The power of a big, well-established brand is undeniable. Many people will seek out—and even pay a premium for—branded products manufactured by huge multinational corporations, whether or not they are superior to something produced and sold by a local, less-famous small business. Indeed, perhaps the greatest challenge faced by Lina Hundaileh after she founded her business—Philadelphia Chocolate Manufacturing Company in Amman, Jordan—was not the process of finding the right suppliers or hiring the right people or finding the right financing. It was fighting (and eventually overcoming) the deep-rooted perception of many Jordanians that locally produced chocolates were inferior to the imported, big-brand chocolates sold by giant international companies such as Nestle, Galaxy, and Cadbury.

But, there were two other major challenges that Lina was forced to face as she made plans to start up her new business—first, she had never run her own company before and, second, she didn’t know the first thing about manufacturing chocolate. She did have one thing going for her, however—Lina loved chocolate. As she readily admits, “I am a chocoholic, I love chocolate.” And, fortunately, she also had other things going for her, including a fierce determination to succeed, a supportive husband and family, and some amount of experience in business.

After graduating from Jordan University—where she studied human nutrition and food technology—Hundaileh worked as the assistant to the general manager of a German company with a regional office in Jordan. Her career was moving along smoothly, that is until her employer decided to close its Jordanian office in 1991 during the political crisis that preceded the Gulf War. Suddenly, without a job, Lina was faced with a decision: find a new job, or do something different. Lina chose the latter option and, in this case, doing something different meant doing something quite different.

Says Lina, “I thought of opening a chocolate factory. Everybody started laughing. ‘A chocolate factory?’ they asked, ‘You don’t have the experience to make chocolate.’ Of course, they were right. But I felt I could succeed and I decided to pursue my idea.” Lina called the embassies of several Southern European countries—including Italy, Greece, and Cyprus—to see if they were aware of any chocolate companies that might be willing to start a joint venture with her in Jordan. After sending letters to every company that seemed to be a good prospect, in September 1991, a company in Cyprus responded that they might indeed be interested. Lina scheduled an appointment to meet with the management team and make her pitch.

Lina was determined to take advantage of this opportunity, and not let it slip away. She directed every ounce of determination within her to achieving her vision. Says Lina, “I went to Cyprus with only one option in my mind—that I will impress them and I will succeed. I saw only success at the end of the road, I didn’t see failure. Failure was not in my vocabulary. I came to the meeting with absolute passion that I will impress them and I will succeed in my venture.” As it turned out, the company was so impressed with Hundaileh’s drive and willingness to succeed that they immediately agreed to move forward with a deal.

But building a manufacturing plant takes a lot of money. To make the deal work, Lina would have to raise approximately US$350,000 in cash. Since she had nowhere near this amount of money herself, she had to turn to other sources of the necessary capital. As Lina recalls, “I had to go to friends and say, ‘Do you believe in me? If you believe in me, I need you to help me because I don’t have finances to start my business.” Between the money she raised from her friends, and a loan from the Investment Development Bank, Lina was able to raise the required amount of money, and construction of the chocolate factory began. Months later—on a sunny day in 1992 that Lina will always remember—production started on three kinds of chocolate.

Today, Philadelphia Chocolate Manufacturing Company is an unqualified success, producing at her plant’s full capacity of 2.5 tons of chocolate per day, and 40 different kinds of chocolate. But Philadelphia Chocolate Manufacturing Company is not just a local phenomenon. Hundaileh has aggressively pursued opportunities to sell her products in other countries. Now approximately 60-65 percent of Philadelphia Chocolate’s production is exported outside of Jordan, and Lina is aggressively pursuing the gigantic U.S. chocolate market.

As Lina built her company, she encountered fierce competition. Her company was new, and it had just a fraction of the resources of the well-established chocolate multinationals. Says Lina, “The question was, how to compete—how to find a place in the market with these giants. I am a dwarf, a small company. Actually, not even small—I was smaller than a small company. How can I find a place in this very fiercely competitive market? I had to fight to get the Jordanian people to realize that we were selling a high-quality product, and I had to convince the buyers at the supermarkets to give us space on their shelves.”

Lina realizes that success in her case did not happen by accident. Although she had a very clear vision of the goals she wanted to achieve, just having a dream or a vision is not enough. According to Lina, “I believe that I have a very good formula for success. Success requires focused vision, confidence, determination and—most important—perseverance and hard work. One more thing: becoming a success requires patience. If you don’t have patience, you might quit too soon and then you’ll never know whether or not you could have been a success. In my opinion, to quit is not part of the culture of an entrepreneur. Quitting is not a part of our daily terminology. To be successful, you have to have passion, to be able to adapt to change, and to be a continuous learner. Nowadays, the competition is fierce. If you are not the leader in your market your business will suffer, and perhaps even die. And it’s not enough simply to survive; you have to excel. To stay ahead of my competition, I regularly attend workshops, courses, and training—anything that will help me and my business excel.”

