Entrepreneur Middle East October 2015 | The Hospitality Ecosystem

Is your business going to attract funding? Regional investors on evaluating your pitch

The MENA hospitality enterprise ecosystem Founders discuss online and offline enterprises, big brand expansions, conceptual development, co-founder dynamics, investments and investors, and localizing both original hospitality concepts and franchised outlets

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps CHEFXCHANGE Multicity database development for foodies and chefs, and how it plans to turn a profit

ZOMATO Garnering investments, giving F&B outlets their own apps, and growth strategies

RESERVEOUT One online booking startup acquires another, and discusses its rapid regional expansion

PURPLE HONEY GROUP Married co-founders in F&B, and how they make it work

LA CANTINE DU FAUBOuRG Importing an existing successful foreign concept, and what areas posed challenges AEGIS HOSPITALITY Adapting an original F&B concept to new markets, and how IT affected the founder

ASEEL GROUP Entrepreneurship in the hospitality sector, and why they’ve launched an F&B accelerator FRIENDS’ AVENUE How this micro F&B startup injected personality into their interiors

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CONTENTS

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Ziad Kamel, co-founder, Aegis Hospitality

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INNOVATOR: The hospitality ecosystem Business best practices for F&B ‘treps Founders discuss online and offline enterprises, big brand expansions, conceptual

development, co-founder dynamics, investments and investors, and localizing both original hospitality concepts and franchised outlets CHEFXCHANGE Multicity database development for foodies and chefs, and how it plans to turn a profit

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RESERVEOUT One online booking startup acquires another, and discusses its rapid regional expansion ZOMATO Garnering investments, giving F&B outlets their own apps, and growth strategies PURPLE HONEY GROUP Married co-founders in F&B, and how they make it work LA CANTINE DU FAUBOURG Importing an existing successful foreign concept, and what areas posed challenges AEGIS HOSPITALITY Adapting an original F&B concept to new markets, and how it affected the founder

Zomato’s Heino Gehle

ASEEL GROUP Entrepreneurship in the hospitality sector, and why they’ve launched an F&B accelerator FRIENDS’ AVENUE How this micro F&B startup injected personality into their interiors

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EDITOR’S NOTE

By Fida Z. Chaaban

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TECH: SHINY

#TamTalksTech Gadgets and doodads that you might’ve missed out on, sourced by a tech aficionado. Yes, it’s okay to want them all… and no, it’s not our fault.

october 2015 Entrepreneur

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CONTENTS

october 2015

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Bringing your F&B concept to a new destination: Rizwan Kassim imported La Cantine du Fauborg

46 #TamTalksTech: Sony Xperia Z5 Premium Dual

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‘TREPONOMICS: PRO

Balancing act Bayt.com’s Lama Ataya explains why your employees’ work-life balance should be your enterprise’s concern.

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SKILLSET

All keyed up

Lebnan and Arz Nader get you downloading

Rabih Dabbousi, the General Manager of Cisco UAE analyzes unlocking opportunities for startups and SMBs with digitization.

Game Cooks founders push regional game dev even further. The entrepreneurs have collaborated with Nicolas Sehnaoui for the release of their newest game, PolyBlast.

TECH: THE FIX

ONLINE ‘TREP

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Your signature style

Getting social media right

Olympian and entrepreneur, James Clear, discusses a proven, reasonable and totally unsexy way to become more successful.

Ema Linaker explores the pitfalls and the opportunities of modern platforms, and why social media may not be delivering for your business.

MARKETING

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Nicolas Sehnaoui talks digi, development, and Lebanese ‘treps

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Entrepreneur october 2015

The INSEAD EMBA gave me the framework, network and leadership skills to take my company regional Anthony Boukather Co-CEO A.N. Boukather Holding, Lebanon EMBA Middle East 2013

Add credibility to your credentials.

Since 2010, the INSEAD Global EMBA Middle East section has been offering experienced executives an intensive fast-track to the top of their careers via one of the world’s most prestigious and multicultural academic institutions.

Learn more about the INSEAD Global Executive MBA at www.inseadEMBA.com

CONTENTS

october 2015

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CULTURE: TRAPPINGS

‘Trep gear The executive selection for the entrepreneur on your list that has everything. Okay, maybe for a little self-reward as well.

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LIFE

Power up and power down

26 Khalil Shadid, Founder and CEO, ReserveOut

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PRO

Unblocking the creative potential of Arabs Promoting (innovative) critical thinking in the MENA workplace- it can be done!

Mark Sephton wants you to really tap into your four primary sources of energy.

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LIFE

Business book rundown Amal Chaaban reviews a few business books for you before you hit the bestseller aisle.

It’s true that not all executive material is created equally.

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42 Marie Kristine Schmidt, Vice President Brand, Design and Marketing, Bang & Olufsen.

MONEY: YOUR MONEY

START IT UP: Q+A

Don’t let the haters win

Is your business going to attract the funds you need?

All I really need to know…

I didn’t learn in college

Ross McCammon dissects dealing with difficult people, and yes, you can do better.

Regional investors in entities both big and small tell you what they look for when evaluating your pitch.

Young Lebanese ‘trep Jihad Kawas puts business over degrees.

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ESQUIRE GUY

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ECOSYSTEM

Social entrepreneurship is on the rise Soushiant Zanganehpour’s advice for ‘treps acting as agents of change.

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Friends’ Avenue Café

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Entrepreneur october 2015

etro.com

MIDDLE EAST EDITOR IN CHIEF Fida Z. Chaaban editor@bncpublishing.net MANAGING DIRECTOR Walid Zok walid@bncpublishing.net DIRECTOR Rabih Najm rabih@bncpublishing.net DIRECTOR Wissam Younane wissam@bncpublishing.net PUBLISHER Nehme Abouzeid MANAGING EDITOR Aby Sam Thomas CREATIVE LEAD Odette Kahwagi ONLINE LIAISON Kareem Chehayeb COLUMNIST Pamella de Leon COLUMNIST Tamara Clarke COLUMNIST Shoug Al Nafisi

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Lama Ataya Amal Chaaban James Clear Rabih Dabbousi Ziad Kamel Ema Linaker Ross McCammon Rani Nasr

Mohammed Nosseir Benny Parihar Mitchell Prather Soukaina Rachidi May Rostom Mark Sephton Kai Stubbe Erika Widen

Images used in Entrepreneur Middle East are credited when necessary. Attributed use of copyrighted images with permission. All images not credited otherwise Shutterstock.

MIDDLE EAST

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In addition to our print edition, we’re bringing you all sorts of industry news on our web mediums. Joining us online means getting relevant business and startup content in real-time, so you’re hearing about the latest developments as soon as we do. We’re looking forward to interacting with our readers on all of our social media and web platforms- like any thriving business, we’re looking to give and take. #TrepTalkME is already happening on all of our digi platforms, and all good conversations go both ways. See you on the web!

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Keepin’ it real

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Aspiring entrepreneurs either need to do it better, or find a different niche

f you have been reading the advice of established founders and corporate business magnates that we share each edition, then you’ll know that one of the first things they tell wannabe ‘treps to do when developing an enterprise model is to solve a problem that exists for a niche that has no good existing solution. Already a few times this month, I’ve been pitched business models that do what someone else is already doing (better). If you can improve upon that existing model, and onboard users to rival that established company’s user base, then great. If you are offering what amounts to the same service or product offering, do not present your idea as though this is a) groundbreaking b) innovative and c) needed.

This doesn’t apply so much to say, the F&B industry; just because another resto has an Italian menu doesn’t mean a new Italian cuisine outlet won’t do well and attract clients. But it really does apply when you’re launching something that is pretty much the exact same online

concept as someone else. If you are thinking of copycatting a concept, it’s a good idea to import a concept that the MENA ecosystem doesn’t have yet. It’s a very bad idea to launch the exact same online model as an already established enterprise, and just slightly tweaking the concept.

How do I define slightly tweaking?

Well, if three lines into your email pitch, I can name other Middle Eastern platforms that you are cloning and I don’t see a huge difference in the product or service offering, then you can expect my response to be: “How do you differ from startup X who is already operating successfully here?”

More often than not, a founder responds by claiming that they are being “disruptive” (no, you aren’t), and they are “innovating” (doubtful), and that they’ll do things differently (prove it please). I think, as a startup founder, you may find my opinions harsh. But if you were a journo covering startups, you would probably agree with me, as your inbox would be flooded with these clones too.

I do want the ecosystem to grow, but not at the expense of cannibalizing the user base of entrepreneurial endeavors who did something before you, and continue to do it better than you. If you visit my Instagram account (@fidazchaaban), you will see some of the startups that I have used as a customer, so I’m also speaking from a consumer point of view. So, if you see that I’m a customer of a startup that does the same thing you do, and did it before you, with very little deviation from that model, it’s probably not a good idea to pitch me for an article the next day. (True story, by the way.)

#EntMETreps

Do you know a MENA region entrepreneur, startup, or SME that we should be watching?

Post your suggestions with the hashtag on Twitter or Instagram @EntMagazineME

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Entrepreneur october 2015

Fida Z. Chaaban Editor in Chief @fida | @fidazchaaban editor@bncpublishing.net

innovator

The MENA hospitality enterprise ecosystem Founders discuss online and offline enterprises, big brand expansions, conceptual development, co-founder dynamics, investments and investors, and localizing both original hospitality concepts and franchised outlets

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps 16

CHEFXCHANGE Multicity database development for foodies and chefs, and how it plans to turn a profit

ZOMATO Garnering investments, giving F&B outlets their own apps, and growth strategies

RESERVEOUT One online booking startup acquires another, and discusses its rapid regional expansion

PURPLE HONEY GROUP Married co-founders in F&B, and how they make it work

Entrepreneur october 2015

LA CANTINE DU FAUBOuRG Importing an existing successful foreign concept, and what areas posed challenges AEGIS HOSPITALITY Adapting an original F&B concept to new markets, and how IT affected the founder

ASEEL GROUP Entrepreneurship in the hospitality sector, and why they’ve launched an F&B accelerator FRIENDS’ AVENUE How this micro F&B startup injected personality into their interiors

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps Dubai. As every entrepreneur living out here in the desert, we have had to juggle with the transportation delays of furniture and equipment.”

“ La Cantine du Faubourg, Dubai

Bringing your F&B concept to a new destination Rizwan Kassim imported La Cantine du Fauborg

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n my opinion, to successfully face all the challenges F&B entrepreneurs contend with, the most important thing in Dubai is to connect with the right, relevant people in the world of marketing and the law. In this sense, we were very fortunate to rely on the support of outstanding personalities, on the benevolence of Jumeirah Group, which, as newcomers to Dubai, clearly helped us towards a better understanding and appreciation of the market.” Rizwan Kassim, a Parisian whose previous endeavors were retail and fashion-oriented, decided to bring La Cantine du Faubourg, a solid name on the wellheeled Saint-Honoré dining scene, to Dubai as the outlet seemed to be the right fit for the city’s booming hospitality sector. After cultivating a relationship with the original outlet’s owners, Pierre Pirajean and Héléna Paraboschi, the trio partnered up seven years ago. Here, Kassim gives his tips on what questions to ask yourself as a ‘trep in F&B, and how it related to his business.

1. Where do you want to situate your business?

“When opening a business, anywhere in the world, one of the key factors to look into is always location, location, location. When planning the initial stages of our venture in Dubai, our first and main challenge was to find a venue that would be best suited to our concept and include a terrace and a separate entrance from the property’s main entry point. The locations we were looking at were in the downtown area as it fit the best with the roots of our brand from Paris. The location we were looking for also had to have a unique element and some form of a historical background. Upon our visit to Jumeirah Emirates Towers, we knew instantly that we had found La Cantine du Faubourg’s Dubai address.”

2. Are you paying sufficient attention to your enterprise’s logistical needs?

“There were some factors such as the supply chain that surprisingly facilitated a more seamless approach as almost everything is available in

3. Have you brought in the right legal help?

“Obtaining the mandatory UAE licenses across beverages and entertainment was not as difficult as we anticipated, as we were fortunate enough to rely on the expertise of knowledgeable legal specialists to ease this process.”

4. Are you prioritizing your business’ human capital?

“When it came to staffing, that was a whole different ballgame. The first issue was in arranging appropriate accommodation for our team members, in a pleasant area of the city within a reasonable distance from La Cantine du Faubourg. We always ensure that our team is well taken care of, and we were also looking to provide most of the comfort you would expect from an accommodation in Dubai. It was quite challenging for us, as not many landlords here are inclined to rent out such apartments for staff members. Our second and perhaps most important issue was in finding the right personnel and team- people

with the suited skills and qualifications who would understand and abide by our values of quality service. Thirdly, the final issue we face today in Dubai is staff turnover. We therefore put the emphasis on recruiting the right people at the right time, and making sure that our team is always proud and enthusiastic about the brand and we invoke a sense of empowerment for our team to shine.”

5. Is the outlet’s layout and design in line with your local customer base?

“Further challenges we were confronted with, as many other restaurateurs, was the construction phase: how to get our suppliers to comprehend an innovative European concept and adapt it to a Middle Eastern environment. Also, as La Cantine du Faubourg relies on such key elements as music and videos, we needed to install state-of-the-art sound and light systems, resulting in a need for technical prowess at times. You have to bear in mind that we completely transformed what used to be a gym into a 270-seat restaurant… This [involved] heavyduty work in terms of cabling and HACCP [Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point] compliance, etc.”

Rizwan Kassim, La Cantine du Faubourg

“

october 2015 Entrepreneur

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Business best practices for F&B ‘treps

ChefXChange Chef

Offline to online

Startup platform ChefXChange helps users find local private chefs for hire

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oodies, want to book your own MasterChef in the comfort of your home for the evening?

Gone are the days that access to private chefs are just for a select few considered to be in-the-know. Startup ChefXChange offers food enthusiasts an online platform to search for chefs who’ll cook for you, manage everything from the menu to the grocery shopping, and even the washing up.

Both amateurs and professional chefs offer a variety of cuisines and menus for virtually any occasion. Each menu comes timed per guest, meaning that if you request a meal for six, you are told how much time each course takes to prepare per head.

Co-founder and Managing Director Karl Naïm said that the idea of ChefXChange came about after he felt the constant endeavor of being host and amateur cook took the enjoyment out of the

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dining at home experience.

Maybe you’ll not have all the ingredients that you need, or you’ll be so stressed out with preparations that you don’t get to spend enough time with your guests. Naïm and co-founder Marc Washington thought there could be a better alternative to this scenario, and Naïm believes ChefXChange is “democratizing the [private chef] service” by bringing it to users through its marketplace, noting that the Airbnb/Uber models can also be implemented in the culinary space. The cofounders say ChefXChange is a win for both chefs and foodies: for the foodie, the dining experience is within reach and now hassle-free via online navigation, and for chefs looking to freelance and set their own hours, it provides an alternative to just working in restaurants and professional events. It also offers them a storefront and

CRM through ChefXChange, thereby increasing their reach and exposure level.

Bootstrapped by the founders, ChefXChange’s business model charges a 15% commission from the chef’s side on every booking, although chefs and foodies can sign up on the platform for free. As for the ROI, Naïm stays mum on the subject: “We prefer not to disclose that, and it is too early-stage anyway.” Fair enough. Regarding investments, in December 2014, ChefXChange raised a seed round of funding amounting to US$500,000 through a SAFE structure round consisting of private investors they

knew via first-degree level (former colleagues or business partners), who also added financial and strategic value to the enterprise.

ChefXChange’s development process had its ups and downs. In October 2014, the startup graduated from DIG EAT ALL, a Spanish food and tech accelerator program, with a business plan that was formulated in January 2014. The co-founders’ finance backgrounds helped in the business development aspect, but they realized that skillsets in marketing and technology were lacking. They then turned to their business school alumni network (both are London Business School MBA grads), outsourcing and using free resources online.

In August 2014, the business then launched in beta with a good base number: 55 chefs and 50 foodies. Based on client feedback, three versions of the site have since been released, but onboarding users has proven to be strenuous. “Chefs are artists and often IT is not their strength,” explains Naïm, adding that for recruiting foodies, social media, digital marketing with a limited budget, press features, and partnerships with food bloggers were key. On the ground, the co-founders themselves did some footwork to spread their platform: “Marc and I even distributed flyers in some busy areas and in residential towers.”

ChefXChange founders Marc Washington and Karl Naïm

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps

Chef Roberto Segura preparing a five course private dining experience booked through startup ChefXChange

The co-founders, as a two-men show, knew their ambitions for the company required wearing multiple hats, “and I even ended up as a sous chef for a private dinner booked through the platform,” Naïm remembers. He brings up a valuable lesson they’ve picked up in the process: the importance of surrounding yourself with talent. Besides having a co-founder that you can rely on, Naïm says, “You

HOW IT WORKS A foodie can sign up and find a chef based on cuisine, price range, location and potential date.

Results will show possible chef matches, and users can directly message chefs through the site’s messaging system. Once a menu and pricing are agreed upon, the chef pre-approves the booking request and the foodie can pay through the gateway system. A confirmation email with contact details of both parties is shared.

The chef shows up on the appointed time and date with ingredients and equipment, cooks, serves (and interacts with guests if preferred), and cleans up. After 24 hours, both receive an

need to bring on board key talent, and by key talent, I do not mean superstars, or highly experienced people… You need to get hungry, driven, passionate, young people. At this stage, experience doesn’t matter. Stamina does.” The startup first hired experienced team members, but felt, “they were not right [for] the stage of the company, but would have been good five years down the road.” As a sup-

email notification to leave a review and rating that will be made public on the chef’s profile. ChefXChange then releases the funds to the chef’s bank account via wire transfer.

CHECKS AND BALANCES After a chef builds a profile on the site, the team reviews it and interviews the chef. Before approval on the platform, the chef is asked to provide references if they signed up as a professional or an apprentice, while cuisine knowledge is tested if they signed up as an amateur. There’s also a P2P review system on the platform, so that once a booking is complete, both the chef and foodie can re-

porter of cultivating young potential, Naïm asserts the need for training and empowerment for them to give back.

The startup is fully operational in London, Washington D.C., and has just begun execution in Beirut, with a main office in Dubai Silicon Oasis. They’re also considering a regional physical office for Europe, to be based out of London. As the startup’s business model doesn’t need physical operations on the ground, Naïm explains that it’s just a matter of having community managers working remotely. And how do they handle operating in different cities as a startup? “Different cultures require tweaking and there is no one-size-fits-all solution,” he says, crediting technology and the company’s lean structure as extremely helpful. At the time of writing, the platform has over 300 chefs and 500 foodies, and the team is currently looking to raise US$2 million (“poten-

view and rate one another.

If a chef gets a bad review, the profile is reviewed by ChefXChange, and a second bad rating would result in profile deactivation.

TAILORING EXPERIENCES Some chefs post sample menus that can be tailored to the liking of a foodie.

Modifying menus with ingredients or suggested courses can change prices, and this can be done via the messaging system on the site. Bargaining has no fixed procedure per se; it’s up to the chef and the foodie to reach an agreement.

Chefs and clients both have the option of accepting or declining a booking request post-negotiation.

tially more”) to close for their Series A round before the end of 2015. The funds will go to expansion, marketing, better UX for their website first, after which an app is next on the agenda, and hiring key talent within the company.

Besides strengthening their presence in their core markets (UAE, U.K., Washington D.C. and Lebanon) and in the GCC and Middle East region, they eventually want to bring it to new markets in Asia and Latin America. They’re also looking into cities with higher than average GDP per capita, traffic issues, and a food culture. Similar to Airbnb, for expansion to occur, customer adoption is needed. Also in the cards is a premium ChefXChange offering called ChefXChange Black, which will bring Michelin-starred chef experience catered to high net worth individuals or corporates. More details on that when it comes- watch this space!

QUICK TIPS ON STARTING A BUSINESS FOUNDER’S CORNER

1. ACTION IT “Don’t waste time making assumptions, test them yesterday.

Get out there as early as possible, and tirelessly get consumer feedback early on to keep improving your product or service.”

2. EXPECT SETBACKS “There [is] always something that is going to go wrong; this is your new norm- don’t despair or waste your energy on things outside your circle of influence.

Focus on what you can be doing, and whether you like it or not, it is going to be a bumpy ride.”

3. YOUR BUSINESS MODEL CAN ALWAYS GET BETTER “Iterate, iterate, iterate. You will never get it right the first time, and there are no right and wrong answers. You are lean enough to try it all and adapt accordingly.”

october 2015 Entrepreneur

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Business best practices for F&B ‘treps

Left to right: Samer Hamadeh and Ziad Kamel, co-founders, Aegis Hospitality

Expanding my business to a new city… and what I learned in the process

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Adapting as an entrepreneur

By Ziad Kamel

ntrepreneurship is like jumping off a cliff and trying to build an airplane on the way down: starting up and managing my own business required life-changing discipline and intense dedication. Ten years ago in Beirut, I jumped off a cliff and started up what has become an F&B group responsible for several successful ventures. The restaurants, bars, and coffee shops we created and managed in Lebanon have become well known brands and profitable businesses for our investors. With two branches of my French bistro Couqley operating profitably for six years, three renowned bars developed in the past decade, and a solid management structure, I felt that the time was right to expand! I moved to Dubai in 2014 to expand my enterprises, and to begin a new journey in a wonderful and stable city full of economic growth potential. Along came with me a supportive wife, two amazing kids, 10 years of entrepreneurial experience, business management know-how, and established F&B brands itching for new markets.

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Entrepreneur october 2015

My first venue in the UAE recently launched in June 2015, after more than a year of demanding work. Stereo Arcade, situated in the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel on JBR, is a F&B establishment with a unique concept consisting of three venues under one roof: a retro nightclub, a live rock pub, and a video arcade. The concept is a testament to what we term ‘future-retro’- mixing the old with the new, banking on the nostalgia of our target market. The second establishment soon to be launched is my French bistro, Couqley.

The first of several planned branches is currently under construction at the Mövenpick Hotel in JLT, Dubai with the expected launch in early 2016. Moving to the UAE and expanding my own businesses in Dubai is unquestionably

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps different than moving to be employed by a company.

Considering that our funding is already secured, a topic I will tackle in my next article, here are the top five lessons that I gained when started my business in Dubai: 1. Selecting the right corporate structure for my enterprise With a visionary leadership and pro-entrepreneurial government, the UAE is renowned worldwide for being businessfriendly. It’s a modern global hub for multinational firms with a strong logistics infrastructure and high connectivity. With that said, it can also be an intimidating place for an entrepreneur.

I. Dubai is notably unique in the fact that it provides distinctive challenges for nonEmirati business owners. For example, onshore companies (LLCs) mandate that at least 51% of the shareholders are Emirati nationals. Finding, selecting and signing on a local partner who you have met for five minutes (aka a local sponsor) can be quite nerveracking and a potentially risky undertaking.

