Driven to Success: Oussama Kaddoura

OWNER PROFILE

Driven to Success OUSSAMA KADDOURA’S REMARKABLE JOURNEY, CHOOSING HIS PASSION FOR CARS OVER HIS FAMILY’S FLOURISHING COMPANY, HAS BROUGHT HIM TO THE TOP OF THE FRENCH AUTOMOTIVE WORLD. JEFFREY T IVERSON SAT DOWN WITH THE LEBANESE EXECUTIVE

One morning recently in Paris, Oussama Kaddoura was showing a visitor around his newest Mercedes-Benz dealership, completed four years ago in the city centre, a stone’s throw from the Seine. Spread over six levels, with 13,000sq m of futuristic showrooms, pristine garages and tech-filled workshops, the imposing edifice is also the headquarters of the Como Group, a once-failing business that Kaddoura, a Lebanese-born engineer, transformed over the past 32 years into one of the most respected, most profitable premium automobile sales companies in Europe.

For a man who didn’t even speak French when he moved here in 1985, Kaddoura’s achievements seem stunning. Yet seeing his eyes flash with delight now as he pauses before an exquisite Mercedes-AMG GT R racing coupé, it becomes clear that this is an entrepreneur fuelled by something beyond common ambition. “Ahhh, let me tell you, racing in a car like this is an extraordinary experience,” he coos nostalgically. Born in 1954, Kaddoura won his first rally at the age of 18. And though his racing days are a thing of the past, he hasn’t forgotten the lessons learned behind the wheel.

“Rallies in those days were very dangerous. We’d drive along huge cliffs where just one bad turn meant you’d be gone,” he recalls. “Racing taught me to control my fear, and to manage risk.”

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Indeed, to hear him recount his globetrotting career, one begins to suspect that for Kaddoura, embracing his penchant for speed was not just a youthful indiscretion, but the secret to a life of uncommon passion.

Though he has certainly worked for his fortune, Kaddoura readily admits that he was also born into wealth and privilege, as the son of the owners of a flourishing pharmaceutical company in Beirut. However, those advantages came with unwelcome strings. “My parents expected me to go into medicine or pharmaceuticals, like everyone else in my family,” he says. “But my passion for cars changed all that.” Growing up, his father owned a lovely vintage Mercedes, and whenever the car was taken in for a tuneup, Kaddoura tagged along. “I always stayed to watch the mechanics work, learning how an engine is built, how it’s boosted. By the time I was 16, I’d fallen in love with the profession.”

Kaddoura recalls his parents’ reaction: “‘Our family has a pharmaceutical company to be managed! What do you think you’re going to be, a mechanic?’ But I was so stubborn.”

Kaddoura’s obsession endured, and he began competing in local rally races, proving himself a gifted driver. But after graduating from the American International College of Beirut, his parents finally demanded he choose a “real” profession. “It was the only way I could get out

OWNER PROFILE

Driven to Success OUSSAMA KADDOURA’S REMARKABLE JOURNEY, CHOOSING HIS PASSION FOR CARS OVER HIS FAMILY’S FLOURISHING COMPANY, HAS BROUGHT HIM TO THE TOP OF THE FRENCH AUTOMOTIVE WORLD. JEFFREY T IVERSON SAT DOWN WITH THE LEBANESE EXECUTIVE

One morning recently in Paris, Oussama Kaddoura was showing a visitor around his newest Mercedes-Benz dealership, completed four years ago in the city centre, a stone’s throw from the Seine. Spread over six levels, with 13,000sq m of futuristic showrooms, pristine garages and tech-filled workshops, the imposing edifice is also the headquarters of the Como Group, a once-failing business that Kaddoura, a Lebanese-born engineer, transformed over the past 32 years into one of the most respected, most profitable premium automobile sales companies in Europe.

For a man who didn’t even speak French when he moved here in 1985, Kaddoura’s achievements seem stunning. Yet seeing his eyes flash with delight now as he pauses before an exquisite Mercedes-AMG GT R racing coupé, it becomes clear that this is an entrepreneur fuelled by something beyond common ambition. “Ahhh, let me tell you, racing in a car like this is an extraordinary experience,” he coos nostalgically. Born in 1954, Kaddoura won his first rally at the age of 18. And though his racing days are a thing of the past, he hasn’t forgotten the lessons learned behind the wheel.

“Rallies in those days were very dangerous. We’d drive along huge cliffs where just one bad turn meant you’d be gone,” he recalls. “Racing taught me to control my fear, and to manage risk.”

34 NetJets

Indeed, to hear him recount his globetrotting career, one begins to suspect that for Kaddoura, embracing his penchant for speed was not just a youthful indiscretion, but the secret to a life of uncommon passion.

Though he has certainly worked for his fortune, Kaddoura readily admits that he was also born into wealth and privilege, as the son of the owners of a flourishing pharmaceutical company in Beirut. However, those advantages came with unwelcome strings. “My parents expected me to go into medicine or pharmaceuticals, like everyone else in my family,” he says. “But my passion for cars changed all that.” Growing up, his father owned a lovely vintage Mercedes, and whenever the car was taken in for a tuneup, Kaddoura tagged along. “I always stayed to watch the mechanics work, learning how an engine is built, how it’s boosted. By the time I was 16, I’d fallen in love with the profession.”

