrane, Morocco.
Disclaimer: This case is written
solely for educational
purposes and is not intended
to represent successful or
unsuccessful managerial
decision-making. The author/s
may have disguised names,
financial and other
recognizable information to
protect confidentiality.
Introduction
Kamal Reggad is a Moroccan entrepreneur who, in 2010, created the company Menaclick,
an online business specialized in selling and promoting various products and services
nationally and internationally at discounted prices. Goods and services are posted on
Menaclick’s website www.hmizate.ma, which means “good deals” in Moroccan Arabic
(Menaclick’s website). The Hmizate platform operates a daily-deals and group-buying
website offering discounted deals mostly to Moroccan customers. The deals are mainly
about traveling, food, esthetics, shopping, high-tech gadgets and recreational events (Eco,
2013); between 500 and 600 customers make orders on Hmizate every day (Amine, 2015).
Menaclick is based in Casablanca, Morocco, and its website is one of the most popular
websites in the country (MarocPress, 2003), with over 1.2 million visitors per month (Amine,
2015).
While on a flight to Amman[1], Jordan, Kamal chatted for over 4 h with the person sitting
next to him on the plane, particularly about his ambitions to develop an e-commerce
business he had launched in Morocco in efforts to respond to the limited e-services in the
country. Kamal did not have the slightest clue of what was happening to him as he shared
his ideas with his new flight neighbor. The “stranger” believed in him and his ideas; that was
a turn of events that would change the course of a prospective career destined to skyrocket
toward new heights. After landing at the airport, Kamal’s new friend, offered him the deal
of a lifetime. He offered to invest US$1.6m in his ideas proposing to be the primary investor
in Kamal’s new e-business venture in Morocco (Mayard, 2013). Kamal’s professional life
changed dramatically from that pivotal moment in time.
In the past few years, Kamal has been significantly contributing to building the
groundwork of the e-commerce industry in Morocco. This contribution has been
changing the way Moroccan customers shop for goods and services. In fact, it is owing
to the merits of group-buying sites such as Hmizate that over 16 million Moroccan
internet users smoothly navigate the net daily to buy products and services online
(Maroc Numeric Cluster, 2014).
Menaclick’s contribution to the e-commerce business in Morocco has been increasing
since 2010 (Amine, 2015). In January 2011, with the assistance of only three loyal
employees, Kamal launched www.hmizate.ma, a leading daily-deals site focusing on travel
(MarocPress, 2003). In national competitions, the online business was voted the Best
E-Commerce Site for two consecutive years and the Best Moroccan Innovating Brand in
2013. In June 2012, Kamal launched the first online marketplace in Morocco branded
www.hmall.ma. The platform aims at providing thousands of merchants the opportunity to
connect with millions of consumers across the country.
DO! 10.1108/EEMCS-05-2015-0073
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In August 2014, Kamal launched www.vayago.com, a hotel-booking engine that features
more than 150,000 hotels throughout the world at very competitive prices. The platform
offers Moroccan customers the rare opportunity to pay for their travels abroad in their local
currency (Damera, 2015) — the Moroccan Dirham (MAD; US$1 = MAD 9.6). The use of local
currencies to purchase goods and services was an untapped niche given the fact that the
majority of Moroccan travelers have extremely limited access to international currencies
such as the euro and the US dollar.
Background
Kamal Reggad was born in 1982 in Oujda, a city located in the northeast of Morocco. The
fact that he was born in a medium-sized city as Oujda did not stop him from pursuing his
dreams and achieving his ambitions by developing and nurturing an innovative business
idea. Kamal was lucky enough to be born in a family that could afford to send him to the
USA for his undergraduate and graduate studies (Reggad, 2012) after graduating from
high school in Morocco. He majored in Computer Science and Mathematics for his
undergraduate program at a Boston-based university. He further pursued graduate studies
at the same university majoring in Computer Engineering and Management (Reggad,
2013). Kamal ended up settling in the USA for 14 years after his university studies (Damera,
2015). It was his aspirations for his own business that brought him back to his native
country Morocco.