II. You have to decide what is best for your company from an assortment of different corporate zones; each zone with its own set of company classification, trade licenses and internal rules. There are different varieties of onshore companies, free zone companies, and offshore companies. Free zone companies can be fully owned by non-Emiratis, however deciding which of the free zones is best for your business is not always straightforward.

Entrepreneurs must make a choice based on what’s best for their business model, and sometimes there isn’t just one correct choice. Some business models require comprehensive corporate structures consisting of several interconnected legal entities in order to operate with flexibility and to provision for a growth strategy. I have had to incorporate offshore, onshore, and free zone companies for my expansion needs.

Assessing the implications of the available options and determining the corporate structure best suited right for your UAE business is a crucial first step. There are legal counsels

Couqley Mövenpick Hotel, currently under development in Jumeirah Lakes Towers

Stereo Arcade, The Pub

who provide professional knowledge and help manage the processes, thus shortening the learning curve, however entrepreneurial due diligence, involvement, and understanding is irreplaceable.

2. Adapting my concept to my new target demographic Dubai is a multicultural city home to 2.17 million people from 202 nationalities. It is imperative to have a firm understanding of the cultural and geographic demographics of the city before expanding your business. In order to effectively segment and identify my target market, I spent plenty of time in the city beforehand to gain local knowledge through observation, and from speaking to people who have lived here for substantial periods of time to understand the city’s multicultural implications, and what they meant for my business.

Getting this right the first time around is vital to the success of your business. It will determine the degree of adaptation that your concept requires in order to satisfy your target market– and your investors.

3. Recruiting my team The vast majority of Dubai’s residents, a massive 92%, are expats who represent most of the city’s workforce. This has serious implications for

entrepreneurs considering expanding their business and hiring their team. Each company is subject to a quota of working visas, which means the business you just incorporated may not be able to hire enough staff to get it off the ground. Factors determining visa quotas vary for each type of company and across industries. For example, the visa quota for my management company is based on the area of the company’s office, every 100 sq. ft provides one visa.

The UAE visa system also has significant cost implications on a startup for five primary reasons: I. The more staff required, the larger (and costlier) the office that needs to be leased.

II. Each visa is an investment since official fees and deposits are fully paid in advance for each 2-3 year residency.

III. If the employee you want to hire doesn’t already live in Dubai, which is usually the case, the company will have to pay for the airfare.

IV. There are no refunds for terminations. If you find out the wrong person has been hired for the job and you decide to terminate the employment, visa fees and airfare are not retrievable.

V. In some industries, after a certain number of employees are hired, you are obliged to provide companyleased-accommodation and transportation for staff.

october 2015 Entrepreneur

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Business best practices for F&B ‘treps Stereo Arcade, The Club

4. Finding my business partner Very few entrepreneurs succeed alone and selecting the right business partner is extremely challenging. Like a shotgun wedding in Vegas, it is easy to get caught up in the romanticism of starting a new company. The harsh reality is that your business partner can make you or break you, and finding the right partner may be one of the most critical decisions you will ever make. You need to find someone who shares the same vision, the same drive, and who compensates for your weaknesses and who amplifies your strengths.

Choose a partner with the personal and professional qualities you value. Although not mandatory, a partner

Stereo Arcade, main entrance

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Entrepreneur october 2015

who has lived in your target city can provide the local knowledge and shorten your learning curve. Early mistakes can be very costly (and may even cost you the business), so choose wisely and keep emotions out of the decision making process.

I will discuss the relationship with my cofounder, Samer Hamadeh, in a future article. His support, acumen and genuine passion for our business made all of the difference, in addition to his existing network and knowledge from having been based in the UAE for years.

He’s also executed a number of entrepreneurial endeavors prior to our partnership- so he knows firsthand what and whom it takes to make a business great.

5. Relocating your life to focus on your business Moving to the fast-paced city of Dubai to expand my own business was an exciting and overwhelming experience.

Moving my wife and kids added layers of challenges, adventures and fun. Months of

planning and copious amounts of energy and patience were required to finally settle into the new city. Dubai is not a city for slackers! Be prepared to get residency visas for the family, find and rent a home, apply and register the kids in schools months in advance, open bank accounts, get car loans, subscribe for phone lines, Internet and cable TV, furnish your new home, get medical insurance, guarantee the cost of the move, calculate the new cost of living, and obtain driving licenses. To illustrate just the last point, if you are not lucky to be from a country where you can simply transfer your existing driving license, be prepared to take the driving exam as a beginner, with a mandatory number of driving hours.

The process ate up hours of precious entrepreneurial time and took two months, despite the fact that I have been driving for 20 years. It’s a good thing that Dubai has an abundance of taxis and modern, functioning public transportation.

Aegis Hospitality Meet the co-founders of the board of directors of Aegis Hospitality is an F&B the Syndicate of Owners of Resmanagement company based taurants, Cafes, Nightclubs and in Dubai, UAE. The company’s Patisseries in Lebanon. first venture, Stereo Arcade, was launched at the DoubleTree SAMER HAMADEH Samer

by Hilton on JBR in July of this Hamadeh is a co-founder and year. The concept consists of Managing Partner at Aegis Hostwo nightlife venues (a retro pitality. Hamadeh began his ennightclub and a live rock bar), trepreneurial life in 2005 when and a video arcade under one he founded Chillout|Corporate, roof. a joint venture with Chillout Productions. He is also the ZIAD KAMEL Ziad Kamel is founder of Brightside Ventures, a co-founder and Managing a technology and innovation Partner at Aegis Hospitality. company based in Dubai. In He is also a co-founder of The Alleyway Group in Lebanon and 2009, he launched his first hospitality concept, OneOnOne, served as its CEO for 10 years, at the Monarch Hotel Dubai. creating and managing over Following the success of the eight concepts including Couqvenue he created and opened ley, a renowned French bistro his first nightclub, Republique, and The Angry Monkey, a live which he successfully operated rock bar. Kamel is the elected for two years.

Secretary General and member

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps A veteran of Cisco Systems, Shadid actually credits his time with the multinational for a lot of his current success as an entrepreneur. “I was part of a team that managed, advised and sold communications technologies to Fortune 100 companies globally. My role was very interesting, as we managed the entire cycle of very large sales deals and worked with the various busi-

Khalil Shadid, Founder and CEO, ReserveOut

Acquisitions, expansions, and more

K

ReserveOut founder and CEO Khalil Shadid

halil Shadid, founder and CEO of ReserveOut, decided to launch his business in the Middle East when he was living in New York. It was 2009, and he couldn’t get a restaurant booking in Amman, Jordan for his upcoming trip. There really wasn’t much in the way of online hospitality resources, so he solved his problem by calling overseas to a cousin.

After some research, Shadid concluded that “this wasn’t just a problem in Jordan, but in all major Middle Eastern cities. Online presence for restaurants at the time was very limited- you couldn’t make reservations at any restaurants online, and more importantly 99% of restaurants were not using technology to manage their business. Reservations and CRM were mostly handled on pen and paper. In early 2012, we launched ReserveOut to shift the restaurant and consumer behavior when it came to restaurant operations and reservations, and enable a more transparent and easy experience for anyone who wants to discover, view or make a reservation with restaurants in the Middle East.”

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Entrepreneur october 2015

ness units from marketing, development and finance, to structure very complex yet cutting edge solutions for our clients.” Like many ‘treps, his time today is largely devoted to his enterprise, and delegating doesn’t necessarily mean more free time or enhanced work-life balance.

“ReserveOut consumes most, if not all, of my time. Starting a business from the ground up is much more difficult than it seems, and there are many instances when you are the only one that can perform certain tasks. Our team is growing quickly, and I have some great senior people that have certainly taken many things off my plate -and they probably do it better than I did- but as we continue to grow, my time commitment doesn’t change.”

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps

ReserveOut recently acquired Abu Dhabi-based startup Tawilati, one of the first online booking and restaurant management systems in the UAE. Launched in 2011, Tawilati saw early success onboarding hospitality out-

“We need the right investors that not only can provide the financing, but also have experience investing in companies at this stage and can help accelerate our growth efficiently.”

lets, but didn’t gain a large standalone market share. In came ReserveOut with its resources, many more outlets, proprietary technology, and a dedicated team, and Shadid says that the acquisition “simply made sense. We were competing in the same markets in the UAE, and our client base at the time was different. They were able to sign up some good restaurants in five star hotels early on, while we were focusing on high-end standalone restaurants. It was clear that bringing everyone onto one platform is a greater benefit to both restaurants and diners, producing a larger network. More importantly, Tawilati had a great founding team that were well connected in the industry and would be great partners to have.” The founder says that the acquisition, while it sounds seamless, was logistically challenging- to begin with, they needed to find a way to migrate the hospitality outlets from one platform to another without interrupting business operations, and they also had to convince the outlets signed with Tawilati that it was in their best interest to join ReserveOut’s platform by

demonstrating added value.

As for the actual deal, Shadid says that the necessary legal and financial due diligence, while “tedious,” helped to formulate a strong partnership in less than a year’s time. “As we continue to grow in the region, it’s very important for us to have a strong network of restaurants and an active online user base and acquiring Tawilati certainly helped with both.”

The past 12 months has been busy for Shadid; during his negotiations to acquire Tawilati, the 33-year-old entrepreneur was also orchestrating ReserveOut’s expansion into Lebanon. “It’s not an easy place to operate an online business as Internet connectivity is far from the best, but to be fair, it’s been improving. We’ve had to build multiple mechanisms within our technology to accommodate these intermittent connectivity issues and ensure that restaurant operations are always working, regardless of how great or poor the Internet connectivity is,” he explains. Despite these country-specific issues, the founder says that over a sixmonth period, the user base

is growing consistently, and the company has gone from a modest 12 outlets to over 100 outlets that are now clients of the site. Currently, Shadid lists geographical expansion and recruiting as two areas requiring management’s extra care and attention, but adds that as a startup, challenges are dynamic not static. “The hardest part of our business keeps changing; every cycle of a startup comes with its own set of challenges.”

ReserveOut is a fixture on the hospitality tech scene, and arguably is demonstrating some of the strongest growth in the space, but Shadid says that one can never be sure: “You don’t really know when your enterprise takes off. It sometimes takes an event or an outsider to point it out.

We’ve obviously been seeing lots of growth, but as an entrepreneur and a self-critic, it’s never enough. Probably the best feeling I had was when my mother, who is not much of a techie, told me a few months ago how proud she was when she heard her friends talking about ReserveOut, and how great it was without knowing who founded it.”

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Business best practices for F&B ‘treps KHALIL SHADID’S TIPS FOR ‘TREPS 1. BE REALISTIC ABOUT THE ENTREPRENEURIAL LIFESTYLE “There is nothing glamorous about being an entrepreneur. You will work harder than any other job you take. You will be broke for a while, or longer. You will have to do job functions you may hate. You will have to make sacrifices in your social, and sometimes, personal life. But it’s worth it! The conviction, drive and passion will give you more energy and motivation than anything else in life. It enables you to see light even in the darkest of times. Do your research, study it well, and think of the worst-case scenarios.

If it still makes good business sense and you still want to do this, jump right in.”

THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE IDEAL INVESTOR

“We have already raised two rounds of funding, and we have great investors on board. The ideal investor at this stage is one that understands our business, understands the hardships and struggle Middle Eastern startups have to go through, and can advise strategically on these challenges and others that may come up. A startup goes through many lifecycles and each of those requires a different type of skillset and know-how on how to navigate what may be very rough waters for a company. We are past the initial startup mode and are currently looking to massively scale up, and we need the right investors that not only can provide the financing, but also have experience investing in companies at this stage and can help accelerate our growth efficiently.”

ROI “We project that we can break even in mid2017, but honestly, that may change. Our strategy and aspirations are always

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Entrepreneur october 2015

evolving and where we decide to take ReserveOut in the next 18 months may grow beyond where we initially had intended to be. ReserveOut is already profitable in some markets, and what we are working on now is making sure each market breaks even within a reasonable amount of time to allow for further growth and expansion.”

GOING FORWARD “We’re

focused on growth and geographical expansion.

We want to be at the core of the restaurant operations and reservations across the Middle East and beyond. We are already looking ahead, and exploring new markets in Africa and Asia and assessing what makes sense for us. We are also looking at different verticals that require such technologies and are similar in nature.”

HUMAN CAPITAL “The

UAE is our biggest market and hence a major focus. In addition, Dubai is a great place to be based out of, as

traveling anywhere in the region or internationally is very easy and convenient. It also helps with recruiting, as these days everyone wants to move to Dubai. Our largest office is actually in Jordan though; it’s where our software development, finance, call center and content teams are based. We currently have a team of 41 across the region and we’re certainly not slowing down.

Over the next 18 months, we will have teams across KSA, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and possibly Turkey.”

2. ENSURE THAT YOUR BUSINESS MODEL IS AGILE, AND BE AWARE OF THE COMPETITION “We are seeing new competitors in Lebanon, KSA, UAE, and Bahrain, and I’m sure more will come.

Competition is healthy; it keeps you on your toes and brings stability to the market. It’s very important to stay focused on what we believe our clients need, and keep challenging ourselves to do it better. We have a great software platform that restaurants use on a daily basis to run their business, and we’re constantly adding new features and functionalities that benefit our clients.

We have a second-to-none 24/7-support organization for our clients should anything ever go wrong and take customer service very seriously. We move quickly, and we are never scared to try new things. Sometimes we might fail, but we do it quickly and try something else. Operating in different countries in the Middle East requires different strategies, and we’ve learned how to adopt the right strategy in each.”

3. KEEP YOUR MISSION AND GOAL STATE IN SIGHT “When you love doing something and [you’re] determined to do it, the motivation is always there and it keeps growing. Even when things appear to be falling apart, I just refocus on our vision and why I started ReserveOut. I peel away all the challenges and think of a single restaurant that could benefit from our offering, or a single user that is looking to dine out but needs some help, and I do it. I find the best way to stay motivated is to prove that, even if in one small instance, somebody else believes in what you’re doing and is benefiting from it.”

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps Dubai-based Aseel Group organized the Imago initiative, an accelerator program specifically targeting the F&B market

F&B ‘treps can now accelerate with the Aseel Group

T

“

Naaz Noor talks hospitality acceleration

he region in general is seeing a growth in the fast casual segment, and that seems to be the recurring theme even in the businesses that have applied to be part of the Imago program,” says Naaz Noor, founder and Managing Partner of the Aseel Group. She is talking about Imago, and where she sees the MENA region’s F&B industry headed. F&B ‘treps in the MENA region were in for a treat when the Dubai-based Aseel Group organized the Imago initiative, an accelerator program specifically targeting the F&B market.

The GCC and the rest of the MENA region have seen their respective industries in this sector soar, and it’s exciting to know that there are little to no signs of a slowdown.

What inspired her to launch the Imago initiative? “Our

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Entrepreneur october 2015

F&B consulting firm and restaurant clients have witnessed some interesting shifts in the industry. For instance, five years back, we witnessed a lot of Western brands coming into the region as franchisees. Over the

last couple of years, we are seeing a lot of new creative concepts coming from local entrepreneurs. Some of these local concepts have been extremely successful and are now in their growth stage, but don’t have the right kind

of resources and knowledge to grow their companies.

This is what inspired the foundations for Imago: the thought process was if we can provide these entrepreneurs with mentorship, funding and some marketing and outreach help, these brands can not only span across the region but can also be international brands in their own right.”

What’s the need for an accelerator that’s restricted to just F&B startups, as opposed to the other more general accelerators already in existence?

“Imago’s first series will revolve around F&B, but subsequent chapters may explore other growing industries as well. What remains common is our drive to encourage homegrown talent and Middle East-based

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps brands. From an internal perspective, we selected F&B since our consultancy, Aseel F&B, has great knowledge and understanding of this region and how to grow F&B brands internationally. F&B is a very unique sector in its own right; it takes a lot of experience and industry specific knowledge to thrive in the industry and that is the key reason why we wanted to develop Imago’s first chapter to be less generic and more focused on specific aspects and problems that growing brands would face in the industry.

From a sheer market perspective, all the external drivers like a growing population, high income per capita and an evergrowing culture of eating out contribute to the reason as to why F&B is an industry of choice for Imago’s first series.”

How does Imago fit into Aseel F&B’s vision statement?

“Our vision with Aseel Group has always been to embrace new and unique ideas and support homegrown talent and brands. We’re a team of entrepreneurs and can relate to the challenges that entrepreneurs go through.

Our objective with Imago is to help these local F&B brands in Naaz Noor, founder and Managing Partner, Aseel Group

their journeys and give them the opportunity to fully realize their potential.”

How has the F&B industry in the GCC developed since you started your career?

“I have been consulting F&B and restaurant clients for the last five years. In these years, my team and I have witnessed some interesting shifts in the industry. For instance, five years back, we witnessed a lot of Western brands coming into the region as franchisees.

Over the last couple of years, we are seeing a lot of new creative concepts coming from local entrepreneurs. Some of these local concepts are now in their growth stage but do not have the right kind of resources and knowledge to grow their companies. This is what inspired the foundations for Imago: the thought process was if we can provide these entrepreneurs with mentorship, funding and some marketing and outreach help, these brands can not only span across the region but can also be international brands in their own right.”

“From a sheer market perspective, all the external drivers like a growing population, high income per capita and an ever-growing culture of eating out contribute to the reason as to why F&B is an industry of choice for Imago’s first series.”

What are some of the interesting F&B trends you’ve noticed in the region recently?

“The most prominent trend right now is that of street food -especially food trucksand consumer centric events like Taste of Dubai giving prominence to F&B concepts.

Other than that, we are seeing good demand for experiential concepts; something that provides customers with a unique and memorable dining experience. Additionally, there is a growth in the organic food

segment and the demand for healthy fast food is increasing as well.”

What are some of the mistakes you see entrepreneurs in the F&B industry make?

“The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is to copy and paste concepts that they have either seen internationally or imitating local success brands. We have over 6,000 F&B outlets in UAE alone, and to stand out from the crowd, it takes far more innovation and creativity to

THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Naaz Noor explains the Imago initiative “In essence, Imago works with growing brands step-by-step to resolve any issues and capitalize on their strengths. Once they have their foundations and growth strategy is strong, these brands are funded and supported by mentors to give them a better chance of success.

The three key elements that Imago works with are as follows: 1. Mentorship Connecting growing brands with a F&Bcentric program curriculum

truly be a scalable brand. The brands that truly find a sense of differentiation are the ones that are likely to succeed in this region.”

Are there any plans for Aseel F&B to organize more initiatives like Imago in the future?

“At Aseel F&B, we try to launch at least one self-owned project each year. This year aside from Imago, we are launching Whey2Go, which will be the region’s first protein ice cream concept.”

and industry renowned mentors who have faced some of these growth pains and challenges themselves.

2. Money Imago will work concurrently with a fund that provides investments to these growing brands so they can have the resources to truly scale regionally and internationally.

3. Marketing We are exploring the idea of a YouTube series that not only puts these growing brands in the limelight but also allows the thousands of other aspiring restaurant entrepreneurs to get a behindthe-scenes look into the daily ups and downs of running and growing restaurants.”

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Business best practices for F&B ‘treps 2. HAVE MUTUAL RESPECT AND KEEP A COOL HEAD “Business can often be stressful and tempers can rise; it’s at these times that it is of utmost importance to remain calm and respect each other.”

Zaytinya, described as “fusion Mediterranean”, is expected to open in 2016 at the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai

Partnerships in F&B

Married co-founders can make it work

C

urrently owning and operating six outlets in the UAE, Purple Honey Group (PHG) develops, operates, and invests in F&B brands. With three original concepts, Coriander, Biryani Pot, and Zaytinya, the co-founders of PHG, a husband and wife team, also provide catering services for corporate events and private occasions. By 2020, Shalini Gangaramani Dosaj and Akshay Oberai Dosaj hope to have an ambitious 30 outlets up and running, and they’ve already secured the financials to make this roadmap a reality. PHG’s two MDs come from very different backgrounds: Akshay Oberai Dosaj

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Entrepreneur october 2015

Shalina is an engineer with a MBA and a major in finance and Akshay is a lawyer. The Dosajs put their corporate backgrounds to work for their business, with Akshay acting as the group’s General Counsel in addition to his other areas of responsibility. We’ve asked these co-founders to share their five tips of successfully running a cofounded enterprise without crossing hairs.

1. TRUST YOUR PARTNER “This is the most important factor for a successful coenterprise. If you do not have complete trust in your fellow co-founder the venture is almost certainly destined to fail. It’s not possible for both founders to always make joint decisions -as this would slow down the enterprise- so it’s vital that you trust the judgement of your co-founder.

As a husband and wife team, it goes without saying that Shalini and I have complete trust in each other, and I feel working together has actually meant that the trust has grown even stronger.”

3. CHANNEL SHARED PASSIONS “Passion is one of the most important factors when running a business. The journey will present many challenges and if both founders don’t have a passion for what they are creating, it is easy to lose heart and become disillusioned. For almost five years, Shalini and I ran Purple Honey Group as a hobby and focused on the business in evenings and on weekends. We would complete our day jobs and start work on the restaurants from 7 p.m. until midnight. It was our joint passion and love for what we do that allowed us to continue in this way.”

4. ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE A CLEAR AND SHARED VISION “Although disagreeing and challenging each other is healthy and often leads to better decision making, it’s important that fundamentally the co-founders agree on the vision for the business and the direction in which they want to take it. Shalini and I are very fortunate that we

Shalini Gangaramani Dosaj

almost always see eye-toeye on important business decisions.”

5. EMPLOY DIVERSE SKILLSETS “It’s very helpful if the founders come from different professional and even cultural backgrounds, as this diversity means that they will approach challenges differently and it provides multiple perspectives. Shalini is a mechanical engineer with a MBA, and I’m a corporate finance lawyer with an undergraduate degree in economics– we both approach problems in a very different way. Shalini takes a very direct approach to resolving the problem, and is extremely effective at cutting through the noise and getting straight to the point. Being a lawyer, I naturally tend to consider every angle and analyze all potential risks involved in a decision. As you can imagine, both approaches have merit.”

Coriander, described as “modern, authentic Indian casual dining” is expected to open in 2016 at the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai

Friend’s Avenue Café interior

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps Friend’s Avenue Café interior

Interiors for your F&B startup

Friends’ Avenue Café has personality

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orking with friends is riskyit can either make or break your enterprise- and your relationships with each other as well. But the three cofounders of Friends’ Avenue Café –Davron Hamidov, Ziyovuddin Alikhonov and Fazliddin Kosimov- are going that route, and they are determined to make it work. Taking their experience from working in the hospitality sector in the

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Entrepreneur october 2015

U.S., the founders, who are all aged between 24 and 25 years old (and are currently pursuing Master’s degrees), bootstrapped and set up their homegrown café in Dubai’s JLT neighborhood at the end of February this year.

