Some entrepreneurs are motivated by money. Some are motivated by the desire to be their own boss. Still others are motivated by the desire to be the best. Ehab Nada, owner of Logic Consulting Group in Giza, Egypt, was primarily motivated by recognition. He says, “I wanted to be well-known in my community and in my country. I wanted people to point to me when they were looking for an expert in my field. Instead of being just another fish in the pond, or a high-ranking career employee at a big conglomerate, my personal dream was to be well known and appreciated for what I do.”

Logic Consulting Group offers business consulting and management services. On the consulting side, Logic helps companies develop and organize their strategies for growth, including planning, marketing, human resources, branding, channel management and exporting. On the management services side, the company provides market research, training, and recruitment.

Ehab points to the six separate units in his company, each managed as its own profit center. “We are a very profit-oriented company and I guess this is part of our success today. We are 100 percent self-financed from equity, not debt. We have no investors, bank loans, or the headache of investors and debtors. At the end of the day, we know that we can control our own destiny.” But Ehab recognizes that without external investors, he has limited his company’s growth rate. “We are still growing, but at a slower rate than we would have if we had outside investors.” What exactly does Ehab mean when he talks about slower growth? “We started in 1998. Today Logic has three offices: one in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; one in Saudi Arabia; and one in Egypt, which is the regional headquarters. But now we are at a point where we really need to fuel our growth very aggressively because these outside markets are very demanding in terms of caliber and working conditions, so you need a lot of money to keep them going. We are going to have to change our tune regarding investors, without changing our independent philosophy or style of doing business.”

When Ehab Nada founded Logic Consulting Group, he was in his late twenties and prosperously employed as an acting brand manager for Procter & Gamble, which had put him in charge of the Tide brand as well as other well-known brands. “I was doing well and my career was blossoming. I was actually on a growth curve. But I was ready for something more. I wanted to give myself three or four years to try to make it on my own. And I knew that if I failed, at the very least I could always go back to working for others. That is my style. While I take calculated, manageable risks, I also like to take blind leaps of faith in myself. I sense opportunities and go after them. Maybe when I get there, the opportunity will have faded or disappeared, but I never kick myself in the back, I just try to move forward.”

In 1998, Ehab and his three partners left their high-paying jobs, betting that there were companies out there that would be attracted to young, aggressive businessmen who wanted to make a real difference. “We knew that there were companies out there that would want us, but that could not afford to employ us full-time. However, we knew they could afford us on an outsourced basis. That way they get to hire someone for a short period of time to get a job done. When they get what they want, we get paid and move on. It works for both of us.” Eventually, eight years of hard work later, Logic Consulting Group employs nearly 100 people.

Ehab says that starting the company has resulted in many personal changes. “I matured a lot. I have learned how to handle pressure and keep calm. I’ve learned the importance of working with people, and that the people around you are tremendous contributors to your success.” One of the most important aspects of developing his company, says Ehab, was the continuous hunt for new business opportunities. “That’s an irreplaceable job. I am consistently involved in the new initiatives that this company needs to stand the test of time, like opening new markets, developing new products and services for clients, and finding new niches.” Ehab also stresses the importance of building a strong staff and company culture. “I’m always focused on bringing the right people on the bus.”

Things did not always go smoothly for Ehab and the company. “Three years ago, during a period of great growth, we attempted to open our first office in another region. But to do so in that region, you needed a sponsor from that country. A sponsor allows you to work legally in that country, and as long as you are doing business there, is sort of the one who oversees your business because he is an investor in it. We sent out an entire management team, moved their families, transferred their children into new schools, rented out the office, redecorated everything—spending all this money up front because we were counting on his investment to cover it. Well, this so-called sponsor ended up being unreliable. He backed out without warning, leaving us with bills to pay and no sponsor in that country. And we had to move everyone back!”

Did Ehab learn anything from this experience? “Absolutely. I learned that we should never make a move without a clear-cut, countersigned contract that spells out everyone’s expectations in black and white. This is a key lesson. We were so exposed financially at that point and about to lose the company because the expenditure was beyond our capabilities at the time. We just all thought that everything would be restored to stability when he came through as he had promised, and that did not happen. We had to bring everyone together again and hold off on expansion for a few years. But we learned our lesson. And in 2004, the Dubai office was launched, followed by the Saudi Arabia office in 2005. Everything is going well now.”

The major obstacle that Ehab had to face at that moment of crisis was restoring the confidence of the employees in the company. “We decided to focus on the people and become closer to our employees. For two or three months, we felt that this was more important than growing the business because what are you without your good employees? So we came out and told the truth. We told everyone what the situation was and listened to their reactions. We had complete transparency of communication from the top down. We didn’t place the blame on the failed investor or anybody, but we were clear about what had transpired and what our current situation was.”

When asked if he was afraid that would lead to a mass exodus, essentially crippling the company, Ehab demurs. “No, people do not want to be lied to. If they are in a mess, they want to know about it. We told them what happened, what the results were, and discussed what it would take to get us out of the mess. Each person was given a role in the solution, and we spent the next three months executing that plan. And you know what? We learned a lot about ourselves, the company, and our employees when we went through that process. We learned how honesty and transparency really helped motivate people to be loyal to the company and seek to help in restoring it to health. If you don’t lie to people, if you tell them the truth, you’ve got their guts, their passion, their brains, heart, soul—everything.”