Both professional and academic experiences contributed to making Kamal the leader he is
today. After successfully obtaining his bachelor’s and masters’ degrees, Kamal worked at
Harvard University’s Technology Research Center as an analyst from 2001 to 2003.
Between 2003 and 2007, he worked as an engineer for various corporate companies and
firms such as L.E.K Consulting. Finally, between the end of 2007 and 2011, he held the
position of a lead systems engineer at TIBCO Software, which was his last salaried job in
the USA. Indeed, after resigning from his last position, Kamal created his own company
named the Moroccan American Bridges.
Upon his return to Morocco, Kamal began his working career in a magazine called
TechnoMag, specializing in technology and software news. However, he was not excited
by the work he was doing and, one day, he just quit his salaried job. Kamal contends that
excitement and passion are major catalysts for work, performance and achievements.
Hence, people should not remain at their jobs if these catalysts are lacking (Reggad, 2013).
Spotting entrepreneurial opportunities
Kamal firmly believes that entrepreneurs, business leaders and managers should all have
the ability to detect problems first, and then think about ways to solve them. Although many
people may think that finding a solution is the most important part and eventually the most
difficult thing to do, for Kamal, nonetheless, finding problems is, by far, more difficult than
thinking about appropriate solutions to address them (Reggad, 2012).
During his last year in the USA, Kamal was supposed to come back to Morocco, so he
began looking for a house in Morocco through the internet. However, he could not find
appropriate searching tools similar to the possibilities offered to customers in the US market
where numerous websites make the searching process and experience easier. Kamal
spotted a huge need in the Moroccan context in this regard. He considered this need as
a business opportunity and believed in his idea, especially that websites are flourishing
worldwide and people are making money out of them (Reggad, 2012).
This detrimental lack of e-commerce services in Morocco is because of several factors,
notably the fear that Moroccan shoppers have toward buying online, issues related to
protection of confidential information, lack of advice during the online business transactions
and also because Moroccan customers are not aware of the “deals” websites.
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After analyzing this twofold business problem, Kamal decided to move forward and
confront market forces in the e-commerce business. He did so by creating the first
e-commerce website during the early days of 2011, namely, www.hmizate.ma with a
billboard campaign, a first for a website in Morocco. After only a three-week teaser
campaign, the website registered 30,000 users (Mayard, 2013). www.hmizate.ma was only
the first solution he had in mind for this problem; then, two other ventures came
successively right after, namely, www.hmall.ma and www.vayago.com.
After “detecting the problem” and finding the right product to sell, Kamal thinks that the
best second step should be “knowing the market”. In his case, he realized that there was
a trust issue in the Moroccan e-commerce industry which led him to believe and invest
heavily in marketing and billboards.
From the onset, Hmizate faced a major challenge consisting of Moroccan consumers fear
about online payments (Mountaj, 2015), particularly that the payment method in question
was new in Morocco and seemed like a mystery to many people. This fear refers to
consumers having second thoughts about providing their credit account information over
the internet because of the potential risks of e-fraud (Centeno, 2002). Efforts of several key
players in the industry such as Maroc Telecommerce and Centre Monétique Interbancaire
over the past five years have paid off (Mountaj, 2015). In fact, a great deal of work on raising
awareness about online transactions risks and securing online payments has contributed
to minimizing e-payment frauds for both merchants and consumers.
Venture launching and financing
After accumulating many years of professional experience, Kamal Reggad felt ready to
create his own company (Damera, 2015). Indeed, by mid-2010, he developed the concept
of e-commerce in a new market which is Morocco, his native country. To this end, he
invested all his savings; this demonstrated his self-confidence and courage, and, more
importantly, it showed investors that he genuinely believed in his idea.
