Hisham El-Sherif: Live and learn

Hisham El-Sherif:
Live and learn
A passion for success, a mission to conquer time and knowledge
Profile by Nevine Khalil
'We are a very, very rich country, but we cripple ourselves with problems and constraints instead of managing the opportunities we have. My business is to transform potential into success, because I do not believe there is a challenge one cannot overcome'
(photos: Randa Shaath)
Looking you straight in the eye -- trying to keep a straight face -- he says: "I'm gonna kill you." Don't worry; it's just a phrase Hisham El-Sherif uses in jest to whip his audience to attention. Still, he means it in one way: dare to dream and deliver results, and you will win his admiration and support; drag your feet or fall behind, and you will vanish into oblivion.
El-Sherif, who could easily be described as the father of Information Technology (IT) in Egypt, "religiously believes in investing in people," especially young, untapped minds -- but they must hold the promise of potential and discipline. He began by investing in himself three decades ago and embarked on a journey of learning that culminated in two master's degrees from Egypt and a dual doctorate from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has since overseen numerous projects that open up similar opportunities for knowledge and experience to young Egyptians.
"Investing in people is a strategy, a way of life, and the best group to invest in is the younger generation." El-Sherif vehemently believes that "any young person, with a little effort, can become a leader, and transform the way we live, in business, government or NGOs. You just need to give them the right coaching," he says. Well, coach he does, and drill he does, and discipline he does. The general runs a tight ship, and the mission is to conquer time and knowledge.
Born on 1 April 1952, El-Sherif has rarely taken a foolish step in his career, and is unlikely to waste precious time on something that will not be a success. While he seems to be at the top of a pyramidal structure, innovating ideas while others are busy implementing them, he prefers to see things in a different light. "I see myself in a web of great, motivated people. From this web we create business, growth and quality. I am there to serve, support, coach" -- he pauses -- "and sometimes I am there to apply the pyramid rule," he adds with a smile.
El-Sherif, who created the first information and support centre in Egypt and has set up over 35 technology-related companies, tells a colourful narrative and instantly recalls figures, dates and names (when credit is due). Working out of breathtaking villas at various locations, he currently chairs several leading technology organisations, including IT Investments, IT Ventures, Nile On-line and Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Centre (RITSEC).
Although he holds discipline and science in the highest regard, he speaks in quixotic terms of the "dreams" he has for Egypt and his "passions" in life. His passion list is topped by: Yasmine, his 10- year-old daughter; Egypt, "which runs in my veins;" his sister Jihan, "the purest soul;" knowledge, "the continuous living experience;" and learning, "what life is all about." But El-Sherif doesn't always have time to pursue all his passions. "I need 72 hours in a day," he says, and believes that time is a commodity you can never have enough of. "There is always a timeline, and one needs to compete in time."
His first "dream," nurtured as a doctoral student at MIT, involved the use of information and knowledge to help improve decision-making and, specifically, accelerate socio-economic development in Egypt and the developing world. After delivering his first "dream," embodied in the Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC), El- Sherif began working on building an IT industry in Egypt. To accomplish this mission, he believes that the private sector is the right road to take. He was encouraged by President Hosni Mubarak's address on 13 September 1999 (he quotes the exact date), in which the president outlined Egypt's strategy for the future, the importance of IT and the role of the private sector.
But El-Sherif's shift to the private sector came as a surprise to many, especially that it came amid rumours that he may have been slated for a ministerial post. "Contrary to common belief, I was never a civil servant. I had independent status. I had a dream, with a start and end, and I delivered when the work was completed," he argues. "By 1999, things had reached maturation [at IDSC], and the overall IT climate was changing from a government-based initiative to digitalise the nation, to a private-led and -implemented industry. It was time to build the basis of an industry," El-Sherif adds, treading carefully when asked about rumours of a cabinet portfolio when the incumbent government was being formed in October 1999. "Whatever the area, I am there to serve," he smiles. "Is that a good answer?" And so, at the beginning of the third millennium, El-Sherif put on his builder's helmet to play his part in Egypt's plan to construct an IT industry.
El-Sherif also has a natural talent for addressing the public, especially when charged with dispensing knowledge to young people, a gift he indulged during his years as information systems and management professor at the American University in Cairo between 1984 and 2000. "The time I spent with my students is the time I love the most," he says with a surge of energy. The mission was more than teaching the curriculum: it was about giving his students faith in themselves, probing their minds and realising their potential. But becoming a disciple comes at a price. Stay on your toes, pay close attention, don't interrupt, be efficient, be committed. When he's finished, by all means contradict him; but be sure to be standing on solid ground, because he prefers an intelligent, competent challenger. "I love it when my students are clever, smart and sharp," he emphasises.
