U.S. Brigade Of 4000 Travels To Kuwait

Over 4000 troops based in Colorado’s Fort Carson left to Kuwait in February, adding to the intense speculation about the U.S. sending ground troops to combat the Islamic State (IS). These soldiers aren’t newcomers either, as many have already been part of one or more tours in Iraq. This takes things to a whole new level, given that the American-led coalition, including the United Kingdom, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, have primarily approached the operation via airstrikes. This excludes the autonomous Southern Kurdistan region, whose military force, the Peshmerga, have been the most active on the ground against the IS. While Obama stressed that he does not want to use heavy military force, he urged U.S. Congresss to allow him to authorize more military intervention. This comes at a time when IS presence in North Africa has become visible, opening a new front for the coalition.

Drones For Good Gives UAVs A Reputation Overhaul

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), mostly known for military operations, have a bad rep and Drones for Good aims to change that. Launched by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai during the 2014 Government Summit, the UAE Drones for Good Award seeks to highlight the use of drones to improve (and even save) lives. Teams demonstrated projects at a two-day event at Dubai Internet City for a panel of international judges. Receiving more than 800 entries from 57 countries, relief services proved the most popular, followed by the categories of civil defense services, economic development and environmental concerns.

Beating out five finalists from the original 39 semi-finalists, the Switzerland-based Flyability won the US$1 million grant in the international category. Inspired by insects, the collision-resistant Gimball drone can fit into tight spaces and safely fly close to potential survivors in rescue missions, protected by a rotating outer frame. Winning the government category, Etisalat’s Network Drone can fly to areas with low signal strength (such as deserted areas and mountains), and increase reception. NYU Abu Dhabi’s team took home an AED1 million prize for their Wadi Drone that uses software relating to animal and environmental conservation- it collects data without the risk of damaging the natural habitat.

Drones for Good

DRONLIFE developed to transport organ transplants to hospitals

HENRI Waterproof drone used for mapping the coral reef and coastal zones

SANAD Controlled via ipad, the octa-copter drone can be used for rescue missions such as lifting people to safety

1 BILLION TREES Increase plant rates while decreasing the cost by planting 300 seeds in less than 50 minutes

Adopting The Lean Startup Approach

Most startups fail to take off. The traditional method of starting a business has been to come up with a business plan, get investors to back it, assemble your dream team, get a product in play and push it hard. But this approach often exposes entrepreneurs to risks that blindside them later. The same could be said of the big ideas often touted to help the poor in emerging markets, either with access to cleaner water and sanitation or education.

Take PlayPump, a children’s carousel designed to help pump clean water in Africa. Despite getting US$16 million in funding, it failed to gain traction. Three out of every four development projects in Africa fail. They are managed with a fixed plan in mind, as if they were always big infrastructure projects with fixed components and measured outcomes. But there could be an alternative approach.

Lean growth

A new way to look at solving complex development problems could be the lean startup method, which favors hypothesis-based experimentation, iterative product releases and customer feedback over a big plan upfront with lots of intuition and conventional wisdom. The main pillars are better known as prototyping, experimenting and pivoting.

Take the market for kerosene as a good place to start with lean startup thinking. Two billion people around the world don’t have access to electricity, but the poor around the world spend around US$37 billion a year on kerosene or other lowquality energy solutions for lighting. But kerosene is both expensive and a serious fire and health hazard. More people die from indoor pollution than malaria because of it. Solar solutions require big onetime investments that are out of the reach of people living on $1-2 a day.

We have been working with Nuru Energy, a for-profit social enterprise in Rwanda that is dedicated to replacing the use of expensive, unhealthy and dangerous kerosene as a source of lighting. Nuru Energy offers ultraaffordable and portable LED solutions through a micro-payment business model. Its product has become the most popular off-grid lighting product in the country.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Nuru did a lot of experimentation and pivoting to make a solid product. The solution consists of a small portable unbreakable battery-powered LED light about the size of a hockey puck and a recharging technology called the POWERCycle generator, which is a stationary bicycle.