In June 2012, on a late night flight to the CoE-Commerce event, which was a forum
organized by Wamda in Amman, Kamal had no idea about the person sitting next to him
who was also heading to Jordan from Istanbul (Mayard, 2013). His flight neighbor was
particularly intrigued by the book Kamal was reading which was the biography of Steve
Jobs. The latter was the catalyst for a life-altering extensive 4-h discussion about business.
Despite the early hour of the morning, precisely 3:00 a.m., Kamal chatted for about 4 h with
the person sitting next to him; he answered all of his counterpart’s questions, narrating his
academic and professional life; he also spoke about his career ambitions, especially those
related to launching and developing an e-commerce business in Morocco because of the
lack of such services in the country. However, it did not cross Kamal’s mind that all that
late-night small-talk would lead to something acknowledged and formally recognized
(Reggad, 2013).
Kamal was able to unintentionally convince his new flight-friend to invest in his project. After
landing and once in the airport, surprisingly, the gentleman gave Kamal his professional
card and informed him that he would be delighted to invest in his business venture. The
new flight-acquaintance and prospective business partner was Pamir Gelenbe, a long-time
entrepreneur operating in the billboards businesses and an investor in Hummingbird
Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Belgium. The potential investor was impressed by
the way www.hmizate.ma was self-funded and only a month from being profitable. He
requested that his talk with Kamal should get more formal. The follow-up meetings between
Kamal and Pamir led to Hmizate securing US$ 1.6m in investments (Mayard, 2013). The
latter was approved by the Moroccan Foreign Exchange Office.
This investment constituted a good sign for Hmizate, as it opened up new opportunities and
possibilities to better serve Moroccan customers. It was used to develop new products and
services, to attract human capital and expand Hmizate’s activities in North Africa.
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It should be highlighted that Kamal had never approached any investors, neither at events
nor on any other occasion. During his trip to Amman, his intentions were not to seek
financial capital but rather to share ideas on subjects of interest (Reggad, 2013).
This source of financing was successful because of one practice that Kamal cherishes:
talking about his project of Hmizate.ma not only for the pleasure of doing it but also to
promote it passionately by word of mouth. For him, your project is your “baby”, and you
have to talk about it as much as you can to tell the entire world how much you care about
it. And as all the parents of the world, Kamal is proud to talk about his “baby”. He is never
shy to share ideas and information with colleagues, friends and people interested in his
projects (Reggad, 2013). This personality trait also helped him attract a friend to join his
Hmizate team; this friend has expertise and valuable references in the adverting industry in
Morocco; he significantly contributed to Hmizate launching a discounted billboard
campaign. In short, Kamal’s idea of spreading the word about Hmizate has been a key
success factor for his firm.
E-commerce in Morocco
In Morocco, there were 387 active e-commerce businesses in 2013, including more than 30
deals websites with a total of 1,945,959 transactions and MAD 1.36bn (Les Eco, 2014). This
trend seems promising as just three years earlier, the concept of website deals was in its
infancy. Presently, website deals represent 11 per cent of online sales. As this trend
continues to grow, Moroccan customers, with an avid appetite for great deals in a timely
manner, surf for websites that offer amazing discounts on goods and services starting at 20
per cent off and more; Hmizate discounts go as high as 85 per cent. These represent
phenomenal deals for young Moroccan shoppers who know exactly what they are looking
for in their purchases. They buy mostly online travel deals and, to a lesser extent,
computer-related products, clothes and pay their bills (Reghai, 2014).
Menaclick is the market leader in the e-commerce industry in Morocco with more than 60
per cent market share. Until recently, its main competitor was the Chicago-headquartered
firm Groupon. Nonetheless, Groupon shut down its activities in nine countries, including
Morocco. Other competitors include Jumia, a carbon copy of Amazon company;
Shoppeos, a firm specializing in textile; and Microchoix, specialized in electronics,
household appliances and computer supplies.
Despite the fact that the potential of this market is evaluated in billions of Moroccan
Dirhams, the operating companies cover only 20-25 per cent of this market.
