Karim Kouatly is the Co-Founder and Global Commercial Director of Ogram, an on-demand, part-time staffing platform that helps organizations in the UAE and the region find quality and vetted staff.
Under the leadership of Kouatly & his Co-founder, Ogram has become a cutting-edge, tech-enabled platform that provides clients and job seekers with a seamless experience. Ogram has done job matching 160 times faster and 50% more reliably, saving enormous costs for clients in industries where staffing needs fluctuate with cycles.
Kouatly is a persistent and innovative leader who constantly develops new ideas to broaden the company’s verticals and growth strategies. Learn more about Karim Kouatly and Ogram through our interview below.
What’s the idea behind the company?
Our company is an on-demand, part-time staffing platform that solves a fundamental issue faced by most organizations in the UAE and the region when needing quality, vetted staff. My co-founder and I both experienced this problem when we worked in the hospitality industry – finding quality, on-demand, and vetted staff.
After aligning in mid-2016, Ogram was born! Ogram is powered by cutting-edge technology, allowing both clients and job seekers looking for part-time work to have a seamless experience. Our solution has made job matching 160 times faster and 50% more reliable.
It also saves enormous costs for our clients since staffing needs in the UAE fluctuate, and most industries have cycles that lead to overheads piling up in the slow months. Currently, we cater to the UAE’s food and beverage, hospitality, retail, and logistics industries.
How did you begin your career journey? Do you have some advice for beginners?
My journey as an entrepreneur began when I realized that I wasn’t tapping into my full potential. I also couldn’t stand having a 9-5 job (not that there’s anything wrong with it) and wanted to create something that would positively impact society.
Every startup endeavor comes with a leap of faith, a dangerous jump that many hesitate to take, and I believe that my career journey began as a Co-Founder at Ogram when I took that first step.
I advise beginners to have full confidence and faith in yourself and the idea you want to build. Try to create a solution to a real problem in the market and fill in that gap. If you’re starting a tech business, I highly advise you to onboard or partner with a CTO or Full Stack Developer from day one.
What’s the goal of the company?
As a futuristic organization, Ogram is looking to scale up its logistics business by offering on-demand warehouse assistants to warehouse facilities and integrating with other software to enable more customer acquisition and growth. We’re also aiming to develop our relationships with traditional manpower agencies. Additionally, our goal is to expand throughout the Middle East and Europe. We’re already preparing for our launch in Greece, which will serve as our entry point into Europe. We’re also aiming to set up operations in KSA in the near future.
How important are employees’ energy levels to the success of Your Company?
At Ogram, everyone is treated like they’re part of a big family. The success of our business is highly dependent on the talented people on board, and keeping their energy and motivation up requires inclusion and empowerment. Emphasizing empowerment, I can’t stress its importance enough. When you empower your employees, give them the autonomy and independence they need, and allow them to make mistakes they can learn from, their devotion and commitment will go a long way. To summarize, there are many factors in keeping an employee’s energy levels up, but I consider the most important one to be aligning everyone on the company’s mission and vision, along with its short- and long-term goals.
What keeps the company moving forward even during challenges?
We’ve learned from past challenges and use those lessons to better ourselves when facing current challenges. Every challenge presents an opportunity; the trick is finding that opportunity.
How do you think technology is leading to changes in businesses? Do you feel it’s helping Your Company grow?
Our company is tech-enabled, and this is certainly paving the way for exponential growth in the UAE and abroad. In my opinion, in today’s world, achieving economies of scale can only be done through digitization.
If you were to do it all again, would you change anything?
Like any startup or business globally, as a founder or owner, you may look back and have regrets. However, if I were to do it again, I wouldn’t change anything because the experiences and lessons I’ve learned over the years are too precious.
Explain yourself in one word.
‘Persistent.’ I truly believe that persistence played a major role in building my character as a person and a professional and in getting Ogram to where it is today.
Do you use innovative ideas to be unique?
I constantly come up with innovative ideas to broaden the company’s verticals and growth strategies, and I run them by our team because it’s imperative that everyone is on board.
Would you like to say anything else to our viewers?
I truly believe that there are a lot of bright ideas and people in the region, and I would love to see them surface. We live in an emerging market; now is the time to shine.
Connect with Karim Kouatly on LinkedIn.