The café’s name was derived from their time in New York, reminiscent of its narrow, old fashioned streets for people to walk. The founders wanted to stimulate energy and passion to a place “where people can socialize, enjoy quality gourmet food and establish positive relationship with our entity. It is our avenue, an avenue of friends who love to gather

over a casual breakfast, or delicious lunch, or a cup of coffee.”

And an avenue for friends it is. Friends’ Avenue Café’s interior design is cozy, with industrial décor and hipster hints, evident from its brick walls, wooden boards, crate shelves with antiques (“which takes us back to our memories from [the] avenues of Manhattan,” Alikhonov notes), and brightly colored bicycles from Chari Cycles –a

UAE startup which upcycles bicycles- hanging from a side of the brick wall. Their visual branding was inspired from visits to small cafes in London, New York and Stockholm, with the aim to depict a comfortable, casual space with a warm ambience.

Besides indoor and outdoor seating, there’s also a communal table that Alikhonov says allows for people to actually gather around to eat and socialize.

According to Kosimov, this is the outlet’s unique selling point: “Friends’ Avenue Café is not [a] fast food fuel stop, nor is it a fancy, special occasion restaurant. We are a casual, relaxed place, which forms part of your daily and weekly routines- somewhere to stop in for your morning coffee and breakfast on the way to work, to have [a] yummy lunch, to catch up with friends and your loved ones for brunch at the weekend, or to indulge in a piece of cake and a pot of tea after work. We try to create [a] warm, comforting space that serve the type of food that you want to have with your friends, families and people close to you.” Next up for Friends’ Avenue Café is a new menu for the new season in the coming months. So friends, order up!

Founders Fazliddin Kosimov, Ziyovuddin Alikhonov, and Davron Hamidov

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps “It’s not really about build-versus-buy for us; it’s about hitting the ground running with the right team. We enter markets as soon as we see a productmarket fit and have a team that can make things happen quickly.”

Heino Gehle, Zomato Regional Director

Zomato’s Heino Gehle on investments, giving F&B outlets their own apps, and growth strategies

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ounded in India in 2008, and subsequently launching in the UAE in 2012, Zomato, the restaurant discovery platform now present in 22 countries, is keen for more. Offering online and mobile service with user-submitted reviews and ratings, menus and photos, the platform recently raised a substantial US$60 million in a recent round of funding.

The funds were raised in September, led by Singapore investment company Temasek with participation from existing investor Vy Capital. With a total of eight rounds of funding throughout the years, including previous investors Info Edge, Sequoia India and Vy Capital, Zomato’s latest round clocks in at a total of $225 million. Zomato UAE Country Manager and Middle East and Africa Regional Director, Heino Gehle, says that the investment will be devoted to growing the business’ verticals: “We easily have 24 months of runway with the latest round of funding.” Gehle, whose background ranges from marketing and advertising, to business development and operations, handles the MENA region’s operations. The recent investment round coincides with the launch of Zomato’s new feature called Zomato Whitelabel, which is a platform for businesses to create and manage their own iOS and Android apps- even with little to no technical skills.

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Entrepreneur october 2015

After realizing that many F&B ventures lack a digital presence (or the technical in-house team to execute digital assets), Zomato’s team developed Whitelabel with features such as targeted push notifications, analytics and menu management to keep consumers informed. From a consumer’s view, it’s a convenient way to know more about an F&B outlet, while from a merchant’s perspective, it’s a strong brand-awareness tool.

Whitelabel apps will work on a subscription based model of $200 per month per location, as well as a levying a service fee per transaction. Besides Whitelabel, Zomato has four other revenue streams. The first is via hyperlocal advertising with differing rates per

“We are constantly working to disrupt the restaurant industry through product innovation, with the aim of becoming the local go-to restaurant service in every market we’re in.”

area and category, and Zomato for Business generates revenue by allowing businesses to pay a subscription fee to get placement on Zomato’s listings, in addition to sharing deals, special menus, promos and events. Another revenue stream is through Zomato Cashless payments in Dubai for diners to eat and pay without a physical bill and settle it later with a card, and through the Online Ordering service present in 14 cities including UAE and India.

Zomato charges these outlets a commission to facilitate user transactions.

As a platform present in multiple countries, Gehle says that while Zomato’s core is similar across countries, the product is localized and adapts to each market by adding features based on user search behavior. Gehle cites the example of how

Business best practices for F&B ‘treps

in Dubai, Zomato features restaurants serving shisha, while in London, it highlights hotel rooftops. In markets like Turkey, Indonesia, Chile, Portugal, Brazil, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Italy, Zomato is available in the local language of prevalence.

Differences in markets also triggered the team to build certain features: in Europe, since establishments often post daily menus outside of venues, they can use Zomato for Business to upload their daily new menus and regular ongoing menus. Similarly, Cashless payments was rolled out in Dubai first, compared to other cities where credit card payments were less prevalent, and there was yet to be a two-step authentication process, making it a good market to pilot Zomato Cashless. The product is definitely a F&B game-changer, and how it’s tweaked to cater to the needs of each market is what matters. “If you build a product that people find value in, they will come back to use it,” says Gehle.

Localizing the product for the market has had its difficulties- consumers will only find value if there’s in-depth

information on restaurants, while F&B owners only find value if there’s enough customers. Zomato’s solution?

“By providing a rock solid content platform which provided all possible information for more than 95% of restaurants across cities in the region.” A main concern for the Regional Director is attracting and retaining the right people who are passionate about the product. This is essential as the company’s strategy on acquisitions, which, Gehle says, is, “It’s not really about build-versus-buy for us; it’s about hitting the ground running with the right team. We enter markets as soon as we see a product-market fit and have a team that can make things happen quickly.”

How has Zomato evolved in the Middle East? Other than the UAE, the site also covers Qatar and Lebanon, with 350,000 monthly visits on all platforms and over 70%

traffic originating from mobile devices in Lebanon. On the product side, it has grown from a platform to discover restaurants, to allowing users to place orders online, book a ride and even pay using the Cashless feature on the app.

With more than 250 team members in the UAE, and another 200 to be hired in the Middle East over the next few months, Gehle regards the UAE as one of their most profitable markets. Besides an emphasis on local and global expansion, a table management app called Zomato Book, a point of sale system app called Zomato Base and realThe product is definitely a F&B game-changer, and how it’s tweaked to cater to the needs of each market is what matters. “If you build a product that people find value in, they will come back to use it.”

AGILE PRODUCT OFFERING

MARKETING METHODS

“We’ve never been complacent about our product, and are constantly tweaking our product based on feedback from our users across locations. We believe in real-time engagement with our user base- in listening to and fixing issues in real-time.“

“Listening to users is always helpful because if they find a product useful, they spread the word among their friends and social circles. Though our medium is primarily online, our marketing is a mix of both online and offline.

Our online marketing encompasses search engine marketing, and our social media channels are a great way for us to connect with our users. As for offline, we tie up with restaurants for below the line (BTL) advertising, especially in new markets. We also engage proactively with our community of foodies through meetups in all our markets in order to connect with users in an offline setting.”

CONVERTING USERS TO LOYAL COMMUNITY MEMBERS “Identifying one’s

customers’ needs and adapting offerings to suit each of their needs has always been our main focus. Customer satisfaction correlates to customer loyalty. A strong social media presence and active interaction and engagement with users and restauranteurs over the years has helped us achieve customer loyalty and brand recall.”

time consumer-merchant interaction are in the works. On a final note, Gehle says, “We are constantly working to disrupt the restaurant industry through product innovation, with the aim of becoming the local go-to restaurant service in every market we’re in.”

IMPORTING A DIGITAL BUSINESS FROM INDIA TO MENA Heino Gehle “When you start building something for the right reasons, you have identified a gap that you want to bridge or have figured an even more efficient way of doing something that already exists. If you can do this with focus and build a good team around your idea that shares your vision, that’s half the battle won.

I think it’s important to jump and learn to swim when it comes to international market entry. One of the things that worked very well for us is that we have built an incredible team; our people are extremely passionate about the product and believe in what we’re building. It’s also important to have a strong foundation in place as well as adapt to local needs and preferences.”

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TECH

SHINY | WEBSITE TO WATCH | GEEK | MOBILE TECH | ONLINE ‘TREP | THE FIX

Game Cooks co-founder Arz Nader

Entrepreneurs Lebnan and Arz Nader get you downloading Game Cooks founders push regional game dev even further

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Entrepreneur october 2015

Initially, Game Cooks was founded with the main objective of building games that have culturally relevant plots and elements that users from this region could relate to.

The co-founders’ first game Run For Peace, did just that, clocking close to two million downloads within a only few months of release. Following their coup with Run For Peace, Game Cooks expanded to target the international market with a future vision of making Lebanon a major player in the global mobile gaming market.

“We are currently getting ready to launch the international version of PolyBlast.

The revenue model is designed bring in profits from two main channels: in-game ad system and in-app purchases. In PolyBlast, the in-app purchase is a Premium Pack, which once purchased provides the player with three additional challenging worlds as well as World X for the extreme PolyBlast experience,” explained the founders.

By Rani Nasr

ack in 2011, there wasn’t much of a local gaming scene in the Middle East. Most users were only playing international titles, which ranked at the top of the regional app store charts. Lebnan and Arz Nader, two hardcore gamers, saw an opportunity and decided to test out people’s reactions in the region to localized content.

They released Birdy Nam Nam, which began as an after-hours project, and were thrilled to see it exceed a quarter million downloads in just one week. Shortly after, the Nader brothers officially founded Game Cooks in 2012. With an impressive portfolio of 14 games available on the iOS and Google Play to date, the founders are getting ready to launch their newest release, PolyBlast, on the international market with three other games in the pipeline that are still “cooking.”

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“The gaming industry has huge potential. Leisure time is growing every year and technology is making possible things we only dreamt of a few years ago.

There is a kid hiding inside each and every one of us, and gaming is one of the tools that would allow us to unleash this inner imagination.”

Nerds by Game Cooks

“We are currently getting ready to launch the international version of PolyBlast. The revenue model is designed bring in profits from two main channels: in-game ad system and in-app purchases.”

PolyBlast by Game Cooks

After each testing round, the game is optimized until the best final version of the game is realized. Their secret ingredient on how to keep the users coming back for more? Qualities of addictiveness.

avid gamer and self-declared geek, had an idea in mind for a game. Together with Game Cooks, the idea was taken from conceptual stage to actual development, subsequently publishing a classic entry in mobile gaming. “The gaming industry has huge potential.

Leisure time is growing every year and technology is making possible things we only dreamt of a few years ago. There is a kid hiding inside each and every one of us, and gaming is one of the tools that would allow us to unleash this inner imagination,” says Sehnaoui.

“It all started with a rough idea which I threw in the field of the amazing Game Cooks team. Their skilled members did their magic and brought it back to me a much more evolved version which was further enriched through common brainstorming and numerous iterations. I think the idea of using your pad as two-player field game is a great feature and one of my personal favorites- it reminded me of the very basic yet extremely fun pong games of the early 80s.”

Before launching a game, the company conducts several rounds of testing, with testers broken down into Game >>>

Committed to gaming to the core, the founders’ brainstorming sessions start in their very own game room.

They run a competition to see who comes up with the best out-of-this-world idea, and end up with some outrageous concepts. They then proceed to shape up those ideas into full-blown games. They also rely on market research to see what gamers are playing, but gaming standards come before onboarding users: “One thing is for sure, Game Cooks will never create a game that we would not play ourselves just because it is the next trend.”

For PolyBlast, the shared passion for gaming brought Game Cooks and the former Minister of Telecommunications of Lebanon, Nicolas Sehnaoui, together in an entrepreneurial respect.

Escape from Paradise by Game Cooks Sehnaoui, an

PolyBlast by Game Cooks An all-new old school gaming experience PolyBlast, Game Cooks’ latest release, is a challenging arcade game with a puzzle twist that requires you to blast targets and navigate moving shapes out of your path before they reach the bottom of your screen. The game, with solo and multiplayer modes, might sound simple, but it’s far from easy as it requires speed, precision and some calculated planning. You might find yourself running out of blasts before you’ve had a chance to eliminate all obstacles from the screen. In solo mode, you Scarb it by Game Cooks have access to three themed

(and increasingly challenging) worlds. If you’re up for the impossible challenge, unlock the premium pack to access three additional worlds– level hard and the ultimate World X to kick things into an even higher gear. The premium pack also removes all ads from the game. As for the multiplayer mode, players are up for a treat. It adds a challenge factor to the game and allows you to take on an opponent on the same device in a PolyBlast split-screen competition. May the person with the most blasts win.

october 2015 Entrepreneur

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TECH

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“It all started with a rough idea which I threw in the field of the amazing Game Cooks team. Their skilled members did their magic and brought it back to me a much more evolved version which was further enriched through common brainstorming and numerous iterations. I think the idea of using your pad as two-player field game is a great feature and one of my personal favorites- it reminded me of the very basic yet extremely fun pong games of the early 80s.”

Scrab it by Game Cooks

Captain Oil by Game Cooks

Cooks team members, Game Cooks friends, Game Cooks community of fans, and people from the gaming industry that are willing to help out.

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Entrepreneur october 2015

There are numerous elements to focus on in including game progression and difficulty levels. Functionalities (are there any bugs that come up?), ease of use and understanding, and game navigation are also analyzed and assessed. After each testing round, the game is optimized until the best final version of the game is realized.

Their secret ingredient on how to keep the users coming

back for more? Qualities of addictiveness. Using PolyBlast as an example, its gameplay is simple– tap to shoot at the moving obstacles to remove descending geometrical shapes before they reach the bottom of your screen. The player has three blasting points to shoot from and a limited number of blasts. What makes the game so addictive is, simply put, its gameplay. The addictiveness

Cubama by Game Cooks

www.itunes.com

factor comes from the speed at which the game progresses.

When you first start, the game feels easy; after completing the first few levels the player has the, “I’ve got this” kind of feeling. It’s only when the speed and difficulty level picks up does the player realizes what they are up against! This is where the fun really starts, and where the user gets hooked!

Now that PolyBlast has launched successfully with an upcoming international release, Game Cooks are wrapping up their next endeavor: BackTrip. Slotted for release in Q4 of 2015, the Lebanon-based outfit also mentioned two more games scheduled for Q4 2015 and Q1 2016.

Nicolas Sehnaoui

“Make it happen” Nicolas Sehnaoui talks digi, development, and Lebanese ‘treps With a reputation for being a big fan of graphic novels, science fiction, technology, and pretty much anything geeky, Nicolas Sehnaoui isn’t a far-fetched fit as gaming development collaborator and investor. What doesn’t really fit into the equation is that Sehnaoui is also the former Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications.

Known to communicate heavily with the public via social media, staging meet and greets with the Lebanese digital community, and now, an investor in Lebanon’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, Sehnaoui wants you to believe in the country’s potential. “The future of Lebanon resides in the minds and hearts of young tech entrepreneurs. Through my modest yet personally enriching experience on Twitter, I got the chance to discover an amazing Lebanese geek community that is fun,

creative, and open-minded,” says Sehnaoui. He is adamant that there’s an abundance of talent ripe for the picking in the MENA gaming arena in specific, citing the proliferation of creativity in ideation, design and animation, as well as the “exposure to numerous cultures and languages, high percentage of youth, and rapid growth of internet users on a worldwide level,” that he says are all factors that contribute to success of ventures like Game Cooks.

Sehanoui has invested in a few Lebanese startups that he considers sound business models, and he is also involved in an ongoing project in tech and media sectors that he declines to elaborate on until it matures.

“I have invested seed money into a few very promising startups in Lebanon, and I strongly believe some of them will be close to the

unicorn level.” During his tenure at the Ministry, Sehanoui says that he and his team worked toward Lebanese infrastructure enhancements to reduce brain drain- improvements to the existing systems would anchor entrepreneurs in the country instead of having them set up shop elsewhere. “When I was at the helm of the Ministry of Telecoms, my team and I did our best to upgrade the infrastructure so that they can function out of Lebanon.

We also geared our efforts at strengthening the ecosystem and launched many initiatives mostly in collaboration with the Central Bank; the most important one being the launch of Circular 331 that allocates up to US$400 million of equity financing to Lebanese startups. Furthermore, we launched Beirut Digital District, an urbanized hub that aims to become an all-inclusive zone dedicated to growing the digital industry in Lebanon through cutting edge infrastructure and services for startups.” Sehnaoui

grew up in a household that exposed him to sci-fi –his father was a fan and constantly brought home new books- and later he delved into comics, gaming, and feature film. “[It] goes back to the 70s, since the early age of Marvel and DC comics, as well as the Galactica and Star Trek original TV series. I used to have vivid dreams of the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and you’d find stickers of them all around my room.”

Sehnaoui made for an unorthodox Minister, since unlike his contemporaries, he actually talked to his audience rather than at them. It was what got the digital scene’s attention, and he’s now a regular fixture on the tech circuit.

His advice for those ‘treps foraying into tech? “Believe in yourself.

Cultivate your creativity. Imagine the future. Make it happen. Exponential technologies are crushing time and space. Always remember, when you get there, you’ll be one of the few people who are actually changing our world and humanity for the better.”

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Setting new standards for the future of sound Marie Kristine Schmidt

Bang & Olufsen’s 90th anniversary ushers in continued brand allure and appeal

By Aby Sam Thomas

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O

ne of the first things that one sees after entering The Farm, Bang & Olufsen’s headquarters in Struer, Denmark, is an imposing concrete space, bare except for a black grand piano standing by a wall, on which is written (in capitalized aluminum letters, no less): “Bang & Olufsen exists to move you with enduring magical experiences.” As far as company mottos go, this one may seem a tad pretentious- but given that it is a premium brand, globally known for its innovative technology products that boast of a stunning design aesthetic, let’s just say that Bang & Olufsen – which, incidentally, is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year- has earned the right to be as grandiose with its statements as it wishes to be.

For a company that was launched way back in 1925, Bang & Olufsen’s continued allure and appeal in this day and age is testament to its inventive approach to design and technology, with the former being not just a cursory add-on, but an integral part of the development process for its products.

“We are truly a design-driven company,” says Marie Kristine

Schmidt, Vice President Brand, Design and Marketing, Bang & Olufsen. “And being designdriven is not [just] about industrial design. Being design-driven is our whole approach- it’s our culture, it’s the way we tackle challenges, and it’s the way that we look at things from different angles. So when we talk about design, we talk about the way it looks, the way it feels, the way it works, the way it sounds- it’s the total user experience.”

It is this insistence on ensuring a stellar user experience that has set Bang & Olufsen apart in a crowded market arena, with an expansive customer base that, at one point in time, included Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

“Bang & Olufsen is a brand for which we have quite loyal customers, and once people start to buy into the brand, they, kind of, like, stay,” Schmidt says.

So what does Bang & Olufsen do differently to get this kind of clientele? “Our approach is, really, to go into people’s houses, and figure out what are the pinpoints they face in the ways that technology integrates into their lives. That’s where we start, and those are the challenges that we try to solve.” But it’s not just about innovating in technology- Schmidt notes that

BeoLab 18 speakers

Bang & Olufsen stresses a lot on the design aspect of products as well. “I think sometimes, in this day and age, the conversation about technology is about so many other things than the aesthetics,” she explains. “But the aesthetics is so important to who we are, what we look at and the way we live. This has also been one of the things that has been driving us alwayswhat we do actually makes people’s homes more beautiful.”

Its line of home entertainment products may be what Bang & Olufsen is most famous for, but its work in the luxury car domain, where it designs sound systems for automotive brands like Audi, BMW, Aston

Martin, etc., has also been pretty noteworthy. There is also the B&O Play line of products, which Bang & Olufsen launched in 2012 to lure in new customers that were different from its usual target audience- B&O Play has products that have a more contemporary look and feel, made for “the digital generation of consumers,” but still featuring the essential ethos of the Bang & Olufsen brand. Be it with its mobile speakers or its high-performance headphones, >>>

BeoLink Multiroom

october 2015 Entrepreneur

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BeoPlay H6 headphones

B&O Play has been steadily rising up on the popularity charts, a development that, according to Schmidt, is important for the company as a whole. “We are really going out there on the creative edge [with our marketing for B&O Play] to try to attract new customers, who we can see eventually turn into Bang & Olufsen customers,” she explains.

Bang & Olufsen’s customercentric approach to doing things is something it places high on its marketing agenda- Schmidt says the company is very keen on letting its customers know that it takes care of them. And this is conveyed in a variety of ways- one of them being that whenever Bang & Olufsen releases any kind of new technology innovation, there is a concerted effort by the company to make sure it is backward compatible with its older products or versions as well.

Another detail that sets Bang & Olufsen apart, according to Schmidt, is its dealer network, whose members are the ones that actually sell the company’s

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products. “It’s a partnership model, and a franchise model,” she says, when explaining Bang & Olufsen’s dealer network. “I think one of the clear advantages [of this approach] is that we all have a skin in the game.

We work with partners who are really good retailers, and they know their markets. They know their customers, and they can be close to the customers, so that’s an obvious advantage. At the same time, what they get is an opportunity to get access to this amazing brand and its products.”

Given Bang & Olufsen’s steadfast attention to detail, it should thus come as no surprise that the company maintains a close relationship with the partners it has in its network. “I think it’s the right model for us, because we do want to pursue this strategy of selling Bang & Olufsen exclusively through our dealer network, and we have a lot of good dealers out there doing a really good job,” Schmidt says. And yes, Schmidt confirms that Bang & Olufsen also prunes the network regularly as well,

because, well, the company simply doesn’t want bad dealers to pull down its brand, which can also hurt its good dealers.

“Our focus is very much that, instead of spending 80% of our time on the dealers that are not performing that well, we really make an effort on spending 80% of our time on the

dealers that are doing well and make them perform better,” she explains.

This dedication to detail in all that it does –be it with its products, or with its management processes- is a good indicator of how Bang & Olufsen has managed to remain a well-respected brand that has stood the test of time. To celebrate its 90th anniversary this year, the company released its Love Affair collection in March, which featured some of the brand’s most popular, iconic products reimagined in rose gold aluminum. But that was just the beginning of Bang & Olufsen’s anniversary celebrations- Schmidt says there are bigger announcements on the way in November, where the company is apparently going to launch products that are “really going to set new standards for the future of sound.” Schmidt refused to divulge more details about what to expect, but she did say this: “The Love Affair collection was a tribute to our first 90 years, and the product we are coming out with on our anniversary is a tribute to the next 90 years.” Given that declaration, we are keeping our eyes (and ears) peeled for what Bang & Olufsen comes out with next- watch this space!

