Gradberry’s Ripe Idea: A Recruitment Portal for Middle East Youth

Every student looks forward to graduation day, but few are prepared to deal with the tough challenge of finding their first job. When she graduated from university, Iba Masood was dismayed to discover there were no job sites in the Middle East that catered to fresh graduates with limited experience. To fill that gap, she launched Dubai-based Gradberry.com, a recruitment portal dedicated to graduates and students with less than two years of work experience. “We know the troubles they are facing because we faced it,” Masood tells Arabic Knowledge@Wharton. “We represent the graduates.”

Wharton and HCT Host First Innovation Tournament in the Middle East

A group of 12 semi-finalists from around the Middle East and Asia competed in the region’s first innovation tournament, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and the United Arab Emirates’ Higher Colleges of Technology in Abu Dhabi. With a focus on sustainable concepts that can be implemented globally, the competing ideas ranged from new building technologies to water-saving systems. Over two days in May, the group vied to win the top prize from a total of US$30,000, but they also compared observations about the challenges facing regional innovators.

Read about the competition here: http://bit.ly/JErHFO

In Beirut, Tech Entrepreneurs and Investors Mingle at ArabNet Digital Summit

It’s one of the rare spaces where tech startups and investors get to meet and make deals in the Middle East. Over 1,000 young regional entrepreneurs and early stage investors gathered in Beirut, Lebanon, for the third year of the ArabNet Digital Summit. Attendees credit the conference, founded by Omar Christidis, a Lebanese-born Yale graduate, for helping them connect with people and funding, and for providing inspiration and new ideas. Among the key themes of this year’s event was the pressing need to produce more Arabic content for online consumption.

Booz & Company’s Joe Saddi: The Arab Spring Toppled Governments, but High Unemployment Remains the Region’s Biggest Concern

Now a year beyond the first flush of the Arab Spring movements throughout Northern Africa and other parts of the Middle East, the difficulties of economic uplift in the area are becoming apparent. In a way, the sudden successes of the uprisings, particularly in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, mask the real long-term difficulties of laying the foundations for sustained economic viability for the region.

Joe Saddi, the chairman of Booz & Company, has long done business in the region and spoke about both the Arab Spring’s upsides and downsides at the first Wharton Middle East North Africa (MENA) business conference recently.

“I hear often the phrase, ‘The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity’,” said Saddi. “But now that the opportunity to have an economic success is there, we can no longer afford to do that.”

Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/H9VmIn

Despite Wealthy Appearances, the Middle East’s Oil and Gas Exporters Worry about the Future of Energy

One of the great lamentations of the Western world is that its economy is being held hostage to Middle Eastern oligarchies, that the nations of the Middle East and North Africa are becoming richer and richer from monies the United States and the rest of the developed world lay at their feet.

Yet at a recent panel at the first Wharton Middle East and North Africa Business Conference, experts who have spent years looking at the oil industry, often first hand from those oil countries themselves, painted a different picture. It is one of worry about the future of oil, and a move in many places toward not only different industries, but completely different kinds of energy production.

“The challenges in the Middle East transcend oil,” said Morten Klumb, a partner at McKinsey & Company, who has spent the last six years for the firm in the Middle East, often focusing on infrastructure and real estate, not solely the oil business. The World Bank, said Klumb, estimates that the region has to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure just to get up to speed.

Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/Hd8qtD

Regimes Will Not Control Egypt Again: Journalist Randa Fouad

An entire generation of Egyptians grew up under strongman Hosni Mubarak, and few could ever see an alternative to his rule, often quietly joking he was the ‘pharaoh for life.’ Journalist Randa Fouad says she was among the skeptics when protestors first gathered at Tahrir Square.

But the swift end to Mubarak’s military regime, she says, emboldened her countrymen to rethink Egypt’s future. Despite the country’s ongoing political and social turmoil, Fouad is optimistic, telling Arabic Knowledge@Wharton that whatever develops, “Egypt belongs to the Egyptians now. It does not belong to any regime.”

Read the full interview here: http://t.co/kusukHKz

Apply Now to the Wharton Innovation Contest, Chance to Win 100,000 AED in Prizes

Are you an innovator, ideas pioneer or trailblazer in your chosen field? Do you—or could you—have an idea for a solution that can be implemented in businesses worldwide?

If so, you have the opportunity, as an individual or as part of a team, to participate in a global contest; obtain publicity for your solution; be mentored by local and international business experts and win prizes.

The Higher Colleges of Technology, the largest higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates, and Knowledge@Wharton, the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, have teamed up to conduct an “Innovation Tournament“ specifically designed for the MENA region.

Inspired by the book Innovation Tournaments by Wharton professors Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich, this tournament will require participants to create solutions by which society can implement new and sustainable technologies as well as customer-centric work processes. The tournament is open to all individuals and/or groups from around the world who wish to submit a solution for consideration.

