[Nile TV] Finding The Right Coaches

[Nile TV] Finding The Right Coaches

i think all of us are trying to improve somehow and especially in areas of interest and expertise and areas that we decide to pursue in life and there are many ways for us to improve some of which is attending courses like looking at stuff online and also seeking the experiences through which we can have improvements one of the best ways for us to do that which is also much closer to sports is having coaches so if we look at football for example we’d see like teams are being classified classified into successful or not unsuccessful based on the quality of the coaches and the performance of the coaches that they have so if we are pursuing improvements in our daily lives and our professions we would be seeking coaching and the right coaches to be able to move to the next level so if we look at the difference between like acquiring the knowledge in a specific field and also improving our performance in in the same field or in any field we find that acquiring knowledge that we can pursue different lines for that like training courses for example pursuing academic degrees all this would contribute to our knowledge but if we really want to improve our performance in a specific like field we have to be looking at the coaches who already know the best ways for us to improve our skill sets and our performance so definitely seeking coaches who really know what they’re doing when it comes to a specific vertical is very vital for us to improve our skill set yes mr abdul how the coaches actually could help in other words how the coach is different than a therapist or just a friend who is sharing information or experience with us yeah that’s a very good point i think one of the big challenges that once there is a coaching relationship established is understanding what to expect from the coach so in terms of what do you expect from the coach i think like the the biggest word is going to be performance because coaches are focused on helping you become better at kind of doing something specifically if we’re talking about young entrepreneurs we’re talking about business executives it’s about executing the business and moving the business forward so it’s about like focusing on the different areas of performance for a specific individual being empathetic with them and then helping them move to the next level so focusing on performance and performance improvement is a vital keyword here when it comes to what do we expect from coaches so so why choosing the right coach could be decisive factor in accomplish accomplishing um goals in life yeah i think like if we look at like the process of improvement if we rely and also the coach coaches are it’s a very very important and intimate relationship to a lot of extents if we look at those in sports we would see that there is a huge difference that’s made in like a player’s performance based on the kind of coaches that they have so if we look at this close relationship between between coaches and crew chiefs we would see that this is a very strong and important relationship and based on that like looking at the right coach would be very vital to how far we’re going to go with that so for us to find the right coach this is gonna be affecting our performance this could be like reaching the goal faster so becoming better faster i mean like even if we look at sports i know people who were interested in a specific sport they spent three years pursuing that path and then that improvement was not really fast enough but with the right coach they were able to reach that kind of performance in like six months so like saving time saving money and improving fast and rapidly i think these are the benefits of finding the right coach yes mr abdul um what are the qualifications of a good coach how can we choose a good coach and we know that beforehand yeah that’s a very difficult part to actually discover that before having the experience itself so like one of the the best things to do is to actually know what you’re looking for and also look for specialized coaches i think there are like generic coaches people can coach you across like like there are life coaches there are like business coaches and there are some like deeply vertical and specialized coaches and i think it’s gonna also depend on who’s seeking the coaching and to what extent is the problem wide or is it narrow so and and based on that you’re going to figure out what kind of coach you’re going to be like aiming for so um like if i look at picking the the right coach i would actually understand what do i expect from the coach what what is the outcome that i’m seeking so if i’m if i’m an entrepreneur for example seeking to raise funds for my business i would see that the outcome is for me to be qualified to talk to investors and secure funding for my business so this is my objective and by then i’m gonna be looking for the coach who actually know that topic who actually like has access somehow and understand the process and probably went through it like before so if i find someone with that i would possibly just look for a meeting an introduction meeting with them and i think lots of coaches professional coaches offer that is that you can spend luck one to two hours like with them having an introduction meeting without committing to a coaching relationship so having this kind of dating relationship is in which that you sit with the coach and you see whether you got chemistry do you like to talk with this person would you trust them with your secrets this is a very vital step like one other aspect is looking at others from the industry and how they what kind of feedback they have from this particular individual if you are talking about more professional coaching or coaching for younger entrepreneurs or for startups how intimate here are we talking about the relation between the entrepreneurs and the coach and to what extent the experience of the coach could actually help in the format or the um system of the startup that the young entrepreneurs maybe are going to do yeah that’s a very good point i think also we have to highlight that there is a difference between coaching and consulting so big part that has to do with building organizations are like consulting in this case what’s the difference here between the mentor and the coach yeah i think like the mentor it’s uh it’s more like um like a spiritual relationship to what extent is that mentor someone that you look up to and who accomplish some something and then like you have mostly less frequent organization than a coach the mentor is someone provides general direction like advice when it comes to general direction so which direction should i take so like a mentor would be someone like could possibly be more senior like older with a lot of experience someone that you look up to as as a character and as an individual and by then they provide you in conversation about the general direction so there’s a lot of things in common with coaches but coaches are mostly focused on performance and specific goals so if you you hire a coach because you have a very particular objective that you want to reach and then this coach while not guaranteeing that you’re going to reach that goal because that’s something outside of their control they do their best in getting you as fit as possible to reach that goal so this is a distinction between like the mentorship and the coaching relationship getting back to your question when it comes to if we’re focusing on startups i think by then a coach would better actually be focused on a specific individual within the company so there could be like group coaching for a whole startup but it’s going to have a different format i think some of the best ways to do that is to either like coach the ceo or coach the management team even like sometimes independently because people sometimes have different agendas and like a coach has to be committed to a specific individual so the highest value could be from coaching the ceo himself and also like this i could have a coach everyone else within a team could could get a different coach but by then if you focus on the performance of the ceo the way they look at the business the way they interact with people and also possibly bringing a network of people to to kind of grab and like motivate the ceo in a specific direction i think that would be an like extremely valuable thing just spotting on a specific individual because this is like a somehow an intimate relationship and yes when it comes to startups if we’re talking about coaches and startups because like startups are evolving organizations so there’s massive risk and massive change and a lot of uncertainty so it gets very intimate sometimes and i think like some of the downside is that there is massive expectations of what the coach is going to bring us so if you look at if we’re building a startup with an idea and we’re seeking funding i might assume that my coach is going to possibly just give me access to the funds while the coach can actually help you become more ready to access the funds you cannot guarantee that and also there are many variables it has to do with verifying that this is actually a feasible business idea and this might not be the the area in which that you have requested for the coach to coach you might be like performance oriented and they are not necessarily like looking at the strategy of the company so understanding while this is going to become like personal and intimate is that this is what i provide you and this is sometimes like as coaches you have to repeat that is that in this part you probably need to talk to a therapist i can connect you to a therapist or i can connect you to a consultant but when it comes to that like i’m concerned about you and your performance with the business and that’s what we’re going to focus on during the sessions so you would think about it pretty close to therapists when it comes to like good coaching they’re going to become like more intimate but it’s actually focused on more performances what do i do in order to get there so sir how can i know the coaching program uh and the format that fits my need yeah i think like some of the best things is to have this customized so like coaches offer like specific programs this could actually be time based mostly it’s time based because like in a coaching interaction that what you do is quite different and a lot different context so you need to actually look at it in terms of like what time do i have as an executive because if i’m a ceo of a startup i’m probably very busy if i if i have like 10 or 20 staff and i’m recruiting heavily so i’m i’m possibly busy and my coach is also busy so i need to look at what kind of like time limits do i look for
[Nile TV] Building Meaningful Connections in the Workplace

[Nile TV] Building Meaningful Connections in the Workplace

and welcome back how’s the view is continuing in the same uh uh almost uh idea which is the development of the teamwork how to work in a teamwork how uh to uh have a proper uh job uh in order to excel and to develop our skills that would be our topic of discussion for today with our dear guest in the studio and mr abdul rahman magdy our business coach good morning good morning good morning first of all if you can tell us about how can working as part of a team be successful yeah definitely i think like one of the biggest challenges facing companies especially in emerging markets where there is not that much of investment in education is how people can get together to work as part of the team and how there could be connections between people based on their competence so the fundamental idea here for the individuals and the teams to be aware of their own competence of the value they bring to the table and then understanding also the competence of every other member and team and seeing how we can fit all these combatants to build a strong team this is one aspect in which that i have to understand what am i good at first and then understand how would i offer this to the team in a way that would maximize the productivity of the overall like a team and company eventually and i think one of the most important ideas as well is how do i set up the leadership for this team because like leadership is usually a source of conflict so like people usually want to move in at different directions and there is usually lots of competition around who takes the leadership so by then there has to be a very strategic and non-emotional approach to who gets in the leadership and also choosing the formats of how the team is formatted around the leadership like one of the the patterns that’s being kind of promoted and getting popularity is having like a v uh curve like if you’re moving forward you need to build a hierarchy which is like a like a like a command but you can actually have like like birds if you see like birds you fly in uh in like uh v curves like that so there is someone in the leadership once the you know they get tired they kind of move to the back and someone else takes the leadership so that would make leadership more democratic and accordingly would allow people to like focus their attention on providing the best work and also establishing connections and uh like meaningful relationships with people around the team and the institution as well yes uh mr macd from your point of view does connections matter beyond competence and hard work yeah definitely i think if we look at any company or any team who wants to get things done eventually connections is central to getting things done why why because i need to get something done that is definitely somewhere someone who’s very competent in getting this thing done at the lowest cost and the piece of information that basically the contact details of this individual at a certain point in time is extremely valuable so if you can look at it you’re into production and presenting so if you think in the studio there is definitely in a critical condition there is someone that you need to call you need to get their attention because that would be extremely valuable for the seconds that you have to get things done so definitely from that angle is finding the right talent who can get things done with a proper cost in a proper speed this is something that’s extremely valuable for any business or even any social setting yeah yes um in your opinion how can uh approaching the challenge of building connections uh help us in achieving our goals in in in a working environment yeah definitely like as we mentioned connections are very important so those who do have access to the connections most likely to be promoted into leadership possessions and also most likely to add more value to the team so from that angle if i understand that connections is something that’s very valuable if i like have part of me focusing on of my time focusing on building connections and getting to know what people are offering relevant to my industry and i can possibly bring in these connections into the work environment whenever we have a need for it that would be an extremely valuable skill set so by then by developing my ability to build connections and meaningful connections and being able to engage and influence these connections to come in and produce value by then i’m becoming extremely valuable to the work environment i’m part of yes yes uh to be successful uh on the professional and on the social level uh mr abdul we have to nurture our network how that could be done on the long term yeah i think by then like this idea of building connections and the skill sets and the way and the approach that that you embody to build these connections you have to make this a lifestyle so it becomes the way you think in terms of when i go meet someone i need to understand what do they need so what do they look for and what are the accomplishment at so understanding when when we deal with any individual is that there are always two parts to look at what do they offer what are their most competence what do what they can get done better than anyone else and what are their needs what they’re itching for so if i understand these two pieces of information about every individual but then i have a this central skill set and i have a decent communication skill by then i can engage with people in a way that help them fulfill their needs and demonstrate their competence in the best way possible if i establish many connections like that and i will able to bring these people together but then i will be building my own personal network which is by then by consistently engaging with them in a productive way offering them opportunities to become better at with their competent ads or to demonstrate that and also to fulfill their needs on becoming extremely valuable to a large number of people and by then there is a personal network that’s growing and i’m in the center of this personal network that can possibly by then be focusing on making me successful as well because this is what i’m doing to them yes uh what could be in your opinion one of the major challenges of facing uh a working environment yeah i think like that’s gonna like differ slightly in the setup for the working environment but what we’re talking about today in terms of becoming more empathetic is looking at people as people other than looking at them as what we call it as resources so we have the the old approach of looking at human resources of looking of individuals as resources and assets for the company but rather the trend and thing that’s working there is becoming more empathetic towards the individual understanding their competence and understanding their needs and their individual case their personality type and engaging with them in a way that actually help them to fulfill like their demonstrate themselves openly and to fulfill their needs and to excel at their competence so looking at individuals as individuals and integrating that across the whole operation of the business is extremely valuable thing to focus on if we’re like looking about long-term sustainability and people loving their work and becoming more committed to it if you treat them as humans you’re going to love that how we could develop that at the employees the mr abraham how that could be reachable because not every employee has these potentials and these skills so how can we develop that yeah i think like the strongest component in any setup is the culture and i think the leadership are what are consistently influencing this culture so there’s a lot of things to be done systemically when we look about the personal or the hr department that we have systems ways of people to discover their competence there are many questionnaires that’s available that people can go through and extract their core competence but what always win is the idea of getting senior leadership walking across the employee employees and talking to them so talking to them face to face and also going to depend on that organization size is that the more time you need to commit it to talk straight to people and understand their their challenges so becoming less focused on looking at screens and having direct conversations with people would be an extremely valuable tool beside of course the knowledge about how do i discover people’s confidence how do i i focus on that positively that’s that’s also a core competence in terms of building the systems to maintain that but in the core if we find leaders who are like walking with employees having discussions with them openly that would make them more open to contribute and to bring their concerns to the leadership and eventually solving that and becoming more committed to the work environment yes uh picking on what you just said you spoke about leadership so what are the one of or some of the traits uh essential traits or must-haves of a successful leader yeah thank you for asking that because also it comes very close to to the idea of building connections you know like connections has to do with being empathetic so if to connect with someone i have to be there as a human being other than someone with demonstrating authority so the old pattern of looking at leadership and power is looking at it as an authority is in a title so by then like leaders who kind of embody this attitude is that i reached that position because of my years of hard work and i deserve that and it’s my position right now and i demonstrate though 30. so here we come into in any exchange with someone i’m talking in a position for 30 and that’s kind of the bad leadership attitude sometimes it works on certain environments but that’s not how you get sustainable development and sustainable um kind of winning for businesses to work they have actually conducted research to see even in very critical environments like um like fund managers and investment bankers etc and they found that they actually though there was an extensive research and it’s very difficult research as well because they got senior leadership on camera and seeing how they interact with their employees and their investment opportunities and they analyze the data in terms of their approach to kind of leading these very critical industries in which that when we think about investors we think about people who are being aggressive and they’re in a very kind of dominant position but they found that those who were more empathetic and dealing with people as humans were actually more successful in terms of the return of their investment because also there is a critical component once you go to the positional power is that you actually start losing lots of intelligence from the community so people going to be feeding you with what you need to what you want to listen to other than what’s going on so being empathetic dealing with people as human to human demonstrating some vulnerability it’s not that i know it all and these are also something to um instill in individuals who eventually is going to become the leadership so the best way also as we said is to build the culture of that in the companies and in a society as whole even when you look at it from the household how people were brought up so people who were brought up in authoritative households are more likely to be more authoritative you want to control but those who had the space to participate with their parents to take decisions and to kind of participate with their colleagues and with their siblings they’re more likely to become more empathetic and open for these experiences so even families here do have some responsibility in bringing in the right leadership attitude and eventually leading in that direction yes the leadership as you have kindly mentioned uh mr abdul is very important and but how a a person could be a successful leader and gain the love and respect of his um of the employees that he’s working with or the people who are under his management and yet he should be firm and he should reach the deadlines which are set for him so how can we reach this very tough equation yeah this is a very tough equation for any leader because if we look at these two extremes we mentioned usually those who are very strict and very sharp they are most likely are very good at getting things done in the short term so they know how to set up very strict rules and to get everyone to stick to it on the other hand when you think about people who are more empathetic we’d understand if i said that i couldn’t match the deadline because of such that they would eventually understand that i think the challenge here is looking at this as a long-term venture as long-term investment and that so i have to be like mostly outsourcing this responsibility of managing the deadline to the rules and the the code of conduct within the society so other than me telling you to do that we said we sit down as a group and we say that these are the responsibilities of every individual within a group we want to meet this deadline like you actually build emotional capacity for people in readiness you understand their needs so by then they if there is any challenge they can talk to you so you opened up all the challenges and any possible challenge they might face to face this objective but then he created an open environment but by then there is responsibility so when it comes to matching deadline there is responsibility and there’s going to be some tough conversation so when you’re empathetic it doesn’t mean that you do not have to be confrontational sometimes you have to even be more confrontational because being creating this empathetic sphere would require people to become more vulnerable and the first one who’s going to become vulnerable is you as a leader so when you say that i need this to get done and we need this as an institution you’re making yourself vulnerable and then they are seeing that they’re contributing to that and most people are going to respond positively to this and those who does not respond positively maybe you just do not need them in their team so but then if people does not fit within their culture maybe the good decision is to just let them go yes indeed uh by this uh we come to the end of this segment uh we are that we really do appreciate your insight mr rahman business coach thank you so much for being with us on the breakfast room thank you for having me thank you very much it was a pleasure to have you with us thank you very much i know that our viewers will come to the end of this edition of the breakfast show you were in the company of myself thank you thank you the dear viewers until we meet again [Music]
[Nile TV] Leadership & Social Dynamics

