Answer the following questions.  You may write your answer in points. El Shorouk Company for Chemicals: the evolution of a local player (1) 

Hassan Shokry, Sales Manager at El Shorouk Company for Chemicals was watching the sunset from his company's office located at El Khanka industrial area, while drinking his cup of coffee. He was reminiscing the history of the company that started in 2004. The entrepreneurial idea of the company was his uncle’s, Ibrahim Shokry.   Back then, Ibrahim used to import large amounts of cotton from Sudan, the business was very well-established and lucrative to the extent that he thought about exporting some goods from Egypt back to Sudan. Strong relations between Shokry’s family, the Sudanese traders, contractors, and officials enabled him to identify the possibility of exporting Bitumen (Asphalt) to Sudan. The need for Bitumen increased in Sudan due to the governmental national plan that aimed to develop new roads and to upgrade the status of the existing roads by that time. The business model was very simple, El Shorouk company would sell to Sudanese traders, who would accordingly sell to Sudanese contractors who were paving the road for the Sudanese government. That was when Ibrahim decided to establish a trading company in order to facilitate the process of loading on vessels moving between Egypt and Sudan, since Bitumen will be collected from the Egyptian suppliers, some aggregate will be added if needed, and the repack will take place in smaller drums instead of the big tanks. Due to the vast increase in demand of Bitumen in Sudan, the company enlarged the variety of activities from trading to manufacturing. In order to establish the manufacturing facility, Shokry family bought 8000 sq. piece of land in El Shorouk industrial zone at El Khanka district at the beginning of Belbes road. The company’s mission was to manufacture Bitumen products for paving and insulation. The business case turned out to be successful at that time, and the reason behind that is the nonexistence of the private sector. This success attracted a British investor’s attention, he owned a company in the same field and it was based in Dubai. El Shorouk company and the British company established a strategic partnership that lasted for about five years. It entitled the British investor to take all of the capacity produced by El Shorouk company. Additionally, the British company had complete freedom to distribute the products all over the world. The markets encompassed Sudan, Afghanistan, Angola, Djibouti, Ethiopia. The cooperation between the two companies reached a level where the British company assigned its employees to monitor the quality control, quality assurance, and loading processes. Afterwards, the British investor realized that the time had come to establish his own manufacturing facility so he decided to manufacture away from El Shorouk.  Although this decision was not well received by EL Shorouk team, after a while they realized that they had the ability to establish a massive network of customers worldwide. They also realized that their cooperation with the British company enhanced their knowledge of the technicalities as well as the exporting.  The company’s size was enlarged by time to reach around 120 employees, most of them were from neighboring areas such as Shokry village. The enlargement of the company’s size was due to the fact that the company was mainly dependent on repackaging as a revenue stream, and this required labor to be more intensive. This supported the dogma of Hassan and the company’s managing team who were always concerned about their company’s contribution to the local economic development.

 Due to the company’s advancement of technology, it started an automation quest that led to   a decrease in   labor to only fifty employees. The management team was always worried about this issue and it led to a severe ethical dilemma at a certain point, but in order to resolve this dilemma, the company was always seeking growth to fulfill its role in the society. The management team had a core value related to the industry through new product development. This was illustrated by providing the industry with at least two new products annually. Hassan finished his cup of coffee and remained gazing through the window pane, contemplating all of the challenges the company faced during its evolutionary journey.

Case Questions

- Please describe whether El Shorouk Company ls is following B2B or B2C model? (2 points)  

- Describe El Shorouk Company’s target segment using evidence from the case. (3 points) 

- Outline the role of business in society according to your understanding of the course and the case. (5 points) 

- Mention the different departments that might be available in El Shorouk Company and explain the role of each department. (5 points) 

- Describe the challenges that might have faced Ibrahim in establishing El Shorouk Company, according to your own perspective. (5 points)