New captains of industry
Widad Bouchamaoui is anything but the stereotypical image of a high-performing female executive. The attractive,
but understated 37-year-old mother of two boys exudes an old-world courtesy and responds to your questions with
pithy earthliness. Yet Widad runs Maille Fil, one of the biggest and most modern textile firms in Tunisia.
Widad is one of the new generation of Tunisian entrepreneurs who have used the positive business climate, created
by President Ben Ali's economic policies, to launch themselves powerfully into the international market place.
The company's $30m state-of-the-art factory is situated in 100,000 sq metres of ground with 20,000 sq metres
under cover. It produces 2,500 tonnes of combed cotton yarn and 600 tonnes of cotton fabric per year. The enterprise
provides employment for 200 people. Fifty percent of the output is exported and 50% is used in the local market.
Like many large companies in Tunisia, Maille Fil is a family business although Widad Bouchamaoui is the general
manager. She attributes her success, and the success of her brothers and sisters, to the entrepreneurial spirit
of her father Hedi. "My father is a rare human being," she says. "He lost his own father at the
age of 11 but he never doubted his own ability to succeed at anything he turned his hand to."
Hedi Bouchamaoui went into construction and built hospitals, schools and roads in northern Tunisia and later
constructed 90% of the Borma oil field complex in the south. He switched to agriculture and embarked on huge projects
in Libya employing at one time over 6,000 people. He returned to Tunisia to prospect for oil but failed to find
any. Undaunted, he took his instruments to Egypt and last year, stuck oil.
Did he have any time for his family?
"Oh yes," said Widad. "He was very affectionate with all his seven children - four girls and
three boys. He treated the boys and girls exactly the same - which was very unusual at the time. He taught us to
always speak the truth, have good manners, be honest and respect other people. He insisted that if we did not know
or understand something, we should not be afraid to ask. This instilled a love of learning in us."
Widad's approach to business also comes from her father. "He always said that money was never the most
important consideration; what counted was to do your work the very best you could. He wanted to be the best at
whatever he was doing and his hope was that his children would be better than him. I believe that his success lies
in the fact that he loves his work more than himself."
As Widad and her siblings were growing up, they were encouraged to go into any field they wished to. "So
we grew up with the conviction that we had to undertake enterprises suitable to our education and experience. That
there might be an alternative way to live has never really crossed our minds."
Widad obtained MBAs in business, marketing and international law. Some of the brothers and sisters studied in
the US obtaining degrees in business and engineering.
Initially it seems as if she would follow her father in the petroleum business but "I was not particularly
interested in this field. I chose an area which I felt closer to - textiles," she said.
But this was one area that the family knew very little about. Widad plunged herself into studying the textile
business. She visited countless exhibitions and factories, minutely analysed organisations and markets and talked
to a lot of people.
Before she and her three sisters, who were to be shareholders in the new company, could launch their project,
their father insisted that they leave their degrees outside the door and learn the business from the ground up.
"We had to learn from the first step: how to buy material, how machines worked, how to deal with employees
- in short, every single aspect, including the financial and legal. He helped us in the beginning but now we are
on our own."
The factory was started in 1994 and it is now going from strength to strength. The quality, from the raw material
imported from the US to the finished product, is controlled by one of the most sophisticated digital systems in
the world, Zeller Uster. The Maille Fil brand has already become a byword for consistently high quality in Tunisia
and Europe.
Is she worried that the proposed free zone with Europe will expose her to overwhelming competition? "No.
With closed markets you get poor quality and become uncompetitive. We have gone for quality from the word go. We
give good service and we receive a good price. Competition is good for everybody."
In many ways, Widad Bouchamaoui symbolises the modern young Tunisian entrepreneur standing on a mountain of
enterprise and innovation that dates back to the glorious period of Carthage.
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