Through Perseverance and Frugality, a Path to Leadership in Egypt’s High-Tech Industry

She started out as a computer science major fascinated with technology. Today, Hanan Abdel Meguid oversees one of Cairo’s better-known online and mobile technology companies. Noting that the company now has offices around the world, Meguid tells Arabic Knowledge@Wharton how she bounced back from failure, how she approaches management, and what advice she would offer to would-be entrepreneurs. “Focus on what you really need to build,” she says.

A Kuwaiti Woman Leading Development Efforts in Yemen

Maali Alasousi gave up a comfortable life in Kuwait to live in Yemen, dedicating herself to developing social programs in a country that is among the most impoverished in the world. She tells Arabic Knowledge@Wharton that key to successfully providing a social service in the traditional Arab country is to understand its people first.

Read the full interview: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/arabic/article.cfm?articleid=2949

 

Emirati Filmmaker Seeks Support for the Region’s Burgeoning Movie Industry

The path to become the first Emirati female film director was not easy for Nayla Al Khaja. But despite the adversities she faced and the sacrifices she made to pursue her career, Al Khaja is full of optimism for the Gulf’s film industry. She sees the potential for her native United Arab Emirates to become a regional film hub, and cites examples in Europe the country could emulate. She tells Arabic Knowledge@Wharton that regional governments should lend support to aspiring movie directors and producers.

Read the full story: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/arabic/article.cfm?articleid=2931

Vijay Mahajan: The Middle East Is not Just Dubai

There are a number of opportunities in the Middle East that are missed by following popular stereotypes, says Vijay Mahajan, author of The Arab World Unbound. For instance, the region boasts booming retail and media industries, he tells Arabic Knowledge@Wharton. But companies would be making a mistake to look at the most wealthy and modern parts of the region and expect every Middle Eastern market to be like that, Mahajan notes.

Read the full interview: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/arabic/article.cfm?articleid=2933

 

Related articles

• Vijay Mahajan: Understanding the Potential and Power of Arab Consumers
• Gradberry’s Ripe Idea: A Recruitment Portal for Middle East Youth
• How the Middle East Is Protecting Itself from Europe’s Ongoing Woes
• Oliver Wyman’s Scott McDonald on the Middle East’s Risks and Challenges for Development and Governance

Iran Sanctions: Why U.S. Authorities Are Winning Billions from Banks

Since 2012, the U.S. has aggressively pursued penalties against financial institutions found to be doing business with Iran and other blacklisted nations. The stance is the result of a shift in priorities and particular changes in the way U.S. authorities are interpreting laws, say international legal experts. Banks and other financial firms have to be sure they are in compliance, they note, as “any transaction that touches the U.S. can trigger prosecution.”

Read the full analysis: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/arabic/article.cfm?articleid=2934

How the Middle East Is Protecting Itself from Europe’s Ongoing Woes

In spite of the austerity efforts by European governments and increased financial collaboration in the Eurozone, the region remains saddled with a number of economic and fiscal difficulties. Sony Kapoor, the head of European think tank ReDefine, tells Arabic Knowledge@Wharton that Middle Eastern investors have moved interests out of Europe and into Asia or closer to home as a result. “We have also seen some opportunistic buying-up of distressed assets by the Middle East, so there are also other opportunities that will arise,” he adds.

Finding Room for Positive Change and Growth in Yemen

Despite Yemen‘s international reputation, there are a number of local entrepreneurs who see opportunities in the country, now that it has largely cast aside its political troubles. Munir Ali Daair, chairman of a family business operating in the oil and gas industry, is among those Yemenis touting enterprise and innovation as a new way forward for the country. Speaking to Arabic Knowledge@Wharton, Munir Ali Daair sees prospects in Yemen’s economy for growth, particularly if it better manages its natural resources. “The future of Yemen will not be built on donations. The future of Yemen will be built on partnerships,” he says.

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.”

IKEA’s Women-free Catalogue in Saudi Arabia Fails to Protect Company Values and Reputation

Wharton ethics and law experts say that in an effort to try and avoid the ire of Saudi censors, IKEA missed the bigger picture of how such a move would be perceived elsewhere in the world. Steps taken to clearly state company values and consult local culture could have avoided the reputational blow it received.

“Perhaps the company’s most striking failure wasn’t its lack of moral courage, but its stupidity in having fallen into the tangle in the first place,” says Tom Donaldson, director of the Zicklin Center for Research in Business Ethics at Wharton. “The mores in the Saudi state are notoriously conservative, as IKEA must know. Armed with deeper cultural knowledge and better foresight, IKEA could have either put the pictures of women into the catalog and readied a strong defense, or designed a different catalogue.”

Still, these factors don’t excuse IKEA’s deletion of women from its catalogue, says Ann Elizabeth Mayer, associate professor of legal studies and business ethics.

“Some people may claim that IKEA should not be criticized, because it was only seeking to respect Saudi Arabia’s strict social mores. Or, they propose that IKEA was following a rational business strategy, customizing products being sent to a foreign country where it knew that moral and cultural values were not the same as in Western societies — and certainly not like those in Sweden.

Read the full analysis: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/arabic/article.cfm?articleid=2880

After the Nobel Prize: Women Struggle to Participate in a Post-Arab Spring Yemen

Halima Gellman was in Yemen for seven months spanning the Arab Spring protests and five months in the aftermath, evaluating the gender issues that Yemeni women encounter and how they’re able to achieve political participation in the transition period. Gellman says she originally came to Yemen “thinking I was going to write my thesis on Yemeni women as peace-builders in local resource conflicts. When I got here, in the latter part of the revolution and started talking to women, they said to me, “You’re here at a historical moment. You should focus on the revolution.”

Read the full interview: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/arabic/article.cfm?articleid=2871