Bang & Olufsen revs up BeoPlay speakers

By Tamara Clarke

B&O Play has added new features to their BeoPlay A2 and Beolit 15 Bluetooth speakers. You can now wirelessly pair two speaks together for twice the sound. With minimal audio coding delay and latency,

the omni-directional listening experience is amplified for everyone around the speaker.

It’s portable, gives you up to 24 hours of continuous play time and comes in new natural colors. Turn up the music!

TECH

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#TAMTALKSTECH IFA, the global tradeshow for consumer electronics, is where the latest tech products and innovations are presented.

Here’s our curated best in show picks culled from the 56th IFA in Berlin.

The accessory Rolly Keyboard

LG Electronics unveiled Rolly Keyboard, the industry’s first solid, rollable, wireless keyboard. Unlike other portable keyboards, the Rolly folds along each of its four rows to create a “stick” that fits easily into your pocket, briefcase or bag. Rolly Keyboard features high-contrast and well-spaced keys that make typing comfortable, and a fold-out mobile device stand. The board has a 17mm key pitch- just 1mm shy of the 18mm key pitch found on most desktop keyboards.

LG Rolly Keyboard

The smartphone Sony Xperia Z5 Premium Dual

Xperia Z5 Premium Dual is the world’s first 4K smartphone, boasting of a 5.5 inch 4K TRILUMINOS display for mobile. How does this improve your UX? By allowing you to view content at four times the resolution of Full HD. Heavy consumers of YouTube, Netflix and entertainment mediums via their smartphones can watch vibrant 4K detail on the Xperia Z5 Premium Dual. Are you a content creator? You can capture in 4K too and connect either wirelessly via DLNA or with MHL 3.0 to enjoy your content on a 4K TV. Xperia Z5 Premium Dual features 32GB internal memory with the capability to take a 200GB external microSD card, which allows extra room for 4K videos, movies, 46

Entrepreneur october 2015

and images. With a Snapdragon 810 processor and high capacity 3430 mAh battery lasting for up to two days, Xperia Z5 Premium Dual is a high-performance device created for the AV lovers out there.

Impact-resistant and made of durable polycarbonate and black ABS plastic, it’s powered by a single AAA battery for up to three months. LG really shines with how Bluetooth functionality is incorporated: simply unfolding Rolly enables the auto pairing function to connect easily to two different devices at the same time via Bluetooth 3.0 with the ability to toggle between the two.

Rolly Keyboard is a new take on an old staple… a fresh accessory you can roll with.

LG SmartThinQ Sensors

The IOT LG SmartThinQ

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium Dual

LG connects home appliances to the Internet with its new SmartThinQ Sensor. The circular device that can be attached to any home appliance collects and communicates data through the SmartThinQ app.

Attach this device to anything from your washing machine to your refrigerator. But what do you really want to know about your fridge? How about how many times the refrigerator

door has been opened or when a particular food item inside the refrigerator is about to expire? SmartThinQ can actually send expiry notifications. And, connecting the SmartThingQ Sensor to other appliances like an air conditioner allows you to control the appliance remotely through the SmartThinQ app.

The SmartThinQ Sensor is a simple way to bring the Internet of Things into your home.

Transcending time Apple Watch Hermès

Apple Watch Hermès, a unique expression of the Apple Watch, is outfitted with a stainless steel bezel and finely stitched leather. This collaboration of Apple’s industry-changing product design and the heritage craftsmanship of Hermès is available in three models; Single Tour, Double Tour and Cuff. The Single Tour with the 38 mm stainless steel case comes in Fauve Barenia leather, Noir Box leather and

Capucine Swift leather, while the Single Tour with 42 mm stainless steel case comes in Fauve Barenia leather and noir Box leather. The Double Tour pairs with the 38 mm stainless steel case and is available in fauve Barenia leather and Bleu Jean, Capucine and Etain Swift leather. The Cuff pairs with the 42 mm stainless steel case and is available in Fauve Barenia leather only. So as not to be confused with any other variety

of the Apple Watch, each stainless steel case features an etching of the Hermès signature and includes a customizable face with three exclusive dial designs inspired by Clipper, Cape Cod and Espace Hermès watches. Apple Watch Hermès delivers high tech functionality and style that transcends time.

Apple Watch Hermès DoubleTour

Apple Watch Hermès DoubleTour

#TAMTALKSTECH

Tamara Clarke, a former software development professional, is the tech and lifestyle enthusiast behind The Global Gazette, one of the most active blogs in the Middle East. The Global Gazette has been welcomed and lauded by some of the most influential tech brands in the region. Clarke’s goal is to inform about technology and how it

Apple Watch Hermès Cuff

Bridging the gap Obi Worldphone designs for the EMEA region

“We look forward to taking the Obi Worldphone to a global stage, and use the Middle East as our launching pad.”

Amit Rupchandani, Managing Director Obi Worldphone EMEA

Obi Worldphone, co-founded by John Sculley, former head of Apple and Pepsi-Cola, has released two affordable smartphones: the SF1 and SJ1.5. SF1 is the company’s flagship 4G/LTE smartphone featuring a raised 5-inch display made of Corning Gorilla Glass 4, a 13 MP camera with a Sony IMX214 Exmor sensor, Dolby Audio, Qualcomm Quick Charge 1.0 power management technology, and it’s powered by a Qualcomm® Snapdragon 615 processor in a reinforced fiberglass body. The Obi Worldphone SJ1.5 is a 3G smartphone powered by the MediaTek MT6580 Quad-Core processor presented in an asymmetrical design, with a crisp, squared-off top and a curved bottom. Protected by scratch-resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3, the screen, made from 2.5D curved glass built flush with the body of the phone, gives it a seamless feel in the hand.

SJ1.5 offers unique color options, easy-access dual SIM slots, 16 GB of internal storage and a card slot for memory expansion, with front and rear cameras.

supports our lifestyles. See her work both in print regional publications and online on her blog where she discusses everything from how a new gadget improves day-to-day life to how to coordinate your smartphone accessories.

Visit www.theglobalgazette.com and talk to her on Twitter @GlobalGazette. october 2015 Entrepreneur

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Getting social right The pitfalls and the opportunities

By Ema Linaker

I have spent over three years in the Middle East talking to CEOs, CIOs, VPs of Marketing, and others about why they need to invest in smart social strategies for their businesses. Time and again, I think that social media has gotten a bad reputation in this region for not delivering business impact, because companies focused on measures of success that frankly do not really drive business results. Size really doesn’t matter when it comes to communities, and frequency of content doesn’t matter when no one is listening.

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Social media marketing is the art of connecting people to brands through understanding what motivates people to connect together, share experiences and become vocal, loyal advocates of a brand that over time delivers what I call the three magic Rs that every social marketer tries to achieve. If you remember one thing from reading this article I hope it’s the three magic Rs of Review, Recommend and Refer– if your social media is actively focused on delivering those three key behaviors, you will ultimately create advocacy, loyalty and purchase behavior over time. we live in a fast-paced environment where people expect customer service to be delivered in minutes rather than days. They go to social channels to talk to brands and share their points of view with you in real time.

This shouldn’t be something you shy away from- in fact, brands that don’t have a social presence because they’re scared of what their customers might say are missing the point.

Intimate understanding of your customer Social media marketing allows brands and companies to get really close to the people they’re trying to sell to. This means that if you’re smart and you are closely listening to what is being said about you on the social web, either on your community pages or off of those owned channels, you can start to really understand what makes your particular audience tick. Further, with the data available to us through social channels like Facebook, we know a lot about what they like, what they don’t, and what motivates and matters to them. If you want to connect with people here in the Middle East now, you need to show that you’re paying attention to all this information that they share on social channels, and apply it to R&D and marketing communications offline.

Increase brand recognition through relevant storytelling So what are the opportunities for people wanting to understand the value and significance of social media marketing? First of all, at a time when most people have an attention span less than that of a goldfish, social media allows you to have a creative idea that you can share in five seconds. Getting your consumers’ attention is not enough though- what social media should do is facilitate a dialogue, which gets them to share your brand and company stories. Your consumer is no longer paying any attention to outdoor or more traditional media. Remember, the majority of the population in the Gulf is below 30 years of age- this means they live their lives off Instagram, Snapchat and BuzzFeed.

Brands on social have more loyal customers It goes without saying that if you start to know more about a person or individual, then you start to understand them better and are more likely to be loyal to that person. This is the same case with social media marketing– if you follow the principles that you share, you have a personality and can talk like a real person to the community that you are building and sharing information with, then they are much more likely to become loyal fans and customers of the brand, and yes, data indeed backs this up.

You become more responsive Whether you like it or not, we live in a fast-paced environment where people expect customer service to be delivered in minutes rather than days.

They go to social channels to talk to brands and share their points of view with you in real time. This shouldn’t be something you shy away from- in

fact, brands that don’t have a social presence because they’re scared of what their customers might say are missing the point. You have an opportunity to turn a hater into a lover, and often all it takes is a simple acknowledgement of the issue and to say you’re listening, and that you’re going to help them to dampen the fire of anger. Social CRM is a vital part of customer care, and it’s important that you see the opportunity in managing angry customers and turning them into advocates instead.

Social should be a personal experience that brings positive relationships to deliver value.

When compared to TV, print and outdoor media, the ROI on social media and social media advertising in particular is much higher than traditional media.

Further, you can start small and see what works best for your brand and your services and see what sticks. The main goal is to really drive traffic.

Better SEO Social content, thanks to its ability to create movements and global conversations regardless of race, religion or age, has started to become highly indexed by Google and other

search engines. Social content, and video in particular, is very important in delivering this for your brand or business.

Increased inbound traffic Without social media, your inbound traffic is limited to people already familiar with your brand, and individuals searching for keywords you currently rank for. Every social media profile you add is another path leading back to your site, and every piece of content you syndicate on those profiles is another opportunity for a new visitor. The more quality content you syndicate on social media, the more inbound traffic you’ll generate, and more traffic means more leads and more conversions.

Social media is great value When compared to TV, print and outdoor media, the ROI on social media and social media advertising in particular is much higher than traditional media. Further, you can start small and see what works best for your brand and your services and see what sticks.

The main goal is to really drive traffic. >>>

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reap the benefits quicker and more efficiently than those that don’t.

Focus (or the lack of it) When doing social media, it is not necessary to invest in all of the major platforms. Pick one that is right for you and your budget. With Facebook being a socially powered advertising platform, you might want to invest in Snapchat or Instagram, which require less media investment to drive awareness, reach and impact of your content.

Quality over quantity Social media is not a volume game or business. I spend a lot of conversations with clients trying to help them understand that apart from customer care, the frequency of engagement on social platforms should focus on quality rather than quantity. No one likes the guy at the party who doesn’t listen and has no emotional intelligence to gauge that others are either bored of his continued monologue, or that they haven’t even heard a word he’s said. Social media marketing is exactly the same, although people nowadays are less tolerant and patience with what I call social vomit.

The outlined points are a few of the opportunities in social media marketing and communications- but what about the potential pitfalls that you could come across when doing the same? For me, the biggest pitfall is not being present on social media simply because you can’t understand it, or because you don’t want to open up to potential criticism about your business. But ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you a secret: people are already talking about your business on social media- you just aren’t aware

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of it, or are not managing your social reputation effectively.

Other top pitfalls include: Diving straight in Rushing to launch a social media channel is akin to rushing into a pregnancy. You can’t get half-pregnant with social media– you’re either in, or you’re not, and so it pays off to invest time in planning it properly, investing in listening to what people are saying and what others are doing before embarking on launching any channels. Those that do this

not be responsible for posting and managing communities online, because that would be akin to them turning up at a conference and delivering the keynote speech.

No analysis Measurement and analytics are part and parcel of anyone who works in the online, connected world in which we live now. It is simply not acceptable to not track KPIs, metrics and results of the work we do.

So be sure to keep a close eye on your social media analytics such as Facebook Insights, LinkedIn Page Statistics and Iconosquare to help you track the efficacy of your investment.

There are also tons of third party social media tracking tools out there to help you measure the success of your social media and gain additional insights as well.

When doing social media, it is not necessary to invest in all of the major platforms. Pick one that is right for you and your budget.

With Facebook being a socially powered advertising platform, you might want to invest in Snapchat or Instagram, which require less media investment to drive awareness, reach and impact of your content.

Lack of consistency Ever had a boss or a friend whose temperament you could never forecast? If you have, then you’ll be acutely aware of the impact that lack of consistency can have on your mood, day and life. Brands that aren’t consistent cause people to lose interest very quickly.

Interns are not the solution Social media marketing is an art and a science, and it’s one that is learned through analysis, reading and education. Interns are fantastic for bringing in fresh ideas and new perspectives, but they should

Ema Linaker is a digital native who has been working integrated communications for leading brands and agencies for over 20 years.

She has worked at Google, Nuance, Ogilvy & Mather, and now heads up Leo Burnett’s team of social, mobile and digital experts working on multinational brands like McDonalds, Samsung and P&G.

www.buzzfeed.com

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For over 130 years, Drake & Scull International PJSC has been shaping skylines and transforming the lifestyle of communities around the world.

Drake & Scull is an industry leader, with a proven history of delivering more than 700 projects through its General Contracting, Engineering, Rail, Oil & Gas, Water and Wastewater Treatment and Infrastructure development business streamlines across the region.

www.drakescull.com

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All keyed up Unlocking opportunities for startups and SMBs with digitization

By Rabih Dabboussi

Technology has changed the way we work and live. Businesses are becoming more efficient, consumers are making better-informed decisions and whole industries are being transformed as the real impact of technology becomes clear. From healthcare to transport and beyond, the shift to digital ways of thinking is helping to streamline processes, remove inefficiency and create better experiences for patients, passengers and the general public alike.

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Today, around a billion devices are connected worldwide– which is still less than 1% of the potential total. At Cisco, we believe that number will grow to 50 billion by 2020.

From buildings to buses, energy grids to wildlife, everything is being connected.

Almost everywhere, opportunity awaits– not just in tech-friendly vertical sectors such as energy and retail, but also in arts and entertainment, manufacturing, agriculture waste management, financial services, real estate, and education, to name a few.

The Internet of Things (IoT), the networked connection of devices where we are today, is the foundation for the next wave of the Internet of Everything (IoE), which will connect people, processes, data and things, creating unprecedented opportunities. These trends are introducing a new era of technology that will transform nearly every industry including the SMB segment to change the way we live and work.

Benefits of digitization for SMBs IoT brings networking technology to places where it was once unavailable or impractical but the challenge for companies is to build the right infrastructure. Small businesses face changing requirements of scale and data management, and need standards-based infrastructure that is highly secure and interoperable.

The connection of devices, machines, and things allows small businesses to dynamically generate, analyze and communicate intelligence data, increase operational efficiencies, and power new and greatly improved business models. The IoE is creating value by lowering costs, improving employee productivity, generating new revenue avenues and enhancing citizen benefits. For SMBs, the ben-

efits include improvements in innovation, supply chain and asset utilization.

To achieve the immense business benefits afforded by the IoE, SMBs need a highly robust and secure network infrastructure. They need to converge unrelated networks, scale to meet increasing traffic demands, employ advanced data analytics and inspire a new class of intelligent applications to increase productivity without sacrificing security.

In order for SMBs to develop business agility, they will need to deploy solutions to manage and store data in the cloud and data center that can improve productivity and operational efficiency today, while laying the foundation for tomorrow’s IoT opportunities. With IoT, organizations can expect new operational efficiencies, improved safety and security, distributed intelligence and control, faster and better decision making and new business opportunities and revenue streams.

The benefits of digitization and connectivity will be enormous -greater efficiency and economy, better end-user experiences, greater usage of assets and clearer views of the business- but they will be constrained by a global talent gap in ICT, unless the global community takes action to train and educate more people in the technical disciplines.

Middle East governments need to deploy policy and training programs to help solve the region’s fastest-growing gap in networking professionals Road to success IoE is not only a great leveler for businesses –small and large– but for consumers and governments alike. It’s a call to action- to be innovative, collaborative and ambitious.

Once companies become digital they have the opportunity to completely reimagine their business models to connect

people, process, data and things across industries, cities and countries to realize new economic value.

Ultimately, however, we believe the IoE will have a much greater impact on the world

than the Internet did in its first 20 years. We think the possibilities of the IoE are limited only by imagination, and it will prove to be the most significant technological revolution in history.

Rabih Dabboussi is the General Manager of Cisco UAE. Dabboussi’s responsibilities also include driving and forging close relationships with the government and ensuring that Cisco’s business objectives and goals are closely aligned.

With a key focus around smart and connected communities, Dabbousi is helping to drive Cisco’s Smart City strategy in the UAE as well as in the wider Middle East region as a whole. Along his journey, Dabboussi has achieved several U.S. technology patents that have helped differentiate Cisco’s products and solutions, and has lived and worked in the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from North Carolina State University.

Execute your enterprise’s IoE strategy Five steps SMBs should take to ensure both short- and long-term success 1. Become a digital company

Digital transformation will enable them to innovate faster and achieve their desired business outcomes. Digitization should be across technology (data), people, and processes. Data analytics will be an important element to ensure availability of high quality, actionable, trusted, and complete data.

2. Develop a workforce for the future Your business must

become agile enough to compete in the IoE era, where employees must possess an optimal mix of technical skills, industry knowledge and business acumen.

3. Integrate IT and OT Companies could improve end-to-end business efficiency when they integrate the IT and OT segments of business. They must begin to build a culture of communication, collaboration and coordination between these teams, strongly supported by company leadership.

4. Ensure end-to-end cyber security To help mitigate cyber

security risks, as well as prepare for future industry developments, companies need to put a strong security policy in place and deploy threat-centric security solutions that will help them gain visibility of the assets, protocols, users, applications and traffic patterns on the control network to develop a picture of what is “normal” for that environment. They need to classify assets and systems based upon their value to maintaining operations and build out defenses for the critical assets and systems first. Regularly test, review and update defenses and policies. Being “secure” is temporal, as threats and attack techniques constantly evolve. Therefore, defenses should be regularly tested and modified, as needed.

5. Innovate for growth SMBs must always look beyond their horizons for opportunities to innovate and create growth.

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There may be a compromise to be made– the trusted supplier may be more expensive. Think about the true value of reputation and whether or not your brand can afford to source from a supplier whose business harms the environment or enslaves factory workers.

One of the most important things to do if a crisis does happen is to convene as a management team and –if possible– source outside help.

Crisis contingency plans can be developed by external consultancies that provide a step-by-step guide to respond in any eventuality. These plans will tell you who to call, in what time frame and precisely what to say (and what not to say).

Better now than later How to crisis-proof your business

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By Mitchell Prather

t’s unsurprising that very few entrepreneurs talk about crisis communications in their business plans. The focus during those early days is on funding, business development, branding and marketing– all of the positive activities that help to establish corporate identity, and its place in the market. But new business owners need to understand the importance of crisis preparedness as a central element of their business plan. And the earlier this is done, the better it is for your enterprise.

Reputations are built slowly, over time. This means that most startups have yet to establish important corporate values of trust, transparency and ethical trading, meaning that a crisis that happens early on poses a grave threat. Unlike large, established firms, a startup doesn’t have the reputational collateral that can help them to recover quickly. And the owners of a new business are particularly vulnerable to making unwitting mistakes that can come back to haunt them. Small decisions made early on and in good faith can have far-reaching reputational consequences, which is why every new business owner needs to sit down from day one (and on a regular basis) to assess the reputational consequences of decisions made. In short, they need to look ahead at every step of the way.

1. Supply chain One of the most important things for new businesses to consider is whether or not their suppliers operate ethically. From the first day

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of operation, business owners need to be in a position to state that they source their materials/ingredients/ supplies from trusted sources that operate responsibly.

That means considering the impact that the supply chain has on the environment, communities and individuals manufacturing or producing the things you are buying.

2. Identify stakeholders One of the best ways to build a responsible business is to identify each and every touchpoint. You and your team should sit down and identify every individual person, group of people, special interest group and other organizations that your company and its products and services impact– even if it is indirectly. This process does not need to be complicated or laborious; it can be as easy as creating a spreadsheet of stakeholders and the way in which your business touches them, alongside any potential areas of risk. This will help those making decisions to make them with all stakeholders in mind, and by default reduces the chances of making mistakes. Such an approach also gives you and your team confidence that you are operating responsibly and doing all the right things. >>> All of your internal processes matter- particularly the way in which you treat your employees.

This means adopting best practice in areas such as health and safety, HR and legal matters. It is in your best interests to put in place anti-discrimination policies pertaining to sex, sexuality, race, age and any other areas of potential contention or conflict.

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3. Internal communications All of your internal processes matter- particularly the way in which you treat your employees. This means adopting best practice in areas such as health and safety, HR and legal matters. It is in your best interests to put in place anti-discrimination policies pertaining to sex, sexuality, race, age and any other areas of potential contention or conflict. Happy employees are strong ambassadors, and on the flip side, badly treated workers are a reputational crisis in the making. So think about putting in place simple systems such as regular reviews, an open-door policy, confidentiality guarantees, newsletters and an intranet.

A comprehensive internal communications platform will take time, but the important thing is that it will lay the foundations to communicate openly and effectively from day one.

One of the best ways to build a responsible business is to identify each and every touchpoint.

You and your team should sit down and identify every individual person, group of people, special interest group and other organizations that your company and its products and services impact– even if it is indirectly.

4. Digital media The management team of a new business should immediately be discussing how it intends to communicate with its stakeholders through social media. The rise of Facebook and Twitter present businesses with opportunities to promote a positive reputational image to stakeholders; but

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it’s incredibly important to realize that it’s a twoway street. Consumers, competitors, special interest groups and other stakeholders have the ability to post things about your firm, and you have absolutely no way of preventing it. This is why all communications via social media need to be strictly on message, by adhering to corporate guidelines on ethics, discrimination, political comment– all areas of potential conflict.

Guidelines on social media output should form part of the company’s rule and regulations and also be included in employee contracts.

5. Act swiftly (but carefully) One of the most important things to do if a crisis does happen is to convene as a management team and –if possible– source outside help. Crisis contingency plans can be developed by external consultancies that provide a step-bystep guide to respond in any eventuality. These plans will tell you who to call, in what time frame and precisely what to say (and what not to say). These are the gold-standards in crisis planning. But, these are expensive and by their very nature, reactionary.

It is our experience as a growing business that the best way to deal with a crisis is to do everything in our power to make sure it doesn’t happen. We make sure that we work with organizations that operate ethically, we apply international best

practices in everything we do internally and externally.

As a communications consultancy, we know how important it is to ringfence our reputation– crisis awareness and prevention is a priority and has been since the day we opened our doors. It should feature in every entrepreneur’s business plan.

One of the most important things for new businesses to consider is whether or not their suppliers operate ethically. From the first day of operation, business owners need to be in a position to state that they source their materials/ ingredients/supplies from trusted sources that operate responsibly.