El-Sherif half-heartedly denies that he suffers the meek or mediocre with difficulty. "I can be patient, but after a while I'd kill them," he bursts out in laughter. His days as a cadet at the Military Technical College (MTC) taught him discipline, organisation and management, and these have been his rules of thumb. "I am a believer in military schooling," he announces, "and when recruiting, I look for people who have brains, but also discipline." You certainly need both when the boss is like a general. But he does have a heart, and a big one at that. He is a generous philanthropist who prefers to remain anonymous, and his enthusiasm for the young is unmatched. Although in his circle the rule is survival of the fittest, he is willing to give a chance to the untried (as long as he sees potential).
Going to military school, ironically, was one of the few unplanned moves in El-Sherif's life. The nation was in crisis and despair after the 1967 defeat, and he wanted to serve his country. Although he is an only son, and therefore ineligible for military conscription, he signed up at the MTC instead of medical school. "The young generation have no idea what it means for a country to lose," El-Sherif says quietly, and the loss was compounded for a person like him, who does not countenance loss or contemplate failure.
At the MTC, he was rigorously drilled, disciplined and educated by Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Selim "a man who has not received enough recognition for his work in investing in Egypt's human capital," according to El-Sherif. "Mostly it was five years of no vacations, non-stop learning and drilling," he remembers. While he does not shy away from hard work and discipline, he disliked the confinement and restrictions on freedom. "It was difficult to adjust to very severe discipline," he recalls; "but, since it was combined with thorough learning, it was worth it."
The unrelenting regimental routine served El- Sherif well when he graduated with honours and enrolled for post-graduate studies at Alexandria University. Three times a week, he would travel from Cairo to Alexandria to attend classes after work, but the arduous commute was insignificant after the rigours of a military education.
Nor did the MTC instil in him blind respect for seniority. Although he recognises the value culture accords experience on the job market, El-Sherif believes competence is the ultimate criterion, especially in fields that are new by definition. "You need to proceed irrespective of age," he adds. This, of course, is most obvious in IT, where the greatest advances of the past quarter-century have been brought about by 20-somethings. "Young people are the fuel of the future, and we have 30 million of them. If we educate and empower them properly, Egypt will leap forward."
El-Sherif surrounds himself with young minds, and continuously tries to recreate his own experience for them: he received his big break at 32, when the government adopted his initiative to create a decision support centre. But it wasn't smooth sailing from the word go, especially since he launched his career in a social environment and business culture that do not always allow the young to take initiatives. "I can write an encyclopaedia about the obstacles I faced," he says half-seriously. First, there was "the original lack of belief in the young," which is why it took him a while to convince the powers that be to support his proposal.
Second, there was the challenge of building credibility. "People don't believe in big dreams, and you need to take them one step at a time," he says. Third was a general resistance to change -- "which is in the books, but experiencing it in reality is something else." Fourth came the process of "mobilising the elite, the crème de la crème, the brains to believe something good can happen. This process has a snowball effect, but the very critical starting point is difficult." Fifth, expanding one's vision and finding resources proved tricky, although El-Sherif found it less difficult to "get money around serious projects." Other critical challenges include high- quality implementation and the institutionalisation of ideas and processes.
Overall, however, he was lucky. After several attempts with other officials, in 1984 he met by chance with then Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Administrative Development Atef Ebeid (the current prime minister), who seemed very encouraging. "I thought this was more of the lip service I had got before, but Dr Ebeid followed up and I gave him a plan, which he took to the prime minister and got approval," remembers El-Sherif. "In a lot of ways I owe Dr Ebeid the best years of my life, because he gave me an opportunity to serve and coached me in a result-oriented manner in the real world."
Today, El-Sherif's challenges are managing within a changing environment, building "a world-class IT industry" and making a difference in society. "That is my biggest challenge," he announces.
As a young adult, his goal in life was to "learn, learn and learn. I'm a continuous learner," he says. Two years after receiving his bachelor's degree in computer science from the MTC in 1975, he obtained an MSc in computer science and automatic control from Alexandria University. Another two years passed, and El-Sherif was graduating from the American University in Cairo clutching a master's in management. The next stop in his pursuit of knowledge took him to the US, where in 1983 he received a dual doctorate in engineering and management in information and decision support systems from MIT.
If knowledge is power, success is measured by translating what one has learned into the real world, and El-Sherif is a man of results. After MIT, there was no doubt in his mind what the next step would be. "Coming back home, to Egypt and my sister," he says. The most frustrating aspect of his beloved country is "the gap between the opportunities and the problems we create ourselves. Although I felt there was a lot of knowledge and information out there, I decided to return home and apply what I had learnt, and learn from implementation," says El- Sherif. Between 1984 and 1999, when he was the chairman of the advisory board of the IDSC, he established the first information repository to support decision-making at the national level, launched the Information Technology Institute (ITI), created 1,300 IDSC information centres and generating more than 40,000 jobs.