Right off the bat, an AC-charging station was scrapped because most of the population didn’t have access to grid electricity. A solar panel solution was tried but it was expensive and the charging cycle was too long. They even tried a hand-charging device but it required a lot of physical effort to use. After trying all of these things, the POWERCycle was proposed and successfully tested.

And the experimenting didn’t end there. The product was complete, but how were they going to sell it to the rural poor? A financing solution was needed.

When takeup rates turned out to be lower than expected, Nuru dropped the upfront price of the lamp below cost and aimed to make up the margin loss in recharge revenues. They also had to grapple with payment collection costs. Experiments were required. Nuru initially partnered with microfinance institutions to select and finance entrepreneurs who would help with selling, but several experiments had to be carried out to get the incentives and trade-offs between take up and margin. Payment collection was expensive so Nuru came up with an SMS technology that could remotely unlock the POWERCycle.

Reaching higher

We are now launching a pilot to explore ways to reduce consumer inconvenience costs and encourage usage of the lights. We have received grants from the International Growth Centre and INSEAD to experiment with different revenue models, as well as giving households a subsidy to purchase additional lights. We also plan to understand usage of Nuru lights with electronic tracking.

The bottom of the pyramid is not an easy place to do business, but applying cookie-cutter business models isn’t the answer. It is impossible to understand what works and what does not without experimentation and pivoting. Rather than huge projects with big funding and standardized approaches, we think development and funding agencies could better allocate money to small-scale experiments and studying the results to make the most out of the limited funding available.

GCC Women Lean In By Starting Up

“We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in.”

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

For women in the Middle East, participation in the labor force is not just about empowerment, it also makes clear economic sense. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicated that while women are more likely than men to graduate from universities in the MENA region, gender gaps in labor participation are at 50%. Christine Lagarde, Director of the IMF noted that “for the entire Middle East and North Africa region, the gap between men and women’s participation in the labor force over the past decade was almost triple the average gap in the emerging market and developing economies. If this gap had simply been double instead of triple, the gains for the entire region, the Gulf countries included, would have been enormousalmost $1 trillion in output, amounting to annual gains of about 6% of GDP.” Despite these statistics and the oft-cited barriers to entry such as access to funding, a small and determined cadre of women are starting their own companies, creating jobs not only for themselves, but for countless others. Here are a few women from around the GCC that have caught our attention in this particular regard:

Buthaina Al Ansari

Founder and Chair, Qatariat and Senior HR Director, Ooredoo Qatar

Buthaina Al Ansari is the founder and Chairperson of Qatariat, a company that specializes in facilitating Qatari women’s workforce advancement with three segments: training and development, development consultancy, and a print publication. Al Ansari, an ardent supporter of women’s development, is also the Qatar Women Leading Change ambassador. Recognized several times for her active involvement in both commercial and not for profit spaces, Al Ansari was chosen as Entrepreneur Qatar’s 2014 Equality Enterprise Achiever at the Qatar Enterprise Agility Awards in association with Barclays, held in September of last year in Doha.

Dr. Hayat Sindi

CEO and founder, i2 Institute for Imagination and Ingenuity, and co-founder, Diagnostics For All

“Science should become more human,” says Dr. Hayat Sindi, recently named as one of the most powerful women in Saudi Arabia, and a frequent power-lister for the MENA region. While Dr. Sindi holds a PhD in Biotechnology from Cambridge University, she’d rather be known as a social innovator and a champion of science and technology. If her impressive biography is any indication, Dr. Sindi has done it all, but says she aims to simply solve social problems with science. What social problem tops her list? The use of science to create alternative energy and to make affordable diagnostic healthcare available to all.

The entrepreneur’s big dreams don’t seem the least bit outlandish when you see what she has already accomplished as a co-founder of a non-profit organization (NPO) with a team at Harvard called Diagnostics For All. The NPO creates innovative, inexpensive, pointof- care diagnostic devices for people in impoverished regions. Dr. Sindi launched i2, the Institute for Imagination and Ingenuity, to encourage innovation among young scientists, technologists and engineers. Through fellowships, trainings and mentorships, i2 inspires the next generation of innovators so that they may realize their dreams, and ultimately contribute to Saudi Arabia’s growing economy. “We need to link science to society,” she explains, and her end goal state includes trying to change the way we think about science to make it practical, and that means empowering women through science and technology.

