Middle East: Osman the Efficient

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The Aswan High Dam, at once Egypt's greatest new economic resource and symbol of national pride, was completed last week after ten years of the most arduous construction work since the pharaohs put up the pyramids. As the dam has risen to 350 ft. above the Nile, so has the reputation of the man who built it: Osman Ahmed Osman, the largest building contractor in the

Arab world. In a region not exactly noted for efficiency, the burly, 52-year-old Osman has achieved a reputation that would be enviable anywhere for completing complex projects on time and within cost estimates.

To land the job for the Aswan's first stage, Osman underbid his only competitor by nearly one half. Millions of tons of granite had to be moved in 140° heat, and Osman found his biggest problem to be the Soviet equipment, which had been accepted by Gamal Abdel Nasser as a condition of Russian aid. Soviet power shovels and drills could not cope with the granite, and trucks broke down in the heat. Osman convinced Nasser that only Swedish, British and Japanese equipment would get the $920 million job done on time. His project was completed on schedule, and now the turbines below the dam can generate 500 megawatts, or one half of Egypt's power production.

Abstinence Helps.The laborers whom Osman trained at Aswan have lately been dispersed in half a dozen Arab countries to work on more than $400 million worth of construction. His men are constructing a pair of bridges at Cairo, digging irrigation canals in Iraq, and building a stadium and sewage system in Libya. A 1,000,000-acre land-reclamation project in the salt marshes near Port Said has been held up by Israeli shelling.

Since business success stories in Egypt are rare, Osman has become something of a hero. Trained in engineering at the University of Cairo, he got his start in 1946 by borrowing supplies from shopkeepers in his home town of Ismailia to build a one-car garage. Profit: $15. He went on to construct schools and gained national attention in 1952, when, in a record 60 days, he rebuilt a village that had been destroyed by British troops in retaliation for guerrilla attacks. Expanding outside Egypt, he put up an airport in Saudi Arabia and the new Parliament building in Kuwait. Nasser nationalized Osman's Cairo-based company nine years ago, but guaranteed him a free managerial hand and full ownership of five subsidiaries in other Arab lands. By abstaining from the under-the-table deals customary in the Middle East, Osman has prospered despite shifting Arab rivalries.

Bonuses for Productivity. As an Arab, Osman naturally has an edge over outside bidders. He has also taken to heart modern methods of cost accounting. Because he built Aswan and has never had a major cost overrun, he dominates the field for Egyptian construction contracts, most of them military. He employs no subcontractors, passing on the savings to his employees in productivity bonuses that sometimes amount to two or three times their wages. That way, he always has a reserve of trained labor on call. "I have three basic points in every project," he says. "In order of importance they are morale, organization and money. There are no problems I won't solve to keep a man happy on the job. If he is happy, he is a better worker."