Hmizate performance and success
The success story of Hmizate began with a website basically providing one deal per day,
called “Deal of the Day”, but owing to an increasing demand and potential clients, the
Hmizate team raised it to 50 deals a day. Hmizate is now the favorite website of deals for
Moroccan online shoppers compared to eight other online firms (Amine, 2015).
The website is all about deals that Moroccans can buy via the website and enjoy right
immediately; this includes, for instance, special foods, spa services, hotels and travelling
deals. Despite Hmizate.ma's success, this was not enough for the young and ambitious
entrepreneur. Therefore, in June 2012, Kamal decided to enter a new e-market segment,
namely, e-shopping, with Hmall.ma (MarocPress, 2003). This new business was also the
first one on its kind in the Moroccan context. It allows Moroccans to get in touch with a great
number of merchants and directly buy their products online. Hmall.ma is the Alibaba.com
of Morocco.
Although Kamal does not share information about the financial situation of Hmizate, he
nonetheless disclosed that his business had generated more than MAD 30m for its owners
(Média, 2013). Since its inception, the firm has been witnessing a double-digit growth with
more than 300 per cent for Hmall.ma and 30 per cent for Hmizate.ma (Mountaj, 2015). The
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latter sold more than 600,000 vouchers in 2014 (Amine, 2015). On average between 500
and 600 customers buy on the Hmizate website on a daily basis. It is the leader of the
deal-based website niche in Morocco in terms of sales, with between 40,000 and 50,000
visitors a day (Mountaj, 2015), and more than 912,000 of fans on Facebook. Presently,
Hmizate counts more than 60 employees and keeps consistently hiring personnel. It has set
an objective of reaching one million members, and to offer new products and services to
these customers.
Hmall.ma currently counts more than 100 partners in Morocco, providing more than 10,000
products, which it delivers the same day or within five days (MarocPress, 2003). Vayago,
the recent start-up, has a wide offering of more than 150,000 hotels worldwide with the
possibility of booking with a Moroccan credit card only. This payment possibility is
considered as a revolution in the e-commerce context in Morocco.
The secret behind this success is a differentiation strategy in terms of customer service. In
fact, although Hmizate offers, by large, the same deals as its competitors, nonetheless, the
offers’ conditions of Hmizate are user-friendly and its customer service is efficient. Hmizate
focuses on travel deals as they represent 45 per cent of its total revenues; it should be
stressed that travelling is a profitable and promising business segment in the Middle East.
In a nutshell, Kamal banks on customer service to differentiate his offers from his
competitors who usually offer the same deals for the same price.
Along the same line, Hmizate has adopted a wise positioning in the Moroccan market. It
has combined the price-related transparency and warranty of established brands along
with the great deals of the informal and traditional markets (Mountaj, 2015). This straddle
positioning has allowed Hmizate to reap fruits of these distinct markets (Mountaj, 2015).
On another note, the e-commerce business model of Hmizate has enabled the firm to
enhance organizational capabilities to deliver its services more efficiently. In fact, Hmizate
information system has been used as a strategic value to reach a competitive advantage.
To do so, Hmizate has benefited from enhanced collaborations between its units and
aligned its business processes with its business strategies; this alignment is not easy to
replicate for traditional firms in Morocco.
Hmizate adopts the cash-on-delivery mode of payment, which has advantages and
disadvantages for the firm. While this mode has helped in building shoppers’ trust and
developing e-commerce, it also contributes to increasing merchandise return rate (Mayard,
2015). In fact, as Hmizate enables consumers to touch and feel the product before they
pay, some of them refuse to pay upon delivery for various reasons. Hmizate ends up
incurring the cost of two-way courier.
It should be noted that cash-on-delivery is the second mode of payment used in
e-commerce in Morocco, the forth motivation of shoppers to buy online and the sixth criteria
considered by consumers to select an e-commerce site (Avery, 2013).