His team (and "teamwork means everything") was instrumental in building some 900 major projects, including Egypt's database on debt management, the economic reform programme and legislative reform. Other projects include the national ID number, developing information systems in governorates and the executive branch, building a database on the national heritage, the labour force, social services and introducing Internet services in Egypt.
When he began the journey to digitalise the country in the early '80s, he didn't quite realise how much potential lay within. "Today I know," he declares. "We are a very, very rich country, but we cripple ourselves with problems and constraints instead of managing the opportunities we have." Still, this has not frustrated El-Sherif, who keeps a sharp eye on success, and rarely wallows in failure. "My business is to transform potential into success, because I do not believe there is a challenge one cannot overcome."
The building blocks for his prize project, the ITI, were formed in a computer skills training unit in the basement of RITSEC in 1987. His vision was comprehensive. "We said everyone who comes through the door of RITSEC must be computer literate," recalls El-Sherif. Now 'Amm Mustafa, the security guard and doorman, can clock in staff on the computer as they walk in. He was one of the first to take a basic computer skills course, part of the informally labeled "from the minister to the porter" computer literacy programme implemented in ministries and organisations across the country. The project expanded, eventually becoming the pilot for the ITI, which is home to the first professional development programme in Egypt, and today has hundreds of software engineers among its graduates.
But the plan was still in its infancy. "Then we thought, how about the masses? This isn't just for the elite; we want an information society," says an animated El-Sherif. Forty centres mushroomed around the country, training some 300,000 people by the year 2000. The very young were also part of the strategy, and therefore Little Horus, a programme for children, was launched. Bill Gates is said to have described it as "one of the best" he has seen.
El-Sherif is proud of his handiwork, and deservedly so, since he says 20 per cent of ITI graduates in the software engineering sector find jobs abroad with mega-companies like Microsoft. Under his leadership, IDSC was selected as one of the top 100 IT organisations in the world in 1992. His personal achievements are no less impressive: President Mubarak presented him with the First Order Medal of Science and Art in 1999. He has received many other awards, including the Franz Edelman Award for Management Achievement and its Application in 1989, First Prize from the Society for Information Management (SIM) in 1988, the Third World Prize, and honorable mention from the International Federation of Operations Research Society (IFORS) in 1987. He was also made honorary citizen of the state of California in 1987.
El-Sherif has a wide range of interests beyond the field of technology, and lends his expertise to various causes, serving as chairman of the Committee of the Mentally Retarded Child, co-chair of the Legislative Reform Programme, and member of a plethora of institutions: the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, the Presidents' Council, the Opera Fund, the Supreme Council for Antiquities, the National Culture Board...
As chairman of the advisory board of the Egyptian Museum, he is currently working on building "the world's largest, most attractive and economically viable museum." He also advocates the rights of disabled people, which he believes have not received sufficient attention. "We have formulated the strategy for the handicapped in Egypt, and what is needed now is vigorous implementation at all levels of government and society," he states. "We need to promote implementation of this programme. I measure things by results, and therefore I feel I haven't done enough to help my sister live a better life."
"Jihan, is my angel, I adore her," says El-Sherif of his younger sister, who suffers from Downs Syndrome. "She doesn't speak, and has few words to communicate with the rest of the world, but she is a very important soul to me." He would like to find more time to spend with Jihan, and also Yasmine -- although surprisingly, he is trying hard to prevent his daughter from becoming a cyberkid. "At one point I took her computer away because I wanted her to interact with other children and the real world," he says, "but eventually I gave it back." El- Sherif prefers to participate in non-computer activities with his daughter, taking her to the library and shopping for books. "Now I try to spend a couple of hours every day with her -- if she allows me, because she has a busy schedule," he laughs. "It's incredible how much you need to learn to be able to communicate with her young mind and maintain her attention. Forget the degrees and the rest of it: this is totally different."
Although his family roots are in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag, he rarely travels south. Still, he openly declares a bias towards Upper Egyptians, their region and their future. His favourite form of relaxation is to switch off all electronic devices and sit by the water, "either the Nile or the sea: that's my favourite way to unwind."
This builder of minds and companies wants to put on a storyteller's hat someday. "I'm in the mood for writing," he confides. "One day I want to write a little story and share with people what I've lived through. I want to include the photos of all the people I've worked with, because each of them has a story." Predictably, he has already taken steps in this direction, writing a weekly column on IT in Al- Akhbar newspaper. "I avoided writing for many years, but the feedback since I've started writing every week has been encouraging."
The formula for success, according to El-Sherif, is a combination of the right vision, knowledge, resources (most importantly human capital) -- focusing on a goal and its implementation. Arguably, there will always be a lack of resources, but he believes "Egyptians deliver the impossible when they want to." A dreamer or a prophet? His record and drive suggest that he will do his best to deliver.
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