[Nile TV] Leadership & Social Dynamics

[Music] welcome back and in this segment of our show we are going to talk about the leadership and the social dynamic and how to cooperate have a healthy and fruitful and productive work environment that would be our topic of discussion with our dear guest institute mr abdu magdy he is an executive coach good morning sir good morning well good morning well definitely first of all to be able to develop the human capacity we have to identify the different personality patterns and how to approach it so how can that be assessed yes definitely i think like the objective of every organization and every team and every project is to make the best utilization of everyone into achieving a specific objective and i think one of the difficult challenges there is understanding what people actually want out of the experience their preferences in terms of communication and also how to kind of get them to work together to achieve that objective so this is usually a kind of a big challenge and sometimes unfortunately it’s a unspoken off challenge for organizations and how to get this social dynamics components uh going so and and definitely there is there is some times in which that a lot of work environment actually research shows that there is huge percentage in which that employees are very much unsatisfied they are losing energy they are not excited to go to work and that sometimes is a challenge of not properly understanding and addressing different personality types and not understanding social dynamics at the level of complexity requires to get things going dr abdul from your point of view of course there are different types of personalities that do exist in a group how do they interact and how should they interact together in order to achieve the required objective that’s a very good question i think that’s actually the core of understanding and working with social dynamics i think like we have different like personality archetypes that actually built around everyone’s like approach in life and almost philosophy so um as we understand if we if we like imagine any project or organization as a bus which is like one of the uh the famous ways and easiest ways to comprehend that we’re going to be seeing like the ones who are in the leadership they are the ones who are leading the bus the they have the map they have the understanding they understand the objectives that they are they have the strong character in kind of leading that force and these are the alphas so the awfuls are like um the of uh like abilities and decision making they voice their opinions and basically they are like strong leaders who push things farther afterwards we’re going to find like betas who are not necessarily as dominant in terms of their behavior and their psychology but rather they are fine who’s following the leader and for them it becomes more about a social experience other than about the the objective itself and we have other rules but i think like the last rule that we look at are the sigmas which basically they are more like like the alphas but they are introverted so other than like being in the front of the bus they choose to be at the back of the bus and be focused on observing what’s going on and they prefer to only interfere once they can actually bring something positive to the table so understanding these different personality types in the middle we can see people who are quite like separated or isolated they do not they do not have interest in like doing any influence but rather they are happy to be kind of provided with what they need um like to survive and continue being part of the group so we would actually find from that when it comes to a matter of leadership and moving things forward we have the alphas at the front and we have the sigmas at the back of the bus where basically um the alphas are if things are going very well then the oppos would actually be doing 100 of the work but by then if things are not really going appropriately by then the sigmas might actually feel obligated to interfere uh with the group dynamics now definitely when we talk about group work that needs cohesion now definitely each of us is different from the others so definitely sometimes there’ll be friction or disagreements so how can we create cohesion within the group to create this group dynamics that you were talking about yes i think like human society like agreed on having a code of conduct when it comes to like interactions like this so there is no other solution other than for people to talk together and to specify what are the principles upon which we want to move forward and that has to be like an open sharing process in which everybody really opens up and and writes down what they really care for and the challenge with that is not that this exercise does not take place because usually it takes place in all organizations and projects but by then it becomes a responsibility of the entity that’s actually controlling this setup is to maintain no breaking of these rules from anybody so an organization that’s actually managing this environment should be very like decisive and sharp in terms of tracking these like principles and to treat everyone equally in terms of of violating or probably needing to be coached on how to adhere to that so in an environment for example we say that our principle is trust yeah it’s not possible to be broken inside the circle and then this is not being addressed so if we say that this is about trust then if trust is broken we need to say that trust was broken and we’re sorry and then we’re not going to do this again and we move forward but in case trust is broken and you do not go there and say that trust is not broken is not broken this is not addressed properly and directly in the same way it was made that actually creates a lot of tension and that creates possibly a lot of depression and a lot of unexpressed feelings and by then people do not have the energy or the motives to contribute equally to the group mr anto uh what would be the negative scenarios that could occur if we cannot maintain the um cohesion inside the group and the dynamics inside the group of the teamwork yeah i think like the the first thing that gets lost is the objective which is basically why are we here because if we look at a group that’s working together they have a specific objective and probably everyone would have a different objective from their perspective but by then there has to be a properly defined objective for the whole group and basically um what’s what should be done is that everyone is contributing in a way for the this final objective to be reached so um getting back to your question when it comes to uh what needs to be done the question is about what needs to be done to maintain um like this looking towards the objective uh i think that um getting back to um to what was written in terms of the code of conduct and interference from this organization is vital because if we don’t do this we’re going to have lots of energy we’re going to have people who are uh possibly depressed we’re going to have some abuse and harassment at the workplace and we possibly are going to get into because also understanding that the power dynamic within the group is there are actually some very powerful people who are not bringing their power to the group and sometimes if these people really understand that things are not going well and they’re going to bring that in a way that’s not going to be convenient to everybody so sometimes we have a lone wolf scenario in which that the whole group is being punished because uh we’re not adhering to that i think we have a lot of creative examples like in the movies there is a movie called law abiding citizen um the movie called the rock even like scent of a woman these are all movies that discuss right is that people with like a sigma personality type they are put in an environment where the law is being broken and this not being addressed and then the situation goes totally dramatic so understanding that this would be the fault of the authority or the organization that they are not addressing things explicitly because if they address things explicitly they say that this is a code of conduct we’re gonna have to follow it equally by then there will be no friction people going to be happy energetic and moving forward and usually problems happen when the organization or the leader are not identifying that and expressing it openly now you’ve classified the work group in alphabet up to and that some are doers and some are not but then how can we create incentive because definitely if you’re a sigma individual or if you’re a gamma one you might not feel that you have a leadership perspective so maybe you wouldn’t be as incentives to do to give your best so how can we bring the best out of everybody so that eventually everybody more or less of course it’s difficult to to have everyone alpha but at least everybody will be really effective and energetic exactly i think i think part of the question is that not actually everyone wants to be alpha because there is like for example there is a social course to be in an offer in terms of maintaining lots of social connections and social relationships and not everyone is willing to to make such an investment but i think it’s it comes back to the responsibility of who is holding the floor the organization or the leadership that’s holding the floor they should be actually introducing lots of exercises and games that allow people to identify the different personality types and also understanding that as a group work together this happens naturally so um like if the organization in which this exercise is taking place is not intelligent enough and aware enough and doing like enough work and identifying how can we like get people to openly share about their preferences their personality types what they want out of the experience there are many exercises in which this could be done and it becomes a necessary for these exercises to take place by them to what extent the individuals here in the group could influence a role and they have their own way of changing their status yeah okay i think like that’s more of a leadership question because as we said that like alpha seems to be like the most desired uh like like uh status and uh accordingly there there would seem to be a lot of competition around who’s gonna get into the leadership which actually happens across all organizations so all existing organizations that is usually different uh like like political struggles that goes around who actually influence the the outcomes and uh and i think like one of these like like one of these necessary ingredients for individuals to also understand is that they have to accept the rules they have to accept that this is this is my things and this is the way that i would like things to be done and they would actually communicate this to others so for example if i’m if i see myself as an as an expert who does not want to lead i would actually go to the group telling that guys i have a technical expertise i have no experi like interest in leading that uh but rather i would like to contribute my expertise in a way that’s most convenient to others so being open and expressing the way things work for you uh would possibly be like one of the best ways for this to go on also understanding that there is a cycle because people go through different experiences and with these experiences some people could change their perception so some current sigmas could for example if we can see someone who’s like 55 60 years old who is um like an advisory board member of an organization so as an advisory board member he provides expertise to the leadership but he’s not actually in the leadership so there are different changes that happen with age with experience and i think it’s important to identify and understand how can we move move on and move forward while getting all these issues addressed and avoiding negative scenarios that might evolve from lack of understanding a lot of addressing things properly so how can we detect whether we’re on the right track or not yeah i think i think there are like analytical ways to do that in terms of like surveys and things like that but the best way is that for the people in the leadership is to actually walk in like in between the teams is because uh like if they show up and say that how was your weekend uh were you enjoying your time do you feel energized if we see that the energy in the room is low that means there is something wrong going on so direct personal interaction becomes very necessary for to understand and identify that there is something might be going wrong and by then they would introduce the necessary actions to fix that yeah but mr abdul we can develop the awareness of the leadership in order to feel that uh and to be aware that there is actually a negative energy no i should boost the morale of the employees not everyone and not every leadership is aware of that yeah i think that’s a very very big problem because also we have different types of institutions and organizations and the leaders have different like uh educational backgrounds so not all of them understand that um like what’s going on with any they have a problem they do not understand what’s going on or how to fix it so it becomes necessary for them to do the actual efforts to seek consultants um to actually be protein and provide them with the the actual insights into what’s going on how to fix it and they have to also be flexible in taking this feedback because sometimes it’s very difficult for people in the leadership to say that we do not know so they have to reach that there is a problem here and we do not know and we need help in fixing that so um for them to confess to that and address it that becomes necessary for like the objective and the group to move forward indeed doctor abdul marti our executive coach thank you very much for being our guest for today a pleasure thank you thank you very much doctor and that brings us to the end of today’s episode of breakfast show but first of all i’d like to thank my colleague majesty robia thank you very much thank you very much joshua thank you very much and have a good day everyone [Music]
[Nile TV] The On-Demand Economy