Lina continues, “I think my competitive advantage is service. I listen to my customers, I provide them with the products they want. I always let them feel that they are my partners. For example, if I want to introduce a new item, I ask them if they think that this product is good. ‘Do you think that I should change it?’ ‘Is it okay?’ Asking these questions helps turn my customers into my partners. I want them to feel that they are loyal to my products and that their opinion matters.”

Lina also constantly scans the market for opportunities to price her products more competitively, or for ideas for new products. And she is always ready to innovate. “The competition is very high,” says Lina, “there’s a lot of chocolate out there. To succeed in this tough market, you have to be inventive and creative. I am always looking for new products that will be a hit. One recent idea was to make “healthy” chocolates, with vitamins and minerals. We are now the top company producing pharmaceutical, healthy chocolate with multivitamins and it is increasing my market share. Another good idea was to produce chocolate lollipops for kids. I realized we didn’t have a lot of chocolate lollipops in our country, so I met the demand. I have also introduced diabetic, low-calorie chocolates, which are medium-priced and high quality.”

Lina believes that the way she treats her employees has made a major contribution to Philadelphia Chocolate Manufacturing Company’s success. This means involving them in decision making, treating them like equals, and rewarding them for doing a good job. Says Lina, “This is for me very important—I have workers who have been with me since I started my business. This is because I love them. I have empathy. I feel with them. I make them feel that they are an important part of the business. I go out to the factory and speak to them about the pressures I am facing because our costs are too high, and I ask them to think with me about how can we save on the cost. They are part of the decision-making process. I think of my workers as partners in the business. I eat with them, I work with them—I am one of them. I am not their manager—the door is open and I listen. I put myself in their shoes. I talk to them. Once a year I take them for a picnic, and I give them bonuses when they do a really good job.”

As for the future, Lina is putting a lot of serious thought into where she should steer her business, and the path she should take to get there. With demand for her chocolate far outstripping her company’s ability to supply it, she knows that building additional manufacturing capacity is a critical need. “I want to expand and I want to increase our international reach. This requires that we buy new machinery that fits with the international standards.” But buying this equipment and gearing up to become a major player in global markets takes money, and plenty of it. “Working capital we don’t have. We don’t have angel money. Banks in Jordan don’t look at the cash flow or the liabilities and consider the viability of the business. Traditionally, they have wanted to see fixed assets that can be used as collateral for a loan. The banks are changing, but still it’s very difficult to get a loan without collateral. I am looking for additional sources of funding, because we have the potential to grow much larger. Finance is very important to the company; it’s what keeps me standing.”

Of course, bringing in banks and outside investors has its own set of problems. The cash they provide is vital for growth—and sometimes for survival—but it often comes with strings attached that can have a negative impact on the business or on the entrepreneur who has to keep the banks and investors happy. Says Lina, “I think when an investor is not really in this business, he doesn’t put himself in your shoes. Then he starts nagging and wanting things that are not practical. It all becomes theoretical for him. And when it’s theoretical—when he’s not in the business—it’s very difficult to change his opinion. This means that I spend a lot of time and energy whenever I have a new item or decide to enter a new market convincing people that this is a good thing for the business to do. Instead of concentrating on your company’s growth, you are losing part of your energy convincing the shareholder or the investor of something that for me is a normal thing that should require little thought. They should be more accepting of my expertise—to trust that I know what I am doing.”

Lina Hundaileh is very hopeful for the future of entrepreneurship in Jordan. She is personally very much involved in entrepreneurial programs—including serving as chairman of INJAZ, an affiliate of Junior Achievement International. Says Lina, “I feel that my country gives me support and that I could give back to my country what my country gave me. I am very active in volunteer work, and I mentor and coach other aspiring entrepreneurs. The work I do with INJAZ is making a real difference in our country. In one program, we draw volunteers from the target sector and we go to schools that are underdeveloped. We help the students to become more adaptable to the global community, and to learn the skills that are needed today to succeed. To date, we have graduated 40,000 students.” Lina is also lobbying to change Jordanian culture and laws in ways that will make entrepreneurship more acceptable and starting a new business less challenging. This includes pushing for the teaching of entrepreneurship at an early stage in school, offering entrepreneurship classes and majors in Jordanian universities, changing laws to be more friendly to start ups, and creating an entrepreneurship center that would be affiliated with an accredited international center.

While Lina is not the queen that she dreamed of becoming when she was a young girl growing up in Amman, she is queen of an empire of chocolate that she built with her own vision, determination, and strong belief in herself. But, more than these personal characteristics, the underlying motivation that has driven her success was the desire to be able to help her family live a good quality of life. Says Hundaileh, “To me, quality of life means quality of education, quality of having a good job—quality of everything. Quality comes from independence, to be a leader, and to have money enough to live the quality of life you want.” In the years since she founded the company, Philadelphia Chocolate Manufacturing Company has provided Lina Hundaileh with all of this—and much more.