Beyond the Deck | Episode 3: Culture, Strategy and the Super App Shift with Nourhan Farhat
•February 24, 2026
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Why It Matters
Kareem’s integration of culture, strategy, and super‑app expansion demonstrates a replicable model for regional tech firms seeking rapid growth and sustainable talent pipelines, reshaping competitive dynamics in the Middle East’s digital economy.
Key Takeaways
- •Culture outweighs strategy, influencing execution at every level
- •Super‑app model thrives in Middle East due to regulation, economics
- •Consulting resilience mindset drives Kareem’s internal innovation and ventures
- •Integrated people, strategy, and ventures roles accelerate organizational alignment
- •Kareem’s purpose focuses on simplifying lives and empowering employees
Summary
Beyond the Deck Episode 3 features Nourhan Farhat, VP of People, Strategy and Ventures at Kareem, discussing how the company’s culture, strategic vision, and the regional super‑app shift intersect to drive growth.
Farhat emphasizes that culture “eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” arguing that without aligning incentives, operating models, and values, even the best‑crafted strategies falter. She describes her transition from a decade in consulting to corporate leadership, noting that the resilience and problem‑solving mindset honed at Roland Berger now informs hiring, venture creation, and people‑first initiatives at Kareem.
Memorable moments include celebrating employees who leave to start their own firms—coined the “Kareem Mafia”—and the company’s purpose of “simplifying and improving lives” while developing an inspiring workplace. Farhat also explains the super‑app concept: consolidating identity, payments, and services into a single frictionless platform, leveraging regional regulatory flexibility, higher disposable income, and mobile‑first adoption.
The discussion signals a broader trend for tech firms in the Middle East to fuse culture with strategy and to pursue ecosystem‑wide super‑apps, offering investors and competitors a blueprint for scaling services while maintaining employee empowerment and brand trust.
Original Description
In this episode of Beyond the Deck, Dorival Bettencourt sits down with Nourhan Farhat, VP of People, Strategy and Ventures at Careem and a Roland Berger alumna, to explore what really determines whether strategy succeeds or fails.
From Careem’s evolution into a super app, to the role of culture in driving execution, to how AI is reshaping productivity and product thinking, this conversation dives into leadership at scale in the region. Nourhan also shares her perspective on entrepreneurship, resilience, and building a clear personal operating model while juggling multiple leadership roles.
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