[Nile TV] The On-Demand Economy

welcome back dear viewers and now in this segment we are going to talk about training young youths to find suitable jobs how to encourage young entrepreneurs and how to increase their potentials and skills in young generations and we are joined here by mr abdul maghdi entrepreneurship expert good morning good morning mr abdu mr alto can you please highlight briefly the key trends in the workplace today as a result of the changes in the technology and in the economy yes i think by looking at the economy and the evolution of technology and the promises of new trends like artificial intelligence and automation and even the trends in the past 20 years when it comes to like the way the economy works and the increase of on-demand products and services that there have been a shift on having a lot of labors working on demand and moving into being self-employed if we take examples like some of the car sharing companies in which that individuals are able to offer the service of driving others other consumers across these car sharing apps so then it becomes an opportunity for those who can actually find a source of income through through technology in this way also this affects not just on the individual level but on a major corporate level we can see lots of corporates shifting the way they work and the way they interact with their employees there is a movement towards outsourcing so they rely when external contractors were not necessarily on the payroll of the company as as employees for the long term so and also the technology allowed lots of potential entrepreneurs to jump in and to start their own businesses so we can see lots of evolution towards people moving towards self-employment through offering something to the market lots of people utilizing digital platforms to increase their income and accordingly becoming less likely and at least interested in regular traditional jobs and also corporates looking at utilizing the gig economy or consultants or external contractors and that also created a different set of co-working uh places and uh types of applications platforms that became really popular to match the needs the demand and and the offering in this uh in the market now uh mr mcgee we have some new concepts in our world of economy like self-employment freelancers uh outsourcing sites so can you elaborate on these new concepts yes definitely as we can see like self-employment had been around like since ever like but it was kind of exclusive for like artists and those independent workers craftsmen etc i think what we can see right now in terms of entrepreneurship or self-employed is that there is a larger opportunity for like different types of professionals white cooler professionals to get into being self-employed so the opportunity having digital channels and also different tools to find jobs like linkedin like facebook etc to be able to promote themselves and find jobs this allowed a different category of people to jump in and being able to become self-employed as a result these people are actually doing business they will look for the places for the services that they can rely on to expand their businesses so if we can think about it where should these self-employed work should they start their own offices or should they utilize some like shared offices for example so this becomes evolution of shared offices or what we know as co-working places and it’s good to know that like right now in egypt there are over 200 co-working spaces spread around the country so um but all over egypt all over egypt yes and i think most of them are in cairo giza so it’s quite uh becoming quite intense in terms of the availability of those these spaces that’s available for those who are self-employed and working on their own to utilize their own offices so that’s where like self-employed and entrepreneurship we can look a lot of lots of corporates they are changing the way we hire others for particular jobs but there is a movement where it’s outsourcing there’s a lot of external consultants utilization of outsourcing sites where the corporate can post different jobs and different and also relying on innovation programs even like bringing people from outside the country to bring in ideas and come up with products for some of their challenges so these are all kind of trends that evolved from the changes and technology and the way like people work yeah mr after let’s break down these trends and get to know more what they might mean for our viewers for to what extent as we have been talking here about the co-working space how the co-working space could be beneficial and important for someone who wants to start a new business for example yeah i mean like we know business there has to be like consistent business communication there has to be some secretarial work there has to be a way in which the packaging and the branding of the work environment is done which could be actually very challenging to have in at home and also about productivity because if we’re talking about those who are self-employed or they are solopreneurs they are working on their own they have the challenge of where are they going to work from and there are some still challenges in getting the culture off home offices out there so like managing a home office could be challenging so having something like co-working spaces in which that they could basically have their business address to the co-working space they would have a flexible desk in which they can like work and security and exactly security and facility things like meeting rooms sitting down with their clients in a convenience environment so all these are potential services for the self-employed or the solopreneurs to utilize from working spaces and we see that trend also has a as a positive connotation also it has a negative connotation why because the negative connotation would be looked at from the changes in the concept of find a stable traditional job so we can see that as all these trends come by it’s it becomes like less likely for people to find or to go for a traditional job which allows other people who are kind of open enough for the idea to find other alternatives to increase their income so we could see that this is a shift an individual could be ready by looking at like um like a process of what how can i engage in this type of economy by offering services and products so sir what about the demand for these jobs and who needs these services and how do they get to choose and guarantee the results yeah i think if we look at specifically corporates like looking for professional jobs to get done or even like at home looking for technicians to fix something at home etc there is always a challenge of guaranteeing the result that’s why it becomes kind of important to look at the brand and the platform that’s offering the service so that’s uh that’s also an opportunity and a challenge for entrepreneurs is that who are building these platforms is to put together the like the quality standards the guaranteed results the the testing of service providers before offering a service so there have been different models on offering these services and some of the positive trends in this direction for example is things like this star rating like is as you utilize the service provider you’re able to leave feedback and give a star rating so by then if i’m looking for the service and i can go there and i can look at the star rating and the feedback by different service providers so this allows me to choose the ones who are best performing also it allows for those who are getting there is to offer services even for free to increase the rating so accordingly having things like creating systems allows for professionals who are offering the service and also for those utilizing the service to have an expectations about how things are going to go in the future so uh technology played a rule there and also there is a shift also beside these open platforms to have much more like community based controlled platforms like for example we see that these are the 200 most demanded jobs or these are the two most most demanded like functions and accordingly we offer these and you order from us as a brand and then we outsource these to others so there’s another like concept in which that you order from a specific brand which also is gaining popularity because by then the the quality and the guarantee comes from the brand other than from the individual themselves yes uh mr mcd as an entrepreneur expert to what extent the gig economy and the entrepreneurship and the startups are now uh taking the ground and the the youth are more willing to work in that the domains and fields more than just being an employee in a big company or um an internal multinational company yeah we see we see like entrepreneurship and startups is becoming an active trend so i think we would say that majority of youth as he gets into the university like from 18 to 22 they start viewing entrepreneurship and building startups as very desirable they can relate to all that the cultural and like media like stories about uh bill gates mark zuckerberg etc etc i think all these successes stories you see now they have the youths are more creative they are having more creativity now than before do you see do you think so yes definitely like technology have it like evolved and provided them as a platform to express themselves so they kind of have to do something to express themselves and even like this form of self expressions work on their ability to add something and to um to build something and express their creativity so definitely they have been becoming more creative and as a result of that and sometimes it happens naturally because like some of the stories of entrepreneurs we have ladies who like to kind of design things for themselves and then they post that on instagram for example and their friends like it so we start another channel to sell these uh kind of handmade uh craft so some of these businesses has evolved using technology women are cooking now and selling food through the the social media and many projects are going on uh exactly i mean like delivery of uh groceries delivery of uh fruits and vegetables cooking and lots of other this is your advice to housewives who want to make use of their time if they have some free time yeah you know it could be more sophisticated it depends on the individual themselves so it depends on the individual and the skill set so if someone comes from a professional background who used to work in business administration for example there could be better opportunities for them offering secretarial services for example so they they become like the secretary for a number of entrepreneurs so uh if someone comes from a professional background and they’re able to respond to the phone like access emails do some online research but then it becomes um it could be more like higher value service to offer secretary or services in case they are better at it from other but definitely those who are better at cooking they can actually like start offering uh like cooking services and different types of services so i think it would get back to the individual understanding their core competence and um and accordingly they would be able to focus on that and that’s where they can find success in like in an open economy because if they are like competent at that if they do a good job so by then their brand is going to be known and accordingly we’re going to get more clients and we’ll be able to grow this even beyond an individual business that could grow to a lot of companies like there is lots of um like household businesses that are starting from home for like students and their mothers they’re starting to like do their cooking business and selling that and then they start building like doing ads and by then it goes beyond their home they have to be the kitchen and shops they are opening shops and chains as well uh many that start with small businesses and then they expand it to a great extent exactly exactly so it becomes a very interesting test bed for new ideas so i think like for individuals they could look at the top three things they are very passionate about the there is something we call the hedgehog concept like the hitchhike concept is the interaction of intersection of uh what you’re passionate about what’s your competent ads and what you can make money doing so if someone is is like would be able to list the things they are very passionate about they are competent at and you could make money with you could experiment with like a few things a few offers and out of this you would selected something that’s much more consistent could generate more consistent income from them okay i’d like to thank you mr abdul macd entrepreneurship experts for being with us today pleasure thank you very much uh mr abdul and happy aid [Music] and this brings us to viewers to the end of today’s edition of the breakfast show i’d like to thank my colleagues we come to the end of this edition till tomorrow with another question [Music] we’re gonna celebrate [Music] [Applause] the 1998 fifa world cup final was played between brazil and france the host nation on the 12th of july at the sandonee stadium the final was contested by brazil who were then the defending champions having won the previous fifa world cup four years earlier in the us 94 and the host nation france who had reached the final of the tournament for the very first time france won the match decisively three nothing a blowout to claim the world cup for the very first time for the timing of the match two days before busty day adding to the significance of the victory zayn dean zidane one of the match and man of the tournament scored twice before halftime and emmanuel petty added a third goal in the last minutes the match had an attendance in the region of 75 000 the match also saw speculation on the condition of the brazilian striker ronaldo who suffered a convulsive fit on the eve of the match after initially being left out of the team sheet in spite of his physical state it was announced just 72 minutes before kickoff that he was going to play in the match ronaldo sustained an injury in a clash with french goalkeeper fabian abaces although it was believed that the decision to play ronaldo had backfired it was understandable as the player had been a crucial member of the site throughout the tournament having scored four goals and created three more but 1998 was zayn and deansy dance here it was france’s year
[Nile TV] Social & Power Dynamics in the Workplace

