ALEXANDRIA: In many ways, Egypt is an unlikely place to find one of the world's leading and most innovative producers of luxury power yachts. With no culture or tradition of manufacturing these kinds of luxury items, Egypt has never been the place wealthy business executives turn to when it comes to buying their opulent toys. DeBirs Yachts is seeking to change all this. The Alexandria-based yacht manufacturers have risen quickly since their founding nine years ago to become a leading producer and developer of some of the finest boats on the sea. From their shipyard in the Amria Free Zone just outside of Alexandria, DeBirs has developed an innovative yacht design that boasts a sleek, airplane-like look, a separate living and work area for crewmembers, and a relatively affordable price tag. "We are unlike any company in the Middle East, DeBirs chairman and founder, Tarek Ragheb, told Daily News Egypt. "The reason for this is that we innovate. We don't build under license, we don't copy. Our designs and our operation are totally unique. It is clear from his tone how much care and effort went into the development of the company. Ragheb is the inspiration behind the boat-building operation and it is his vision that has been realized as DeBirs has grown and expanded over the past decade. An Egyptian who was raised and educated in the United States, Ragheb says that he returned to Egypt to found his company not only because of his own personal ties to the country but also because of Egypt's labor force. "The location is fantastic, he said. "There is lots of skilled labor and college educated workers. In addition, there is room to expand and develop the company. But choosing to operate in Egypt also presented a number of serious difficulties that had to be overcome in the initial years of operation. Marwa Singer, an Egyptian-American and the executive director of the company, said that the obstacles early on were primarily cultural. "We had to break through the traditional Egyptian mentality, she told Daily News Egypt. "We had to instill the workers with our mindset, with our values. Ragheb also acknowledges that cultural attitudes presented significant challenges to the company in the initial stages. "We are operating in a country that has no recognition of this field. In fact, the heritage here is counterintuitive to high quality products, he said. "The skilled labor is here, he said. "What was needed, though, was some enlightened leadership. And when Ragheb explains exactly what his leadership style and business values are, it becomes clear that the DeBirs production model is truly unique. He described a system in which workers are mentored, developed, and trained, and never punished for mistakes. He said that as these workers begin to build skills and confidence they are more and more capable of calling their own shots and of building innovation into their daily routines. Singer, too, spoke with pride of the DeBirs business ethic. "Teaching motivation and respect, giving them a sense of ownership; this is what DeBirs does with its employees. We don't believe in punishment and as a result they aren't afraid to say when they've made a mistake. We want them to watch out for each other, to motivate each other and help each other improve. Sure enough, on almost every wall of the shipyard, a list of the company's core values is prominently displayed. But teaching these values takes time and constant effort, Singer explained. Some of the workers come in with no sense of these ideals, and breaking down preexisting cultural attitudes continues to be one of the company's greatest challenges. "You get some people who are just proud, Singer said. "Some will say, 'Well I'm an electrician, I'm not going to pick up the garbage around my work area, that's not my job.' So then Tarek comes along and says, 'Fine, you don't have to pick it up, I'll pick it up instead.' They learn quickly this way. They protest and then realize that no job at DeBirs is below anyone. In the end, Singer and Ragheb both claim that skills are incidental if the right attitude is not in place. "Even if they're the best in their field, says Ragheb, "they need to have the right values. As long as they have the right ethic, we can teach them anything. In the end, what is most important is to have a unified workforce with a unified ethic. This notion of instilling and fostering the right values in its workers has been built right in to DeBirs' daily operations. Workers undergo constant evaluations by their superiors and managers, assessing their progress and providing them with feedback and ways to improve. In addition, drawing directly on a model that Ragheb saw succeed well during his tenure at General Electric, DeBirs has established a Comprehensive Education Center (CEC), which is used daily to develop the skills of the company's employees. All the workers receive basic English language training so that they understand basic terminology for utilities and tasks in their field. If they want to continue their English training, the company provides a proper English language course free of charge that meets at the end of each work day. There are also weekly training sessions within different departments in order to constantly develop the skills of each worker. "We are continually training our workers, said Hanan Hamdy, the company's head of planning and one of the teachers in the CEC. "This is something lacking in Arab culture, the idea of constant improvement. Each department has a day in the week and they meet for 45 minutes. We give them exams and there are rewards for good marks. Both Singer and Ragheb say that their efforts have paid off. Their emphasis on values, in addition to skills, has led them to develop both a dedicated and a motivated group of workers. "We don't care about age or gender, said Singer. "We are simply looking for the best, most innovative, and most receptive minds. This philosophy is readily apparent in the composition of the DeBirs workforce. A third of the employees and most of the senior management are women, Ragheb said, and indeed many of the employees handing out orders on the work floor are females. "They get the job done and have a well balanced sense of pride and professional attitude, said Ragheb. Similarly, the company's chief naval architect, Irhab, is only 27 years old and gained all of his knowledge and experience by working at DeBirs. He hails from Alexandria and for his first three years interned under the previous naval architect, who had been brought to DeBirs from Turkey. "We aren't here just for working, he says proudly. "We live DeBirs. This is our place, this is our home. Irhab graduated third in his class from the Faculty of Engineering at Alexandria University. At the time of graduation he had never been in a boat before. Yet, despite DeBirs' uniquely Egyptian identity and Egyptian workforce, the business also has a distinctly international dimension to it. The company itself was originally a Dutch shipyard that fell dormant in the first half of the century before being revived in 1998 by Ragheb. The company was founded by Egyptian, European, and American investors and many of the current and former management hail from different parts of the world. In addition, the company's sales are almost exclusively overseas, with the greatest markets in the United States, Europe, and the Gulf. However, Ragheb says that recently much of the senior management from overseas has been replaced by Egyptians who have acquired their experience by working at DeBirs. "The labor has to be indigenous if the company's going to have a future, he says. And the future looks bright for the fledgling yacht manufacturers. DeBirs currently occupies a small portion of the Amria Free Zone. In preparation for a multi-million dollar expansion, they have bought up a large amount of land adjacent to the yard, and plan to increase production significantly in the next five years. Although breaking into the field was difficult initially, the company has been seeing significant profits over the last few years and expects this momentum to continue as the DeBirs name continues to grow in reputation and recognition. In the end, Singer said that the success of DeBirs thus far has not stemmed from the business savvy of its executives or the wealth of its investors. It's the culture that has led to success. "It's not about building a business, it's about building a culture. That's what we've done, that's what was challenging, but that's why we've succeeded, she said.