Kaddoura recalls his parents’ reaction: “‘Our family has a pharmaceutical company to be managed! What do you think you’re going to be, a mechanic?’ But I was so stubborn.”

Kaddoura’s obsession endured, and he began competing in local rally races, proving himself a gifted driver. But after graduating from the American International College of Beirut, his parents finally demanded he choose a “real” profession. “It was the only way I could get out

THORSTEN GREVE

“ [LIKE IN RACING,] SOMETIMES WHAT COUNTS IN LIFE IS KNOWING HOW TO POSITION YOURSELF ”

Surveying the empire Kaddoura’s Como Group has 19 outlets covering Smart, MercedesBenz and Lexus cars

of Lebanon! So, I said ‘fine’ and my parents sent me to study dentistry in Edinburgh, Scotland.”

A month later, Kaddoura called his parents to inform them that he was in London (and wouldn’t be studying dentistry). Several years later, he graduated from the University of London in mechanical engineering, specialising in road and transport.

Then an engineer with a young FrancoLebanese wife, Kaddoura might have chosen the familiar comforts and family business networks of Lebanon to start a career. Instead, he leapt once again into unknown cultural waters, moving to Saudi Arabia, where a classmate’s father in automobile imports had found him work at a Mercedes-Benz truck assembly plant in Jeddah.

Beginning as a simple engineer on the production line, four years later Kaddoura was managing the plant. “[Like in racing,] sometimes what counts in life is knowing how to position yourself,” he recalls. “In Saudi Arabia, my language skills gave me an added value – I spoke English and Arabic, so I soon found myself translating for everyone: Turkish employees, Asian buyers and for the company reps from Germany.” Kaddoura impressed the Mercedes-Benz team, and when he later mentioned a desire to run his own dealership, they offered to help.

Kaddoura’s wife was eager to return home, so in 1986 Mercedes found Kaddoura a small >

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OWNER PROFILE

dealership to buy in central Paris called Como Automobiles. Founded in 1938, the company had seen better days. “I had just invested every penny I’d ever earned,” Kaddoura recalls. “I knew neither the language, the tax law nor the work culture, and now I had 60 employees and a company that was almost bankrupt.” But as in Jeddah, Kaddoura’s global perspective provided keys to conquer a conservative Parisian auto world. “I’m very Lebanese when it comes to my sense of family and generosity. But I’m Latin in my lifestyle, and in my head I’m very AngloSaxon, in practical terms and in business,” he

A man at ease Kaddoura in Le Train Bleu at the Gare de Lyon, one of his favourite restaurants in his adopted home of Paris

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says. “In France, I think bringing an open mind gave me an added value, an ability to work in new ways, to not heed conventions.”

Kaddoura instilled Como with a new brand of customer service defined by fresh-faced salespeople, luxurious locales and a plethora of options to create bespoke automobiles. “I changed the attitudes of the people working here,” he says. “They all knew the company was on the brink of collapse, and were waiting for someone to take them in a new direction, and everyone – the mechanics, the salespeople – raised their game.” A year later, the dealership

had become one of the most profitable in the capital. A decade later, Como had begun opening one new Mercedes-Benz outlet after another. Then, in 1997, Kaddoura stunned the French automobile world by shifting his company’s focus towards an unproven new brand – Smart.

Kaddoura was among the first dealers invited to test the petite automobile, created by Mercedes-Benz and the Swatch-founder Nicolas Hayek to be the quintessential city car. “Everyone was betting that Smart would fail,” he recalls.

“But immediately I sensed that this little car was the future.” He invested tens of millions to create Smart’s European flagship in 1998, steps from the Eiffel Tower. Kaddoura helped mould the brand’s fashionable, eco-friendly image, attracting a premium clientele with luxury versions tuned

by Brabus, and limited editions with interiors by Hermès. In ten years, Como sold 30,000 Smarts.

Today, the company portfolio boasts 11 Smart centres on top of its eight Mercedes-Benz and Lexus dealerships.

Perhaps it’s that gift great racers have for predicting what’s just around the corner, but Kaddoura has certainly shown an uncanny ability for staying ahead of his competition.

That seems likely to continue with Como Group’s new general manager – Kaddoura’s son Karim, who co-founded Virtuo, the leading start-up in Europe for 100% mobile car leasing, voted Apple’s “Best App of the year 2016”.

“That’s the future: digital is changing everything,” says the proud father. “Perhaps tomorrow people won’t even buy cars any more. They’ll take Ubers during the week, and a Virtuo on the weekend!” After all, why does Kaddoura use a service like NetJets instead of buying his own jet? “Using NetJets isn’t a luxury, it’s about flexibility and productivity,” he says. “In the future, there will be many more people like me using a service like NetJets. The way connectivity and mobility are expanding today will oblige everyone to be faster, more dynamic, more flexible.” After more than four decades of globetrotting, it seems Kaddoura won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Perhaps it’s as the great columnist George Sheehan once wrote, “Why race? The need to be tested, perhaps; the need to take risks; and the chance to be number one.” ■

THORSTEN GREVE

“ IN FRANCE, I THINK BRINGING AN OPEN MIND GAVE ME AN ADDED VALUE, AN ABILITY TO WORK IN NEW WAYS, TO NOT HEED CONVENTIONS ”