MENA Opportunities

Beneath the turmoil and unrest that has seized much of the Middle East, there is a burgeoning tech scene offering a nugget of hope in a place where creativity can be a luxury and basic survival is often a challenge. That’s the thesis writer and Internet entrepreneur Christopher Schroeder lays out in his new book “Startup Rising .” He says some of the most innovative startups are coming from the Arab world, despite dysfunctional economies, a nascent venture capital industry, network inefficiencies and government persecution these entrepreneurs face. From Jordan to the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt to Turkey, entrepreneurs are building e-commerce sites, social networks and online education tools that can compete with some of Silicon Valley’s best. There is lots of activity in the Bay Area to suggest Schroeder may be right. Dave McClure’s Geeks on a Plane, an invite-only tour for startups, investors, and executives to learn about burgeoning technology markets, took its latest group to...

AstroLabs , the startup workshop series, is now joining ranks with the organizations working to connect startups in the Middle East with those in Silicon Valley. As the Middle East partner for Blackbox Connect's upcoming Silicon Valley immersion program , powered by Google for Entrepreneurs, AstroLabs will be nominating four startups from the Middle East and North Africa to attend a two-week program on March 17-28, 2014. Of the four, one will be selected to attend, with all expenses paid, including airfare, room and board, and tuition for two founders. Over the two weeks, they'll gain access not only to Blackbox Connect speakers (who in the past have included Dave McClure, Robert Scoble, Tim Draper, and others), but also, on a final Demo Day, they'll get to pitch to a broader community of mentors and investors, and get connected to Blackbox's global community.  Two nominations will be from the group of startups that have been through the AstroLabs Scaling Online Start...

Women in the Middle East are becoming more daring. This transformation today speaks volumes about their penchant for experimenting with new chic styles. They don’t want to drown themselves in their traditional costumes. They are bored with those monotonous styles and are looking to try something colorful and happening. As the scope here for high-end fashion gets bigger, there is no denying that the region is close to experiencing a massive boom as a hot emerging market for the global fashion industry. Whenever sophisticated women here go out for shopping in this part of the world, you'll never see them without their expensive clutches or handbags stashed with hard cash to procure trendy outfits. It’s obvious that the demand for the hottest international brands is bound to skyrocket among women here whose knowledge of elegant fashion is outstanding. And the region’s well-established haute couture designers are ready to confront this reality head on with grand dresses with asto...

This amazing Rolls-Royce concept car called the “Apparition” was created by Jeremy Westerlund of Dallas, Texas. He designed it as an independent project while studying at the Art Center of the School of Design. The design offers sharp geometric lines, a massive hood and large 23-inch wheels. This concept is a great blend of classic design elements and futuristic ones. Although just a design for the time being, the model itself is nearly six feet long, and in reality would measure over 23 feet long, or four feet longer than the Phantom saloon. Subscribe to MENA Opportunities and get more...

Next year's college applicants have some difficult choices to make. Is it better to go to state school or private? Stay close to home or ship out to Abu Dhabi? Western students receiving their education in the UAE is not as far-fetched as it might sound as some of the world's most respected collegiate brands have set up outposts in the Gulf region. Dubai hosts 52 universities while Qatar has set up Education City , a sector that houses a number of U.S. colleges including Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, and Northwestern. Next year, the first students admitted to New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi will graduate; a benchmark almost as significant as the scheduled completion of the university's new Saadiyat Island campus . "There are lots of exciting signs that the region is heating up and getting more dynamic in terms of higher education," says Phil Baty, the editor-at-large of Times Higher Education. It's not Greenwich Village but as you move through t...

