BOSSit

Tales of a Jordanian Information Technology Start-up
Authors: Oveissi, Ali; Linowes, Richard
Source: Emerging Markets Development Advisers Program
Year: 2004
Company Name: BOSSit
Number of pages: 14

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Abstract:

As the founding managing director of BOSSit, Faris Nimry was becoming increasingly exasperated with the marketing efforts of his firm. His company provided customer service for organizations seeking to outsource this function, but after being in business for a full year, he still had few clients. Customer service remained an unfamiliar concept in his country.

The new director of marketing, Ali Oveissi, was charged with devising a marketing strategy similar to those employed by professionally managed Western firms. In Ali’s view, Jordanian business practices were not as sophisticated as those in the U.S. Though a number of companies had operations on par with American standards, most did not seek out and internalize ‘best practices’ found in the U.S. The Government of Jordan attempted to address this issue by hosting scores of business conferences in the country, especially those pertaining to IT. But simply learning about best practices in a conference setting did not institutionalize them in local businesses.

For his part, Faris was uncertain whether a new structured approach to targeting clients would be as effective as the means by which he brought in their first major client; that business relationship was established and cemented through personal connections.