That means considering the impact that the supply chain has on the environment, communities and individuals manufacturing or producing the things you are buying.

Mitchell Prather is the Managing Director of Djembe Communications.

He brings over 25 years of international financial and corporate communications experience gained in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and the Middle East. He joined Djembe from Grayling, where he headed the agency’s African and Middle East operations. Previously, Prather worked at Mubadala Development Company, where he managed all communications related to M&A deals and international financing activities. He was also the lead of corporate communication requirements of key portfolio company assets and employee engagement. Prior to joining Mubadala, Prather served as Joint Managing Director of Golin Harris where he co-led a 28-strong pan-GCC corporate communications consultancy.

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Power up and power down Tapping into your four primary sources of energy

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By Mark Sephton

hen we manage our energy well, we boost our motivation, performance, creativity and even our memory.

I think often as entrepreneurs we feel overwhelmed by the need to “go all in,” never slowing down or exhibiting weakness. Yes, it is up to you to keep the momentum going, to be focused 100% of the time and motivate your team, but you should never feel guilty for taking breaks.

One of the reasons I practice scheduling my energy and allow myself downtime is to avoid burning out. When I then commit to a client, I have enough energy to fully mentor and motivate them to become their best selves.

Manage your energy by getting enough rest and exercise and by avoiding energy depleting people.

Focus your attention on things you have a passion for and that align with your purpose.

In my opinion, your energy can be broken down into four different elements:

itself is an energy and moodbooster.

• Sleep Go to sleep and wake up consistently at the same time. Research shows that your performance will strongly atrophy with even slight sleep deprivation.

Not getting enough sleep disturbs your cognitive function, quite simply it makes you process less and process worse.

1. Physical energy Inadequate nutrition, exercise, sleep and rest diminish your basic energy levels.

You will have trouble managing your emotions and focusing your attention. Physical energy is the fundamental source of fuel in your life. It’s imperative that you eat right, get enough rest and exercise regularly.

• Nutrition Keep your glucose levels fairly stable by working out a meal plan that fits your daily schedule and performance goals.

• Fitness Exercise increases the supply of oxygen in your blood stream at any given time. Going to the gym creates a cornerstone habit, a habit you can build any other habit around. After you have a consistent fitness habit, you are basically ready to tackle any other challenge. Exercise also releases endorphins which in

• Establish a great reputation

Entrepreneur october 2015

2. Emotional energy If you are able to take control of your emotions, you can improve the quality of your energy, regardless of the external pressures you’re facing. Emotional energy has a specific feel. It’s a sense of being up, happy, forward looking, resilient, feeling hopeful and creative. Emotional energy means you can ride out any storm, take on challenges and maintain courage throughout.

• Build relationships

Relationships are key for social health, they do your heart good.

Embrace the spirit of community, build a network and culture that looks at supporting, uplifting and blessing those around you.

Your reputation is the best and most valued commodity you have as a business owner. You won’t function well on empty fumes and you’ll harm our reputation when you push yourself beyond what is healthy.

• Express gratitude and appreciation to others Holding

gratitude in your heart does amazing things, most profound is that it multiplies. Nurturing a heart of gratitude demonstrates appreciation of what is good right now in your life.

3. Mental energy Mental energy is your ability to concentrate, analyze and be creative.

• Your mental energy is essential to direct your focus to the activities most important to you.

For example, each night before you go to bed, identify the most important challenge for the next day and make it your first priority when you wake up.

• Your mental energy can be zapped by excessive worry, negative thinking and racing thoughts, leading to an inability to concentrate and focus.

Underutilizing your mental energy by watching an excessive amount of television or sticking to rigid routines can result in a “don’t care” attitude and demotivation.

• The mental aspect of your energy will determine how effectively you use your physical capacity of energy. A commitment to learning new things every day is one of the best ways to keep your mental energies sharp.

• Focus systematically on activities that have the most longterm leverage. Research shows that unless people intentionally schedule time for more challenging work, they tend not to get to it at all or rush through it at the last minute.

4. Spiritual energy Finding the “why” of your life and finding your purpose: entrepreneurs especially need to focus on this often overlooked spectrum.

• You need to align your values and goals with a purpose beyond your immediate self-interest.

You must immerse yourself

completely in the mission you have undertaken, whether that be founding a business, managing an existing business or caring for your family.

• Be aware of what you want because indecision is the enemy.

You need to empower yourself to make the right choices to showcase your passion and skills.

• Create and protect time to think and invest in you. You must stay centered and focused on your mission statement, and on understanding your key reasons for being here.

Mark Sephton is an international personal mentor to entrepreneurs, basing his program on a GPS system with eight key fundamentals.

This system reveals blind spots, efficiencies and deficiencies, and is used to find your “inner sniper” to improve your instinct, producing devastating results in your own revolution of discovery. It is hard to see the picture when you’re in the frame. Changing the way you think through culture and mindset shifts and introduced to game-changing habits helps increase your productivity and skyrocket your personal brand. www.marksephton.com

‘Trep talk ME THE BUSINESS The Gift Concierge THE ‘TREP Founder Christianna Tsiterou Q How do you manage your time?

A “Time management is probably one of my strongest traits and also something I look for in the people I work with. A to-do list from the night before helps me plan my day, divided between the tasks that definitely need to be completed during the day and the ones that can be moved over to the next if necessary. Secondly, I don’t interrupt to read emails. While I do check my emails throughout the day,

I will not interrupt a specific task to check my inbox. Thirdly, I avoid unnecessary meetings, and when I do have meetings I try to group them, both in terms of location and timings so as not to split the productive hours of the day. And finally, unless there is a specific project at hand that requires it, I don’t work weekends. Work-life balance is extremely important to me.” www.thegiftconcierge.ae

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of its resilience and demonstrates its enthusiasm and drive. Unfortunately, many companies tend to adopt only the ideas they perceive as immediately advantageous and completely disregard all others. But this is a mistake.

Ideas deemed irrelevant today could very well turn out to be valuable and effective in time.

Therefore no idea should ever be belittled or disregarded completely, but instead set aside for possible future review.

3. Minimize bureaucracy in your company

Unblocking the creative potential of Arabs

Promoting (innovative) critical thinking in the MENA workplace

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By Mohammed Nosseir

t any given moment in a company’s business lifecycle, the number of ideas it has is significantly higher than what it actually develops and ultimately applies. Implementing innovative ideas -recognized as one of the most valuable assets of any business- is often a very real challenge for companies. Therefore, they need to adopt a new approach that encourages employees to practice critical thinking on a large scale, supporting the conception of more creative ideas.

A person’s initial thoughts, which eventually grow into mature concepts, are generally influenced by their personality, the company’s internal organizational structures, and their external environment. The Arab world’s well-known conservatism and its adherence to traditional cultural traits places limitations on this freedom of creativity. The few Arab youths who manage to break away from the traditional framework and come up with sensible, productive ideas are often labeled as ‘Westernized.’

Making it happen in your enterprise 1. Developing a schema of barrier-free exchange

Generally speaking, knowledge is essential for developing good ideas‒ it provides the raw material. Moreover, a wide

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range of thoughts is certainly an added value. However, people with limited access to knowledge, who are passionately creative, also manage to develop ingenious ideas. Thus, it is highly advisable for companies to share their knowledge across functional departments and

support a barrier-free exchange of ideas among as many employees as possible.

2. Making note of ideas to be implemented in the long-term

How a company deals with its employees’ ideas is a reflection

Managers who assess fresh ideas using their personal frames of judgment are often the cause of innovation bottlenecks. This process hampers employees’ ability to think outside the box.

Creativity is stifled if people fear that their ideas might be rejected by their superiors, perhaps even unfavorably affecting the evaluation of their professional performance. To maximize the development of useful innovative ideas, companies need to bypass these organizational blockages.

Employees may possess the requisite qualities to excel in their respective jobs and climb up the corporate ladder– while lacking the crucial ability to come up with constructive ideas or to recognize them for what they are. This keeps many companies from tapping their employees’ true creative potential. Instead of creating a work environment that constricts employees to completing a specific number of set tasks, their jobs should help them to hone all their talents to the maximum.

4. Be democratic, not autocratic

Ideas are the explicit outcome of critical thinking. Thus, companies need to create a thinking environment that supports and encourages the emergence of valuable ideas. Critical thinking should not be the exclusive domain of upper management.

Instead certain decision-making processes should be open to all levels of company employees.

the misuse of employee ideas as career assessment tools.

Instead it would provide a common platform for maximum potential creativity. Meanwhile, company management could work on transforming feasible ideas into projects and rewarding the vendor of the idea, setting aside the others to serve as food for thought for future developments.

5. Don’t set unbreachable parameters of work

Unfortunately, companies also tend to impose further restraints on their employees with job descriptions that play a key role in the development of their careers. Employees may possess the requisite qualities to excel in their respective jobs and climb up the corporate ladder– while lacking the crucial ability to come up with constructive ideas or to recognize them for what they are. This keeps many companies from tapping their employees’ true creative potential. Instead of creating a work environment that constricts employees to completing a specific number of set tasks, their jobs should help them to hone all their talents to the maximum.

To benefit from the cumulative input of their workforce, companies need to establish a permeable structure that allows ideas to flow across departments and functions– without

the limitations of a traditional hierarchy. Employees need to be encouraged to step across the boundaries of their functional responsibilities and produce ideas that are beneficial to the company, even if these ideas have no connection to their particular field of expertise.

One could even say it would be advisable for companies to make their management and other personnel engage in two separate lives! The first, their standard work-life in which daily tasks are dealt with. And

the second, a fantasy life, in which employees are able to freely express their creativity.

Such an approach would certainly reflect positively on the work reality.

One easy way to address these innovation roadblocks?

In practical terms, a company could set up an intranet that allows employees to contribute to and discuss ideas anonymously.

This would prevent superiors from filtering ideas, help avoid accusations of interference with other disciplines, and prevent

Creativity is stifled if people fear that their ideas might be rejected by their superiors, perhaps even unfavorably affecting the evaluation of their professional performance. To maximize the development of useful innovative ideas, companies need to bypass these organizational blockages.

Mohammed Nosseir is a Senior Marketing Advisor with SimonKucher & Partners, Middle East.

INJAZ Al-Arab teams up with corporations to combat Arab youth unemployment

From left to right: Ibrahim Tadros, Head of Business Development & Strategy, Wamda, David Leman, Chief Human Resources officer for Middle East and Africa, Marriott International, Bernard J. Dunn, Vice President Boeing International, President, Boeing Middle East, Boeing, Mazen Hayek, Official Spokesperson of MBC Group, Akef Aqrabawi, Chief Executive Officer, INJAZ Al-Arab, Raji Hatter, Chief Sustainability and Compliance Officer, Aramex, Tamer Zumot, Project Management and Execution Manager, INJAZ Al-Arab.

Trying to figure out your career path?

Non-profit organization INJAZ Al-Arab has announced its “Expand Your Horizon” initiative with key corporate partners to help address youth unemployment in MENA. The project will present jobseekers with prospective roles in the private sector, mainly in five industries such as aviation through a partnership with Boeing, hospitality through Marriott International, media through MBC Hope, logistics through Aramex, and entrepreneurship through Wamda. Besides offering employment and internship opportunities, the project’s website will also impart practical tips and know-how on developing a resume, interviewing and other career-related skills. The project is also supported by Hill+Knowlton Strategies, YouGov and Bayt. www.eyh-injaz.org

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READ BETWEEN THE LINES BUSINESS BOOK RUNDOWN

By Amal Chaaban

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ust because an author demonstrates great sales doesn’t mean their business advice is applicable in the boardroom or even good for practical application otherwise.

Our reviewer takes a look at some of the titles getting hype recently and gives you the executive summary. Before you hit the business bestseller aisle, read these reviews to see which of these known books are actually worth your while.

Love Your Job Kerry Hannon

According to Hannon, no less than half of the workforce is dissatisfied with their positions in the work world, with only 15% report being very satisfied. These statistics are a sobering reminder to managers that in addition to managing the workplace, you need to be the facilitator for your staff to find career satisfaction.

Love Your Job helps them help themselves become satisfied, happy and passionate about their work. Each chapter of this book covers a different arena including mapping out a future, consider-

Mindfulness Pocketbook: Little Exercises for a Calmer Life Gill Hasson

At first glance, this is not in the realm of the average business read; it’s more likely judged to be a self-help book… until you dive in and start really reading it. Individuals with busy lives: the Mindfulness Pocketbook is a valuable tool with advice and exercises that will help you not only in your personal life, but your business one as well. Full of tools for relationship and self-management, it provides a path

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that enables the reader to be more present in the moment. An exceptionally important section in this book is Listening instead of Hearing, meant to assist the reader hear not just what is being said, but what isn’t. (Hasson also puts forward some great thoughts here on body language.) If you want to be more present, more attuned to others, and higher in EQ, check this one out.

ing serious self-assessment and reflection, making an attitude adjustment when necessary, and of course, blueprinting a dream job. In order to do all of these things, a great deal of self-honesty is required (there’s even a chapter asking if you are in it just for the money). Hannon’s book is a valuable tool for those who are dissatisfied in their workplace and not sure why. Senior management and ‘treps can use it to help stagnant employees get motivated and productive again.

Jolt: Shake Up Your Thinking and Upgrade Your Impact for Extraordinary Success Richard Tyler

Complacency is the enemy of progress; that’s the premise of this book. When a person becomes complacent, moves into a safe zone and no longer strives to change and improve, they become stagnant.

Richard Tyler is here to Jolt you out of your complacency, and in doing so, you will likely see your on-the-job performance enhanced and as a consequence your business will improve. The genuine difficulty here comes not from the writer or the content, it’ll come from you doing what the author asks in order to remove

yourself out of the established comfort zone- it can be an incredibly uncomfortable process. There are no two ways about it. If you feel like you are in a rut and crave a change, this is the book for you, but be warned, some of the exercises in this book will cause some difficult moments of selfreflection and you may not like what you see. Tyler, an enthusiastic advocate of selfimprovement, draws on many anecdotes from his own life to illustrate his pointit’s this enthusiasm that helps smooth out the bumpy road of self-improvement.

The Gift of Time Gail Thomas

If someone came and surveyed you asking what the most valuable thing you could have more of is, what would you answer?

Money? Gold? Stocks? Land? Or time?

Time is the most underrated valuable commodity out there. Via The Gift of Time, author Gail Thomas aims to show you how one key item can both give you back valuable time to pursue new paths to grow your business, and to make your staff grow and expand in their roles. That key? The power of delegation. In a carefully laid out and

methodical manner, Thomas expands on the mantra of delegation in four forms with some great explanations on how it works, why it works, and the results you will likely see from applying her strategies. Delegation is never easy (and that is mentioned a few times), but the author is of the opinion that it’s critical to organizational success. The tone is crisp and well-paced for the topic, and this reviewer recommends it for someone who needs to learn to lighten their own load while streamlining operations.

The resurrection Selfie app Frontback says goodbye and then comes back again

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week after Frontback announced its shut down, it turned out that the selfie app wasn’t going anywhere after all.

After two years of gaining over two million users, founder Fredd Della Faille announced in a blog post in August that the app will be closing down, explaining that they “couldn’t reach critical numbers that would make Frontback sustainable social network.” It goes to show that every app need a strong selling point to attract and sustain

users. However, in a followup blog post on Frontback’s website a week later, the team announced that an agreement has been signed with a mysterious “partner.” No name or details were given on what kind of agreement it was, but the partner is supposedly “fully committed” to making Frontback better. The blog post ended with an open call to its community to give their own suggestions on improving the app.

The app’s concept is simple: you take a picture from the front camera,

and then do the same with your back camera. The final image, which can be shared to other social networks, is split into two perspectives.

The app proved to be wellliked, with fans such as Ashton Kutcher and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey. According to TechCrunch, it raised “nearly US$4 million” with an array of investors such as Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian, Lerer Ventures, Michael Arrington, and Quora’s co-founder Charlie Cheever among others, after passing up on Twitter’s acquisition offer. october 2015 Entrepreneur

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IN THE LOOP

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ebanon is a country that faces a plethora of problems, from the lack of 24-hour electricity and decent infrastructure, to the ongoing refugee crisis, to a parliament that’s extended its term twice and no president in office. One would think that an uprising to sort out the country’s many social, political, and economic problems has been overdue for years. That said, a problem that impacted the vast majority of Lebanese, irrespective of their sect, political ideology, or socioeconomic class sparked the “You Stink” protests: garbage.

Beirut’s waste management has been handled by Sukleen, a private corporation, for almost two decades. The way they landed that huge responsibility was iffy to say the least. Waste management is a municipal responsibility; however, that portion of funds was taken and given to

are more adamant than ever to keep it closed permanently, with many complaining about the health issues it has caused Sukleen. What was a bottomover the years. As the garbage up decision became top-down. piled up on Beirut’s streets, Moreover, Sukleen’s plan was makeshift solutions were implerelatively financially inefficient. mented- some narrow streets The amount of money it requires were completely blocked by the to treat a ton of solid waste (per garbage piles, and people could ton) is higher than that of many been seen wearing masks due to other countries. Politicians from public health concerns. To make matters worse, many people across the political spectrum started burning garbage. And have also accused of it being that’s how a few Lebanese activcorrupt, some even referring ists and concerned citizens got to it as “mafia-like.” One of the accusations? That Sukleen sells together and started the movement dubbed “You Stink.” After recyclables for extra revenue. a few small protests in late July, The final straw proved to be tens of thousands began joining the Naameh landfill; it was them, hitting a high of 250,000 reaching capacity limits, and on August 29. The protesters was first closed for a short demanded a legal, economiperiod in late January. Garbage piled up on the streets of cally inefficient solution to the Beirut. Despite pressure from garbage crisis that is environmentally friendly and safe for all the residents of Naameh, it was Lebanese citizens. eventually reopened, with the Things got a tad bit more comgovernment promising to work plicated: with police respondon an alternative. None of that ing brutally and attacking the happened. The landfill was mostly peaceful protesters, and closed again a few months ago in July, and Naameh’s residents even arresting minors in several cases, the movement quickly turned into one that wanted Demonstrations against the government to restore the rule of law, and demanded accountability for the corrupt politicians and individuals in the Lebanese police and security apparatus. While Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk refused to step down from his position, he stepped down from heading the waste management committee and was replaced by current Labor Minister and former Environment

ISIS calls for the return of the gold standard

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ven though the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), simply known as the Islamic State (IS) today, may not be a United Nations member state, it’s certainly is trying to function as one. One important aspect of a state? Currency. Of course, the Islamic State is not opting for the global monetary system of using fiat money, claiming that it is blasphemous and doomed to failure. They’ve brought

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back the golden dinar, as well as the silver dirham and copper fils. The news was announced during a one-hour video via Al-Hayat Media Center, the Islamic State’s media arm.

They claim that a single gold dinar coin (which is 21-carat and weighs over four grams) would be worth US$139. Now, before your neighborhood Ron Paul supporter or selfproclaimed Austrian economist gets too excited, the IS hasn’t implemented the currency just yet. It still pays its gunmen and trades in American dollars, while local business in its

Trash piling up on the streets of Lebanon

Minister, Akram Shehayeb. The new waste management plan involves a management transition from Sukleen to municipalities; however, it involves temporarily reopening the Naameh landfill, as well as the permanent reopening of several others, notably in the Beirut neighborhood of Burj Hammoud and in the Akkar district of Northern Lebanon, arguably one of the poorest areas in Lebanon. Its residents have both protested heavily against opening landfills there, and the You Stink movement has supported them as well.

At this point, everyone thinks that Lebanon could use a reboot.

Being a semi-democracy where citizens elect a parliament, and the parliament elects a president and prime minister, it seems that the most viable solution is to have parliamentary election and a new set of fresh faces as 128 MPs who could solve Lebanon’s most pressing issues. No progress has been made thus far, and with Lebanon experiencing its first rain shower since last winter, concerns have been voiced about a possible cholera outbreak.

controlled territories trade in their respective currencies. Also, IS continues to collect taxes in local currencies as well.

Overall, it sounds like another propaganda campaign about life in the so-called IS. While it’s frightening that they raise capital on their own without relying on donations like Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, it isn’t for certain that they will implement a universal currency of this nature in their territories, especially as they’re all contested grounds at this point.

images by kareem chehayeb

Lebanon’s garbage crisis sparks uprising

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CULTURE

business unusual | LIFE | TRAVEL | DESIGN | TRAPPINGS

Kingdom Tower

Superior Suite

Leveraging expertise General Manager Rolf Lippuner crafts superior stays in the Kingdom

B

“

usiness travellers account for the largest percentage of our guests and years of experience have made us experts in anticipating and fulfilling their unique needs,” says Rolf Lippuner, the newlyappointed General Manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Center.

The opulent property is situated pretty advantageously -near the city’s commercial

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Entrepreneur october 2015

hub and close to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic quarter- and regularly acts as the home away from home for visiting businesspeople and dignitaries alike. “We’ve had several large-scale conferences this year such as HP World 2015, the Economic Forum for the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, and the Riyadh Travel Fair Exhibition, among others. One very notable conference that we are proud to host every year

is the Global Competitiveness D.C., Lippuner has suitably Forum, organized by the Saumoved from one property di Arabian General Investhosting a bevy of internament Authority (SAGIA). This tional business travellers yearly three-day forum of acand political dignitaries, to tivities is the only event of its another property with the kind in the Kingdom, and it’s same main type of clientele. attended by top private and “Frankly, there is little in the public sector leaders, interchange from Washington D.C. national political leaders, the to Riyadh. Many may find heads of NGOs, and selected this response incredible, but intellectuals and individuals it’s intrinsically true. Yes, who share a common interest there is a cultural change in global competitiveness.” and adaptation that one does The property’s whopping need to go through, but this is 80% ratio of business clients not dissimilar to any change means that the hotel specialof country or city that I have izes in corporate needs, and experienced, in the many one way they demonstrate moves I have made. In fact, that is through their ExecuD.C. was an incredible traintive Business Package develing ground for me considering oped exclusively for those on the magnitude of Middle business visits. “The ExecuEastern guests that frequent tive Business Package offers it, [and] interestingly enough remarkable value to business many of them Saudi.” travellers visiting the city; it includes luxuriGeneral Manager ous accommodations, Rolf complimentary daily Lippuner breakfast for up to two guests, SR300 dinner credit per night, laundry service for two items per day, one round-trip airport transfer per stay, and complimentary premium high-speed Internet access. All of these inclusions promise a heightened level of comfort and consideration sought out by business travellers.” Having worked previously at the Four Seasons Washington,

RECOMMENDED BY THE GM EXEC STAY “Our Presidential and Royal Suites, located between the 38th to 46th floors, feature spectacular views of the capital, and comprise sleek, spacious comfort perfect for CEOs and presidents.