A jubilant Dubai hopes that hosting the world’s five-yearly trade fair in 2020 will draw new investment to an economy still recovering from a debt crisis that required a bailout by Abu Dhabi. The United Arab Emirates city state saw off competition from Brazil, Russia and Turkey Wednesday to win the right to host Expo 2020. It expects the prize will give a welcome boost to an already reviving tourism- and property-based economy. The fair site extends across 438 hectares of desert – 10 times the size of Vatican City – on the highway toward the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, along which Dubai has been pushing much of its development. The government projects the six-month fair will stimulate 25 billion dirhams ($6.8 billion) in additional investment and 277,000 new jobs. It forecasts a boost to gross domestic product of more than 140 billion dirhams, equivalent to around 44 percent of the 2012 total. Deutsche Bank said Dubai needed some $43 billion to upgrade its infrastructure, the bulk ...

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Demand for real estate on the planet’s premier streets is booming, fuelled by limited supply of properties and owners seldom compelled to sell. Picture a square metre. It’s not much, maybe just enough space for a coffee table or a smallish wine fridge. Now imagine that square metre is worth more than US$100,000. For the wealthiest billionaires who make their home on the world’s most exclusive streets, this is reality. Despite economic uncertainty and wobbling property markets elsewhere, real estate in the most coveted corners of the globe — including the iconic Avenue Princesse Grace in Monaco and New York’s Fifth Avenue — is still changing hands for sky-high price tags. At the top end this can mean US$170 million for an average property. What’s more, the values of these ‘Bollinger Boulevards’ have in many cases continued to rise against the backdrop of a global financial crisis that has knocked an average 40 percent off the value of world’s property market. “The appeal of super-pr...

Warren Buffett is one of the most famous billionaires in the world. He also loves sharing his advice with kids as part of his Secret Millionaires Club. Here, he answers five questions, including what he thinks the biggest mistake is that parents make when teaching their kids about money and how he learned about money. Do you think most parents do a good job teaching their kids about money?  Most parents know how important it is to teach kids about money and managing it properly. There was a study many years ago questioning how to predict business success later in life. The answer to the study was the age you started your first business impacted how successful you were later in life. Teaching kids sound financial habits at an early age gives all kids the opportunity to be successful when they are an adult.  What do you think is the biggest mistake parents make when teaching their kids about money?  I think parents need to start teaching kids about the impo...

By Jayson DeMers (Forbes). With new social networking platforms appearing from behind every corner, it can be hard to know exactly where to commit your time and resources. And as we move into the latter-half of 2013, it’s important to look ahead to where social networking is going, and how we can get on board. As I think about the trends in social media so far this year, I’ve compiled a list of my predictions as to where we’re headed as we inch towards 2014. 1. Investment in Social Media Will Become a Necessity, Not a Luxury While I’d argue that investing time and resources into a social media strategy is most definitely a necessity in 2013, I believe the tipping point in public sentiment from ‘should have’ to ‘must have’ will occur in 2014. Businesses are already coming to terms with the need to integrate their social media efforts with their content strategy, and are seeing the impact of social media in terms of lead generation, referral traffic, and revenue. As businesses...

Rise and shine! Morning time just became your new best friend. Love it or hate it, utilizing the morning hours before work may be the key to a successful and healthy lifestyle. That’s right, early rising is a common trait found in many CEOs, government officials, and other influential people. Margaret Thatcher was up every day at 5 a.m.; Frank Lloyd Wright at 4 am and Robert Iger, the CEO of Disney wakes at 4:30am just to name a few. I know what you’re thinking – you do your best work at night. Not so fast. According to Inc. Magazine, morning people have been found to be more proactive and more productive. In addition, the health benefits for those with a life before work go on and on. Let’s explore 5 of the things successful people do before 8 am.

Mel Gibson’s recent boy’s night out with Carlos Slim Domit, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú‘s eldest son, has generated speculation about a possible business deal between the two famous men. Mexican business columnists reported that Gibson traveled to Mexico City last month to ask Slim Jr. to invest in his film company. According to Hollywood pundits, the actor, film director, producer and screenwriter, lost money on his self-financed movie Get The Gringo, which was filmed largely in Mexico last year. Mexico City’s daily Reforma reported that on August 22, Gibson and Slim Helu’s heir-apparent enjoyed a night out with a group of ten men at the restaurant Casa Anis, in the upscale Mexico City neighborhood of Polanco. Restaurant employees told the newspaper that Gibson, who has had a serious alcohol problem and has been arrested for driving under the influence, didn’t consume alcoholic beverages. The actor, Slim Domit and his group of friends, which included Eduardo Solórzano, ...

