Software Business in the Middle East

Part 1.

This example is not really from the software business, but it gives a good understanding of the local mentality.

I have a partner in Saudi Arabia whose uncle lives in Dubai. The uncle owns a building with a few apartments that he rents out. The manager of the building was a guy from Egypt who dealt with all tenants, payments, maintenance and so on.

Once the Egyptian guy told there were no tenants who wanted to rent an apartment. At the same time, one of the owner’s friends was looking for an apartment and the owner offered him to take any flat from his building. That was the moment of truth. It turned out that all apartments were actually rented out, and the Egyptian guy had simply taken all the money for himself.

The Egyptian guy was kicked out the same moment, of course, and the owner asked his nephew to take care about the building and tenants. I asked my partner that making business together with relatives might be a very large headache. What if the nephew will still money too – you wouldn’t kick him out easily, right?

My partner gave me an answer that I was very surprised of: “It is no problem if the nephew steals the money. The money will still remain in the family as the nephew spends them for his wife, kids, or himself”. That’s the logic.

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