Master of Business Administration

The aim of the research was to create a model for sustainable socio-economic development in selected informal areas of Cairo, through collaboration of NGO members, informal area inhabitants and designers.
The objectives were as follows:
Using design intervention to develop more effective socio- economical empowerment program for informal areas through NGOs
Repositioning the role of designer in relation to social change
Providing a sustainable project that lives on after the designer has left.

After conducting field research, including extensive interviews with NGO project managers, it was concluded that many of their economic development programs were having limited impact, and new strategies were needed. The selected strategy was to bring design thinking to the development of new product lines to be made by women in informal areas. The concept was to implement a well branded line of clothing targeted to a specific market segment; to be promoted through social media; sold through an online store; to be manufactured by informal area inhabitants, thus the money gained will be returned to the informal area inhabitants.

Therefore a pilot project was implemented for 12 months, where 4 trails were made in 4 different informal areas until acceptable quality of products were produced. The concept is creating a sewing workshop in the homes of the informal area inhabitants where they produce clothes designed through participatory workshops where potential customers are gathered to design for their needs. Then the NGO team uses online marketing to sell the products through a well-branded online shop.

Consequently, after holding 4 participatory workshops, 16 products where selected and produced and eventually promoted through Facebook and Instagram. This resulted in the informal area inhabitants gaining a minimum of 30 LE per piece rather than their previous pricing (2 LE, 7 LE and 14 LE).

This paper investigates the struggles faced by Design Entrepreneurs in Cairo. After using grounded theory, general challenges arose from the codes, yet in depth understanding of the communication problems between the entrepreneurs, the designers and manufacturers in a start-up. The study took place in Cairo, where the entrepreneurial ecosystem is still emerging along the past couple of years. Six entrepreneurs were interviewed. The results exhibit most of the problems faced within the start-up and the ecosystem, also challenges emerged in terms of dealing with designers and makers in the product development phases. Understanding the struggles and the failed and successful methods of solving them helps create a foundation for design entrepreneurship. When this foundation is better established, hopefully would allow the economic status in Cairo to flourish. Due to lack of documentation, this study aims to guide design entrepreneurs struggling in Cairo, acting as reference for some of the problems and their possible solutions.

Informal areas take up 65% of Cairo. Mansheyet Nasser -one of the biggest informal areas in Cairo- alone hosts more than 2,000,000 inhabitants. Several NGO founders feel responsible to create a model that fixes informal areas’ problems (such as education, employment and health). Especially since the 25th of January revolution, they have been doing their role in sustainable development. Currently these NGOs are responsible for providing opportunities that generate income for informal area female inhabitants. This study focuses on sustaining this income through community centric design. Moreover, the designer’s role was more of moderating between the informal area, the inhabitants and the NGO rather than designing only. Aiming the women could have sustainable income, the participants’ needs and communities were investigated using Kimbell and Julier’s (2012) Storyworld method. This resulted in three women sewing clothes that are sold using a well branded online store. A sample from the store’s target group were invited to participate in several participatory design workshops to create the chosen products. This action research draws attention to the impact of community centric design on socio-economic status in informal areas.

Informal areas take up 65% of Cairo. Mansheyet Nasser -one of the biggest informal areas in Cairo- alone hosts more than 2,000,000 inhabitants. Several NGO founders feel responsible to create a model that fixes informal areas’ problems (such as education, employment and health). Especially since the 25th of January revolution, they have been doing their role in sustainable development. Currently these NGOs are responsible for providing opportunities that generate income for informal area female
inhabitants. This study focuses on sustaining this income through community centric design. Moreover, the designer’s role was more of moderating between the informal area, the inhabitants and the NGO rather
than designing only. Aiming the women could have sustainable income, the participants’ needs and communities were investigated using Kimbell and Julier’s (2012) Storyworld method. This resulted in three women sewing clothes that are sold using a well branded online store. A sample from the store’s target group were invited to participate in several participatory design workshops to create the chosen products. This action research draws attention to the impact of community centric design on socio-economic status in informal areas.

The startup failure rate in Egypt exceeds 95%, while research approaches this issue quantitatively, this study aims to understand entrepreneurs’ challenges through a designer’s lens. As research continues to explore how design adoption is growing in business in the West (Sheppard, Sarrazin, Kouyoumjian, & Dore, 2020), the contribution to knowledge in this study is defining how the Egyptian entrepreneurial ecosystem perceives and uses design, and generates internal factors of startup’s success, which are founder’s experience, hired caliber and culture. The qualitative investigation used Grounded Theory as the primary method, it starts by a simple aim, which is to understand three entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders’ design perception (entrepreneurs, designers and business experts). Accordingly the following research objectives were achieved; understanding designer and non designer entrepreneurs’ failure reasons, understanding the entrepreneurs’, business experts’ and event makers’ view of design, understanding designers’ feedback on working with startups and understanding the success factors of Expansion phase startups’ entrepreneurs.
The results direct towards four main issues; that failure reasons and challenges are submerged from lack of knowledge when it comes to self cognizance and practical skills. While the designers’ challenges are overwhelming, their miscommunication with their clients resulted in a lot of them. Also, numerous of similarities and linkages take place between findings in the first and final research objectives listed above.
In conclusion, through one open business model, three proposed services are presented to tackle the problems faced by designers and entrepreneurs. This research sheds light on the importance of defining design in Cairo’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by observing it through several stakeholders, then using design (Design as Storytelling + Service Design) as means to solve entrepreneurs’ challenges.