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Riding on MSCI upgrade, the UAE and Qatar stock markets are seeing increased activity. Indexes of Dubai Financial Market, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Qatar Exchange are in positive territory as against the end of 2012. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul is in for the bull-run once the regulators finalize framework to facilitate foreign investment in stocks listed on the bourse. Global research and consulting firm Deloitte in its Equity Capital Markets confidence survey says the GCC economies are showing positive signs of recovery across a multitude of sectors, including retail, tourism, real estate and infrastructure. The regional equity markets, which had generally been depressed following the impact of the global financial crisis, are now showing signs of recovery with higher volumes being traded and more interest from foreign investors. Tadawul, DFM and the Qatar Exchange (QE) are expected to be the most active GCC exchanges over the next 12 months. “Following the lessons learnt from th...

The Islamic banking assets in the Arabian Gulf region are likely to exceed half a trillion dollars by end of this year. Multiple professional services provider Ernst & Young says Islamic banking assets in the GCC reached $452 billion in 2012 and are expected to exceed $515bn by the end of 2013 – a growth of 13.9 per cent. Saudi Arabia was the biggest market with an estimated $245bn in assets in 2012. UAE Islamic banking assets, including windows were estimated at more than $80bn and Qatar’s Islamic banking assets reached $53bn in 2012. A common theme across leading GCC Islamic banks is the fundamental repositioning of their balance sheets and their business following the global financial crisis in 2008. Going forward, many Islamic banks are looking to expand regionally, where a sizeable amount of their revenues are expected to be generated from outside their local market. Meanwhile, Global Islamic banking assets with commercial banks reached $1.54 trillion in 2012, according to E...

In a move designed to bring booming tech ecosystems in the UK and the Middle East closer together, London mayor Boris Johnson has announced his intention to launch a £100 million fund to encourage tech startups, entrepreneurs, and innovators from the Arab and Muslim worlds to come to London to exercise their creativity. Johnson made the announcement on a Google Hangout as part of the InnoTech Summit, a network of events seeking to foster increased interconnectivity between entrepreneurs, investors, and policy makers. InnoTech founder Jennifer Arcuri told Wamda that the fund is part of a larger initiative for the UK to help form relationships between “startup clusters around the world,” as well as strengthen those bonds that already exist. “Our message is,” she says, “‘the UK is building tech economies and we want to partner with you.’” Boris Johnson and Arcuri’s InnoTech have realized that the Middle East is hardly an emerging market in the field of technology. Arcuri says “I keep te...

As entrepreneurship has boomed in the Middle East, startup and business plan competitions have also sprouted up in the region, after aspiring founders a chance to earn prizes and mentorship. Many a startup has gotten on its feet after a startup competition, but often, winners already have a viable product. And the application process is daunting. So is it worth it to apply as an idea phase entrepreneur? I'd say yes. After entering three competitions in Lebanon this year – Arabnet’s Ideathon, Bader’s StartUp Cup, and The Maurice Fadel Prize – to pitch my new e-commerce startup, Ya Mammy, I learned from each one. Here are 6 things I think startups have to gain from the experience: 1) The courage to proceed When I first imagined the concept of a peer-to-peer marketplace for parents, it came from a real need I was experiencing as a young parent. At first it seemed like a brilliant idea, but a few hours later, I didn’t think it was that great. But Arabnet’s Ideathon deadline w...