The high return rate is also combined with other issues such as the lack of clarity of
addresses in the country. When delivery personnel go to a location to deliver an item,
sometimes they do not find the address provided by the buyer for various reasons.
Considering this context, should Hmizate abolish the cash-on-delivery mechanism of
payment altogether to reduce the merchandise return rate?
Hmizate.ma was voted the Best E-Commerce Site for two consecutive years and the Best
Moroccan Innovating Brand of 2013 in national competitions. It was also awarded the
Service Brand of the Year in Morocco for the year 2014 by the Moroccan Bureau of
Industrial and Commercial Property (LaVieEco, 2015).
Hmizate and Hmall have a long path to go to achieve their long-term goals provided that
they need to face the cultural constraints of e-commerce in Morocco: people still do not fully
trust online shopping websites and lack internet education.
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Kamal’s personal qualities
Several traits and qualities seem to be the personal factors and characteristics that made
Kamal the leader he is today. He is truthful and sincere as he demonstrates high
consistency between his words and his actions. Kamal has built such a strong relationship
with his employees thanks to his personal qualities: he is a pleasant person, always smiling
and ready to help.
In addition, Kamal is a risk-taker and a risk-lover: “there is never a good time when one can
start their own company. Just take the risk and your customers will trust you”; he stressed
(Reggad, 2012).
Self-confidence is thought to be an important trait that leaders should possess to be really
considered as good leaders. All other traits are not complete if the leaders lack intelligence. To
this end, intelligence is required for leaders to be able to make sound business decisions.
Kamal does not lack self-confidence or intelligence. While many commentators had doubts that
an e-commerce website would not work well in Morocco, Kamal was confident that there was
a need and his project would thrive regardless of the hurdles. His intelligence was
demonstrated when he gathered, synthesized and interpreted information that he used to set
guidelines for his teams to follow. Despite the problems he encountered at the beginning, his
intelligence and self-confidence helped him overcome them and make appropriate decisions
for his business to prosper.
On another note, Kamal is an extrovert. This interpersonal quality makes him sociable and
allows him to smoothly communicate his ideas to the rest of his team. This quality has also
facilitated the process, for Kamal and his team, to identify shared goals and objectives and,
more importantly, to achieve them.
Lastly, to study abroad, Kamal had to be away from family and friends, which nurtured in
him the necessary autonomy to be a leader. Leading himself in an unknown society and
country to him was the first step toward relying on himself. Leadership is after all not just
standing in front of people and telling them what to do; leadership starts by leading oneself
toward achieving goals while observing certain principles. And this is precisely what Kamal
has done.
Kamal’s perseverance
As the CEO, Kamal has the most powerful position within his firm. The highest degree of
influence rests with him when making important business decisions about all spheres of his
firm.
Kamal is a driven leader, dedicated to achieving his goals and succeeding in his career.
He demonstrates his drive by persisting and not giving up, even after facing many failed
attempts. He had the courage to start his own e-commerce in Morocco from scratch. He
faced a lot of difficulties and obstacles at the beginning of his journey (Mayard, 2013). He
launched an e-commerce start-up in a country where his targeted segment had maior trust
issues involving online payments and transactions in Morocco. People were not convinced
of the safety of their bank account information and they were not sure Moroccan companies
would appropriately handle related problems in the advent something happened with their
orders. However, Kamal did not give up; his ambition led him to start his own e-commerce
website after realizing that the Moroccan economic system lacked deals websites at that
time. He has thrived to convince potential customers and suppliers about the implemented
mechanisms to counter drawbacks and risks such as fraud. He persisted until he created
his website and started the advertising process.
Kamal persists in converting potential customers into buyers. He believes that even if a
potential client does not buy, they remain a potential buyer, and they will be more likely to
buy if they are well treated by the firm (Reggad, 2013). Kamal is confident about what he
is doing and deploys all the means and skills to prove that he is an efficient leader. When
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obstacles emerge during daily operations, employees do not hesitate in putting extra
efforts to make sure to reach the desired organizational goals. Kamal supports his
employees. He even personally answers phone calls to fill out customers’ requests.