Huda Janahi

Founder & CEO, Global Group

From being a homemaker to becoming a successful businesswoman in the male-dominated environment of cargo services, Bahraini national Huda Janahi bested the odds stacked against her as a woman in the closed-off logistics sector. According to Janahi, when she started her business, “they rejected my license,” because she was a woman. Custom’s clearance was only granted to men when she first put her application through, but fortitude of personality and a desire to succeed caused Janahi to question established custom’s regulations. Requestingian explanation as to why she was denied the necessary clearances, she ultimately credits her persistence and determination, enabling her to become the first woman in Bahrain with this license- the required custom’s clearance. “I’m proud. I changed many things in my country, because I am insistent.” While female entrepreneurs in the Middle East still face big challenges in accessing capital, the most successful (like Al Ghunaim and Janahi) will always find a way. From launching her company with a modest $4000, Janahi puts the current day valuation at approximately $16 million.

Maha Al Ghunaim

Vice Chairman & Group CEO, Global Investment House

Fifteen years before Sheryl Sandburg penned her New York Times bestselling book promising women worldwide that by “leaning in” they could unlock their greatest career potential, Maha Al Ghunaim and a handful of other trailblazing women had already “leaned in” in one of the boldest ways possible- by starting their own companies in the Middle East (often in male-dominated industries). Al Ghunaim’s company, Global Investment House, later became the very first Kuwaiti company to list on the London Stock Exchange, and now manages a formidable US$4.3 billion in assets. Back then, Global was a small startup, with only a very determined woman at the helm. Today, the company plays a key role promoting investment opportunities across the Middle East through its brokerage, asset management, and investment banking divisions. Like Al Ghunaim’s peers and up-and-comers, women in MENA are defying the odds stacked against them in terms of gender, culture and industry to build sustainable and profitable businesses. Through sheer will and relentless determination, these women blazed entirely new trails- “leaning in” by starting up. “We have seen a lot of startups fail simply due to the lack of a feasibility study, and a clear and viable business plan. Spend time to understand the market, the clients, and most importantly the competition, and create a business idea that will give you a competitive edge.”

Nayla Al Khaja

Founder, D-Seven Motion Pictures

The entrepreneurial backstory of the UAE’s first female filmmaker and founder of UAE-based film production company D-Seven Motion Pictures, Nayla Al Khaja, seems like a thrilling scene out of a well-scripted movie. Unconventional and passionate, Al Khaja’s description of her trek is enough to keep any audience riveted. Unlike some of the other entrepreneurs in the region, she believes being one of the few women in her field is a card played to her advantage in the UAE. The arts-friendly UAE leadership were extremely supportive and encouraging, according to Al Khaja. Her interest in making movies was sparked by a mixture of passion for telling stories, connecting people and cultures, and “intertwining and promoting peace through film,” she explains. Unorthodox (effective) tactics pepper Al Khaja’s rise in the industry, including how she overcame the restriction placed upon her by her parents: she was told she couldn’t study filmmaking in Canada unless she married. “When I asked my husband to marry me, he almost choked at the table because I had only known him for two weeks,” she says, calling it the most memorable “scene” of her life should she ever translate her adventures to the big screen. Her proposition terms were that she would sell her car and give him half the money- should he consent to wed. The Emirati artist did indeed marry for love, but it was for the love of film. D-Seven’s impressive client rosters currently lists Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), Cartier, Nestlé, Nike, and Samsung amongst others.

Statistics on women starting up in the Middle East are difficult to come by, but the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2012 Women’s Report states women run only one out of every four startups overall in the Middle East. While women are still a small minority in the startup circuit, their businesses are gaining momentum proving that women are “leaning in” in big ways all across the globe, including the Arab world. While the success rate for startups is still on the lower end of the spectrum, it demonstrates that it is an attainable state despite the challenges unique to women. A growing number of young entrepreneurs like Nayla Al Khaja agree that in the Middle East, “being a woman is a very positive thing.”