After offering their services to the private and public sector, three founders noticed that there’s a problem with the event management industry in Gaza. Therefore, they decided to launch Golden Bird, to help companies and institutions organize events. This isn't the only service it provides. The company, which was founded early 2013 under the motto “Any Help, Any Service,” also provides consultations, logistic and commercial services. It offers logistical support for companies and organizations through its platform, according to Heba ElAqqad, Director of Consulting, and these services could include planning and organizing events. The company makes money through commissions, according to Ishaq Elewady, Director of Logistics. “We take commissions to organize events and from consultants or from the logistic companies we deal with,” He says. Golden Bird also claims to have the best local prices, since they get a retailer’s rate and deal directly with suppliers. Golden Bird has par...

The future is mobile, and the future for mobile is apps. Advertising, video and image sharing, and mobile retail are all gaining traction with the growing base of mobile data consumers. Citrix, a company specializing in mobile solutions, provided insights into mobile data subscriber usage patterns and the impact this behavior has on operators’ networks. We studied findings from the report and highlight here some trends shaping the future of mobile. 1. Mobile app data usage Smartphone owners are using more internet-enabled mobile apps; browsers now account for only 17% of data usage on Android smartphones worldwide. Also, people are now using more data-hungry apps, they are using their phones' media players to stream media, and the mobile app store to download apps. App usage habits differ for different platforms: iOS users are accessing Facebook more than their Android counterparts (5% of total data traffic compared to 1%). Also, more users are buying goods and services u...

Nicolai Tillisch reflects on what separates success from failure when doing business in the region. The potential for landing big contracts in the Gulf is amazing. Zawya estimates that there will be about $300 billion worth of infrastructure projects in the pipeline for the remainder of this decade in Saudi Arabia alone. You can add other types of investments and the costs of other initiatives and zoom out to the rest of the Gulf. The region’s first Expo world exhibition will hopefully add to this. It is much easier to dream about your big deal than actually close it. Anyone from a sales manager to a top executive can be kept awake at night when progress is not as expected. The associated speculations and stress are subjects that clients frequently raise in my sessions as an executive coach. You can very well know what good leadership looks like, but still have a hard time getting your thoughts and emotions right when the deal that separates success from failure is at risk of not mat...

Turn on a Saudi television and you’ll usually get a diet of religious programming and uncontroversial imported fare. But there’s much more to a “night in” for the average Saudi – they’re also the world’s most avid watchers of YouTube. The programmes of Jeddah-based UTURN, from drama to reality shows, are typical. “3al6ayer”, or “On the Fly”, is a Saudi version of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”. “Eysh Elly” is a lighthearted weekly review of Arab online videos. As of mid-September, UTURN had 286 million views on YouTube and eight million followers on social media such as Facebook and Twitter, most of them Saudis, said Abdullah Mando, 27, who set up the company in 2010 with two university friends. The secret of UTURN’s success is simple, but in a Saudi context, rather revolutionary: give the audience what it wants. “These kinds of shows are useful and entertaining, and because they are made by young people, they are close to the heart,” said Maram Gaily, 16, a student in Riyadh. Add...

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Guess which places are the leading hotbeds of start-up activity in the world? The Startup Genome project, a platform that relies on volunteers to gather data on new businesses around the world, ranked the top ecosystems in the world in 2012. Hot on the heels of Silicon Valley in first place were Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Boston, London, Toronto, Vancouver and Chicago. The ranking evaluated them on a host of factors: total entrepreneurial activity, the availability of funding, the performance of their start-ups in such areas as revenue and job creation, the talent of their founders, their regions' supportive infrastructure, how closely their entrepreneurs' mind-set mirrors great founders and how quickly the ecosystem adopts innovations such as new technologies. With grassroots interest in start-ups sprouting, more governments are recognizing that start-ups are important to job creation and are trying to create environments that nurture them. Efforts span the sp...