The deadline for submissions to the Innovation Tournament 2021 is 5pm April 5, 2012 (UAE time).  To enter, go here: http://wharton.hct.ac.ae/innovation-tournament-2021/enter/

A Beautiful Mind’s Sylvia Nasar Analyzes the Arab Spring, and Why Oil-funded Handouts Don’t Work

Most know Sylvia Nasar from her book, A Beautiful Mind, which narrates the life story of John Forbes Nash, Jr., a mathematician who suffered from schizophrenia for three decades only to recover and win the Nobel Prize in Economics. Nasar follows up with a second book called Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius, in which she examines the work and lives of important economists whose ideas helped humanity gain control over its material circumstances. Speaking to Arabic Knowledge@Wharton, Nasar analyzes the Arab Spring, and discusses the harm of oil-funded handouts.

“I was interested in some of the interviews in Tahrir Square,” she says. “The first time around, the protestors were saying, “What we really want is economic opportunity.” I think it’s very comparable to the former Soviet Union. These regimes and how they’ve organized themselves, they can’t deliver. In today’s world, the political repression, economic backwardness, and heavy-handed state interference don’t work.”

Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/AmGjQR

Troubled by Syria’s Violence, Lakhdar Brahimi Critiques the Arab Spring Movement

With daily reports of bloodshed, veteran international negotiator Lakhdar Brahimi wonders aloud what will happen in Syria. Speaking to Arabic Knowledge@Wharton, Brahimi says the country is headed towards a broader internal conflict.

“In Syria, we are moving dangerously in the direction of a civil war,” he says. “I hope people will stop just short of that. That’s why we need a lot of creativity from the Arab League. What does it mean to observe things and people are not protected? Whether we like it or not, we have to work on solutions. If not, there will be violence.”

He does not spare the Arab Spring movement either. Despite the elections that have transpired in Tunisia and Egypt, Brahimi says voting will not solve the problems that led to the movement in the first place.

“What will sustain the movement is building a definite democracy,” he says. “You need to maintain a stable situation where progress is being made. People need to feel better off materially, and also respected. They need the development of citizenship, equality, justice, and the rule of law. As far as I’m concerned, those things are more important than an election. It’s not just about elections. The Egyptians had elections. What you need is dignity and respect for human life.”

Read the full interview here: http://bit.ly/zQycIx

Arabic Knowledge@Wharton And Wamda Announce Content Partnership

Announcing a partnership that will reach thousands of readers in the Middle East and North Africa, Wamda and Arabic Knowledge@Wharton, the online journal of The Wharton School, will freely offer tailored content to entrepreneurs directly from the world’s leading business school.

Readers will be able to access a knowledge base that includes interviews with Wharton faculty and exclusive conversations with industry leaders. Anyone seeking guidance on the MENA region will benefit from featured analyses of regional trends, success stories, and articles on best practices.

Additionally, Wamda, the platform that empowers entrepreneurs through investment, content and programs, and Arabic Knowledge@Wharton will jointly author reports for their specialized audience, which counts senior executives and leaders from government, academia and the media. Collectively, Wamda and Arabic Knowledge@Wharton reach over 150,000 people monthly in the region, offering content both in English and Arabic.

“The Middle East is fast developing into a hub for the emerging global economy,” said Bulent Gultekin, associate professor of finance at the Wharton School, and Academic Director of the Wharton Center@CERT, Abu Dhabi. “Wharton is very interested in understanding the region’s growth and its future economic roles.”

To further support entrepreneurs, Wamda and Arabic Knowledge@Wharton will jointly host online interactive sessions with Wharton faculty and experts and Arabic Knowledge@Wharton will provide Wamda members with more access to seasoned advice at select events.

“This partnership is a natural extension of Wamda and Wharton’s shared belief in leveraging the web to inspire and empower entrepreneurs throughout the MENA region,” said Habib Haddad, CEO of Wamda.

The partnership with Wamda extends Wharton’s presence in the Middle East. The business school entered into an agreement with the Higher Colleges of Technology and the Center of Excellence for Applied Research & Training (CERT) in the United Arab Emirates, opening the Wharton Center@CERT, Abu Dhabi in 2010.

The center acts as a hub for the MENA Region where the Wharton School conducts research, hosts seminars and events for UAE-based and regional business and management executives, and publishes Arabic Knowledge@Wharton.

“The readership of Arabic Knowledge@Wharton is spread across the globe,” said Pankaj Paul, managing editor of Arabic Knowledge@Wharton and general manager of the Wharton Center@CERT, Abu Dhabi. “It demonstrates the great interest people have in understanding the role the Middle East plays in the global economy. Our partnership with Wamda will allow us to reach an even broader audience and to better cover the topics and issues that matter to them.”