Hmizate’s employees have a high degree of confidence, trust and respect for their leader,
as they are quite sure he is always there to help them out. They particularly appreciate the
fact that he values their contributions and employees see that their input counts. In return,
they always go the extra mile to finish assigned tasks. They go beyond the call of duty and
take the time, after working hours, to answer phone calls to adequately follow-up with
customers’ requests.
In the early days of Hmizate, the company launched a massage deal offered at a local
massage center that used to host three to four customers a day. Surprisingly, this deal of
the day reached 300 buyers, and, as a result, the owner of the massage center started
receiving a huge number of calls to book sessions. Overwhelmed with the high number of
customers, the owner could not manage the situation and gave up on her small business.
She closed her center! In response to the situation, Kamal personally went to the place and
convinced the owner to reopen the massage center and to accept his help in managing the
small business. Himself, he helped managing the business to ensure the good reputation
and positive image of Hmizate, especially in its early beginning (Reggad, 2012). Whenever
there is a problem with a deal, he would rather make concessions to avoid simply canceling
it. Lastly, despite his success, Kamal has no intention of resting on his laurels, as he is
determined to reap the fruit of the first-mover advantage (Damera, 2015).
Kamal’s passion and enthusiasm
Kamal is an extrovert who does not hesitate to communicate and spread the word about his
business activities. He never misses an opportunity to introduce his project and explain its
essence to people because he has a high desire for achievement. He volunteers to
meet-up with other entrepreneurs to share tips. He also makes his firm known internationally
as he does not limit himself to the domestic market.
Given that e-commerce was a new development in Morocco at that time, Kamal has
demonstrated his desire to lead by influencing and convincing investors to inject money in
his project. He is also attentive and shows the willingness to take responsibility and being
creative; he displays a strong desire and enthusiasm to influence employees into adopting
his innovative business approach. Kamal seems to believe in passion contagion:
displaying a positive motion in the workplace is likely to lead employees to internalize it, and
ultimately develop it (Reggad, 2013).
Along the same line, Kamal had great aspirations as an entrepreneur. In this regard, he
anticipated the fact that Morocco would have to experience the internet boom which
marked emerging economies such as Turkey, and countries in Latin America and
Southeast Asia (Mountaj, 2015). Kamal was convinced that the timing was conducive for
Hmizate to be launched and to become a business success.
On another note, Kamal’s commitment to his venture, his passion and solid entrepreneurial
vision make him persuasive and garnered excitement from investors; these qualities, which
he embodies, just tell them that he can do whatever it takes for his start-up to succeed.
Positive attitude in leading
Kamal’s leadership style seems to be effective, as he entertains positive leader-member
relations with his employees. He has created a work environment that allows his employees
to share their creativity, to be motivated and dedicated to their daily tasks, as well as to
remain constantly active and on the move. To do so, he assigns employees with tasks
corresponding to their skills and expertise to achieve the best work outcome possible. The
degree to which Kamal structures and formalizes job assignments is very high. Although he
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had a shortage of employees at the beginning, he still managed to effectively assign tasks
to his employees and make sure those tasks were well executed.
During tough times, Kamal exceptionally switches from being a relationship-oriented leader
to a task-oriented leader to better fit the situation. From a behavioral leadership style
stance, it seems that Kamal’s style has a concern for both task and people. Indeed, his
concern for tasks is concretized by the fact that he always has an annual business plan in
which he clearly states his objectives, and shares them with his co-workers, he enhances
their motivation and hence their ability and capability to achieve these objectives. They
work together to attain their objectives. On the other hand, Hmizate’s CEO aims to develop
his concern for people as well. He looks at his employees as human capital with great
potential; he regards them as one entity that shares interests and collaborates together to
achieve the same goals and to solve problems while spending one-third of their journey in
the office together.