Frustrated at the high unemployment rates facing young people in Europe, Kevin Ackermann, 25; Iman Fadaei, 26; and Martin Wetterberg, 22, decided to try to make things better. About 12 months ago they launched Aha Design, a London start-up that provides affordably priced website development and other services to clients such as start-ups, charities and the British government. They pay young people to work on projects to gain valuable work experience and, ideally, recommendations from clients so they are more employable when they send out job applications. "We're all passionate about entrepreneurship and making money, but also about helping create a better world," said Fadaei, a law school graduate who also runs Ethical Art, a start-up that sells artwork and uses the proceeds from each sale to send a child to school in Tanzania for a year. Meanwhile, Ackermann runs another business, called BACA Jewellery, which sources pearls from cooperatives that teach survivors of hum...

British Prime Minister David Cameron, on an official visit to the UAE, met Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, and reiterated his support for UAE’s bid to host Expo 2020. Cameron “stressed” that his country backs the UAE’s bid, urging friendly countries to also support the UAE bid, official news agency WAM reported. The PM noted, “Dubai is a cosmopolitan city, in which all languages are spoken, and that hence it is qualified in all tourist, logistic, social, geographic and service aspects to host Expo 2020.” In an op-ed written late last month and circulated to media outlets, Cameron praised Dubai and emphasized that it is the perfect venue to host the mega event. “On November 27, delegates from around the world will meet to decide the venue for Expo 2020. I believe they should choose Dubai,” he wrote. “Dubai is a great business capital and its success rightly inspires people to see the potential of the region and to believe they can change their own countries for...

From a liver transplant surgeon to an NGO director, the diverse roll call of UAE-based individuals signing up to MBA courses has sky-rocketed as individuals seek to improve their skills. The London Business School, Hult Business School, Cass Business School, Manchester Business School and INSEAD have all witnessed an increase in enrollment this year as the financial crisis prompts professionals to develop their businesses, and spruce up their CVs in order to win big-ticket jobs. The UAE’s MBA market is also contending with a developing education story in Qatar, where gas-fuelled growth and a government spending spree have wooed big names to set up base. But the UAE’s financial hub status, developed infrastructure and vibrant population are set to keep professionals flocking to the UAE in order to attain an MBA while also soaking up the lifestyle. Hult began with 100 students in its first year of operation in Dubai in 2008 and the school now boasts 300 post-graduates, which is close t...

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MENA Opportunities is happy to share this great infographic which literally breaks down not only how startup funding works (an issue endlessly debated from Dubai to Silicon Valley) but also every hypothetical step a startup goes through from idea to IPO. Enjoy... Subscribe to MENA Opportunities (for free) and get more...

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Managing email is one of the most trying, time-consuming, and overwhelming parts of every professional's daily life. And although many of us buy into the theory that email isn't work (because real work should be creation-based), the unfortunate reality we all have to face is that, sadly, email is work. Why? Because we need to do it to get our jobs done, it takes up time, and it's an expected part of our professional roles. So, even though emailing may not be helping you get that product launched, or that book into your publisher, it is part of your job. Ugh. I believe that email can become even more challenging when you face a regular stream of unsolicited emails. These are emails from folks you don't know who want things, want to tell you things, want to ask you things, or want to yell at you about things (see more on that last one below). As someone with an active online life - and a blog with 35,000 newsletter subscribers - I get a lot of these unsolicited emails. ...

Figuring out what banks offer in Lebanon is notoriously difficult, says Elie Bou Jaoude. “There are more than 600,000 searches on Google regarding banking products in Lebanon per month, but most don't lead to answers." It's not that banks won't discuss their offerings; it's simply difficult to find them online, he says. Typically, customers have to visit in person or call the bank to determine what kinds of loans are available. To tackle this problem, Bnooki (which means “banks” in Arabic) gathers the data, products and services offered by Lebanon's banks, and presents it online so that users can compare and contrast different items and contact banks directly. After working seven years at Kafalat, a Lebanese financial company that helps small and medium sized enterprises secure funding from banks, Bou Jaoude realized the scope of the problem, thanks to the number of questions he received. “When you work with banks you get many questions about how they work, ...