[Nile TV] Social & Power Dynamics in the Workplace

[Music] welcome back our dear viewers and now we are going to talk about the social and power dynamics at the workplace and we are very much delighted to have our dear guest in the studio mr abdulrahman and our entrepreneurship expert to shed light about that topic good morning good morning good morning mr mcd first uh between being desirable and negatively negatively perceived the why is a power such controversial topic yeah i think like power would be a very controversial topic because it’s something desirable i think all of us would like to be more powerful and i think all of us also do have negative experience with powerful people so there is always like a dissonance internally when people talk about power is it do you want more power because they equate power with freedom though they also have experiences where is the responsibility and also sometimes having to face other powerful individuals who are not allowing them to do what they want so that’s why there is always like a dissonance and approach of power some people really want to go for becoming more powerful and also they are shy away from getting into the stage of becoming powerful mr magati mentioning three different types of powers we have character position knowledge and resources what at uh what are the common traits among people with these different types of powers from your point of view yeah i think as you mentioned like uh power and powerful people the kind of common different brackets that are people who really have this power as a result of their possession so they have a specific position within the organization or the society and based on that they are powerful because they can practice their authority as part of this possession there are others who is interesting characters and insights and these people can also like influence others based on their character traits and the different abilities and i think what all these different characters have in common is their their ability to connect with other people and also their ability to be grounded in different situations so they are not they are not easily moved to a specific direction they have their own thinking their own strategy and basically they when they have a person-to-person interaction they know exactly how to deal with different characters and with different types of people so i would say that being powerful is having a lot of self-understanding understanding self and the ability to profile others and understand their needs and accordingly relate to them individually and as groups properly and we most likely by then that’s what people in different like possessions of power would would be able to sustain the power uh based on these traits so sir what is the difference between approaching interactions from status and likability perspectives yeah i think in a recent book called popular there have been a lot of research especially when with teenagers during the like adelsine stage that actually uh classifies people into five like categories there are people who are like highly accepted or like the ones who are popular during like the high school uh like stage of everyone’s life we could relate whether during high school we were very popular we were very accepted we are very liked or were very controversial some yeah we can all always relate to profiles of people who had been like controversial here they are like sometimes very well liked and sometimes also it’s kind of hard to relate to them and also there have been like others who are like uh ignored or neglected uh from the group so looking at the um the part of either being accepted and being popular or being controversial i think that’s actually um gets with us as we grow from the auto scene stage into like our like current positions and what we’re doing so uh getting back to your your questions in terms of like um what was the uh like like the the common traits or uh like like how this affects the uh the actions of people and and society uh i would say that that we come at the current stage with the same mentality uh that that gets from this stage and accordingly uh we could see that uh some people year into status status is by then is something that you gain as a result of actions that could be aggressive so status is like i would say that i’m able to force people to do something based on my own social status so by then status is something that reflects authority and actions that could not be always positive though that likability is uh people who are mostly have been in accepted category as during their unseen stages that they are used to being part of community so it gets down to uh cooperation versus authority some people look at leadership possessions and like being powerful from the perspective of actually having status so being able to control people and manipulate them and moving in your direction versus being likable in terms of like dealing with people in a fair way so individuals will start liking you and based on that you grow your power accordingly and i think we can see some examples even like with some of the football players experts like musa for example if you look at musa we see that he seems to be a very nice guy and actually people like him so this is more like he gains power based on likability so he’s able to perform his job properly properly and based on that he uh actually gains a lot of likability versus a status others who might become a president of a specific club or they have a specific authoritative rule and based on that people have to follow them because of their authority and what they would do if they didn’t other than being likeable give us these examples of how a powerful behavior look like yeah i think like um we all can actually identify that uh normally like as human beings we could see the different aura of power that people are able to uh like a display i think i could relate it like to this while getting into the building because while getting into the building the security was because you have to enter the building with a card so you have to have an access card and i’m a guest so i’m i’m invited i don’t have access card so while actually accessing from the gate i uh did not even stop to kind of explain but rather i continued walking and told him that i have i’m a guest i have an invitation somewhere so being proactive in mentioning why you’re there and actually getting into a place as if you already know what what has to be done i think that’s actually could be seen as powerful behavior because you understand the rules and then you’re able to communicate that properly without having to kind of hesitate like another way to look at powerful behavior is uh response is that sometimes when people get like negative or positive response from others they change their attitude their ideas the even like they would change their facial expressions but rather powerful behavior and powerful individuals usually they are more still and they are more long-term thinkers other than having some immediate response to specific change on time which also displays that like whatever happens is not is not affecting me and there are philosophies that build around that for example stoicism is one of the philosophies that kind of promotes the idea of uh not being emotionally reactive to whatever happens rather looking at things on its long-term projections so i think this is something very apparent when it comes to powerful behavior no short-term reactions is knowing what they are doing they follow the rules but by then they do this uh very fluidly and very smoothly yeah so sir can you shed light on the social hierarchy and how can i detect my place in it yeah i think if we look at like studying how like the the social structure is um is set up is it we will always like within groups we see that there is someone in the leadership so what do you call it the alpha so whether the alpha male or the alpha females they are ones with some like strong leadership traits they are able to lead the group and um mostly influence where the group uh goes so offals are usually um like the the extroverteds they are very good with people they have a sense of direction and they are very good executives so these are the alphas who come into uh usually the leadership of different groups and usually the alphas are to a lot of extent uh assert their influence on others so usually an alpha would want others to follow them and want others to acknowledge that they are the leaders so here comes the difference with what we call it beta or like that whether the better males or the bit of females that they are the ones who acknowledge that the alpha is the leader of the group and then they work under the alpha so they are accepting the fact that in their actions within the group was going to have to be influenced with whatever the office says so these are also other individuals whose leadership skills and with quite some influence but they do not see themselves as like the deciders of their own destiny or the ones who take the absolute leadership of the group but rather they participate under the umbrella of the alpha and and then we get to the gomers who are actually happy to be part of the group they do nothing do not have skills or aspirations to uh get into the leadership of the groups and another interesting profile that usually coming from the controversial category is what we call the sigmas or the lone walls are the ones who actually cert like uh live in close proximity with the group but they are not necessarily um like following the alpha so usually uh they are ones who are highly independent uh usually they have an expert profile they have knowledge and insights they are able to survive on their own and in a lot of cases there might be some power struggle with the current alpha the current leader of the group or in some cases there could be some arrangements worked with um with them so i think looking at your situation in uh in the workplace and not necessarily in terms of possessions but in terms of group dynamics to what like extent are you able to influence the decisions you can actually see where do you relate are you an alpha are you the absolute leader are you asserting your dominance over others do you want others to like submit to you or are you following the leader so you’re getting your stuff done but you have a leader that you have to get back to while doing everything or you do not really care about that so for you it’s just about enjoying your time and doing your craft or are you someone who i do have your own agenda and uh you are slightly manipulative and you know how to get what you want and often the alpha does not like that because the alpha like people who uh follow them as they see so i think like relating to these different profiles we would be able to identify which category do we belong to mr um how to deal with someone who is exercising excessive unfairly power against us yeah i think this is um this is a very tricky part that all of us face in our careers and in our lives usually uh if we are within a group there has to be like if it’s an organization we have to have some uh rules and ethos for how the organization works and our commitment as individual would be going towards these like ethos of the organization of the um like probably the hr rules and etc and sometimes people uh based on like either like social circles or it clicks with any organization try to influence uh our possession with within the group uh based on how are we closely tied to them so uh the best like response to that is actually not a direct response direct immediate response but is actually becoming grounded as if not having a very immediate reaction to every specific um like like action that’s given to us from these powerful individuals and rather focusing on doing what we do very very well so becoming excellent and at what we do this is a core to be able to maintain our possession and then referring to the to the rules and regulations within the organization and also understanding that it’s grouped so usually there is someone who’s above this alpha within this group if we are a group within a larger group we’d understand that by doing what we uh what we’re supposed to do very well but then we’re serving like like a higher status individuals and like a much more powerful entity which is the organization and at some point in time we might have the opportunity to showcase our commitment and showcase like lots of unfair activities that’s happening to us like probably indirectly through our constant efforts so for example if we look at within a specific group uh there is someone that’s uh quite ignoring or putting aside someone who have qualifications to to move ahead because they are not like personally submissive to them for example like if we say that an alpha who is pretty much about over asserting themselves and someone who has to be like the lone wolf of the group because they do not think that they should submit to the same way things work at some point in time they might discover that this alpha you do actually have a leadership that’s mostly like they are sigmas who are actually directing that so usually in in social situations and in organizational situations we uh we judge quickly in terms of who’s in charge and sometimes the ones that looks to be in charge they are not an absolute power they are not the all-powerful but rather there are others who could be more powerful than them and usually those who are more powerful than them who does not want to get into the specific group dynamics they would be looking for other contenders to the level of leadership which also gives a lot of opportunities for sigmas and that’s why alpha is always fear signals because by then if they are not following them if there is someone who’s looking at the group they would understand that it’s not all following what i say but rather there are other directions of becoming more powerful so by then by doing what i what i do very well and by not being overreactive on a situation by situation basis but actually looking at this as a long-term strategy and transition eventually we will discover that there are like higher sources that’s going to notice the dynamics that’s happening than the group and sometimes it could be about exiting the group so if if this is the boundaries of this specific groups and i could not see any solution to that so one of the uh actions to be taken is actually becoming a sigma or becoming a lone wolf so if you used to be part of a group and by then you see that they are moving in a totally different direction eventually uh that’s how like people become sigmas is that they decide to be uh probably for a period of time close to the group but not necessarily part of it so uh in two minutes tell us quite quickly to what extent does social media and technology have affected the way uh we deal with power yeah i think like if we look at like modern interactions like whether socially within organizations we will see that like uh power have moved into like digital profiles so if you look about uh look at like facebook instagram twitter and all these social profiles like the the number of followers probably influence um like the uh the power that someone would have within a specific uh group and also it was kind of influenced people’s approach to power so people would would look at having probably more followers and much more intense interactions within a specific group would somehow get them obsessed about this idea of gaining status as we talked in like popularity the book that like compares the two different types of power like based on likability or status social media has like the um usually it puts matter in front of people so people would see themselves through the increasing numbers of interactions like expecting the likes and the engagements etc which which actually gets people to be more like status obsessed they always chicken out to what extent are they they’re gaining power and one of the things that comes as a result of that is that there’s a lot of people who have lots of followers and interactions online though they do not actually have any friends which is like one of the things that you would see is that they have huge followers but uh they have to have dinner alone or they do not have like any kind of uh intense social interactions compared to what we see uh online entrepreneurship expert thank you for being with us today yeah thank you always a pleasure thank you very much sir thank you and with that viewers we come to the end of this edition of the breakfast show you were in the company of myself my sirabi and my dear creature thank you very much thank you mahisti and see you tomorrow your viewers with a new [Music]
[Nile TV] Entrepreneurship & The Economy

