Fifteen years ago when I moved into a career in Data Management technology I found myself in an industry that was somewhat immature but going through rapid evolution and growth. As I honed my skills in channel management and developing active ecosystems of revenue producing partnerships Aramex rose to the top of the list as a great company which I had someday hoped to work with.

Aramex was founded by Fadi Ghandour in 1982. The focus of the company was serving underserved markets for logistics & delivery services. The concept of e-commerce at that time was at best in its infancy. Mr Ghandour pursued his vision without deviation over the past 30 years. Now his company is the go to resource for delivery throughout the Middle East and many other countries.

If there ever was a model for our company to follow it would be Mr Ghandour’s Aramex. It is easy to build a “me too” company. As an active angel investor I see dozens of business plans that are “me too” centric. When I advise other entrepreneurs about building sustainable businesses (my other passion) I strongly encourage them to build ahead of the curve or as I like to say it “over the horizon”. A business that builds far enough ahead of the market can best position itself to maximize its advantage as the market need approaches. Most ventures build way out ahead of the curve and then cannot sustain themselves while waiting for the market to catch up (look at the history of pen computing to see what I mean here).While Aramex was building its ability to deliver to those markets that were ignored by larger players those “underserved” market evolved and developed the combination of a vibrant middle class populace who were web savvy and had access to the broader global internet. These people are the underpinnings of the e-commerce market in those countries and Aramex has built the capacity to deliver to every one of those customers.

The market for cross border commerce is on a fast growth trajectory. Global Data Consortium and its partners see themselves well positioned to maximize on delivering best of breed solutions for international customer Identity, Delivery and Payments. Hopefully we will intercept the market as Aramex did and build a great sustainable business. Thank you Mr Ghandour for the inspiration.