To reward their loyal and hard-working employees, Logic launched a new structure in the company. Says Ehab, “We chose to bring more employee ownership into the company to drive the results-oriented culture.” Logic Consulting Group first created a management committee, which they called a “partner’s committee.” Under this structure, a partner in a consultancy firm is not really an equity partner, but does have certain stock options and a certain percentage of the revenues that he generates as a partner. Today, the company has partners, senior partners, and managing partners, as well as young consultants, associate consultants, and senior consultants. All six divisions of the company are managed through a partner committee of eight to ten people, with at least one partner heading each single division.

In terms of what makes the company special, Ehab says that it’s first the business concept and second the employees. “Conceptually, we are the only company in the region that has a one-stop-shop solution to the client’s needs. So if you come in and ask us to consult with you on company strategy, and then because of that strategizing you find you need a little help in restructuring or recruiting, we can also perform those functions for you. What we find is that if a client likes us in the first phase of the consultancy, then they tend to continue working with us because they know that each step along the way they will get the same quality of help, the same caliber of consultant.” Many other companies, Ehab believes, compete with Logic Consulting Group in a given specific area, such as consulting only or market research only or training only, but very few, if any, compete on all levels. “This multifaceted approach gives us leverage against our competitors because if, say, one sector of the market is underperforming one year, we still have the other sectors in which we can offer expertise.”

Ehab also acknowledges that in certain circumstances there is a distinct advantage to being local as opposed to being from a multinational corporation. “In certain disciplines, local experience is appreciated. For example, in Saudi Arabia, it’s extremely important that you work in Arabic, so knowing that language becomes a factor in your success. In Egypt, the language is not as important but culture in Egypt is very complex. If you have no local experience in Egypt, people are never going to implement your proposed business structure because you have no experience dealing with those particular complexities. Local roots are important in consulting and market research, but less so in training or recruitment.”

Do employees share his high regard for the company? Ehab thinks so. “I know this is a cliché, but our company has a family culture. People like the fact that we are successful, but that we have an office-politics–free environment. People hate worrying about being stabbed in the back by others or about keeping their jobs even if their performance is stellar. We have an open-door policy. Anybody can walk in without stepping on anyone’s toes because we are trying to build leaders from within our company. To a certain extent, people feel very free about communicating their problems—even too much moaning and groaning in certain cases!—but those people aren’t really looking for you to solve their problems for them; they just want to be heard. We listen.”

In order to maintain a high caliber of employee, Ehab uses employee search firms to recruit new people. But being a smart, high achiever is not the only qualification. Says Ehab, “We have to make one-hundred percent sure that these people are a good character and cultural fit because we don’t want anybody coming in and disrupting that culture. We use background checks. For entry-level positions, we work with leading universities, such as the American University in Cairo. These universities help us identify good applicants up front through their job fairs and job boards. But for middle-management or higher, headhunters are key.”

When Logic first started out, they had a hard time convincing people who had these flourishing careers in McKinsey or Coca-Cola to consider joining up. “It’s not a matter of how much you pay. To many of these people it’s a matter of where they can go next and if they get exposure to working with the owner. So we started to give our best lieutenants a stake in the company. Once someone has a stake, then they think like an owner, not an employee. They build up the company, increase the revenue stream, and get clients in the door.”

But employee retention is not always guaranteed. It is difficult to retain employees who are being poached from companies that offer them three times their current salary. Since Ehab cannot compete on that level, he offers other incentives, such as continuing education, advanced training, and exposure to senior-level clients.

Logic is at a stage where it’s extremely well-known in many different areas of expertise, but Ehab sees other challenges ahead. “We are known,” acknowledges Ehab, “as a results-oriented firm that makes a difference and attracts the highest quality of employees. But our challenge is to figure out ways to finance our extremely aggressive growth plans. We want to prepare the company for different stages of funding. The first stage has been through our own money, self-financing. Now we are thinking of bringing in strategic partners. Maybe after that we will do an initial public offering within the next five to seven years. We need to prepare for this kind of move, because when you go public, people take a look at your statements and request price-to-earnings ratios, predicted growth rates, etcetera. So today we worry about how to finance growth without risking the company and without compromising the principles this company was built on.”

Has Ehab become the person he hoped he would become when he started Logic Consulting Group eight years ago? Yes and no. He’s not a millionaire yet, which he had fully expected to be by now, but then again he does not care about that as much as being known within certain social circles. “People know me for being an expert, for being a smart, intelligent person who gives good advice that works—and that really makes a difference, that I’m not just a big mouth or an empty suit. It gives my wife a kick whenever she walks into a room and people say to her, ‘Oh, you’re Ehab’s wife. Yeah, we know him,’ or ‘Yeah, I met him somewhere . . .’ That recognition is a personal reward that I was looking for and have certainly achieved.”

When asked to advise young entrepreneurs just starting out, Ehab says, “There’s nothing more valuable than working with the right people and focusing on getting the right people on board, because one wrong person can kill your company, can kill your dream. It’s not about fund raising, it’s not about the money, it’s not even about what you’re doing or selling. It’s about the quality of the people around you who will determine how well you do. An entrepreneur needs encouragement. He’s someone who is taking that leap of faith with him, and unless the people around him are full of positive energy—in the way they speak and the way they motivate you and the way they share their passion with you—then he will have less chance of success.”

So while Ehab Nada may not be internationally famous yet, he is well-known for what he does in his region of the world. And that’s ultimately fine with him. As he says, “By starting my own business, I envisioned helping Egyptian or Arab businesses, which usually have ample financing, good or competitive products and services, but are often lacking in strategy and planning. The whole idea was to take the experience I gained through working in a multinational, highly-systemized, cross-cultural environment and put that to use for local companies. And if I made some money while I was at it, then that was great!”