[Nile TV] Entrepreneurship & The Economy

welcome back and to shed light about how entrepreneurship could boost the economy and be an important element in achieving a great and uh productive economy uh we are joined here in the suribao by our our entrepreneurship expert good morning good morning uh good morning doctor today we’re concentrating on the value of uh the business networking to grow the business now um what are the key aspects in such a concept doctor yeah i think like business networking as we know it is the ability to connect with other people i think one of the big challenges that entrepreneurs go through while they’re starting their own businesses even like those who had been in business for a while is that they stay focused in their business so they work inside the different dynamics and aspects of their business and they do not have the time or the focus to look like to get out of their business and to look at building strategic partnerships and building relationships around the business so business networking comes in handy for business owners and ceos that they’re able to shake hands with different potential partners potential hires potential clients and potential partners for their businesses and definitely that would be able to boost the business in case that you build the right relationships at the right time so having like an ongoing flow of new connections at the right time if you’re able to take advantage of the right connection that provides opportunities for growth definitely when is a good time dr abdul for owners to seek business networking when they should start to do so well i think um i think all the time i think like even at the point in which that they are starting to think about a new business idea there is going to depend on what do what do they discuss and the type of networking events they go to but definitely once they have an idea stage they have like they’re interested in a specific industry or an idea and by then they they would start networking and uh seeing what people in the industry are thinking and what are the interesting ideas that’s going around that because by then at the idea stage they’re going to move into product stage you’re going to know who’s qualified enough to build the products what are the existing partners that i can partner with to grow the business et cetera what about the specific challenges that a business network networking would be a good and useful to help and overcome yeah i think like different people use different networking for like different objectives i mean like one of the most popular is lead generation if you run a business and you’re looking for clients going to business networking events or like setting up profiles on business networking events is a vital way for you to connect with potential clients so definitely lead generation is a big part of it recruitment is is one required especially sea level executives if you’re looking at people with a lot of expertise so like going out and shaking hands with them and getting to know them personally before you go through the recruitment process is also a very effective uh process the expanding your network looking at like what’s happening in your industry and other industries is also another objective for which business networking is a very good investment what are different formats of business networking online and offline owner can take advantage of yeah i think like if you look at the the concept of business networking like if you believe in business networking and if you’d like to embody that and everything you do you can use whatever platform to do business networking we could see people using facebook groups for for business networking there are like dedicated websites like linkedin and several other regional websites that could be where you can set up your profile and do a lot of business networking um so do you believe that the social media here is playing an important role and the new um applications here that we can use for business networking as well exactly like if you look at business networking online and offline there is an interesting balance between that if you’re able to use online to build credibility and build your profile and get to know people and allow people to access your profile and to know what you’re working on this is going to be an interesting way to initiate connections and definitely all the available applications whether they are actually dedicated for business networking or even like some people use dating applications for business networking so there’s a lot of different utilizations for all social networking and connecting people application that uses connecting people the interesting point when it comes to moving these relationships offline which is the um which makes it actually more lively and more effective because once you meet someone and shake hands exchange business cards have like short discussions um these are like builds of stronger relationships other than just connecting on some kind of social network now doctor how much is too much of engaging in the business networking activities yeah i would say it gonna depend on that on the rule of the person inside the organization but there is a very popular term that’s used by uh people who usually criticize those super um like networkers which is not working so other than networking is written as not working like people who have like it’s their full-time job is just to go to networking events get some snacks and talk to people without actually having anything to do so this is an extreme case which actually happens sometimes because networking with the specific personality types could be very addictive so especially for business owners who should be busy doing other things they should like engage in networking activities as much as they would generate an ongoing flow of connections new ideas but not make it a full-time job so like once or twice um a week uh could be actually too much for uh probably too much it’s gonna depend on the business the stage of the business but looking at relevant networking events and focusing on that would be of a lot of value uh doctor how can we find relevant networking opportunities that’s a that’s a very very important question it’s also a challenging question uh because like when we look at it networks could actually be exclusive at some time so there are some like membership-based networks that’s closed for its members which i think majority of networks like to maintain like uh quality and relevance that’s why they are closed so they have to become a member first like before you um so there is these membership-based networks which you can get to know like very popular associations and networks in which that you can look at the terms what do we focus on is this relevant to me and by then you sign up to the membership you become a member of the network so identifying these networks that’s relevant to you and engaging with their activities is the straightforward approach definitely there is a lot of interesting things like applications like meetup and several other networks in which they have an events section so you can look at the events section and see like relevant events that’s scheduled there are something called events aggregators which is like different websites and applications that search the internet for events for geography so for example you can look at all relevant events in egypt and then you can filter that by business by specific industry so taking a taking a look at all these events probably you can do this yearly and quarterly so at the beginning of the year if you’re in charge of the market if you’re a business owner you can go at some of these event aggregators and build a list of the big networking events that might take place in in the coming year and basically you start signing up to these relevant events and then quarterly look at so you can actually break this down into a system so you would have an ongoing flow and commitment to attend some of these networking events because also sometimes as a business owner if you focus on the business you’re going to forget all about the networking components so it’s it’s always good to have a reminder that i need to go and look for networking events and attendant but definitely that doctor requires a lot of planning so how can we plan to be able to acquire an efficient network networking event and attend it and also impress others with what we have yeah i would say that when it comes to networking like experience is the ultimate teacher so i think it takes a lot of experience for people to know which are the relevant uh networking events etc but i think you can look at credible events for for example if you’re in a specific industry you’re going to look at others in the industry for example they had some positive feedback in very specific events so by then these seems to be critical credible events that i would like to attend as well and um and like looking at the event description and specific details probably getting in touch with the event organizers and understanding more about how does it work and all these are different ways to like identify that these are the most relevant events to me and before that definitely knowing what i want so um like there are some generic networking activities and there’s some very specific networking activities so knowing what i’m looking for and then looking at and investigating further the credibility and the program for the events for which i engage what are the highlights here of business networking etiquette uh doctorate yeah i think when it comes to business networking one of the big challenges especially like once people are going for lead generation is that the it becomes like overly salesy so they are like over sales themselves or they sell their products and services which is actually like in the networking environment you could actually promote yourself and promote your products and services but you have to do this intelligently it like how is by looking at what the network cares about so looking at this particular event what is it about and basically from my background and my connection how can i bring value to this and um like for example if we’re in a facebook group and this facebook group talks about a specific topic and i want to promote an upcoming event that i’m organizing um there is an approach for me to take the link the sign up link to the event and go to the group and to post it there until people please sign up to my event this is a very salesy and almost like unwelcomed approach though if i look at what this network talks about what do people there want to know and then i write a post i thoughtfully spend like an hour in writing a post that’s relevant to the network so people start reading that and you see that oh that seemed very critical i’m getting value out of reading that and then by the end by the way we’re organizing an activity if you’d like to take this further you can sign up there so this is a very decent way to introduce your activities to introduce yourself so um not being salesy but rather adding value that’s the biggest way to establish credibility in a network is that um you know they they call them cedars and leechers like if you’re a network and basically we’re contribution-based network i would either see the network by offering something offering value or i would actually be taking value out of the network so um the the highlight of being good at business networking and seeing what the network cares about and then providing value without having like any strings attached to doing that so if you go there provide value and then you don’t even introduce any service next time people are going to come talk to you to know what you’re doing so not being pushy but rather having a balance between bullying and pushing this is a very interesting uh like social concept and that works in business networking yes now doctor how to measure the impact of the networking activities how do we measure it for a company how would they measure the impact of what they are doing yeah i think that’s that’s a quite difficult question because like it’s it’s debatable in terms of i went to an event and i made some connection i met some 15 people but by then i’m not sure how many of these connections uh are becoming uh like fruitful win so i think you can do this on a yearly basis so if you’re if you’re a company and if you’re using business networking like uh you have um like a dedicated section or like indicated a period of time for business networking you can actually look at the effectiveness for each activity that you engaged with and you do that by basically writing down the contacts that you have created connecting with them and following up with them and basically once you do that you look at the rate of like established connection whether you’re generating new clients whether you establish new partnerships whether you moved into a new direction so um like when it comes to networking and making connections with people becomes more like long term and that sometimes after three years of meeting someone you remember that i know someone who had expertise in this area so probably i can connect with them so keeping the contact details engaging with people in a way that’s very convenient to them and by then you can start measuring and seeing the impact of these various networking events does it need intelligence uh dr abdul or does it need training here in order to do that networking in a positive way yeah i think definitely it needs both so it needs social intelligence to engage effectively in networking events not to be in ag because we do meet a lot of people who are just enact in order to sail or to have a good networking and it does reflect negatively on the person in front of you exactly yeah exactly i think like um also when it comes to like the best practices besides not being salesy and rather adding value a big part of this gets back to the social skills of the individual like social skills is basically other than uh like pushing what i have i would i would be spending more time getting the other person to talk about themselves understanding what are the challenges how do they view the world their their brain frequency how they are thinking about the world and then i would be presenting to them an idea or a concept that’s quite relevant to them something that you can relate to so this becomes like very convenient to them because you’re not like pushing an agenda on them but rather you’re engaging in a conversation with them like another aspect of that is not being pushy in the follow-up process i mean like if you’re following up with people and they probably they have been nice passing your business card but they are not interested in doing business with you so it’s it’s always healthy to how to draw a line here between being a nag and um pushy in front or with the person in front of you and just being an intelligent person who is attracting the attention of uh the the person in front of you and gain his attention and interest as well yeah i think like by then is it the talent here somehow well definitely it evolves into a talent but it’s about consistently thinking about providing value to people because by then like the talent is understanding people understanding their personality types what you’re looking for and then bringing value to them so it’s as if like i went to networking events not knowing what to expect and then someone spent three minutes knowing what uh my challenge is and then he thoughtfully uh thought that there is an interesting person that you can talk to or i know a website where you can find a lot of these listed where i have a format an excel sheet templates in which that you can use to get this done so by then if i if i introduce this to someone they would definitely be very interested in following up and taking the relationship farther because i actually added value and right now in business they say that there is an evolution in the way business is happening into what they call it open random and supportive so they say like businesses and and establishing connections in the business used to be uh closed selective and authoritative like there’s no hierarchy but rather what’s happening right now with a lot of innovations and new ideas is that you want to get to know a lot of people they do not have to be at the same size of the company they do not have to be as successful as your company per se but you would like to know what’s new what are the evolving companies etc so being open random and supportive and supportive here is by paying it forward it’s looking at what people are looking for and helping them with that that established definitely a lot of network credit that you can utilize uh on like getting favors from others from the network afterwards because you have consistently added value to it now doctor definitely this would be easier for a brand new company starting off because it’s still creating its image but what if this company is an older company now would changing the image and the branding require more networking efforts and to what extent would a company with a certain image be accepted within the networking community yeah like definitely i would say that more established companies or let’s call it institutions and institutions we have hierarchy and considerations for who to do what so the challenge usually from these entities engaging is choosing the who is going to engage on behalf of the company so by then it’s um because if the ceo is not available then like business development manager who should actually be representing the company at these events so giving authority to the individual to represent the company and also these individuals we do not have a very large scope of uh like authority to communicate on behalf of the company so usually we engage to the level that’s slightly personal so for even those coming to represent companies you should be allowed by the entity to kind of become like personal so they are communicating as human beings even if they are doing that on behalf of the company and and by then i mean like it and like for the companies they need to establish institutions we have the challenges that business the business environment is evolving quickly and there is new innovative startups so you want to go engage with these like new ideas to kind of um stay in touch with the trends because if entities are not doing the networking components if big companies are not doing the networking components or like the foresight components which is networking is a very big part of it by then like in a few years they’re not going to be in touch with new technologies and we have seen a lot of successful partnerships that happen between startups and big companies by having executives in the big companies coming to look at what’s happening there and seeing okay we can actually support this project because this is going to upgrade the way we do things inside our big institution so um like looking at it from an innovation perspective and being open about it having much more authority to communicate like on a personal uh side beside also the the corporate affairs and then following up with this consistently within the structure itself so it becomes more that i establish the connection with you and then i’m going to guide you inside my institution to take this opportunity further indeed uh dr abdul um at what extent these business networking could be boost to the economy yeah i think like um like business networking activities usually brings brings about a lot of opportunities that’s not seen so there’s a lot of business opportunities and potential new businesses that’s not on the surface because no one is talking about it because like every business owner is kind of they are working on their business they are focused exclusively they might have some very interesting experiences to share but unless they open up and they start sharing these experiences and these opportunities and by then you would say that like a few ideas together actually build a huge knowledge base upon which that you can first upgrade the level of knowledge and awareness within the industry and then you can definitely build new businesses that takes advantage of different components there could be some entities that build advanced capacity and technology components there could be others on like a business or sales or marketing capacities so if you bring all these ideas together but then you’re able to build new companies and new institutions and new kind of partnerships between different entities that would eventually boost the economy yes indeed now doctor when it comes to the business networking to what extent can it be challenging for some businesses yeah it actually could be challenging for some individuals because like we kind of like sometimes you classify people into introverts and extroverts so um like extroverts are they’re pretty fine with the stimulation so they they would go out and talk to people introverts usually they come and you find the corner and they settle down there so um like and this is very challenging because like networking is about walking to people and like shaking hands with them and having initiating a discussion with them that’s why there is like models that gets everybody to kind of do an organized networking which what they call speed networking so speed networking like activities is that it has time slots to say five minutes in these five minutes there is like something like a bell so every five minutes the build rings and then you have to move and talk to someone else so you organize the environment so if you have a hundred people in the room every five minutes they have to move to talk to someone else so by then like for these introverts who are not really used to this networking environments they’re going to find that someone else has to reach out and talk to them and and also for organizers sometimes you could find these introverts and like guide them into and introduce two uh to to each other’s to start talking together so like for these type of personalities there are specific formats that would definitely work for them and make it easier for them to engage in various networking events indeed mr abdulrahman our entrepreneurship expert thank you very much for your precious input thank you thanks for having me thank you very much doctor and that brings us to the end of our episode of breakfast show but first of all i’d like to thank my colleague maheshi thank you very much russian thank you very much our videos still tomorrow with another group it’s goodbye for now [Music]
[Nile TV] Green Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

[Nile TV] Green Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

[Music] welcome back and in this segment we will be talking about the green interpretership and how we can create an echo and the environment friendly business and i’m happy to have with me today mr abdul mahdi and he’s an entrepreneurship expert good morning thank you morning games first define to us what does it mean by a green startup yeah i think like green usually when the world is used it has to do with the environment so like when we talk about green business we’re getting startups we’re talking about businesses that’s taking the environment into perspective on and built around objectives to sustain the environment and like take care of the environment by conducting its businesses so i think in the vast decade or something there have been a lot of talks around like uh csr and the social responsibility of the businesses to consider the environment while operating their businesses this is almost the naked generation or the second generation from this thinking is that you’re creating businesses on top of ideas that’s about taking care of the environment so that’s what green startups is yes and what about your particular program because i understand that you’re part of an interesting initiative as well yeah i think that the switch med initiative is executed by the european union and they have the partners here in egypt to kind of like get in touch and work closely with green startups which is something that’s had been happening in the past like almost three to four months so and like a process for green startups those we with interesting ideas and projects in socially responsible or environmentally responsible businesses around the theme of responsible consumption and production like applying to the switch med program which is like executed by a number of organizations including the unido and particularly funded by the european union and throughout the process there were like eight companies selected to pitch their businesses to startups so they went through the process of training and capacity building in order to kind of build the core business model for their businesses and also be ready to pitch their businesses to investors so yeah like switch med uh contests it’s actually executed regionally around the uh mediterranean like the house of the mediterranean so egypt was one of the participating companies in the contest and we had eight companies selected to pitch and like in the event itself there were seven companies that presented their businesses to investors and stakeholders so in your opinion uh why for-profit companies might consider uh the environment that’s a very good question i think it’s one of the first questions that we have got while working with the entrepreneurs themselves because they asked why would investors invest in a something that takes care of the environment other than something that goes after profit so i think the bottom shift that’s happening right now is that beside operating a business that seeks profit like considering the environments and the concepts around the environment might actually make the business more profitable which is what one of the most obvious cases in the companies presented is like utilizing like assets that does not have value right now and actually generating value out of this through the the the process managed by the company would actually one of the cases one of the companies that participated in the program it’s actually creates a new material out of getting to like recyclable materials and mixing them together like creating a like another material with better mechanical properties and as a result using this material to build usual products that’s used in things like lighting poles cetera and the result of their products is uh three times cheaper than the ones in the market so for them they can keep a profit margin that’s much higher and they would actually supply products that’s very effective and fulfills the objective with even better properties so if we look at it from this perspective there is a lot of innovation that can take place in using recyclable materials to create both profit while also taking care of the environment another idea that was shared is is dried uh fruits and vegetables and like the idea is that in egyptian farmers they almost waste like 40 50 of the crops especially for very specific crops and like one of the innovators in the program like um like he created a device through which these farmers can actually dry these vegetables and fruits in-house in the farm itself so they actually they can ship it or they can transport it to the markets in which it’s being sold way way cheaper because by then you can condense like 50 tons into just one ton like when you dry it which actually was a very smart idea which like it would have both an economic potential and also it kind of solve like an immense problem that’s facing like farmers and the economy at large yes i understand also that there was one of the projects where they mixed the fiberglass with cut was cotton or cartonage yes yeah that was a project that i was i was uh like initially talking about yeah mixing fiberglass was hardened cartoons yes and by then creating a new material and the good thing is that like these products are being bought by even like ministries interiors and some high profile customers who are using it in lots of applications like in-street booths traffic booths like polls and different applications in which that the material is proving to be a very good alternative the ones in the market so and that’s potentially a huge market to be addressed so like there’s a lot of scope for innovation for new ideas that like goes around recycling while also being under the theme of being responsible in in consumption and also responsible in production so you’re not abusing the environment in any way and you’re using materials that’s already partially produced yes so tell us about the investors where are they interested in adopting some of these projects and start implementing them yes definitely i think when it comes to investors investors usually look at like um two perspectives like there is a perspective which is like the hard part which has to do about the the business model and the financial aspect because that’s their job they are investing money and they’re expecting return so for the when the hard part is kind of fulfilled with the data and the entrepreneur being ready and presentable by then i think lots of these especially private investors they would actually consider projects because they also take care of the environment so there is a sense of being motivated by the fact that this is an environmentally responsible business is even a plus for some of the investors once the the interest in the profit is secured of course yes i understand that there were several projects as well and i’m quite interested in the one that turns waste into fertilizers that that’s a very interesting project especially that in egypt we have a lot of waste yeah i think that’s that’s right i think that’s that’s one of the interesting projects that was presented is that you can use waste and we’re building a quite a big device so that’s that’s one of the challenges for the entrepreneurs that they needed the capital in order to build like um like a large uh chamber for kind of processing the waste and um and basically the idea is you’re collecting organic waste and then they they have a device like a champer through which they convert this into fertilizers and basically this fertilizer can be used as a cheaper inter alternative to uh kind of planting even in like um like areas in which that currently it does not have the right soil for like plantation so the project has a lot of potential especially when it comes to like egypt’s objective to expand uh the green uh parts of egypt so they produce fertilizer that’s much uh cheaper and also fulfills a lot because i think we import lots of fruit felt lighter so there is a gap in egypt’s production versus the import and we have been trying to reduce the uh the gab for importation so that’s another interesting project that fulfills the gap of our need to import and also opens up lots of potential but then if we have cheaper filterizer fertilizers that’s usable for creating much more green space in egypt i think that’s a very interesting idea and a very interesting concept usually the challenge that entrepreneurs get stuck at the execution challenge because to do something like that you need at least half a million egyptian pounds so who’s gonna do the initial half uh a million pounds so i think that’s why there is also beside the private investors who would probably could consider the risk once they see the maturity i think there could be engagement with different government and if you told me that they were cooperating with the ministry of environment as well in these projects right yes what other institutions are you cooperating with well i think in the event itself we had representative from the ministry of trade and industry and the ministry of investment and and foreign relations so these were all official parties and we were also doing engagement with gaffy and multiple other entities like under the umbrella of these ministries so i think there was some quite good engagement with different institutions and also we produced some materials after the event to continue further engagement with these projects and mobilize support for these entrepreneurs now so you’ve spoken about some of the challenges but what other challenges are you facing especially to be able to promote for your startups yeah i think like um like part of the challenge for startups is actually building a startup because building a company sounds like an exciting venture but there’s a lot of work behind the scenes so there’s a lot of challenges in getting the entrepreneur ready and get them committed and get them to work in the business for an extended period of time because like all these projects we’re talking about you can look at that entrepreneurs have been working from three to five years to read to get the projects to this level of maturity so this is a lot of work and a lot of commitment that’s being put into the the project so guaranteeing this continuous commitment is something that’s uh that’s uh very vital to the survival of the idea the concept and its potential us also building a team like moving beyond the innovation because like we’re talking about innovative concepts here like if you’re capable of moving beyond the originator of the idea and building a team and an institution i think that’s the most difficult transition is that there is someone who built something of value now we want to appreciate this person recognize what they have done and they want to build an institution which is what the company is around this concept to be able to scale this impact and have people with different skill sets and like marketing and business in sales etc to be able to expand the company so moving from an individual innovator’s idea which is pretty smart and has an impact into a company that’s executing this aggressively in the market that’s where we need lots of stakeholders to be involved and that’s why the event took place in order to collect and gather the stakeholders and investors to support these projects so what are the next steps for green startups in each well i think by now i think these green startups who participated as a switch med contest i think they gained quite an exposure and experience when it comes to their businesses like one of these participating companies is uh traveling to barcelona uh like to participate in switchmate connect next year so they are having even international exposure uh to represent egypt in an international contest yes switchmark is an annual occasion annual event yes i think it’s uh it’s a program by the european union i think we have an annual event that that takes place together uh different parties and that beside this uh like a single company that’s presenting it’s a project is that the the rest of the companies are continuously working on a project we’re continuously in contact with them to make sure that they are proceeding with contacting investors and stakeholders and we we look forward for opportunities to connect with any stakeholders so i think to find online even if you google and search for green startups in egypt i think it’s gonna you’re gonna land on some of these projects and uh potentially they would be very open for different types of collaboration now how expensive are are these startups like to create a business which is environment friendly is it is it cost friendly or is it expensive inexpensive because of the devices you’ll need to use well i think that that would depend on each individual case but we can say that like these entrepreneurs the strap their companies so far so they were actually spending on their own so we would think that they spend probably a few thousand dollars in kind of building the devices etc and they reach the prototype stage and i think that’s the stage in which that a business needs an external capital so i think like most of the startups were raising some somewhere between 500 000 to 2.5 million egyptian pounds like 500 000 egyptian pounds to 2.5 million egyptian pounds these it starts at least in a sense that’s a lot for a young person isn’t it well i think uh this might be young for like um like much for a young person but i don’t think they were young i think like some of the participating companies were more mature individuals i’m talking about the youth themselves the entrepreneurs who started the idea itself yeah i think like um like we can be pretty flexible in defining youth so i think some of the participants like 45 and 50 years old so that that’s a still an innovative uh concept and they’re still entrepreneurs so they actually also they are managing cash flow so they are used to running companies some of these are already existing companies with existing cash flow the mixing of the fiber glass et cetera that’s an operating company so they they know what to do with the money and uh and by then even like some of them who are at a less mature stage they would require less amounts of capital but when it comes also to investing for like professional investors they would be looking for like amounts like 500 000 different pounds 2.5 that’s still very comfortable for investors so how do you choose the participating companies well the parts many companies was choosing that contest itself which is like managed form from barcelona so i think like the um the idea was looking at the startups with the most potential those who already have exerted efforts in building something they have a product and you would need this kind of training and exposure in order to like take it to the next level do you find many egyptian companies interested in this uh event yeah i think this is uh this is almost one of the yearly times that’s being done in egypt and i think the level of participation and commitment of the participants have been very good now apart from this particular event tell me more about what do you advise entrepreneurs when they are starting their projects well actually there there there could be lots of lots of uh pieces of advice when it comes to what people like need to know once you’re starting their businesses but i think one of the uh of the core components that we even sense it with this program is the need to have like a sense of a timeline in which that during the timeline you’re going to be extremely focused on a very particular idea so for example the next six months my company’s objective is to present the business in front of this panel in this event so i would be very focused on like bringing everything into a very specific objective that i have in mind so i think especially when we’re talking about like underfunded understaffed companies we’re talking about the need to be very focused because by then it’s it’s all mobilized in the mind of a single individual so once we have a very a single objective just one thing to be done and then they bring everything under the umbrella of this one thing because these things would be necessary for the execution so i think like focusing on a very specific objective on a on time intervals would be a very good strategy for startup startups like to keep moving forward whatever is happening around them okay mr abdul mandi entrepreneurship expert thank you for being with us sir thank you thank you and now we will be going to a quick break and we will be looking at our live news and we’ll be back for more on breakfast [Music]
[Nile TV] Tech Trends to Boost Egyptian SMEs