Kamal’s leadership approach appears to espouse a flexible or adaptive style (Norton,
2010; Yukl and Mahsud, 2010). Flexible and adaptive leadership refers to changing
behavior in appropriate ways as the situation changes. A variety of terms have been used
to describe leaders who are able to assess the situation and adapt their behavior
accordingly. Some of these terms are: flexible, adaptable, agile and versatile (Kaiser et al.,
2007; Pulakos et a/., 2000).
Flexible and adaptive leadership has become more important for managers and
organizations as the pace of change affecting organizations has also increased (Dess and
Picken, 2000). Factors that drive this need for flexibility and adaptation by leaders are
globalization, technological change, shifting cultural values, workforce diversity, new forms
of social networking, increased virtual interaction and corporate social responsibility (Burke
and Cooper, 2004).
Kamal is delighted to help and considers his employees as his family. He is always ready
to answer their questions, even the ones that appear to be most uncomfortable. He is not
afraid of “challenging” questions, and he always answers them with self-confidence. Kamal
takes the time to advise his business partners, to encourage them to believe in the business
and also to discuss their personal ideas by suggesting ways to make them more concrete
as they get them to the next level which is, in some cases, launching their own ventures.
Along the same vein, he considers mistakes as learning experiences, rather than failures;
he is tolerant when employees make mistakes and he always focuses on the positive
outcomes that could come out of them (Reggad, 2012).
Participative leadership is the most relevant leadership style within the firm. Kamal
voluntarily shares his knowledge with his co-workers, his future plans and all of his
professional decisions. He believes that mutual sharing is the best way to learn. Kamal
contends that involving his employees in the decision process would not only be seen as
a true leadership trait, but it would also help him improve his ideas about his co-workers,
as well as, achieve the best and most optimal decisions. Therefore, Kamal implicitly and
indirectly motivates his colleagues as the Moroccan proverb goes: “You can find in the river
what you can't find in the ocean”. In corollary, managers are not always the only source of
appropriate decisions; employees can also be insightful in this respect.
The transition from the American context to the Moroccan business environment was not
challenging as Kamal demonstrates values that facilitated that transition. These values are
passion about whatever he does, looking at things beyond the monetary dimension,
self-fulfillment through what a person does and finding pleasure in doing things well. Kamal
implemented his leadership values by means of a straightforward communication style; he
uses no barriers between him and his employees as all co-workers sit around the same
table and are accorded the freedom to work whenever and wherever they prefer (Reggad,
2013). Thus, the implementation was not difficult; it was mainly based on making his own
efforts, and holding on to his dream of building a strong start-up in his home country.
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Combining each of his professional, personal and academic experiences, Kamal is worth
to be looked upon as an entrepreneur. If the definition of an entrepreneur differs somehow
from the definition of manager or leader, Kamal is, at the same time, leading and managing
properly, effectively and efficiently his firm and co-workers with an interesting
entrepreneurial spirit.
At times when Hmizate has hundreds of orders per day, employees experience intense
pressure, particularly that most of customers are in the process of learning about
e-commerce (Mountaj, 2015); hence, the need for Kamal to manage his employees’ stress;
this constitutes a skill that Kamal ought to improve.
Style at odds with external environment
Although leadership styles vary from an industry to another, from an organization to another
and sometimes even from a person to another, the most common leadership style in the
Moroccan workplace seems to be authoritarian and autocratic in nature. Business owners
and executives make decisions on their own and do not always involve or even consult with
other organizational members. Moreover, innovation and creativity are not, often times,
sought-after. The Moroccan culture is still rooted in traditional values where authority must
be obeyed.
More specifically, leadership in Morocco is associated in people’s minds with power,
authority, chief and boss (Kabbaj, 2003). It still remains synonymous of command and
control. In this context, the leader performs the command and control functions, usually
unilaterally, assigns tasks to subalterns; the latter are then supervised and monitored while
carrying out their duties. In this context of command and control, leadership seems to be
based both on the authority of the leader and the obedience of the followers.
