From Egypt to Prague, from MBA to new business: A chat with Mahmoud Omara

We are pleased to introduce another member of our international accredited Executive MBA programme (you can read the first interview with Adrian Gaju, MBA here). In this instalment, Mahmoud Omara, affectionately known as Mo by his peers. Mo, born in Egypt, and has worked professionally throughout the Middle East, now resides in Prague with his wife and children. An inquisitive MBA participant is now in his Master Thesis development. Above all, despite his many years in Pharma he is now an entrepreneur, dealing specifically in the cheese industry. Having distributed samples among his cohort and our MBA administration, I must admit it makes for a great grilled cheese sandwich. It is with great pleasure that we introduce Mo to our university and our LinkedIn followers. If interested, please feel to send a DM to MO. All ingredients are made from the Czech products and are therefore, the product is entirely Czech-made.

Why did you get into cheese and share with me some of your past employment because you had a very rich career.

Thank you so much Richard for this interview when it comes to the selection of the cheese. I don’t know if I mentioned this to you earlier or not, but I was very structured in the way how I choose this industry. First, I made a rough analysis on which field I choose among the three main fields of business which are either: trading, manufacturing, or service providers. My analysis led to manufacturing. Then I started to scan which industry can fit with my limited resources and at the same time, I can add something new to the end consumer. I went through many industries till I reached the dairy products industry. I went more extensively and found the Halloumi cheese. Nobody’s doing this usually in Czech Republic, they’re making local cheese like cheddar or mozzarella, or cottage cheese. But nobody’s making Halloumi cheese. From here came the idea of customised Halloumi cheese. There is a need in the market. It’s trendy and it doesn’t require too much technology.

Tell me about yourself and what intrigues me is that you’re in the Czech Republic, so go back a couple of years. I know the industries that you have worked in. But tell me the countries that you were located, and this is what I find fascinating.

Egypt in the 80s was having this transition between the Eastern Bloc under the Soviet Union to the Western Hemisphere under the American-European Alliance. I started to learn foreign languages. I started to be open to different cultures, like movies and songs and music. Then I moved to another city, our capital (Cairo), to study pharmacy for five years after that, during my study in the pharmaceutical in the pharmacy I knew that I had to work in a pharmaceutical business. Met my Czech wife in Saudi Arabia.

What was the tie with the MBA programme? Were you entranced by the idea of the MBA, or the knowledge or…?

I studied pharmacy. I didn’t study business and I am doing business. I am working in the pharmaceutical marketing field. I have in my mind that I need to study it. I need to have this overview comprehensive understanding of what business is and MBA was the best option for me because MBA gives you the highlights of each topic related to business as a business. It was in my mind that I really wanted to have the degree. The MBA for me was something very important. Not just on the educational aspect, but also from the personal aspect, because I was so lucky to meet such an amazing group of people in the MBA. They enlighten me in many ways. (It) affected my decision in a very positive way, like for example, I remember for the innovation class our professor said innovation is one single degree of freedom, just one single degree of freedom is considered as an innovative approach and that’s why I was very keen. When I’m providing my products to provide this one single degree of freedom which is customisation in this aspect that you don’t need to cut it, it will come to you exactly as you want.

If you had to go back again, let’s say when you started with the programme you came in with expectations, as we all do. What have you enjoyed to date?

Yes, I enjoy. I will start from the beginning because I arrived in the Czech Republic and after two weeks, I was joining the MBA. So, it was like fresh, new for me. My first exposure to the MBA was nice. It was the HR module, and it was a little bit unfair to the other topics because my benchmark went high after the HR lecture. I was so fascinated by it., and the marketing was great also, the legal. But the innovation was an eye opening for me. It really affected me in in a very positive way. Also finance, accounting, macroeconomics, and microeconomics. These are the topics that I found it very interesting for me and the course culture management two years ago. Also, it was great.

What’s your overview for the next couple of years?

I’m focusing more about my cheese project. I would like to make it as an SRO (self-regulatory organisation) soon. I have a business plan. I have milestones. I know what I’m going to do once I reach this point, I will have to do this and this and this. I can walk you through it extensively if you prefer. I don’t know if the setup is good for that. Now after trying for two months, it seems quite successful.