[Nile TV] Tech Trends to Boost Egyptian SMEs

[Music] welcome back our dear viewers as we have promised at the beginning of the show that today we are going to talk about the importance of technology to what extent technology could help in boosting the business in Egypt and to solve the problem of unemployment and also to uh boost the economy uh through um attracting more investment and uh uh pushing forward the economy uh as as a whole to shed more light we are very much delighted to have with us Dr Abdu magdi is a technology consultant hello sir it’s a pleasure to be here thank you good morning uh Dr Abdu first to what extent technology help in minimizing running costs of business yeah I think like in today’s business and today’s world technology is integrated in everyday’s life and uh for business owners we’re looking for ways to minimize their costs I think there’s a lot of Technology Trends and Technology tools that’s available for them to do that yes and also to shift the investment that they have between different channels for example when it comes to advertising marketing and reaching the Right audience we’re seeing a lot of businesses using Facebook and Google advertising lots of channels opening up in terms of reaching to the customers in terms of managing customer relationships you might be able to use something like a CRM tool or customer relation management so when we look at technology and its rule in in business we can see that there’s a lot of potential in reducing costs and also helping businesses expand and reach more customers Mr Abdu what are the specific trends that are expected to be in focus in 2017 I think we have been seeing a lot of Trends coming up like like big names like Internet of Things uh Automation and virtual reality so these are all emerging trends when it comes to technology that’s influencing Like the Way businesses is being done like if we look at some of these concepts for example automation we can look at how each and every part of business can be automated starting from the marketing from the production lines there’s lots of tools that’s being developed in enhancing automation artificial intelligence is another aspect in which that’s analyzing and taking decisions based on like analyzing data within the business is something that’s coming uh to be done automatically as well so virtual reality is another aspect in which that people can like look at for example in a real estate business there’s a lot of applications when it comes to real estate and uh architecture Etc when it comes to Virtual Reality so all these are Trends that’s emerging and um the good thing is that some businesses have already started like building applications and taking advantage of these Technologies to enhance their business so in your opinion is internet marketing affecting business negatively um I wouldn’t say internet marketing or technology is affecting business negatively because like um as a technology evolves it open like it requires the right professionals and the right labor to get things done so I would say that like U when businesses and economies are embracing technology uh they would have a better chance for them to develop their business enhance their economy and it’s not going to be an issue yeah technology like U makes some existing ways of doing things unnecessary but it also opens up lots of possibilities for new ways and new possibilities how could be done Mr AB I think it has to be done by embracing technology I think it’s not like an individual decisions in which like which technology tool to use but I think on top of the business or the organization there has to be the thinking in terms of what are the technology Trends how can we take advantage of them and accordingly when you have that strategy people and also the technology people within each company looking at the best ways they can utilize business by then they would be directing and training their existing human resources to utilize Technologies and accordingly they would not need to to replace them though they would even need to kind of recruit people is who are used to and who are capable of dealing with this technology so how can small and medium Enterprises make use of advanced technology yeah I think one of the misconceptions that comes to all these uh big technology Trends is that it’s very expensive so mostly if I’m a a small business owner it would be difficult for me to take advantage of all these uh nice Trends though I think like one of the business models for the big technology providers is is a subscription based model which basically you can subscribe monthly or even less than that so you pay as you go for utilizing these core Technologies which is which makes it very possible for small business owners to access these Technologies and take advantage of different parts of these emerging Trends in their businesses uh how thees could benefit to the maximum from the technology uh Mr well I think like small small businesses can look at the way you do business generally I think they would need to analyze the whole cycle of that their business go through and they would look at the best technology tools that’s available for them to take advantage of it I think if you’re building a new business today if you look at how do I look at my operation at my Administration payroll management at my marketing and I would subscribe to a number of tools I might find that I purchase subscription let’s say was $1,000 $2,000 a year but by the end of the day I’ve actually put aside a lot of hassle in terms of managing staff and in terms of doing things a classic way so if you’re setting up a new business or you are upgrading your existing business and its infrastructure you would look at subscription based tools that can kind of that you can utilize to run different parts of the business and that’s the best way smes can take advantage of these emerging Trends and Technology generally so how can a business owner stay ahead of uh technology and make sure they don’t miss a growth opportunity yeah I think that that will depend also on the background of the business owner I think like people who are not from a technology background which I think like this would apply pretty much to them because they are not technology people they are not naturally keeping themselves updated with what’s happening in in the technology front I think for them to subscribe to a few resources that’s sending like regular updates when it comes to what’s happening in technology and how to take advantage of it like I think there’s a lot of business networks and a lot of Publications in which that they can find lots of resources when it comes to like um keeping ahead and also understanding the uh competitive components of of new technologies and what other uh like businesses regionally and globally are doing within their specific uh industry as well how can technology technique help business owners develop their businesses in a way that Pro probably uh save costs yeah I think when it when it comes to save costs I think it’s going to come down to uh Automation and also to labor so basically you can reduce the cost when it comes to labor you can reduce the cost when it comes to production you can reduce the cost in overall planning and administrative cycle so I think if you break down what you’re spending uh in business so you’re going to be spending in administration you’re going to be spending in production and you’re going to be spending in sales and marketing and I think like in all these aspects there are different ways in which that you can optimize your operation embracing technology Trends which will dramatically decrease the cost so to what extent the technology can scale the business geographically yeah I think this is a very very big area when it comes to scaling like because a technology infrastructure has like infinite possibilities when it comes to scale if I’m keeping my customer database on um online on the internet by then I can have endless number of customers or if I have a website where people sign up they create an account so by then I can have like endless number of customers the same thing if I’m relying on for example call center operations that that has lots of automation integrated to it I would see that automating the process is not going me if I’m a a new business owner I’m starting uh a new startup maybe uh for anme or something like that how I can adopt a system that could help me to reduce the cost to be um uh to do better marketing uh through using the technology yeah I think this usually starts with Google actually it starts before that it start with the intention so once you decided that you want to embrace itology yes is that you see that for example let’s take one aspect when it comes to marketing see that I’m spending a lot of marketing and I would like to kind of U manage my spending and manage manage my operation when it comes to marketing I would go to Google and say that marketing technology I would search for any uh kind of keyword that would give me resources when it comes to the latest marketing techn marketing technology tools uh I would I would learn that there’s something called marketing Automation and there are some different Tools in which that I can use to automate lots of the uh used to be kind of uh manual operation that happens when it comes to marketing uh I would kind of shift big part of my advertising budget into digital I would be able to access clients using different websites Facebook and different other channels and by then like by searching and having the intention to go and search for the right tools to utilize I think you can reach like the right tool and the right uh paway all the other option is that you can also look at different technology service providers so if you reach out those Service provid close by and ask them about what is the best technology that I can use for example to reduce my um like production costly if I’m a factory for example and I’m looking at more advanced technology when it comes to mecatronics for example uh I would kind of look at the right Consultants to find out the latest technology Trends and how they can be integrated within my business so so technology is the is thought after as a challenge to business it affects employment and make people stop needing some of services they need to pay for what’s your take on this well I I think as we said it’s it it becomes the attitude of the uh economy or the society or the business and that’s that’s looking at technology I think if we are uh embracing the new if we open for the new uh but then we will be able to kind of restructure our approach to embracing that and accordingly structuring our employment and lifestyle around the emerging technology Trends because uh like when we look at it we can never stop technology technology is uh developing and uh there will be ongoing Trends and there’s no way to to stop that so uh you cannot like stop the time in terms of like having the the the business going the same weights is being done maintaining the same level of skill and awareness for human resources so this is not possible because technology is going to continue being emerging I think it comes to the people in the leadership to look at that as a strategic matter for them to embrace technology to train their staff when it comes to technology and also for the new generations at schools and universities they have to be also trained on the latest Technologies uh because by then they have a better chance on getting employed and possibly starting their own businesses as well many people now are working in the field of Technology itself uh by using um or using the technology like using mobile apps for example or uh marketing their stuff through social media or even working through social media Now by uh doing some catering or selling online um so to what extent the technology uh in that way is developing new businesses I think that’s a very good question because like the the the big thought is that uh technology is no more an industry but rather technology is a service to Industry which means that there’s not those people who are working in the technology industry but rather like in all different Industries so if we look at agriculture if we look at production if you look at real estate all these different sectors they actually have to have a technology component integrated to them so I think we we’re starting to think that there is not these technology people which we used to call them in information uh technology or it um I think like what’s what’s coming is that like technology is being embraced within different economic sectors within different companies we’re starting to to see CTO or chief technology officers people who are responsible of uh like finding the best technology for the business to grow even startups who are not from a technology company so they are not an IT company but rather they are using technology to best Ser their customers so I think the uh the way to answer your question is that technology is no more an independent industry but rather it’s it’s an integral way to do business and accordingly like all companies has to be embracing technology they have to be having a technology component we might actually be utilizing a very small part of the economy that’s actually developing the technology itself but rather everyone within the economy is concerned about technology and utilizing technology in their business so mentioning Internet of Things Big Data analytics and Automation and many other uh words that you said what they what are those uh expressions and how can uh business owners use them to create more intelligent products uh in their business yeah I think like if we look at like some of these uh concepts for example iot or Internet of things we’re going to be seeing that lately like everything had been connected to the internet so for example if you’re connecting like a camera to uh to your business reconnecting any kind of device this device is is is like always on and always collecting data so if you’re able to process these data on a large scale but then you can reach a lot of Intelligent Decisions so by then a concept like internet of things that’s uh like gives us access to a lot of sources of data that can be utilized in different ways um artificial intelligence is another aspect in which that like machines can start becoming intelligent and responsive to human behavior so uh these are all different Trends that’s emerging and I think like uh we are starting to see businesses embracing that for example a very big um like Trend that have been like emerging even lots of Egyptian companies have been embracing that is what they call chat bots so chat Bots it’s um like as we all chat on like WhatsApp or Facebook or whatever you can actually add a chat agent that’s not actually backed by an individual but rather it’s a it’s an automated chat agent that you can ask different questions too so you can find lots of businesses um would actually who are not on 247 uh you would just be able to download their chat bot and by then if you have any question if you need any support inquiry is going to be directing you to the right resource so having something like chat Bots is something that’s being embraced and I think this is something that has uh lots of potential also to uh grow in utilization and like all these Technologies bring us these tools so there is the core technology Trends itself and then the tools emerging from these trends so I think as we start seeing lots of these tools and the good thing also because we’re all connected today on mobile phone on desktops we all connected to the internet 24/7 so as consumers we start utilizing these uh as consumers first and and hopefully this is going to be like a shortcut for businesses to start utilizing that as they see it as consumers first indeed uh Mr Abdu magdi our technology consultant thank you very much sir for your precious input thank you thanks a lot thank you very much thank you Mr Abdu and now dear viewers this brings us to the end of today’s edition of The Breakfast show i’ like to thank my mahti thank thank you very much and of course our dear viewers tomorrow wait for us again in The Breakfast show with another fruit and then it’s [Music] goodbye
[Nile TV] Egyptian Coastal Cities as Potential Startup Hubs