Given this macro context, Kamal contributes to establishing a participative leadership style
in the country along young and innovative firms. In fact, Kamal has managed to create a
work environment that allows his employees to be creative and dedicated to their work. He
considers his employees as human capital with great potential and one entity that shares
interests and collaborate together to achieve the same goals. Kamal serves as mentor to
his employees and answers all their questions, be it uncomfortable or challenging. He
voluntarily shares his knowledge with his co-workers, his future plans and all of his
professional decisions. He believes that mutual sharing is the best way to learn.
This trend toward modernizing management and leadership styles aims at making
organizational democracy a value defended within Moroccan companies. There may be
some influence of the industry as Hmizate is an internet-based company. In this industry,
the autocratic management style would not be appropriate, as a high level of collaboration,
cooperation and interaction is needed among employees and their managers in such
industry. Anyhow, it was very brave of Kamal to take this risk and set up an unusual
management style in the Moroccan context, which has paid off in the end. Nonetheless,
while it is hoped that Kamal holds on to this participative leadership style until it is
well-established in Morocco, a major question emerges and reads as follows: To what
extent would the Menaclick Company sustain this leadership style which seems to be at
odds with its external environment?
Conclusion
Kamal Reggad is a fitting example of an innate leader who introduced a new leadership
style to Morocco. Kamal took a colossal risk by targeting a new and unexplored market in
Morocco, namely, the e-commerce business. Positively, his risks have paid off; in part, we
can presume that his leadership skills helped him achieve his goals and dreams.
Furthermore, Kamal is an emotionally mature leader who understands that it is not only
impossible to know everything about everything, but a good leader and manager accepts
the fact that they do not necessarily need to know everything. In fact, he does not even
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Keywords:
Leadership,
Entrepreneurship,
Hmizate,
Kamal Reggad,
Menaclick
need to be the smartest person in the room! By accepting this fact, he puts his ego aside
and focuses on creating a competent team that would excel in any situation and live up to
any challenge.
As Kamal had already had experiences with software applications and online
implementations and has acquired broad knowledge of the industry, launching a start-up
was more of a pleasure than a chore. He prudently selected an unexplored market in a
context with an active young population that spends most of their time connected online.
Kamal already knew what a Moroccan equivalent of Craigslist would entail; thus, he made
well-informed decisions for his project and understood adequately the implications of his
decisions. His extraversion was demonstrated when he met with a potential investor and
openly discussed his project, and owing to his passion and enthusiasm, he was able to
secure a large amount of money; he was also able to attract other investors through word
of mouth. Among his employees, Kamal created an environment that is active and creative
in which his extroverted nature has helped to keep his employees dedicated and motivated
while accomplishing their daily tasks. Presently, Kamal is getting ready to transfer his
Moroccan experience to French-speaking countries of Africa (Damera, 2015).
Note
1. The plane had a 2-h delay, and to redeem itself, the airline upgraded Kamal to the business class
where he met the first investor who had the most important financial impact on Hmizate.
References
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Mountaj, |. (2015), “Hmizate veut rester le numéro 1 du e-commerce au Maroc”, April 13, 2015, Medias
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Reggad, K. (2012), Lecture at Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, April 5, 2012, Information about the
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Further reading
Averty Consulting (2013), “Les résultats de la 2@me édition du barométre Averty sur le E-commerce au
Maroc en partenariat avec le salon E-commerce.ma.”, available at: www.apebi.org.ma/upload/E-
commerceAverty.pdf (accessed June 2016).
Medias (2013), “La startup Hmizate léve 1,6 million de dollars’, Media, August 7, 2013, available at:
www.medias24.com/ECONOMIE/ENTREPRISES/pdf3293-La-startup-Hmizate-leve- 16-millions-de-
dollars.html (accessed September 2013).
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