Outstanding features include generous living rooms, dining areas, private offices and separate King bedrooms. To ensure that we remain in-step with the ever evolving needs of our guests, we strive to understand how our guests spend their time, and we then tailor our service approach to their individual needs. We do this by offering convenient, time-saving services such as our one-hour pressing, 24-hour room service, in-room technology, and house cars equipped with wireless internet access.”

CONFERENCE CAPABILITIES “The meeting conference rooms and facilities at Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh are the best in the city, and our recent win at the Middle East Hotel Awards 2015 for Best Conference and Banquet Facilities proves just that. With four separate meeting rooms with foyers for each, we have the

requirements and technology available for all types of meetings from small to big scale. Our hotel’s business center also provides two boardrooms for more intimate meetings of eight to 10 people, private workstations, laptop and desktop computers, printers, scanners, hi-speed email and Internet access and translation services.”

CONNECTIVITY “One of my favorite perks which has also been very appealing to our business guests is the luxurious and convenient travel experience with the hotel’s limousine fleet offering complimentary Wi-Fi en route. Whether heading to or from the airport, to a corporate event or business meeting, busy executives on a packed schedule are able to stay connected and be productive all through their commute. Advanced audio-visual and lighting technology is the standard throughout [the hotel], with expert, friendly support from our own highly trained technicians, and the latest in high-tech audiovisual equipment is always available for impactful presentations. Our state-of-the-art

equipment include items such as teleconferencing, LCD projectors, plasma TVs, screens, flipcharts, easels and marker boards, and wired or wireless internet access in meeting rooms.”

MUNCH “It’s hard for a GM to absolutely single out one specific outlet in a grand hotel, where there are so many incredible options, but -and there is always a but- the pasta in ROSSO is exceptional.

Fettuccine Alfredo with mushrooms and Bresola… Bellisimo!

Beyond that, our Friday brunch is a gastronomic fantasy world and a must. Seriously.”

DOWNTIME “For guests who would like to explore the city, and are looking for ways to immerse themselves in the local culture, we have developed with the hotel’s concierge team, tailor-made cultural packages that will deftly work around their business commitments and schedule, to allow them to experience a historical site, visit an art gallery or discover an unknown side of Riyadh city.

For a few hours of downtime in a

The Kingdom Ballroom

business traveler’s hectic schedule, I’d suggest a dining experience at one of our elegant dining venues such as Elements restaurant offering international cuisine with an Arabesque and Asian twist, or ROSSO, our authentic Italian venue or The Grill restaurant which specializes in grilled cuisine offering the best steaks in town.

Stressed executives can also burn off steam at the hotel’s fitness center, racquetball, squash or tennis courts, or pursue other relaxing activities at our newly refurbished men’s-only Spa and Wellness Centre.”

images courtesy four seasons hotel riyadh

The Kingdom Suite

The Club Lounge

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CULTURE

business unusual | LIFE | TRAVEL | DESIGN | TRAPPINGS

‘Trep trimmings

The executive

selection

From one ‘trep to another Dr. Apa wants to help you make a great first impression

“Dubai is fairly new to wealth and economic growth, with that comes the desire for luxury items. You’ve seen in Dubai how they have gotten every major designer, restaurant, jeweler etc. to carry their lines or open to service the growing demand for it. Good cosmetic dentistry falls into that category as well. Ten years ago, most who could afford it would probably tell you they would travel to obtain those services. I’ve been coming to Dubai for the past eight years and [I’ve] seen the growing demand for more and more people wanting these services, wanting to fit it into their daily routines and not necessarily wanting to travel for it,” explains Dr. Michael Apa, discussing why he has decided to do business in the Middle East.

As a New York-based entrepreneur newly bringing his enterprise to the UAE, he’s no stranger to boardroom pressures. The U.S.-accredited dentist built his client base and portfolio before exploring his entrepreneurial aspirations, and he is now a known commentator on aesthetic and restorative dentistry. In addition to Dr. Apa’s reputation as

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a dental authority, he’s also credited with having established the first undergraduate aesthetics program at the New York University (NYU) College of Dentistry. With all this under his belt, it’s pretty safe to say that Dr. Apa knows a thing or two about making a good first impression, and how a healthy smile can impact your business on a daily basis… by helping you come across as confident and capable. Research indicates that perceived attractiveness and exuding confidence position you advantageously in negotiations, so an investment in dental health and wellness pays for itself. “A healthy smile says a lot about how you take care of yourself inside and out. Having great style, being fit, attractive, and having a great smile are all part of creating that successful first impression. I believe that it partially has to do with how you are being perceived, but also how confidently you carry yourself when you’re feeling good about the way you look.” www.apaaesthetic.ae As a medical professional, how do you define a healthy smile?

“Visually a healthy smile is white and pink...85% white [to] 15% pink. From the general public’s view, they think of healthy teeth as white teeth -it’s not always the case- and pink gums as healthy gums are also not always the case. I say 85/15 because in an

‘aesthetically healthy’ smile, you show a little gum. In health, we think of pink and the rest, for teeth, in health we think of white.

Gums can overpower a smile when someone has a ‘gummy smile’, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unhealthy, or they may have pigmented gums, dark spots, which also aren’t unhealthy. Teeth can be stained from antibiotics or genetics, also doesn’t mean they’re unhealthy. It’s more the public perception of what is aesthetically pleasing as healthy.”

In your opinion, what are the implications of a great, healthy smile on doing business?

“There’s an obvious component of self confidence and how you carry yourself when you’re feeling confident, but from other people’s perspective, there is a compo-

nent of health and beauty. People will gravitate towards those who present well- whether it’s having a great style, a great look, or a great smile. It makes a difference in creating and building relationships.”

What options does your business offer for dental enhancements?

“We are a full service clinic with a strong accent on cosmetics, so implants, gum surgeries, crowns, veneers, porcelain fillings, whitening etc., but we emphasize looking at the mouth as a whole understanding why the problems are occurring and coming up with a treatment plan that addresses the cause and the fix. Most typically we can do this with veneers, crowns or Invisalign; or a combination. Every patient is different and is treated that way.”

Dr. Michael Apa

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For your hours on the clock, invest in a quality classic black shoe. We like Doucal’s of Italy for their handmade better leathers selection that fit comfortably. (Remember: there’s no point wearing a good suit with bad footwear.) www.doucals.com When you’re off the clock, look for strong wear and tear in basic blacks and browns- you’ll want to check out To Boot New York. They’ve got a variety of styles and shades that last, and they only get better looking with age. www.toboot.com

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october 2015 Entrepreneur

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IN THE LOOP National Geographic sells majority stake to 21st Century Fox

A

on a yearly basis, starting with current National Geographic Society CEO and President Gary Knell. What they described as an “expanded joint venture” will now be called National Geographic Partners, comprising of its television channels, magazines, as well as other media platforms and businesses. Its CEO? Declan Moore, who is currently the society’s Chief Media Officer, and is described in the press release as a “20-year veteran” of the National Geographic Society.

CEO and President Gary Knell claims that this joint venture will increase its endowment to almost US$1 billion, allowing them to invest almost twice as much

channel.nationalgeographic.com/

fter 127 years of its establishment as a nonprofit (since 1888), the National Geographic Society has sold a majority stake to 21st Century Fox at a deal worth US$725 million. As expected, this means that the National Geographic Society has restructured the entire organization as well.

National Geographic revealed all the details in a press release.

Despite now owning only 27% of the organization (as opposed to Fox’s 73%), the board of directors will have equal representation of the two parties. They also announced that the chair of the board of directors would change

From camouflage to augmented reality

Beatles’ album cover designer Sir Peter Blake’s app remixes art

A

s a technique that was first seen during World War I, dazzle painting refers to the use of irregular patterns and contrasting colors on ships, which makes it difficult for enemies to target them on sea. But dazzle painting soon found interest outside of warzones as wellSir Peter Blake it made its

into scientific research. After all, the National Geographic Society has won prestigious awards for supporting scientific research in various fields, from biology to astronomy, and geology to archaeology. But let’s be honest here; the big concern is Rupert Murdoch. Could for-profit status eliminate National Geographic’s authenticity and integrity, let alone when a climate change denier owns 73% of it? Many think so, even though his son, current 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch claims to have convinced his father to believe in climate change back in 2007.

Fox aside, the different branches under the National Geographic Society haven’t been doing too well, with a Washington Post story revealing National Geographic Editor-in-Chief Susan Goldberg has been butting heads with Courteney Monroe, CEO of the National Geographic Channel. It seems that the magazine thinks that the television channel leans towards more “sensationalist” content. Perhaps a unified media organization could do the trick. The society’s CEO

presence felt in the vorticism art movement, with the method influencing people like Sir Peter Blake, the pop culture artist behind the iconic cover of The Beatles’ album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

And Sir Blake continues to be a fan of dazzle painting to this day- earlier this year, Sir Blake let loose a riot of colors on Snowdrop, a passenger ferry in Mersey, England, as part of a commissioned project called Dazzle Ships. Sir Blake also released an app called Dazzle It, which allows users to merge his Everybody Razzle Dazzle design for Snowdrop with their own photos and designs. Images can then be applied to a 3D model setting to let users see how it would look in real life, such as on a ship and even a rubber duck, with an augmented reality scene.

Commissioned by 14-18 NOW –a cultural program across the U.K. to mark the centenary of the First World War- and Bloomb-

News Corporation building in New York

Gary Knell believes that it would help keep National Geographic’s media outlets consistent with one another. And editorial changes for the magazine? Knell says there won’t be a “turn in a direction that is different from the National Geographic heritage.” Finally, he claims that the National Geographic Society under the new structure will remain nonprofit.

Many will be pleased to hear about the additional capital that can be used to finance scientific research, and perhaps a unified media body wil lead to more hard science and less TV entertainment. Whatever happens, it’s not surprising to know that National Geographic’s generations of fans are concerned. After 127 years, one could understand the reluctance to change, especially when you’re pairing National Geographic with Fox, who many would call the antonym of science.

Dazzlie it app

erg Philanthropies, the app has been built

by Blake with the hope that it will give an indication of how early 20th century artists engaged in the World Wars. Other art commissions that would be included in the app are Chromatique à Double Fréquence pour l’Edmund Gardner Ship by Carlos Cruz-Diez, and Dazzle Ship London by Tobias Rehberger.

The Dazzle It app can be downloaded for iOS and Android devices from the iTunes and Google Play stores.

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ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO

Balancing act Work-life balance should be your enterprise’s concern

By Lama Ataya

F

ar from being a luxury, the notion of achieving a good work-life balance has become a key goal for professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. A Bayt.com survey about employee motivation in the Middle East, released in January 2013, has actually shown that 91% of working professionals in the MENA consider worklife balance a vital factor which directly affects their motivation levels at work. A good work-life balance was also identified as one of the top motivators at work in a Bayt.com poll on learning in the MENA workplace.

In spite of the increasing importance of achieving work-life balance for millions of professionals across the Middle East, less than one third of working respondents in the region believe that their company shows an interest in the well-being of its employees, according to Bayt.com’s survey on job satisfaction in the MENA, released in April 2015. The poll we executed on personal fulfillment in the MENA shows that the majority of MENA professionals struggle to achieve an acceptable balance between work and family life.

Only 33% consider themselves fulfilled in both their personal and professional lives, while 33% say that a better work-life balance would cause them to feel more fulfilled overall.

Happy employees = successful company

Numerous benefits of achieving work-life balance have been documented in physical and mental health, as well as decreased stress, increased productivity, and better relationships.

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If you’re not completely sold on work-life balance, these five reasons may change your mind: 1. Improved hiring and retention of talent Work-life

initiatives give organizations a human face that allows prospective employees to distinguish one employer from another. To attract employees and hold on to them, forwardthinking companies are letting their employees know that they are just as concerned about their employees lives outside work and about helping them to manage their work and personal commitments and aspirations.

Actually, being perceived as an employer of choice because of work-life balance policies can provide a competitive edge for attracting and retaining talent. Working at Bayt.com, for example, isn’t just about having a job. Every day, our employees come in to the office knowing that everything we do will change the life of others.

Working for a purpose is a great positioning strategy if you want

to attract top talent. Actually, five in 10 professionals in the MENA would want to work in a place where they feel their work is part of a greater purpose, as shown in the poll on employer branding.

2. Reduced stress The No-

vember 2012 poll on Work Satisfaction in the MENA shows that 39.3% of MENA professionals are occasionally affected by job-related stress, and as many as 34.8% are affected by job stress most of the time. This may be correlated to the fact that 46.7% of them admit that they don’t spend enough time with their family and friends, while 57% say they don’t spend enough time exercising. Work-related stress can eat away into not only productivity at work, but also personal and family time.

Often, managing work-related stress is largely about managing expectations. Ask yourself: is there an easier and faster way for employees to complete more stressful tasks? Or perhaps there is no easier way; in which case you might step in to help.

For instance, the workday at Bayt.com doesn’t begin until 9 a.m., so parents can stress less about their daily errands and take their children to school in the morning, and those who need extra sleep can get it. Also, everyone is encouraged to take a full hour for lunch and short breaks throughout the day.

3. Increased productivity

and productivity 22.2% of professionals polled in the February 2012 poll on Work-life Balance in the MENA believe that greater productivity in the workplace is most needed to achieve a better work-life balance, and vice versa. On the other hand, being creative requires exposure to new ideas and people. If an employee sits at a desk for hours on end, they’re not reading books, having conversations, and engaging in non-work activities that can fuel idea generation. Without a steady stream of fresh thinking, businesses become stale and stagnant.

4. Reduced absenteeism and health costs Employees today

are generally more stressed which reduces performance levels. Absenteeism due to family commitments and stress could be a major reason for low performance levels. Work-life balance initiatives improves employee performance by reducing absenteeism, lateness, healthcare and sick-leave, and hence their related costs. It’s a simple fact: people who are free of worry about what is going on at home can be more productive at work.

5. Improved staff morale and engagement A sustainable

work-life balance helps employees lead a healthier and more balanced life by allowing them to better concentrate at work, improving the work environ-

infographics © bayt.com

TREPONOMICS

ment by increasing employee motivation, engagement, and job satisfaction.

According to our poll on Worklife Balance in the MENA, 56.7% of professional respondents agree that they have achieved a good work-life balance. A little more than a quarter of respondents (26.9%) feel the area most affected by a lack in work-life balance is their mental health and happiness. 15.6% say an imbalance hinders professional and personal growth, and for 7.8%, it deters performance on the job. Only 12.8% of professionals polled agree that what they like most about their job is the level of work-life balance achieved.

The good news is that nine in 10 professionals feel that work-life balance is very much attainable.

Make work-life balance more attainable for your staff

Here are some tips to make the process of achieving work-life balance more attainable and realistic for your company: A. Set the example Management support for work-life balance is critical, and it must come from the top. Too often, the perception that hard work is the only way to rise in a company keeps employees at the grindstone, working themselves into illness.

Top executives can set examples of good work-life balances and make it known that the same is expected from rank-and-file employees. The Bayt.com Work-life Balance in the MENA poll shows

that 89.3% of professionals in the region believe that balancing work and life is actually possible.

B. Use employee surveys

Surveys of employees’ worklife issues can help a company understand workers’ needs and design appropriate policies to meet them.

C. Set priorities for all work

When priorities are unclear, employees tend to overwork because they think that everything must get done at once. Setting priorities allows employees to schedule tasks over a reasonable period of time. Results from the Work-life Balance in the MENA poll indicate that 35.4% of professionals in the MENA very often end up working outside work hours by choice, while 27.8% professionals admit that they work outside work hours due to necessity. If the overtime is chronic, talk to your team and suggest an alternate solution they would be happy with; if it’s a seasonal or temporary issue, you may want to ensure that their efforts are not going to be in the least bit unnoticed, unappreciated or unrewarded.

D. Train line managers to recognize signs of overwork

Supervisors can spot increasing error rates, absenteeism and signs of stress-related burnout more easily than anyone else in the organization. Employees who show these signs of a poor work-life balance can be >>>

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TREPONOMICS referred to employee-assistance programs.

E. Organize seminars on work-life balance Such

seminars can help employees understand the importance of a good work-life balance and find ways to achieve it. They teach employees how to better manage their workloads, eliminate unproductive work habits, get sufficient exercise and negotiate more flexible work conditions that meet their needs.

F. Use flexible work arrangements Achieving a good work-

life balance for your employees could be as simple as altering work arrangements by including flexible hours, part-time, sabbaticals for long-serving personnel, and extended leave periods for new parents. 22.7% of respondents in the Work-life Balance in the MENA poll said a flextime arrangement with same total hours would be most appealing to them at work. Companies should identify which jobs lend themselves to flexible work scheduling and implement formal policies for coordinating flexible schedules.

G. Promote telecommuting

Telecommuting is a way for employees to work from home.

It cuts down on stress and unproductive time due to a commute. Telecommuting can be a good option in some cases, and was favored by 10.4% of respondents in the previously cited poll.

H. Encourage the use of vacation and sick-leave time

Another good practice is to advise employees to use their vacation and sick-leave benefits whenever signs of burnout or illness arise. Sponsoring employees’ family-oriented activities is another way to combine work and life. Sporting events, excursions to amusement parks, fishing trips and other family-oriented jaunts

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ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO

are good opportunities to help employees strike a better work-life balance. Whether it is to spend more time with family and friends or on sports and learning pursuits, a good work-life balance has been repeatedly identified as the top motivating factor at work in the MENA in the Bayt.com survey on employee motivation.

I. Adopt a formal leave policy for special cases A formal

policy for employees with dependents recognizes and encourages the need to care for sick children or elderly parents.

Moreover, some companies allow employees to take leave for community service. These firms recognize that employees obtain life satisfaction from projects or work outside of their regular jobs.

J. Limit how often employees take work home The line

between work and home lives tends to blur when employees regularly take work home. This practice should be monitored by management personnel, who should also develop plans for making sure that work gets done at the office instead of at home. In light of the above, achieving a good work-life balance could be as simple as altering working arrangements to enable more flexibility. The Bayt.com survey on employee motivation shows that an overwhelming 98% of working professionals in the Middle East consider work-life balance a vital factor which directly affects their motivation levels at work.

Across the region, only 18% of professionals said that their employers provide them with all the support they need to achieve a better work-life balance. Companies that encourage a healthy lifestyle and accommodate for different priorities on a year-round basis are more likely to expect improved motivation and loyalty levels among their employees.

k. Encourage a healthy lifestyle The Work Satisfac-

tion in the MENA poll shows that 39% of MENA professionals are occasionally affected by job-related stress, and as many as 35% indicate stress at work affects them most of the time. Work-related stress can eat away into not only your productivity at work, but also your personal and family time.

Achieving work-life balance begins with managing stress by committing to a healthier lifestyle that includes better time management, better eating habits, regular exercise, and a generous time allocation to activities that make you feel truly satisfied, fulfilled and happy.

Achieving work-life balance is not just a one-off exercise, but a long-term commitment to operating your business in a way that respects your employees’ responsibilities outside work.

Policies designed to help you

achieve this need to be tailored to your business and your employees. In fact, drawing up an organization-wide policy on flexible working and other work-life balancing measures can have a positive impact on management by underlining the circumstances in which a request for flexible working will be considered and approved.

This saves management time, and means that inconsistencies in management decisions are removed. It also helps employees by explaining their rights.

Lama Ataya heads the Marketing department at Bayt.com and within that role is also responsible for communications, content, community experience, and corporate social responsibility.

TREPONOMICS

ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO

Don’t let the haters win The Esquire Guy on dealing with difficult people By Ross McCammon

C

an you believe this guy? Never acknowledges your presence.

Interrupts you in meetings.

Yawns in your face. Mocks your wardrobe. Smacks his gum. Talks to you like you’re eight years old. Keeps asking to borrow two dollars even though the Cheez-It packs in the vending machine are only 95 cents.

Never pays you back. Slaps you on the back while you’re drinking coffee. Exists on the earth. Haunts your dreams.

You gonna respond to all that offense? Of course you are. But you’re not going to reveal that you can’t stand the guy. You’re not going to act annoyed. Acting annoyed or put upon or beleaguered suggests that you have lost some control, that you’ve been thrown off your game.

In business, restraint is the only means of disarming the jerk.

(That and, you know, firing, ending your partnership with or having the jerk arrested for stealing your money and slapping you all the time. But for the purposes of this column, let’s assume your counterpart must, for professional reasons, remain in your universe.)

Staying Clean When Things Get Dirty

Etiquette is about taking the high road. But when dealing with some-

The problem with any kind of talking in a professional environment is that you’re giving up your position.

And when you act indignant, your position is revealed to be a swamp of weakness and bad temper. An overt response is almost always a mistake. You might be in a swamp of indignation, but you don’t want to reveal that.

one you can’t stand, it’s not enough to take the high road. You want to be in a car on that high road. Better yet, a large truck. Windows up. Both hands on the wheel. You want to stay clean. You don’t want to provide the other party with any evidence that you can be a jerk yourself. If the person’s behavior is actually sinister, then you’re only falling into their trap. And there’s a lot at stake when you fight jerkiness with jerkiness.

Remember that you might be in the truck, but (and this metaphor is about to get a lot more strained) you’re pulling a trailer that is your business and your reputation. Big trailer. Huge. With fragile cargo.

“For me, it’s the 10-second ruleit’s not doing anything on the spot,” says Gianna Provenzano, CEO of Gianna and Company, a Los Angelesbased wedding-and-event-planning business. “Once you say something, you can’t pull it back in. It’s about picking your fights.”

Ten seconds at a minimum. We’d suggest 20, even 30. A minute.

Maybe an hour. In business, 80% of responding appropriately is not responding at all. What we’re talking about is underreacting.

The problem with any kind of talking in a professional environment is that you’re giving up your position.

KEY TECHNICAL MATTERS Fight the urge to fightverbally or physically.

Psychologically is fine.

When talking to someone you can’t stand, never use the phrase, “I have to be honest.”

What follows won’t be pretty, and honesty isn’t necessarily the right approach.

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Entrepreneur october 2015

Make a list of the things you don’t like about the person.

Cross off the things that are minor nuisances.

If there are more than five things still on the list, you may, in fact, be dealing with a jerk.

If there are more than 10

things still on the list, you may, in fact, be dealing with a sociopath.

To determine if the person you can’t stand is your enemy, say the person’s name out loud. If you are squinting and shaking your fist, the person is your enemy.

If you are squinting, shaking your fist and sneering, then the person is your archenemy.

If you are squinting, shaking your first, sneering and stroking a white cat, then you are an evil genius in a James Bond movie, and you need to relax.

a battle can happen only when someone gets to win. But there’s no winning among associates. As Tom Junod, my colleague and longtime Esquire writer, said in his 2011 essay A Philosophy of Fighting: “Anyone can win ... if they’re willing to win at the cost of love and respect. The question is who can abstain from winning, who can resist the temptation of winning.”