This week’s big tech news was that Snapchat turned down an all cash offer of $3 billion from Facebook according to The Wall Street Journal. First of all, to most reading this, let me ask the ultimate rhetorical question: “Who would turn down $3 billion?” My answer is most likely, no one. Regardless, let’s look at why Evan Spiegel, Snapchat’s CEO, may have turned this down. First, Snapchat may think it can grow without the umbrella of a big parent company. Joshua Brustein of Bloomberg Businessweek wrote regarding the spurned deal, “… Snapchat can grow without Facebook’s help. This means that Facebook has to compete on equal footing with each novel form of communication that comes along.” The point being made was that in the mobile world, a new technology is not dependent upon a strong platform to grow. This is counter to the ancient PC world of a few years ago. This spurned deal also says that if a company thinks it can grow just as fast on its own, that is the preference. As we have ...

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There’s a distinction between growing fast and growing up. The distinction is apparent in any overview of the current state of the MENA region’s advertising industry. We’re achieving impressive growth, but we’ve not yet matured. Maturity is distinguished by mature behaviour by industry players with a long-term vision rather than a limited commercial agenda. Sadly, this wider perspective is still lacking. However, narrow the focus to financial numbers and prospects looks quite promising. Media market projections for the 11 years to 2022 for the Levant, North Africa, UAE and GCC look forward to eight per cent annualised growth, taking us from a $12.8 billion base in 2011 to $29.3 billion. Such growth would have staggered the region’s advertising pioneers – the local start- ups that took root in the 1940s. It was only in the 1960s that the first international agencies entered the region. A decade later, joint ventures and partnerships added critical mass, followed in the 1980s and 1990s...

Soon, perhaps sooner than some in the digital industry care to realize, search engines like Google will become outdated. No matter how advanced a search engine is, as long as it is a machine system, it will eventually become a commodity, just like telephones and washing machines. There was a time when consumers raved about the new technology of the automobile. It was amazing, life changing, trans-formative technology. For a while. This is the limitation of all technology: the more useful an instrument, the quicker it will be copied and the quicker there will be movement to usurp its position in the market. That is already happening in the search industry. As search is copied, as consumers get used to it and are less dazzled by its newness, they want something more. Stepping into that void are organic services able to attract people on a human level – curated merchandise, shops that offer expertise and personal service, elements once reserved for the brick-and-mortar world are now goi...

In India, there is a lot of talk about ‘innovation.’ But the innovation that we talk about is not the real innovation. Real innovation has an inherent element of high risk, which Indians are averse to. As a result, you do not see people in India investing in real innovation. The Global Innovation Index 2013 ranks India at 66th position, behind China (35). Other emerging economies Brazil (64) and Russia (62) are also ahead of India. Switzerland tops the list and the U.S. is at 5th position. Despite a large pool of scientific talent in the country, do you know why we rank so poorly? It is because unfortunately, in India, we don’t ascribe any value to innovation. Investors in India prefer predictable, imitative business models and me-too products, where they have the visibility of assured returns. Thus, Flipkart – which is modeled on Amazon.com – has received a lot of investor interest in India. On the other hand, business models that are truly innovative, first of its kind, and thus un...

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There are 61 private banks currently present in the GCC region, including 30 international ones, according to a new study by Insight discovery. All the international private banks are based in Dubai, found the study. “The GCC market for private banking services is complex, fragmented and opaque,” it said. A number of private banks such as Clariden Leu, Llyods TSB, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Pictet and Vontobel have pulled out of the GCC either by selling their businesses or closing down in the last few years. But the market has also seen new entrants such as LGT, Nedbank Private Wealth and Arbuthnot Latham, said the report. “A number of private banks who establish a physical presence in the GCC region are unable to achieve the commercial results that they had anticipated. It is not uncommon for private banks to close local operations after only a short period. The competitive landscape will remain a fluid one for some time to come,” it stated. The study also found that about thr...