[Nile TV] Egyptian Coastal Cities as Potential Startup Hubs

for many uh many opportunities as we do have a lot of potentials all this and more we are going to discuss with our dear guest live here in the studio who is an expert in the matter mr abdulrahman meghdi entrepreneurship expert thank you very much for being with us sir thanks for having me well uh good morning mr abdulrahman uh first of all tell us about your insight concerning a promotion of tourism and in a creative and different way yeah i think in my experience it’s like a naturally evolving phenomenon when it comes to entrepreneurship and people moving towards self-employment globally and because foreigners especially consider egypt a fabulous touristic destination they want to work and also they want to have fun in egypt so a pattern of activity that started happening in the past years was what is called co-working spaces in touristic and coastal cities around egypt by now i think we have three different co-working spaces in algona and dahab and there are others evolving in hergad and other cities and the idea here is that there are egyptians who are like self-employed they work in knowledge economy so they are not associated with a specific space they can work through the internet and also there’s a lot of foreigners on the other side who work at the same industry like designing websites writing code editing and writing publishing just a very quick and brief definition of this word the knowledge economy yeah the knowledge economy is all the activities it has to do with knowledge so it’s not about trade it’s not products not physical products but rather it’s about using the knowledge and expertise in doing business things that’s like almost virtual like writing editing designing so it depends on the scale of the individual other than any trade activities which is actually a huge industry globally so when it comes to the economy this is a huge industry and i think in egypt we still haven’t tabbed i mean how i can improve my knowledge economy i mean courses for example should i take courses should i train myself uh a self-trained this can be on online on the internet to go to certain places i mean how i think the challenge usually is not in in the lack of knowledge but it’s rather on if i have the knowledge how to use this knowledge to become an entrepreneur how to use this knowledge to offer services in the economy so i think in egypt there’s a lot of people with a lot of fabulous expertise when it comes to the the area of their interests and expertise but the challenge is usually how do i offer this service globally so what we’re talking about is that these co-working spaces or what we can call it clubs in these coastal cities can be a hub for those knowledge economy entrepreneurs in egypt to go there and to serve the global economy through these hops and the same thing would be for other entrepreneurs globally they would look at these clubs or destinations and coastal egyptian cities as places to go to to do business and also have fun so they would come for a week they would sort out what you want to do if you want to build a new website in a week you’re going to find the egyptian professionals to do the design write the copy publish it and host it and during this week while between the meeting they’re going to go from snorkeling climbing whatever they want to do so i think it’s a it’s a very fun package if this is being offered to um like foreign entrepreneurs they would come they’re going to have fun and going to do business now to what extent is that applied in egypt like you’ve mentioned there are some but to what extent is it and how workable and feasible is it well yeah that’s that’s a challenge because these become an individual initiative so it’s someone who sees the opportunity in doing that for example a german lady who visited dahab and she she loved the city and she wanted to stay there but she didn’t have an idea of what she wanted to do she thought of the idea that lots of her friends are coming to dhab so why not to start this club to get them to do the business to do the work in this place and also to attract egyptians who can actually work with them so this happens as an individual efforts so far there are some projects that being talked about like in technology in these remote areas but we haven’t seen something very solid to this extent and also not packaged in a way to attract foreigners to do business in egypt there are some consideration that has to do with the furnishing of the places there has to be consideration about internet connection which is actually the top on the left because uh like foreigners are used to very uh fast internet speed so they have to see something reasonable once they they come to egypt so the infrastructure for their internet speed the the furnishing and the packaging and the maintenance and sustainability of these clubs i think that’s that actually makes a very interesting national uh project between like trade international relations and tourism uh this is a very attractive area to attract tourists to do business and to connect with egypt i want to return once again to the human being i think that many egyptians knew how knew how to to be expert in this experts in this field in specific but they don’t know how to convey the message how to implement this on the ground how to deal with people and here by the way i’m speaking about simple egyptians not that well educated not that uh well cultured you name it but some they knew how to use their skills but they cannot they are not directed well how we can solve this problem or this is a very um sensitive equation well i think there are two aspects to that i think yeah as you mentioned like knowledge is something people acquire with time so usually if someone stayed for 12 15 years in the industry they become an expert they have the best buy all the experiences that they need and you have the expertise here comes two challenges the first has to do is what you mentioned as a service culture is that i am a service provider there are some specific regulations and ways to deliver the service and to maintain the level of service with the customer i think this is something that we’re lacking in egypt when it comes to the service culture and um me becoming a service provider and serving the client and how communication should go how should i get paid this is it because this is very important how i can solve this how i can move this person from from being not knowing even the potentials he has to someone who is that much successful and using all what he has because we are talented i mean egyptians learned very easily they knew how to absorb knowledge but to to use this this is the issue yeah i think here comes the rule of training and coaching and also experiences that gather the egyptians with their foreign counterparts like some of the best experiences would you bring the egyptian who do have the talent and expertise and they stay for two weeks to um like mingle with foreign entrepreneurs and to understand the qualities by which they work like i know lots of egyptians who started working at the age of 18 with foreign entrepreneurs and after four years they cannot relate to the egyptian market so it’s about the experience and the standards by which you get used to work so if you start working according to a specific standard of service it’s going to be very difficult for you to downgrade so if we benchmark the service culture and the ability to market and promote by offering training and coaching experiences for egyptians working on knowledge economy and offering them the opportunity for actual real experience and projects through which they can actually start benchmarking themselves to a specific standard so these are the the two ways to like enhance the likelihood of the knowledge economy and knowledge entrepreneurs in egypt to offer service globally now as an entrepreneurship expert to ex to what extent have you worked on these new projects or initiatives yeah i think like because these already are initiatives that’s happening in egypt so i get i get the chance to get in in direct contact with all these initiatives and what i can see is it because it depends on a specific individual that is usually the financial risk and lots of efforts that’s actually in the weight of a single individual so there is no structure to what’s happening it’s just an individual initiatives and it comes with challenges so for example if business is not big enough you’re gonna have to move to uh to another area so there’s a shift in location one thing that’s happened is that the german lady wanted to take a one-month vacation she has to shut down the club because she’s in a vacation she doesn’t have a staff to manage the the club so are these are some challenges to getting these to operate to a specific standard i think if there is an investment in a company that would go there and set up some really stable clubs managed properly and it it’s uh sending consistent marketing messages to achieve this is to have companies already there to manage this and to be on permanent basis i mean not something temporary yeah and that requires investment and investment requires infrastructure so it’s about the risk like someone or a company taking the risk to go and set up something there and i think we have seen some examples for foreign entities coming to places like ilgona but i think there is a chance for other mainstream areas or much more like areas like dahab and other uh destinations this was my coming question regarding the destinations regarding the touristic locations in which you see a lot of potentials are there and just waiting for someone to discover them yeah i think dab is it comes on top of the list because like maybe because it’s my personal favorite but also it attracts a type of character that’s um in a knowledge economy and they’re actually looking to relax and stay in the long term so if you go to the hub you’re going to find lots of like foreigners who are staying there for six months for a year for three years sometimes so these people come and they don’t actually settle down in the town of dahab and i think that’s provides an opportunity to build the um what we talked about in terms of the service culture um the infrastructure necessary for them uh to settle there and accordingly build a momentum and build an environment that supports uh business locally and globally now i’m quite interested in what you were talking about that german club for instance now you’re saying that she’s offering them services online so are they doing services that takes place in egypt or are they just visiting and they are just checking on their business abroad because what no it’s it’s mainly the internet so that will be um not like an industry or investing within the country itself it’s not like importing exporting or or or having a solid project in egypt so i’d like to understand more like is it just facilitating them to run their personal business abroad or is it creating businesses within the country itself actually it could go both ways i think for the time being because they are visiting mostly they are working on their own businesses and if you look at it what do people do in companies in any type of business you’re going to find like like 60 80 depending on the company is something that’s to be done online and most of those who come as individuals they usually have their own websites and they are selling products and services online which is actually a huge industry we have seen recently in the region some billion dollar investments in like e-commerce websites so these entrepreneurs are running these type of businesses it doesn’t have to be a small business they could be on a laptop you’re going to see them on a laptop and actually it’s a huge business online so most of them actually work within the industry of technology and internet business and knowledge economy so these are the uh industries but there’s other companies that might want to do what they call tree tree which is also a very big type of trading businesses we know the corporate training style that you go inside the company and do the the corporate training there is a new model which is retreats is that uh you could be a company in germany and you want to train five of your employees yeah and thinking thinking out of the box and so we do have much more questions but unfortunately we’re running out of time so we’re going to leave you sorry with our promise to see you again in another episode of our breakfast show mr abdullah magdy the interpreter expert we have today thank you very much for your input thank you for having me thank you very much sir and that brings us to the end of this episode of breakfast show but first of all i have to thank my colleague thank you very much nermeen thank you russia tomorrow is another day with another proof it will only online tv [Music] you
[Nile TV] What Egyptian Business Owners Can do about Devaluation of EGP