Winning is what businesses do.

Navigating is what businesspeople do. An interpersonal issue is never conquered; it’s traversed.

You’re not smiling. You’re not frowning. You’re nonplussed.

The series of questions implied by your furrowed brow is: What’s wrong with you? Why would you behave in such a manner? Where does one find such a tiny sailor outfit? Bewilderment is underrated. It places the onus on the offender to answer a question, without you having to ask it.

Now What?

And when you act indignant, your position is revealed to be a swamp of weakness and bad temper. An overt response is almost always a mistake.

You might be in a swamp of indignation, but you don’t want to reveal that.

You’re going to regret doing battle.

And you’re going to regret it because

If the first thing to do is shut up, the second thing to do is think of a few things that might be causing the other person to behave in a way that you can’t stand. Maybe they lost a lot of money at the dog track. Maybe their father never said, “I love you.”

Maybe their underpants are literally, somehow, in defiance of the laws of physics, in some sort of wad. This will cut through your outrage and recalibrate you back to the sympathetic human being you are. And once you’re recalibrated, you should do this: stare.

The Jerk Spectrum

Smartass

Boor

See this article in its entirety at Entrepreneur.com

THE JERK SPECTRUM

MOST TOLERABLE

Windbag

Look bewildered. Say, “Huh.” Bemused is the reaction you’re going for. Say “Huh” the same way you would say it if you were walking down the street and saw a chihuahua walking on its hind legs while wearing a sailor suit.

You know, “Huh.” You’re not smiling. You’re not frowning. You’re nonplussed. The series of questions implied by your furrowed brow is: What’s wrong with you? Why would you behave in such a manner? Where does one find such a tiny sailor outfit? Bewilderment is underrated. It places the onus on the offender to answer a question, without you having to ask it.

It’s about breaking the expectation of the offending party, according to Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder and COO of BlogHer, a women-focused cross-platform media network: “It’s all about ‘hands, as Seinfeld would say. If you can’t have the upper hand, you at least have the equal hand. It’s very psychological. You’re trying to disarm their usual pattern.”

Is it passive-aggressive? Of course it is. But in the relatively dignified environment of business, this is the only kind of aggressiveness available to you. So employ it.

It’s an elegant thing, disrupting the jerk. The offender has pushed things to a state of imbalance. Your subtly expressed bewilderment will recalibrate the situation. And the calibration is exclusively in your favor. You’ll be in an advantageous position: free to go about your business.

Son of a gun

Wiseacre (only if you woke up in the 1930s) Schmuck

Twit Yob

LEAST TOLERABLE

Cretin Gobshite

Enemy Schmuck

Minimal response necessary

Pushy printerink salesman Archenemy

Major response necessary

Run!

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TREPONOMICS

ETHICS | ESQUIRE GUY | SKILLSET | MARKETING | PRO

• I want to own designer jeans.

• I want to have a bigger house.

• I want to drive a faster car.

Here’s the interesting thing, these big goals naturally happen as a side effect when we have the means to make them happen.

When our purchasing power goes up, our purchases tend to go up too. That’s lifestyle creep. What if similar side effects could happen in other areas of life?

Consider these goals: • I want to add 10 pounds of muscle.

• I want to find a partner and get married.

• I want to earn 20% more per year.

• I want to get a higher score on my test.

• I want to own a successful business.

What if we trusted that adding more muscle or earning more money or getting better grades would come as a natural side effect of improving our normal routines? In other words, as our normal habits improved, so would our results.

This idea of slightly adjusting your habits until behaviors and results that were once out of reach become your new normal is a concept I like to call “habit creep.”

How to practice habit creep

The habit creep

The proven, reasonable and totally unsexy way to become more successful

T

By James Clear

here is a common phenomenon in the world of personal finance called “lifestyle creep.” It describes our tendency to buy bigger, better, and nicer things as our income rises.

For example, say that you receive a promotion at work and suddenly you have 10% more of income each year. Rather than save the extra money and continue living as normal, you’re more likely to upgrade to a bigger TV or stay at better hotels or buy designer clothes. Your normal lifestyle will creep up slowly and goods that were once seen as a luxury will gradually become a necessity.

What was once out of reach will become your new normal.

Changing human behavior is often considered to be one of the hardest things to do in business and in life. Yet, lifestyle creep describes a very reliable way that human behavior changes over the long-term.

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What if we adapted this concept to the rest of our lives?

Changing your normal

Let’s list some typical financial goals:

If you buy more things than your bank account can sustain, that’s not lifestyle creep.

That’s called debt. Similarly, if you adopt a bunch of new behaviors you can’t sustain, that’s not habit creep. In other words, the key is to avoid the trap of trying to grow too fast. Lifestyle creep happens so slowly that it is almost imperceptible. Habit creep should be the same way. Your goal is to nudge your behaviors along in very small ways.

In my experience, there are two primary ways to change long-term behaviors and improve performance for good.

1. Increase your performance by a little bit each day. (Most people take this to the extreme.)

2. Change your environment to remove small distractions and barriers. (Most people never think about this.)

Increasing your performance You have

a normal way of living. For example, your current level of physical fitness is generally a reflection of how much activity you get on a normal day. Let’s say that your standard day requires you walk 8,000 steps. If you want to get in better shape, the standard approach would be to start training for a

race or exercise more. But the habit creep approach would be to add a very small amount to your standard behavior. Say, 8,100 steps per day rather than 8,000 steps. You can apply this logic to nearly any area of life. You have a normal amount of sales calls you make at work each day, a normal amount of ‘Thank You’ notes you write each year, a normal amount of books you read each month. If you want to become more successful, more grateful, or more intelligent, then you can use the idea of habit creep to slowly improve those areas simply by improving the way you live your normal day.

as well. Imagine if you made one positive environment change each week. Where would your life creep to by the end of the year?

Changing your normal

The results you enjoy on your best day are typically a reflection of how you spend your normal day.

Everyone gets obsessed with achieving their very best day- pulling the best score on their test, running their fastest race ever, making the most sales in the department.

I say forget that stuff. Just improve your normal day and the results will take care of themselves. We naturally make long-term changes in our lives by slowly and slightly adjusting our normal everyday habits and behaviors.

Changing your environment

There are all sorts of things we do each day that are a response to the environment we live in. We eat cookies because they are on the counter. We pick up our phones because someone sends us a text. We turn

on TV because it’s the first thing we look at when we sit on the couch. If you change your environment in small ways (hide the cookies in the pantry, leave the phone in another room while you work, place the TV inside a cabinet), then your actions change

James Clear writes at JamesClear.com, where he uses behavior science to share ideas for mastering your habits, improving your health, and increasing your creativity. To get useful ideas on improving your mental and physical performance, join his free newsletter JamesClear.com/newsletter. To have James speak at your entrepreneurial event contact him jamesclear.com/contact.

‘Trep talk ME THE BUSINESS Leap Ventures THE ‘TREP Managing Director, Henri Asseily Q Why did Leap Ventures come to be?

A “Leap Ventures came about because each one of us partners independently arrived at the conclusion that if we wanted to take our personal portfolio investments to the next level, and ultimately to a good exit, we had to attract significantly more capital to the region. There was just no follow up money to Hala Fadel’s and my US$1-2 million angel investing rounds. Series A was capping at $2 million in extreme cases, and sometimes barely $500,000. Our third partner Hervé Cuviliez had founded Diwanee and was looking for his next round of at least $6 million and just couldn’t find it. He’d already raised a total of over $6 million and there was no one

to step to the plate for the next round, so he chose to create the biggest exit of 2014 in MENA and sold the company to Webedia.

That’s when we decided to take

matters into our own hands. We rounded out our partner team with Noor Sweid who had just IPO-ed her family business in the UAE, and in the spirit of

entrepreneurship launched Leap Ventures, the first growth stage VC in MENA whose mission is to help the startups in that critical Series B expansion.” www.leap.vc Henri Asseily speaking at the eighth MIT Pan Arab Startup Conference in Kuwait in May 2015

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start it up

ecosystem | who’s got VC | Q&A | STARTUP FINANCE

The popularity of fellowships has soared in recent years, with many young professionals seeing it as a step up from internships, in terms of personal skill development, as well as the fact that most internships don’t include any kind of financial compensation.

All I really need to know...

I didn’t learn in college 18-year-old Lebanese ‘trep Jihad Kawas puts business over degrees

T

By Kareem Chehayeb

his young Lebanese ‘trep should have been on his way to college with his classmates, but he’s opting for a Thiel Fellowship instead. Jihad Kawas has been focusing on his entrepreneurial ambitions ever since he started learning how to program and develop apps and websites at the young age of 14. “I started programming at age 14, started building apps and websites for fun and money, but mostly fun,” says Kawas, who later explains how school didn’t play a major role in the development and growth of his skillset. Those who attended Lebanon’s several TEDxTalk events may have seen him once (or twice) talking about how he managed to build his skills and make progress on his entrepreneurial ambitions without fully committing to school. “I had my first TEDxTalk about that in 2012,” Kawas says, who was just 15 years old at the time. Kawas’ big break came just one year later after he was inspired by the sharing economy concept, which he gives credit to Airbnb founder, Brian Chesky. Kawas says he is “a second-hand freak”, and was thus inspired to start Saily, a “local second-hand marketplace app.”

Jihad Kawas launched Saily alongside his friend and programming mentor, Dani Arnaout. Kawas put his high school classes on the back-

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burner, and focused on developing his app: “During my work on Saily, I started skipping high school every month to travel to San Francisco

and learn from great people.”

He used these networking opportunities not only to get valuable words of advice from his tech heroes, but also met

someone who later became an investor, Will Bunker, founder and partner of San Franciscobased accelerators GrowthX. Saily currently has a user base, but it didn’t come from Kawas’ native Lebanon.

During a private Saily BETA launch, “out of nowhere, a guy in Austin, Texas, lists 12 items and shares all of them on social media.” Kawas says he was shocked given that there was nobody in his area, let alone country, that used the application. But to his surprise “50 people from Austin joined Saily” just a week later, and suddenly an active marketplace community started to grow. Kawas and co. thanked the man from Austin by sending him a US$50 iTunes gift card. Six months later, “we grew from 0 to 800 new users everyday.”

With Kawas moving to San Francisco soon, he’ll still be running and managing Saily, not to mention the fact that he’s the first Thiel Fellow from the MENA region. And what better than a fellowFounder Jihad Kawas

>>>

ship whose founder, Peter Thiel, believes that college can “discourage young people from doing something new”?

Kawas was one of 20 new fellows that were “selected from a record number of 2,800 applicants.” That kind of selectivity definitely has its rewards; Kawas will receive US$100,000 and work alongside the foundation’s mentors who have a variety of career backgrounds, from investors Kawas believes that several factors have prevented fellowships from kicking off in the MENA region. The first of four primary reasons, he cites the “lack of powerful visionaries who want to disrupt education or any other sector.”

and entrepreneurs to scientists and developers. There is one standout factor to being a fellow at the Thiel Foundation: you can’t be enrolled in college during the two-year period of the fellowship.

The popularity of fellowships has soared in recent years, with many young professionals seeing it as a step up from internships, in terms of personal skill development, as well as the fact that most internships don’t include any kind of financial compensation. “I guess it’s a case by case evaluation when it comes to importance of fellowships,” admits Kawas, who later cites his reasons why MENA-based entrepreneurs should have a

go at being a Thiel fellow, including the financial boost for your business, the networking opportunities in Silicon Valley and being surrounded by other Thiel fellows who are also young and aspiring entrepreneurs. With all the development and investment going on in MENA’s tech scene, why aren’t these types of fellowships popping up here? Wouldn’t they be helpful in improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem on a region-wide scale? Kawas believes that several factors have prevented fellowships from kicking off in the MENA region. The first of four primary reasons, he cites the “lack of powerful visionaries who want to disrupt education or any other sector.” The following three reasons have to do with what he believes are bad habits in the MENA entrepreneurial scene, from its reluctance to change, its limitation to a regional audience (rather than a global one), and what he claims is its tendency to develop something only once it has been proven in markets outside of the region.

Despite the regional setbacks, Jihad Kawas has high hopes for the entrepreneurial scene in his native Lebanon.

Those who attended Lebanon’s several TEDxTalk events may have seen him once (or twice) talking about how he managed to build his skills and make progress on his entrepreneurial ambitions without fully committing to school. “I had my first TEDxTalk about that in 2012,” Kawas says, who was just 15 years old at the time.

“I love Beirut,” says Kawas, “even though I’ve been indulged [sic] in the San Francisco ecosystem now, I always feel Beirut is getting better every time I come.” He later elaborates on how there is “more action” and “less talk,” which has led to “more startups, more accelerators,” and ultimately, “more money.”

While he is optimistic, Kawas still thinks that VCs have a long way to go in Lebanon, adding that “most of them still operate with a real estate mentality.” And his advice to young entrepreneurs like himself? “Don’t compromise on your dreams, and be very picky when it comes to taking advice. Only take the advice of people who have done something significant, who believe in you, and share your vision.”

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myOffice Business Centers for all of your startup needs! yOffice was founded in Dubai (2010) by a group of strategic investors drawing of their experience in fit-out and design, property management, company formation, Legal, serviced offices and hotel management. The first center opened was in Boulevard Plaza Tower, Downtown Dubai and quickly became sold out and doubled the size within six months.

The company offers a high end, luxury solution in the Serviced Office or Business Centre market to startup companies, SMEs and international corporate branches, along with telephone answering, reception services, meeting room facilities, concierge services and company set-up consultancy and incorporation.

Their vision for SMEs and startups? myOffice brings the boutique hotel ethos and the luxury lifestyle management of London and New York to the serviced office sector in Dubai and the emerging markets. They are unique, in that they offer prestigiously located, high-end office solutions that integrates into the customers business and personal needs. Offering an array of office solutions, business services, company incorporation and concierge support.

The growth plan was to initially open five centers in five years and achieve the return on investment set out by the shareholders.

Through strategic partners and investment groups, the brand value of myOffice will be solidified, and the mission is to be known for aggressive growth, business competence and intelligent leadership.

Elegant serviced office spaces myOffice offer a variety of office configurations to suit each and every aspect of business requirements, ranging from one-person executive suites to larger 20+ person spaces. The inspiring and modern offices, cube offices, hot desk facilities and individual workspaces are offered through a spectrum of tailored monthly and yearly packages.

What customers can expect: • Fully-furnished and serviced offices with elegant ergonomically designed furniture to ensure a comfortable stay.

• Friendly, multilingual reception staff are your reception, offering an outstanding meet and greet service to all clients and their guests establishing a professional and clear message to the customer.

• They take care of all of phone calls, mail management and provide vital administrative support, allowing you to focus on your business.

• Meeting and conference room facilities with coffee break and lunch services on call.

• Access to myOffice’s stylish and modern lounge and break out areas.

• Complimentary tea, coffee and water and access to myCafe, or the myOffice Honesty Bar providing snacks and drinks on demand.

• Every myOffice Business Centre provides 24-hour security and personal access control.

Business set-up and company formation

Creating a new business or branching out to a new country is always an exciting yet often daunting venture. myOffice licensing department have a dedicated team of professionals on hand to advise, consult and point you in the right direction. myOffice handle all aspects of getting a trade license to legally operate in Dubai, from the initial name and activity approval to license issuance and visa processing.

myOffice corporate sponsorship

Business Packages

The UAE Commercial Companies Law states that the local partner must hold a minimum ownership of 51%. At myOffice rather than an individual Emirati being represented as a sponsor or 51% in an LLC or as an agent in a Professional License, they have set up a Nominee Corporate Sponsor to protect the expatriates (your) interests. The 51% shareholding will fall under this UAE entity, myOffice LLC, rather than an individual and the control of the Nominee entity - myOffice LLC, rests with myOffice, through a complete Power of Attorney. They even have the ability to remove one or both of the myOffice sponsors if need be.

A further benefit of having a corporate shareholder is succession planning. Companies often worry about coming into the market and selecting a local partner who may leave the UAE, change his mind, or at worst case, pass away during the course of the year leaving the company and it’s shareholders hanging or in the hands of one of their next of kin. With a corporate entity, the contractual terms remain in place so it gives more stability to the arrangement than having an individual national being the sponsor.

Additionally since you are entering into a nominee agreement and you now have a company as a sponsor, the terms of this agreement will in any event of a dispute remain in place. Nominee or side agreements with individuals are not congruent with the UAE companies law and therefore cannot be notarised in court.

With over 10 years of incorporation experience the dedicated PROs will deliver a stress-free, timely issuance of your trade license in days. This coupled with monthly payments for license and sponsor services enables startups to utilize the cash within their business more effectively.

Various packages can be chosen clubbing many of the services together as needed.

An example of the PAMM Premier package is below: The Premier Package

or small or even when you are not present in the country. Run by an outstanding team with excellent organization and communicative skills, these services position any company formidably.

Hot desk, cube offices and shared spaces

The inspiring and scenic co-working spaces offered across the various locations, provide the customer with an efficient priced workspace and an opportunity to network with different members of the business community.

Features of these are: • Clients have the opportunity to operate within creative and dynamic work environments • Prestigious and accessible locations • State-of-the-art designed facilities, break out areas, and access meeting rooms for seminars, workshops and or events • Complimentary beverages and refreshments, and unlimited Wi-Fi access • Prices start at AED 2250 per month Phone answering, address and mail management (PAMM) services

The Phone Answering and Mail Management (PAMM) services offer a dedicated local phone number operated and answered in the name of your company by multilingual staff, at a prestigious business address that represents the caliber of your business.

Often the address alone can stand your business in the right eyes of your customer.

Mail management services include: • P.O. Box number • Mail received and parcels signed for and communicated online to the customer • Multiple business addresses can be used Call management

Other workspace and office solutions

myOffice additional office solutions offers a variety of alternative office shared space options, phone answering and mail management Services. Each of these is custom-built to optimize your company potential, how big

• Your own dedicated business telephone number by friendly and multilingual reception staff • Call answering, screening and forwarding in the name of your company • Message service and voicemail • Fax to email service

• Dedicated front desk staff to meet and greet all clients and guests • Use of the prestigious correspondence address • Post received and parcels signed for and stored (if necessary) • Dedicated business telephone number • Call answering, screening, and forwarding in the name of your company • Message service and Voicemail • Fax to Email service

• Concierge Services – need a hotel, flight of rental car booked - the Centre Staff can assist with a list of complimentary services.

• Five days a month all-day access to the Internet café and its facilities • Eight hours of meeting and conference room facilities • 100 sheets of printing or photocopying paper

Why choose myOffice?

• Premium and prestigious office Location • Flexible monthly payment schemes for any sized business, starting at AED 2,250 per month.

• Elegant, high-end design office furnishings • State-of-the-art lounge areas and meeting room facilities.

• A wide range of Business set-up and Sponsorship services • Virtual Offices and Individual Work place solutions • Phone answering, address and mail management and services • Outstanding meet and greet and concierge services www.myoffice.ae | sales@myoffice.ae | 800-myOffice

MENA Private Equity & Venture Capital Summit OctOBer 25th - 26th 2015 Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia www.menavcsummit.com

oNE-to-oNE MEEtiNgs

NEtworkiNg

Organisers

ElEVAtor PitCh

PANEl DisCussioNs

A premier investor platform introducing global investment opportunities to over 200 MENA based Private Equity and Venture Capital investors.

Industry leaders at the summIt

HRH PRINCE TURKI BIN SAUD BIN MOHAMMAD AL SAUD President of King abdulaziz City for science and Technology (KaCsT)

DR. BADRAN AL OMAR rector, King saud University and Chairman of riyadh Valley Company

HE DR. TARIq ABDULLAH AL NAEEM Deputy Minister of internal Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and industry

HE ABDULLAH ALI AL MARwANIM assistant Deputy of Planning, Ministry of economy and Planning

HE DR. ABDULRAHMAN M. AL-IBRAHIM governor of saline Water Conversion Corporation (sWCC) and Chairman of the Board of Water and electricity Co. (WeC)

DR. KHALID AL SALEH CeO, riyadh Valley Company

BusIness cases

contact

mohammed al masri

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mohammed@naseba.com

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Redefining norms isn’t easy

How to keep your entrepreneurial dream alive in the Arab world

W

By Soukaina Rachidi

hile entrepreneurship isn’t supposed to be easy, the culture of where a startup ecosystem is located has a great impact on how easy or difficult it is for a startup enterprise to survive. In the Arab world, there are various other factors that impact the entrepreneurial spirit of Arab youth, which often have nothing to do with the lack of venture capitalists, human capital or infrastructure. In fact, many of the obstacles that young Arab entrepreneurs face when they are trying to start their own ventures are cultural ones that stem from their nuclear family or the surrounding community. Entrepreneurship is all about disrupting social, economic and cultural norms, so naturally many Arab youth face resistance from their communities, because they are ruffling all kinds of feathers. In communities that thrive on collective values and family cohesion, working “outside of the lines” isn’t just a business risk; it’s a social one. So, how can Arab entrepreneurs stay motivated while they pursue their entrepreneurial dreams?

start it up

1. Share ideas with people you know will be supportive When you have an “aha!” moment as an entrepreneur, it’s very easy to get overzealous and start telling every person you meet about your new idea. While it’s tempting to share your startup idea with everyone under the sun, doing so in the idea stage and in an Arab context can be dangerous. Many Arab communities dislike the unconventional lifestyle and uncertainty that comes with being an entrepreneur, so they often discourage Arab youth from pursuing the startup route.

This general lack of community support makes it >>> Young Arab entrepreneurs have to understand that it’s not enough to introduce a new idea, and that they have to be willing to create a culture around their products, which Infinia Managing will promote their values Director while also promoting the susPrashant Khattar tainability of the business.

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necessary for Arab entrepreneurs to establish diverse support networks to draw strength and motivation from, which will ultimately help them survive in the region’s new developing ecosystem.

While finding and gaining the support of mentors and other startups isn’t always easy, young entrepreneurs should try to reach out to groups, associations or individuals, so they can find group of formal and informal supporters. By connecting with other startups, young entrepreneurs can crowd-source data, advice and resources, so they can stay motivated on their entrepreneurial journey and learn how other startup founders are navigating the turbulent seas of social disapproval. if young entrepreneurs want to survive in the startup world, they have to learn how to get past the negativity that’s thrown at them. That being said, young Arab entrepreneurs also have to discern the difference between constructive criticism and empty criticism.

2. Trust your research and instinct Unfortunately, in most parts of the Arab world, research and statistics relating to business and entrepreneurship that are conducted by national institutions or government entities are often difficult to find. However, even when such information

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is available, it’s not always easy to corroborate it with the reality on the ground, thus making it unreliable. On the other hand, the information that is more readily available to startups usually comes from international organizations, which don’t always fully understand the social and economic dynamics of the Arab country in question. This situation thus ends up forcing many young Arab entrepreneurs to conduct their own primary research. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it isn’t always easy to find, access or calculate the numbers needed to justify a new startup idea, and subsequently, this makes it much harder for young entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to investors and venture capitalists that are already skeptical of their capabilities.

