Flying South
Newsweek, December, 2005 by Mac Margolis
Reinventing a fancy product for one fussy client can be lousy business. Manufacturers make their margins on cookie-cutter factories and epic economies of scale. So it was no minor matter a few years back when Saudi Arabia's Tamimi and Sahiti Transport Corp. hit the Brazilian bus-maker Marcopolo with some last-minute alterations. Since many Muslims believe that nothing should stand between a believer and Allah, the Jeddah-based company, which ferries pilgrims to Mecca, wanted 95 of a total of 1,500 buses fit with a removable roof. Another contractor might have thrown a gasket. Marcopolo saw opportunity. Four months later, it unveiled the "hajj bus"--the world's first mass-transit convertible.
That flexibility is the main reason why this onetime family owned garage in...
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