The region’s healthcare sector is entering a golden age as nationals and expatriates become more demanding about their health needs and pharmaceutical firms grow their bases in the region. MENA region spending on healthcare is now likely to hit $125 billion in 2015, up from $65.6 billon in 2009, according to Al Masah Capital research. As the GCC’s standard of living continues to benefit from high oil prices, it is clear that attainment of “Western” style standards of healthcare today do not match progress in other lifestyle areas. The US allocates four times as much in GDP spending to healthcare as the GCC, while per capita health spending is dwarfed by American spending levels that are eight times as high. Taking MENA as a whole, per capita health spending is less than a twentieth of that in the US. There are three US hospital beds for every two in the GCC and only one physician in the region for every two in the US. Speaking to reporters last month, Amitava Ghosal, partner at Al Ma...

Jaguar Land Rover has reported a sales increase for its MENA region of 38 per cent for the first nine months of the year, in comparison to the same period in 2012. The UAE and Saudi Arabia were the top two performing markets in the region while the group’s global results for September were up 17 per cent on the same period a year earlier. Land Rover’s MENA sales for the first three quarters of the year were up 40 per cent on the same period in 2012, driven by sales of the latest generations of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. Jaguar’s sales in the region meanwhile were up 30 per cent over the same period compared to a year earlier, with the Jaguar XJ enjoying a 32 per cent rise in sales.

Dubai’s government has to make sure its property market is driven by fundamental factors, not speculation, and be ready to act if it sees very rapid increases in asset prices, a senior International Monetary Fund official said on Tuesday. “When you begin to see very rapid increases in any asset prices then you just need to be prepared to act,” said Masood Ahmed, the IMF’s director for the Middle East and North Africa. “The government of Dubai is already beginning to act.” House prices in the emirate have jumped over 20 per cent in the last year, prompting the IMF to warn in July of the risk of another bubble forming after a crash of Dubai’s inflated property market in 2008-2010 nearly caused state-linked companies to default. In September this year Dubai, one of seven United Arab Emirates, said it would double a registration fee charged on real estate transactions to four per cent to prevent excessive speculation. Its land department chief told Reuters last month that Dubai will stri...

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As corporations recognize the link between CSR and sustainability, opportunities arise for socially conscious leaders to change the world from the inside out. Up-and-coming leaders today are looking for more than a good salary – they’re searching for significance in their day-to-day work and they tie their personal values more closely to their career than previous generations “There is a longing for a sense of meaning with many executives,” Filipe Santos, INSEAD Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, noted outside the school’s 2013 INSEAD Global Business Leaders Conference in Abu Dhabi recently. “They are told to run a company for profit but now they’re thinking. ‘I want to go beyond that, I want to have impact in society which is sustainable and makes a difference.’” This leaves companies with the choice. Either they increase the opportunities for very highly skilled employees to engage with societal issues or ...

MENA Opportunities is happy to share this great infographic which not not only sheds light on how the the Middle East tweets but also lists the 50 most connected Middle East twitters along with their name, country of origin and of course twitter account. Enjoy... Subscribe to MENA Opportunities (for free) and get more...

Now this may be one the most groundbreaking articles you will ever read! In 1938 Harvard University began following 268 male undergraduate students and kicked off the longest-running longitudinal studies of human development in history. The study’s goal was to determine as best as possible what factors contribute most strongly to human flourishing. The astonishing range of psychological, anthropological, and physical traits — ranging from personality type to IQ to drinking habits to family relationships to “hanging length of his scrotum” — indicates just how exhaustive and quantifiable the research data has become. Recently, George Vaillant, who directed the study for more than three decades, published the study’s findings in the 2012 book Triumphs of Experience (Amazon) and the following is the book’s synopsis: “At a time when many people around the world are living into their tenth decade, the longest longitudinal study of human development ever undertaken offers some wel...