After conducting their research and collecting the necessary data, Arab entrepreneurs should just trust their gut and take the proverbial leap. When it comes to marketing an innovative service or product, even if young Arab entrepreneurs don’t have exact numbers, they should demonstrate one of the following things.

They should be able to show how their target audience is similar to another country’s population, where a similar product or idea has been successful. Alternatively,

Young entrepreneurs have to accept that they will hear one of two things when they propose a new startup idea.

Either they will hear that there’s no market for their idea, or that people won’t buy it- but if young entrepreneurs want to survive in the startup world, they have to learn how to get past the negativity that’s thrown at them. That being said, young Arab entrepreneurs also have to discern the difference between constructive criticism and empty criticism. Like empty calories, empty criticism adds no value, and it is harmful and demoralizing for a startup’s in most parts of the Arab world, health and momentum. research and statistics relating Unfortunately, many Arab to business and entrepreneurship communities, especially older that are conducted by national generations, offer aspiring institutions or government entities are often difficult to find. youth plenty of unsolicited However, even when such inforand demoralizing “advice,” mation is available, it’s not always which means that many easy to corroborate it with the young people stop dreaming reality on the ground, thus making it unreliable. even before they have had the chance to start. So, if young 3. Understand that Arab entrepreneurs want to redefining norms isn’t succeed in the startup world, easy they need to persevere and When people refer to the master the art of filtering Arab world, sometimes they constructive criticism, while forget how different the also learning how to respectfully agree to disagree. social, economic and cultural norms are in North Africa, the Levant, the Gulf and parts of the Horn of Africa. If young Arab entrepreneurs are able to navigate the socioeconomic obstacles that challenge entrepreneurial innovation in their ecosystems, they also have to be willing to accept and understand that challenging cultural norms and values isn’t easy, espeSoukaina Rachidi works as Melltoo cially when you are introducMarketplace’s Media Relations ing “foreign” values. Young Coordinator, where she is responsible for forging new partnerships with Arab entrepreneurs have like-minded entrepreneurs in the to understand that it’s not Dubai startup scene and promoting enough to introduce a new Melltoo’s core values of trust, idea, and that they have to sustainability and privacy to the larger UAE community. With a B.A. be willing to create a culture in International Relations from the around their products, which University of Delaware, Rachidi is will promote their values passionate about global issues and while also promoting the sus- frequently writes about trending cultural issues and entrepreneurship. tainability of the business.

they have to show how they can create a need for their product or service, or how they can exploit a current gap in the market. Lastly, they should be able to use demographic or economic statistics to prove how their product is a natural fit for their target market. At the end of the day, no matter what information a young Arab entrepreneur has, if they can use it creatively and trust their instincts, they will have a much better chance of weathering the criticism they receive from their communities and potential investors.

start it up

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Soushiant Zanganehpour

Social entrepreneurship is on the rise

I

“

Soushiant Zanganehpour’s advice for ‘treps acting as agents of change

n the future, we expect the fundamental values of social entrepreneurship to become incorporated into mainstream business practice. The implications of this for large businesses and brands will vary; some may see it as a threat while others will see this as an opportunity to reinvent themselves- to redefine purpose, responsibility and expectations in order to build loyalty with a new emerging consumer demographic.” This is Soushiant Zanganehpour talking, and as one of the MENA region’s experts of social enterprise, would-be founders should take note. His mission? To help impact-driven entrepreneurs survive and grow past the startup phase, in addition to advising mission-driven foundations and multinationals to build products and programs that integrate financial growth with social impact and help these companies measure and communicate outcomes.

Zanganehpour, in his capacity as a judge for The Venture, a global social enterprise initiative looking to fund social entrepreneurs, says that when pitching to investors, founders should be able to support their claims. “The top things I would focus on are answering the following: what is the

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pain you are solving? What proof do you have that the pain is real? How is your solution functionally better than alternatives? What benefits does it provide users? How is your solution economically sound and economically more efficient than all alternatives?

Why are you the entrepre-

neur to solve it? In other words, what makes you tick?”

Previously, as the Strategy and Operations Manager of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship based out of the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Zanganehpour led the Skoll Social Venture Fund invest-

ing in social venture startups across the globe. With nearly a decade of experience in entrepreneurship, management and strategy consulting and policy across three continents, he is a recognized voice in the sector, and has been published in the areas of social entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy, and business sustainability. “Social entrepreneurship is on the verge of hitting a tipping point. There are many factors contributing to this including the rise of Generation Y (millennials). This generation is a new, connected, socially-conscious, energized global cohort who finds this concept very appealing. This is demonstrated by the products they buy, and by the companies they seek to work for,” says Zanganehpour, discussing the ever-increasing global number of social enterprises.

Over the past four years Soushiant has executed diligence on many impactoriented entrepreneurs and businesses, acted as a judge on multiple global impact venture award competitions, and mentored several social venture startups through their growth phase. Currently an adjunct lecturer at Sciences Po in Paris, France, teaching social entrepreneurship and impact investing at the Master’s level, Zanganehpour works closely with budding ‘treps both in a formal institutional setting and in a mentorships capacity.

Why does social entrepreneurship seem to attract so many young professionals?

“It isn’t just a trendy place for millennials to park themselves “given how nascent the field is, opportunities to earn similar financial returns to more developed fields such as finance and consulting are still rare, but this will change as more market based solutions begin to scale and the field attracts the attention of more investors, governments and big business who will come to support its growth.”

“Social entrepreneurship is on the verge of hitting a tipping point.

There are many factors contributing to this including the rise of Generation Y (millennials). This generation is a new, connected, socially-conscious, energized global cohort who finds this concept very appealing. This is demonstrated by the products they buy, and by the companies they seek to work for”

for a few years before they figure out their career. The field affords this new generation the independence they’re looking for to experiment with new approaches to business and social development and the freedom to integrate values that are important to them, making it an ideal way of building a future career.

Naturally, given how nascent the field is, opportunities to earn similar financial returns to more developed fields such as finance and consulting are still rare, but this will change as more market based solutions begin to scale and the field attracts the attention of more investors, governments and big business who will come to support its growth.”

www.biocarbonengineering.com

Q&A with Soushiant Zanganehpour

What do entrepreneurs entering The Venture stand to learn from the pitch process?

“Candidates entering The Venture competition this year have much to gain from preparing for the official pitch and presentation process. Externally, they will have to produce a narrative of their business or innovation that is compelling and makes logical sense to a group of people who may or may not know anything about their industry, sector, or problem area focus.

This means they will have to be prepared to educate a lay audience or get granular about their projections and operations with a group of experts. The art of pitching, in essence is the art of empathizing and gauging

the level of education someone has about your particular idea/ venture, realizing the gap you need to fill and how your pitch will get them from where they are to a much more informed, excited and optimistic position.

Pitching is about convincing people about the benefits of your innovation, not its features. It’s about anticipating where criticism could come and what compelling arguments and information to use when and in what sequence so you are one step ahead. Doing so helps you convert skeptics into champions and evangelists. The opposite of pitching is a robotic linear top 10 list of boiler point pieces of information you communicate to people about your idea.

Internally, the pressure of the process that the entrepreneurs will go through will really force them to cut the fat from their narratives and make their points compelling and defensible. This will be a source of clarification internally about aspects of the business that are still undergoing refinement. When entrepreneurs have to defend their ideas in front of people who may not know much about their venture or put themselves in other people’s shoes, they will realize what parts of the business narrative still are fuzzy and need further clarification, and what parts are solid. Whether the entrepreneur walks away with the final prize is irrelevant; the skills they will learn through this process will pay dividends

Soushiant Zanganehpour judging The Venture 2015 GCC finals in Dubai

in many future personal and professional endeavors for years to come. They will also see a direct benefit from the process by enhancing their communication skills internally and externally.”

What social enterprise do you think is doing great things? Why is this a sound business model?

“One of my favorite social ventures in the world -full disclosure: I am on their advisory board- is BioCarbon Engineering. They have an audacious plan to reverse the course of deforestation by using industrial scale technologies to reforest the world! The destruction of global forests from lumber, mining, agriculture, and urban expansion destroys 26 billion trees each year. Our combined global reforestation efforts only replant approximately 15 billion trees each year. So, each year we run a deficit of nearly 11 billion trees. The team at BioCarbon are going to reverse this deficit by using drones, a

“It’s about anticipating where criticism could come and what compelling arguments and information to use when and in what sequence so you are one step ahead. Doing so helps you convert skeptics into champions and evangelists. The opposite of pitching is a robotic linear top 10 list of boiler point pieces of information you communicate to people about your idea.”

proprietary 3D mapping technology, a paintball style shooting device, and pre-germinated seeds to replant 1 billion trees per year with approximately 50 drones. Their precision planting process significantly reduces manpower and costs of replanting, increasing the efficiency and likelihood of reversing this trend so we can enjoy healthy forests globally.

I believe their business model is sound because they have a very granular understanding of the problem at hand and its magnitude globally, and their innovation and solution is rooted in technology that can scale to address the magnitude of the problem globally. Also, the innovation is much more efficient than existing solutions and much less costly to scale.

Finally, they are hedging their business risks by having multiple revenue streams to benefit from, increasing their odds of survival through the critical and unpredictable early startup years. Oh, and the team is really religiously dedicated to the problem of eradicating deforestation and passionate about finding the most fitting solution to it, not just their first clever approach using drones.”

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#WinTheRightWay The Venture is a new global social enterprise initiative searching for extraordinary startups and new ideas that use business to create positive change. If you have a GCC-based social enterprise or have an idea for a social enterprise, enter The Venture to potentially win your share of US$1 million. www.theventure.com/gulf

The recap: The Venture 2014 GCC winner Sahar Wahbeh Sahar Wahbeh, founder of Dumyé and The Venture 2014 Gulf winner, came away with a lot from her experience. The Dubai-based entrepreneur successfully pitched for the judges in last year’s competition, and represented the GCC at the U.S. grand finale of the social enterprise competition. “I believe through design, we have the power to shape our world for the better,” said the founder during her winning pitch.

It’s a compassionate statement, and after beating out numerous applications, rising along with the top five finalists, what made Dumyé stand out in the sea of social ventures? To begin with, the inspiration for the startup is one of the most heartwarming aspects of Dumyé: her daughter. After searching for a doll to give as a gift to her daughter, Wahbeh, disappointed by the ones she found in the market, decided to create her own. This wasn’t enough for Wahbeh to “shift careers” though, until she realized that this could be her way to not only share her life values with her daughter, but also “actually live it.”

Dumyé is now a successful social Wahbeh wanted her daughter to enterprise that boasts a presence respect the environment, so the in more than 20 countries, and dolls are “made with a mixture of they have worked with hundreds organic, sustainable and mostly of orphans in the Middle East, natural materials,” says Wahbeh. currently looking to expand its “I need her to have compassion ‘giving program’ into Africa and for others, which is why we commission an NGO [Pardada Pardadi India.

“Unfortunately we didn’t win Educational Society founded the global final of The Venture

by Virendra Singh] in one of but there have been many memothe poorest states of India to handle elements of our producrable moments along the way and valuable input from all those tion.” This approach empowers involved in the program. I am women in their community to be eternally grateful to The Venture self-sufficient, and the NGO uses their proceeds to educate the next for this and for supporting social entrepreneurs as we truly try to generation of girls. Wahbeh also #WinTheRightWay.” wanted to inspire generosity in her daughter, and so, every doll www.dumye.com that Dumyé sells results in another Dumyé founder Sahar Wahbeh’s pitch at the Gulf doll gifted to an finals of The Venture 2015 orphan through in Dubai, UAE an art workshop, allowing the children to create a meaningful doll of their own.

Now, while it may have started out as a lesson for her daughter,

By the numbers “If brands and businesses want to attract top talent into their workforces, they’ll need to do more than simply provide a pay cheque. There’s a very real demand for change and for larger, more traditional organizations to bring smaller social enterprises and startups into their supply chains, as well as giving their employees opportunities to create shared value in society.”

73% The percentage of young professionals surveyed that said they wanted a job that allows them to make a direct positive impact on the local community.

70% The percentage of young professionals surveyed that said they’re seeking to start their own business in the next 5-10 years.

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money

ask the money guy | vc viewpoint | your money | ECON

Is your business going to attract THE funds you need?

Regional investors in entities both big and small tell you what they look for when evaluating your pitch

W

hen evaluating a pitch, here are what some of the MENA region’s investors look for in your business model, and what might sway them in your favor. Some of these investors look at early-stage and even ideation, others in this list only consider large-scale models. At the core of the matter is that a pitch is a pitch, and you’ll notice that these investors all mention a few essential points… like how much drive and motivation you and your co-founders have to make your business work. Does your enterprise have what (and who) it takes to secure funds?

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Entrepreneur october 2015

Nina Curley, Managing Director, Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi

reaching a specific goal. In life, this is an essential skill; the goal itself may evolve, and being able to see and adapt to that reality enables flow towards success.

2. An experienced team Hand-inhand with coachability comes experience (although the two aren’t always synonymous). The more experienced the founder, they more “battle-tested” they are, and thus often have more tools in their toolkit for overcoming obstacles. That doesn’t mean that a completely green founder won’t be appealing, with the right idea and approach, but in general, experience often leads to a more mature approach to finding productmarket fit and handling challenges. a good team will dedicate itself to finding product-market fit at all costs, building an iterative process of continual reassessment into its company DNA, and will have an open approach to cultivating mentorship and seeking advice. We look for founders that are open to feedback (in other words, coachable), who will take input and continue to evolve their mindset, instead of thinking that they already know everything there is to know about developing their idea.

Nina Curley Managing Director of Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi www.flat6labs.com |

@9aa @Flat6LabsAD

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hoosing the companies that we take at Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi is one part science and one part artthere’s no hard algorithm that we go by. There are some rules that we follow, but there are also exceptions to every rule. However, the basics are pretty simple; if you have the right ingredients and attitude, accelerators and mentors alike will open their doors. Here are some of the elements that we focus on: 1. A coachable team It’s very difficult to tell at an early stage who will succeed and who won’t, and 80-90% of startups

will fail. However, a good team will dedicate itself to finding product-market fit at all costs, building an iterative process of continual reassessment into its company DNA, and will have an open approach to cultivating mentorship and seeking advice. We look for founders that are open to feedback (in other words, coachable), who will take input and continue to evolve their mindset, instead of thinking that they already know everything there is to know about developing their idea. Founders with a flexible, agile mindset are better equipped to look at data objectively and focus on developing good processes rather than focus exclusively on

3. Market knowledge At Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi, we’re a fully global program.

We attract entrepreneurs from around the world and enable them to set up in the UAE and then expand, either into the Middle East or other global markets. We often have applicants who have launched their products in other markets and are now interested in heading to the Middle East, because they see a specific market opportunity. Sometimes, however, applicants with very interesting ideas have done little to no market research, and could just as well be applying to an accelerator in Siberia. If a founding team can’t construct a convincing argument for why its product will suit the Middle East, or expresses that they expect Flat6Labs to basically do that market assessment for them, it’s usually a guaranteed no-go.

4. A compelling, scalable idea In line with the market knowledge point I outlined, we look for ideas that are not only compelling and suitable to the market, but also scalable. If a team is looking to enter the UAE and only focus on the UAE alone, with no aspiration to scale into any other market, it could be a fantastic business, but it’s a less compelling proposition for us. We like to take on founders who can think at scale, and want to solve the world’s larger problems. >>> october 2015 Entrepreneur

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5. Traction At Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi, we haven’t, to date, taken on truly idea-phase companies. We look for companies that already have a bit of traction -in the UAE or their market of origin- and have healthy momentum. If we sense that a company has been growing extremely slowly or has been running for a few years with very little trac“The more experienced the founder, they more “battle-tested” they are, and thus often have more tools in their toolkit for overcoming obstacles.

That doesn’t mean that a completely green founder won’t be appealing, with the right idea and approach, but in general, experience often leads to a more mature approach to finding product-market fit”

tion, it can be a red flag. Most appealing are companies that have launched in another market, achieved some quick, early traction, and are now looking to set up in the Middle East.

6. Good culture Last but certainly not least, culture and attitude are everything. A founding team could have all of the above -a killer idea with fantastic traction, an experienced team, and excellent market researchbut if the team seems very demanding, arrogant, or unresponsive, a bad attitude can transform the equation. When teams ask to

work either from another market entirely, that’s also a deal-breaker; we only take on teams that have a deep interest in building a community and cultivating connections with mentors and each other. Honesty is also absolutely crucial; any founder who seems to be exaggerating their status is not one we can take into our culture, where we value transparency, honesty, and humility.

We look for founding teams that are responsive, polite, passionate, diligent, and honest, as those are the truly critical cultural factors that enable continual learning and eventual success.”

Chantalle Dumonceaux

oversees investments, strategy, and operations at WOMENA

www.womena.co |

@ChantalleALD @WOMENA_Co

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he right fit: sometimes we don’t choose an investment not because we disqualified the company based on any of the points I mention here, but simply because it isn’t right for us. I may have a particular passion for consumer apps, and you are a green tech company. Don’t take it personally. Keep your feelers out there.

Make yourself as visible as possible so investors can find you. Here are some things I look for in a startup’s pitch: investment terms: Is the ROI potential high enough to offset risk sufficiently? This usually means a multiple of at least 10x in five years.

Preparation: Are the financials well-thought through? Do the founders understand their own business? Are they punctual and professional?”

Sonia Weymuller, co-founder, VentureSouq

1. A strong team. Are you able to see this through to completion? Are you truly passionate about it? Is the founding team balanced?

2. A large and growing market. Are the market conditions favorable to a strong team’s success if they execute well?

Chantalle Dumonceaux, co-founder, WOMENA

3. Customer validation. Do the customers in this market want what you are planning to provide?

5. Investment terms. Is the ROI potential high enough to offset risk sufficiently?

This usually means a multiple of at least 10x in five years.

4. Competitive advantages. If they want it, do they want it from you? Can you provide it better than others in order to have a strong foothold in the market?

6. Preparation. Are the financials well-thought through? Do the founders understand their own business? Are they punctual and professional?”

Sonia Weymuller “1. The product. Am I convinced the product solves a problem? Can the product be monetized? What are the strengths/weaknesses to consider? What is the plan to scale?

2. The market. Is there a market for the product, if so, how big is it? What is the competitive landscape? How is this product offering different? What is their competitive advantage?

co-founder of VentureSouq www.venturesouq.com

3. The team. Does the team have the adequate experience, expertise and passion to drive the company forward- do they knock our socks off? Do they understand the potential challenges associated with the business model? Do they have the vision to pivot when necessary to adapt to changing market conditions?

4. The financials. Do the financials demonstrate a viable

revenue model in the long-term?

Are the projections and assumptions made realistic ones? Does the team fully grasp their financial model and forecast?

5. Contribution. Can VentureSouq support the business outside of capital injection via its own expertise and network, and if so, how? Who are the other stakeholders with a vested interest in the company (advisors, investors)?”

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franchise

Assessing your market opportunity Five signs it’s time to expand your business

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By Benny Parihar & Kai Stubbe

s the co-founders of CRYO in the Middle East, we opened our first facility in Dubai in 2013, and recently just launched a new CRYO outlet at FitRepublik in Dubai Sports City. Our second facility in the UAE opened in October 2014.

We’ve also branched out into Lebanon, and we did so when we felt that it was time to get bigger. Later this year, we plan on an Abu Dhabi outlet, as we see great potential there. Here are some of the other factors we considered before we started executing our expansion plans: 1. The industry and market are growing If your industry is growing, your business is more likely to do so as well. Cryotherapy is one of the fastest growing concepts in a US$265 billion beauty industry, and this is where we saw the opportunity in launching and growing CRYO, the world’s leading cryotherapy retail concept. Cryotherapy’s huge demand continues to grow among celebrities and athletes in the United States since 2010. Our market analysis in 2010-2012 saw great fragmentation; about 25 family-owned cryotherapy clinics were 98

Entrepreneur october 2015

operational without one single brand established in the market place. We found Dubai to be an ideal location to launch the brand, test the concept and establish a business model that would be strong enough to be replicated on an international level.

2. You have operational systems in place The quality of the services being offered should never be compromised, and should always be consistent. It was important to us that we used the highest quality equipment that would give us the reputation of excellence and reliability we strive to achieve. To improve access to cryotherapy, we set up our own service company called CRYOServices. As well as servicing our own businesses, CRYOServices maintains CRYO chambers in private houses, hospitals, the F&B sector, as well as industrial companies.

The sister company is run by European experts with a very impressive international track record. After three months in business, CRYO-services broke even, and after 12 months, CRYO-Services has over 15 employees including engineers and technicians, has two tank trucks and services over 40

customers. The solid base we achieved with our different service offerings facilitated the replication of our services to other locations and consequently our rapid expansion.

3. Customers are seeking you out When you notice your customers’ needs are outgrowing your offering, it’s time to re-consider how you can meet the demand. We opened the first location for CRYO in Jumeirah Emirates Towers in 2013, and we soon saw the need to expand with the opening of a new facility, at Dubai Ladies Club. The privacy and comfort offered by Dubai Ladies Club is just what our female customers needed, and the new location became much more accessible to a large portion of our clientele. At the beginning of 2015, we partnered with Jordanian businessman and former mayor of Amman, Omar Maani. This partnership facilitated our growth, enabled key hires, and drove our investment in branding and marketing.

4. Your business has been consistently profitable It’s imperative for the business to have a proper financial foundation before considering growth. If you can achieve that and see continuous positive cash flow results you can look at

taking the next step. Following the success of our Dubai branches, we opened the first CRYO franchise location in Beirut in August 2015, which currently has two-digit growth rates. After optimizing the business model and learning from 24 months of operations, we have also expanded to the North American market signing a partnership agreement with a leading gym chain in the United States. This will allow gym goers to have a 360 customer experience including workout, recovery and nutrition. The first location for CRYO US is expected to open by the end of October this year.

5. You have a clear vision of growth, and a plan Above all, it’s most important to believe in your business, your selling point and your growth potential. If you don’t, chances are your partners, customers, buyers etc. will not either. The developments we’ve made with CRYO just two years after the opening have been outstanding and we can honestly say that the brand is now in a strong position to become the market leader in the industry.

Seeing the GCC as our home turf, we are now looking for the right partner with an extensive network in the hospitality and retail industry to support us with scaling the concept locally. We expect to have 15 locations in the GCC by the end of 2016 and proximately 40 CRYO centers in GCC by the end of 2017.

Co-founders of CRYO in the Middle East, Kai Stubbe and Benny Parihar

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