Women In The World Comes To Dubai

The Women in the World Middle East summit was held at the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach on February 3, 2015, with the intimate event bringing together some of the region’s most influential women to share their individual stories with the selected invitees. Launched in 2009 by acclaimed journalist Tina Brown (founder and CEO of Tina Brown Live Media), Women in the World is “a movement dedicated to advancing women and girls through stories and solutions,” and the Dubai event, presented by GE, was the first of its kind in the Middle East. In a statement, Brown said, “Tonight’s forum gives a sense of our mission: to present the voices of women of originality, daring, and accomplishment. There is so much we can learn from them! These are the role models we want our daughters to follow.”

In Pictures: 10th Cartier International Dubai Polo Challenge

The 10th edition of the Cartier International Dubai Polo Challenge was staged at the Desert Palm Hotel on February 21, 2015. The event took place under the patronage of HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, the wife of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The Cartier Villa premiered the new Cle de Cartier watch creations at the event, with the collection being presented in the UAE for the first time following its global launch at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in January. it will be available in boutiques worldwide starting April 2015.

Smart Home: Blossom Masters The Waterworks

A new watering system from Blossom extends smart home reach to your backyard. The smart sprinkler system is a first of its kind- it conserves water (significantly reducing bills) and can be controlled from a smartphone, tablet or computer. Blossom works by leveraging the QCA7000, a Qualcomm Inc. product, connecting over the home’s existing electrical system and works with an existing system’s wires, valves and sprinklers. The Wi-Fi enabled system is easy to install and can then be managed remotely. Perhaps its most impressive feature is the sprinkler’s ability to use automated weather intelligence. By cloud computing, Blossom can determine an optimal irrigation schedule taking into account rainfall and the amount of water needed based on weather conditions. The Blossom controller definitely ups a home’s intelligence, making it smarter from the inside out.

Startup Asamies.com Offers MENA-Friendly Domain Names

“Since day one, we were driven by making a significant contribution to the MENA market,” says asamies.com co-founder and Managing Director Ahmad Abdelraziq. The 31-year-old says that he was driven by issues and gaps in the regional market to create web domain market, asamies.com, after seeing all sorts of problems in the market related to web domains. First and foremost on that list? How difficult it is to find a good online name, “especially when they want a .com online presence,” noting the countless poor name choices they’ve seen small and large businesses alike settle for. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, UAE-based Abdelraziq also echoes another pervasive MENA-region digital topic: “The Arabic language is underrepresented when it’s the native language in this part of the world and is highly used on the internet, yet, the Arabic content on the web is about 1% worldwide.”

“asamies.com is simply an online marketplace for brandable names, made available with creative logos, and the premium domain extension .com and the first borderless Arabic domain extension .Shabaka, at affordable prices,” explains Abdelraziq. I was quite intrigued by the idea of the .Shabaka domain- while it may take time for it to become something customary among businesses in the region, I felt rather encouraged when Abdelraziq mentioned that UAE-based multinational telecommunications service providers, Etisalat, was an early adopter of this neat domain. Setting up asamies.com was definitely not a simple feat, but Abdelraziq notes having fellow co-founder Aamir Shaikh, who is also asamies.com’s Creative Designer, alleviated a ton of the work.

One challenge? Human capital– the duo do admit struggling to find the right personnel that they thought would make the best team to launch their portal. Financially speaking, the co-founders decided to bootstrap, having come to the agreement that starting with limited capital is a safer and more logical decision for their startup. Shaikh and Abdelraziq don’t have any angel investors on board for asamies.com either, and apparently they’re not considering looking into cash injections anytime in the near future. In his opinion, it’s all too easy to “get mesmerized by so much cash on hand initially, and burning it quickly and get distracted from the main objective as a company at a startup stage.” Abdelraziq’s decision is also backed by the fact that his company isn’t capital intensive at all, for two main reasons: both co-founders have the necessary experience and skills required to get the business up and running, and the business being an online one automatically means there are much less costs at the outset, in contrast to a physical product.

Visiting asamies.com, you’ll notice that searching through some of the available business names is visual-friendly, since each business name comes with a logo. They wanted to bring in another creative aspect of the business into asamies. com, and they rightfully pointed out that having only names would make the online market look like a “stock trading platform.” External designers were called up to design asamies.com’s logos, and the co-founders hope that having graphics alongside their list of names will help businesses alleviate some costs, in addition to adding a good aesthetic element to the portal.

In terms of other marketing tactics, their bootstrapping dictates a “less is more” approach and a few growth hacking techniques. In short, the tools they plan on utilizing include blogging, social media, digital marketing, public relations, and referral programs. “Our blogging goal is to educate consumers mainly about quality, branding and business naming,” says Abdelraziq, adding that an active blog would also mean better SEO, better web traffic, and a more engaged target audience. Despite being in its early stages, how has asamies. com been received thus far? So far so good, according to the co-founder, and it seems that they’re getting some attention and decent media coverage. They also were “qualified to the Entrepreneur Day pitch competition organized by DSOA [Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority] in November 2014.”

Five Minutes With Nathalie Haddad, Founder And Managing Director Of Right Bite

After working for over 10 years in the UAE as a nutritionist and dietician, Nathalie Haddad was motivated to start Right Bite -a personalized healthy meal delivery service based on a client’s lifestyle and dietary goals- after she saw her clients struggle to find variety while trying to stay healthy. Describing an entrepreneur as someone with the virtues of “leadership and perseverance,” Haddad sees the increase of health-oriented F&B startups as an indicator of “individuals and institutions becoming more health conscious.” The “trep motivates her team by “showing them our growth and commitment to strive for the very best.”

Being a dietitian yourself, how do you maintain a healthy lifestyle?
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle isn’t an easy thing, especially as I try to juggle my personal and professional life, but I do my best to ensure I find the right balance to be able to continue to be active and eat healthily. It’s very important for me to practice what I preach!

What do you think hinders UAE professionals from maintaining a healthy lifestyle?
Given the fast-paced lifestyle we currently lead in the UAE, a lot of people are always on the go and have very little time to prepare food for themselves and/or their families however with that being said; I do believe people these days are becoming more health-conscious, so achieving a healthier diet and lifestyle is surely possible– it just takes a bit more time and effort. It is also important to keep in mind that eating healthily has to be enjoyable and satisfying to one’s taste buds and of course in the long run beneficial to help achieve optimum health.

What’s one thing you make sure you do for your company to run efficiently?
I get daily updates from all my departments on a daily basis and I make sure I am also accessible to my staff whenever they need me.

What are your top three tips for an entrepreneur to start a business in the UAE?
First, make sure you love what you do. Secondly, look into all the associated costs that apply to your business. And finally, be prepared to put in the hours.

What were the biggest lessons from your endeavors?
It’s been over 10 years and there are many lessons I have learnt. The main ones are that it is important to keep your energy at a high, as this affects the entire business and the internal culture of one’s organization. Also, I believe you can never sit back and say “that’s it I have made it’! You always have to be on top of things; and continuously educate yourself, your team and develop your offerings; the market is always changing and you have to be ready to change with it.

What would you say is the region’s biggest challenge for entrepreneurs?
In my opinion, this would be getting good talent and maintaining the good staff with the increasing cost of living and operating costs.

In your opinion, how much “risk-taking” personality characteristic is involved in being an entrepreneur?
Everything in life can be looked at as having a risk. When it comes to business, I believe if you did a proper business study and have a well thought-out business plan and are willing to put in the hours, the risk is no different than any other venture you may take.

What is your daily routine like?
I have to say my days are never boring and never the same. My mornings are usually spent getting my daughter ready for nursery and I make it a point for all of us to have breakfast as a family before going about our day! My first part of the day is usually spent at the office and I would have a few meetings planned with my team to catch up on the operation and what we have going on as well as planning the next steps and strategy moving forward for my business. At times, I also have a few meetings with individuals from the industry and then have a bit of time to catch up on emails, to take a step back and evaluate the business and see what I need to do personally for work. Time usually flies and there are never enough hours in the day to get everything done!

What device or apps do you often use?
Jawbone App, My Fitness Pal and Yummly.

Walpole And LBS Launch Luxury Management MBA Program