[Nile TV] What Egyptian Business Owners Can do about Devaluation of EGP

welcome back eddie viewers in this segment we are going to talk about the performance of the egyptian economy and how can business leaders how can business owners deal with the changes in exchange rate how can they adopt a new strategies to develop their business and work and to shed more light on this issue i joined here in the studio with their mr abdul maggie he is a business strategy coach good morning good morning good morning mr magdy sir how do you see the changes that occurred on the egyptian market after the liberalization of the egyptian pound and to what extent that could have an impact on the prices of commodities yeah of course i think all of us are witnessing in egypt the uh as you mentioned the devaluation of the egyptian pound as a result of like the free float that we have witnessed have affected most businesses and individuals when we look at businesses we can see that in a transportation sector in the um all sectors actually but all those relying on transportation and relying on machinery that’s being imported uh from abroad all these sectors are affected and of course as a result of the devaluation we’re expecting regular gradual increase in prices and accordingly it becomes challenging for both individuals and businesses yes so how can business owners deal with this yeah i think like um this is what we call disruption in the markets and i think for the egyptian economy we can look this on the long run from a positively positive standpoint like if the the macro economics go well as a result of the like a liberation of the egyptian pound as we mentioned like if we if business owners are able to sustain themselves and rebuild their businesses during this transition most likely economy is expected to improve in the future so the best options for the business owners right now is to revisit their strategy and to assess what they should like what is what is best for them to add to kind of reflect to this uh devaluation in egyptian pounds like some of the highlights of that and some of the actually good news for someone for some of the business owners in egypt are those who are already targeting the international market so for those who are already selling their products and services to the global market which is very active in the knowledge and the technology sector so those who have clients who are bringing already in the us dollar so um these type of businesses like they can view this as as a positive like um from the same point of the currency part and i think what could happen in the uh for egyptian businesses is to think how can we target the global markets so for all businesses across all sectors to think about first how can i sell globally because like the uh the free float means that we are closer to the global markets and we’re more competitive when it comes to the global market so whatever sector i’m at right now how can i expand my business geographically and also like in terms of the market size like for for for a business owner going through this transition it might be shocking to a lot of extent when they look to the numbers but what is advice is for them to actually look at what matters so it’s always advised to cut to the chase look at the bottom line of your business like the the volume of the business that i’m having is usually is a result of the number of clients that i’m having yes the average a sale and the frequency of sale so that’s basically by the end of the by the end of the year that’s how i calculate my profits and my revenues so as a business or owner it is if as a result of this devaluation i’m going to have to lose some clients probably i should start thinking about increasing the volume of sales that i’m having or the frequency of sales these clients are approaching me so doing the balance with these with all these variables is vital for business owners and like one of the usually highly advised exercises during these times is to visit the strategy of business owners and there are lots of tools and templates and way of thinking when it comes to how they can approach the strategy exercise and they can come up with a new strategy of their company to to be uh dealing with the new challenges and the new changes that’s happening in the market uh mr mati we have to mention here that during the past three days akhbar yum was holding its conference its economic conference with the challenge uh to face the challenges that egypt are facing concerning the economy the way to the future the breakthroughs and challenges at what extent uh this uh conference could be tackling the main problems that the egyptian economy is facing yeah i think like lots of uh conferences and events i think it’s uh it’s a very good investment of time for business owners to be part of such conferences and events because like the biggest threat for business owners during a time like that is for them to kind of uh look at things uh internally try to analyze things from sources like what’s being said the hive so going to these events and actually knowing what experts are saying and knowing also the options that they have that’s is a very positive action for business owners to take and usually during these conferences there’s lots of actual numbers and statistics being shared which actually makes the decision the decisions taken by business owners uh more to the point and and most likely to come up with better results for their business so to atex and the imf fund will uh give the egyptian economy a boost at this stage yeah i think like when we look at it from the the finances standpoint from a macroeconomic perspective we would say that this is a positive sign so egypt was able to attract external funding uh from imf which gives other investors the confidence to start economic activities in egypt so we can look at it as a positive uh like point on the short and medium term and hopefully um like that’s that’s quite a work when it when it comes to macroeconomics we hope it’s going to be like a shock for the economy to recover and as i said it becomes the rule of the private sector to rework their strategies and to find the best ways and the most efficient ways for them to run their business i think right now is a time for efficiency so in order for businesses to survive and flourish we have to work internally of how to like focus on what matters to them choose what to do what what to do and what not to do probably they might choose to close parts of their business or be new ones so it’s uh it’s time for change that requires lots of focused studies and some quite hard decisions as well uh mr mcd to what extent it’s time now to encourage the young entrepreneurs to enter the market of uh egypt yeah i think it’s not just for those who kind of call themselves entrepreneurs already and i think right now is an interesting time for everyone who’s looking to increase their income to look for other ways for them to increase their income and i think what had been happening around the world in the past 10 years is that lots of people have been moving to running virtual businesses so starting businesses on the internet around something they are proficient at getting that to other people coaching them and providing different types of like consulting coaching and probably uh speaking services so we think this model fits lots of expediency professionals in egypt and we have seen lots of people who are not like addressing themselves entrepreneurs moving into offering products and services online which i think that’s going to be a very interesting trend because for them also they are able to access global markets and like for this category of people who are who do have a focus to scale or or talent in something specifically that they can either educated online or coach other people um i think they have to benchmark themselves according to the global standards so they have to look at who’s best in the world in this matter to learn from them but not locally so they have to be thinking globally when it comes to benchmarking their scale because by the end of the day that’s going to be their markets and also they have to think intelligently when it comes to marketing and innovation so like relying heavily on digital marketing and also having lots of innovation in the way they package their products and services so it’s a very interesting time for those who are jumping into targeting global markets as entrepreneurs this might be challenging times for those addressing the local markets uh but i think it’s an interesting time for existing businesses to move into the global markets and also for those who are regularly probably employed to start like a side project also targeting the global market and what’s your advice to egyptian citizens at this stage yeah i think for egyptian citizens i think what’s happening right now is that we’re moving we’re becoming more open to to the world and i think the world um things according to a concept of individual capitalism which i think this is something that needs to be uh spread and educated for young egyptians specifically yes and um like individual capitalism is that an individual looks to themselves as an asset so myself the way i speak even my face my skills and abilities these are assets that i should monetize in the market so it doesn’t become that i’m searching for an employment opportunity but rather i’m investing in my knowledge on my skills and my abilities in order to be able to solve problems and then using myself my assets as the way for me to make money in the world so looking at yourself from this perspective i think it’s challenging according to the culture because like we we always like like look up to employment and multinational companies but i think we need to be talking to younger egyptians that it’s time for you to consider individual capitalism is to analyze your skills your abilities and to think that i’m going to monetize these abilities maybe sometimes by employment maybe sometimes through working as a consultant maybe sometime through starting an online business yes so it becomes you have to be more creative exactly it’s about innovation and creativity and also the way of thinking that i’m not searching for a job yes but rather i’m developing my skills in order to be able to solve problems that’s going to help someone else so i’m going to be driving economic value as a participant in a global economy and strata would take it from here not searching for a job because unfortunately many youngsters many people are complaining because of the unemployment and yet they are uh sitting at home just sending it to their cvs and waiting for the job i think the the the world market has changed now people are uh do uh have their own ideas young entrepreneurs entering the market so how can we change that concept of just sitting at home waiting for the job opportunity to come yeah i think some of the things that i personally was witnessing in the past years and i think also if we take a tour around egyptian universities we’re going to see lots of student organizations and student activities that’s promoting the concept of entrepreneurship and like matching the students with the knowledge and abilities and access to equip themselves incubators in order to help the the young entrepreneurs to enter the market exactly that’s that’s an extra step for them to be providing systemic programs to help them to start their businesses i think the culture plays a major role which is which becomes also the responsibility of the media and also for universities to start focusing beside the academic component and to spreading the concept of entrepreneurship and opening up to global markets and getting people to think about what can we do to monetize even during the time their studies so having more like market oriented education system i think um all that might provide better economic opportunities for egypt because the challenge economically and the value of the egyptian pounds by the end of the day depends on the level of productivity in the economy and the contribution of egyptians in the economy and we’re soon having 100 million egyptians and if we think that they’re going to become like a combatant globally and they will be able to provide products and services online that’s going to be a huge economic contribution and accordingly we can see the egyptian pounds uh increasing in value in in relation to other currencies so um do you think that the egyptian market is now more attractive to investors than before i think from one angle i can say yes so uh with the devaluation of the egyptian pounds it becomes cheap so current code cheap it’s uh actually actually it’s it’s not cheap the egyptian that do you mean the dollar the egyptian pound yeah i mean if i if i used to if i’m investing like a million dollars so it’s an incentive yeah for things to to a lot of extent it’s an incentive for them because uh like um i mean the chief becomes the labor and yeah yeah with the evaluation of the currency it becomes cheaper for those so one side and also we don’t have two parallel markets which is uh more important we don’t have two markets for the dollars it’s only the bank now yeah i think like um like the more this like dollars become available in the banks i think the more it becomes more attractive to um like investors and businesses to operate and give them confidence in the direction of the economy yes so definitely it becomes egypt egypt becomes attractive to uh foreign investors with the imf loan and also with other economic activities that uh that’s starting to show up but becomes a responsibility also for individuals and i think like um if individuals are able to understand this properly and to work with it by offering products and services globally i think that’s uh that’s a way to recovery for the egyptian economy do you expect now investors would start to come to the egypt more after the liberalization of the uh there are there are other important variables but possibly yes in comparison to before the decision after the decision it’s more likely for them to consider that given some of the variables yeah indeed mr abdul maddy business strategy coach thank you very much sir for your precious interest thank you thanks a lot thank you mr mcd and now dear viewers uh we come to the end of today’s edition of the breakfast church i’d like to thank my dear friend majesty robia and thank you very much our view viewers tomorrow we will be back with another crew with the breakfast show till then um [Music]
[Nile TV] Public Speaking and Presentation Skills for Business Executives

[Nile TV] Public Speaking and Presentation Skills for Business Executives

viewers as we promised earlier at the beginning of the show that we are going to talk about the uh public speaking and how to develop our skills for public speaking for presentation that would be our topic for discussion now with our dear guest in the studio mr abdul madhi his public speaking coach good morning sir good morning good morning mr maggie first uh why are public speaking skills important for business executives no i think like every one of us would think that public speaking is a key skill for business executives and lots of other types of professions i think for lectures for entrepreneurs and especially for business executives what do you want to do in business is that you would like to leave a very positive impact they would like to gain people’s confidence in what you’re promising and what you’re like inspiring them to do so all that makes public speaking a very very important key skill for business leaders executives entrepreneurs and lots of other professionals how do you teach the entrepreneurs or the business people the employees these skills what are the steps needed in order to learn the basics for a good presentation for a good communication and uh public skills yeah thank you for asking that because that’s that’s the most frequent question that we get at carry toastmasters club which is a club for public speaking yep and most of the people who come for the first time they want to have like a cheat sheet for public speaking what do i have to do and the answer to that is that public speaking is a learned skill is that you have to like experience it so the best way to learn public speaking is to actually deliver speeches and there’s a lot of experiences that’s available in clubs like toastmasters for example where you can prepare speeches delivered get feedback and that’s how you learn public speaking of course there has to be outlines in things like preparing your speech your body language different other areas that you need to understand but by that it becomes about experiencing the delivery and getting feedback and accordingly getting better in your public speaking skills so a short answer probably you cannot teach public speaking you’re not going to learn public speaking by reading a book but you have to be out there speaking to the people and inspiring them getting feedback and learning from that how mr abdul how can we do that as it as a coach what are the most important tips that you give to your students or the people who are getting the course in order to do that you know because somehow um it’s um in certain people it’s been born in it’s in the character for others it’s not so how can we reach that yeah i think that usually goes on a case-by-case basis so it depends on the individual himself or herself but the key guidelines is and the key areas that people need to be ready with is self-confidence is that you have to people have to develop their own self-confidence through putting themselves out there to kind of be able to develop their skills so first is having the readiness to actually deliver the speech and sit in front of people and deliver the speech i think this is something that we’re often people who are need coaching is to be pushed slightly to start giving more speeches so one of the key areas is pushing people to to deliver more speeches and to also reach bigger audiences this is this is a key area and afterwards it comes into things like their body language you know like there’s a study that was uh being made um analyzing what affects people what are you speaking so if you’re watching me talking right now and you’re conceiving me um what is affecting the way that you’re conceiving the speaker and it turned out that 55 percent is about the way the uh the move their body their body language how they express themselves their facial expressions their hand movements and all that to 55 of the way people conceive you is about the way that you um move your body while talking and 38 is about the total voice to what extent you’re able to control your voice you kind of you can get on a high pitch or a lower pitch you can get fast or slow you can pause so all these affects the way people perceive you and only seven percent for the words so usually people worry a lot about what they are going to say but rather the impact is often created by the way they move their body the way they change their voice so accurately some of the key areas for people to learn is the way they move their body how do i move my body while speaking my fascial expressions my hand gestures and all that and also using the voice how do i alter my voice between a high pitch a lower pitch and all that so readiness pushing them practicing the body language getting more experience through delivering speeches and then working on their voice so what are the things that people should avoid while delivering a speech yeah i think there is a lot of common pitfall that people fall under once you do that the first is actually losing the audience at the first few seconds yes if you’re speaking the audience it’s very important to sit the frame is that if you kind of convey confidence and kind of articulate your your entry right i think that’s actually sets the frame for you for the rest yes of the speech to continue influencing them and keep them engaged and connected so one of the the biggest pitfalls is that people do not prepare an attractive entry or introduction to their speech and accordingly they lose audience for the through the rest of the speech um another area is structuring the speech itself giving thought to the structure of the speech of having an introduction a middle and conclusion an ending or a conclusion so um like thinking before you speak about the introduction the content of your speech and the conclusion is very important and also to be prepared another area is rehearsal is that if you’re giving an important speech for politicians for example they have to do lots of rehearsal before they’re important like talks and for example if you look at the presidential campaigns we have coaches traveling with them while delivering their speeches all over uh mr mcd we have to ask here because uh certain people do have a charismatic skills by nature when they start to talk you’re attracted to to what they are saying you are impressed other they are not they might be shy they might lose their audience for example because somehow they are redundant somehow the the way of talking is not attractive so how can i gain my audience that is what i’m saying but with uh how i’m saying uh the content yeah i think that’s very right i think charisma seems like something that people are born with but i would disagree slightly with this i think charisma is something that can be developed with practice so um the answer how do you practice that because to attract our audience it’s not somehow very easy a target here yeah i think when we analyze charisma and what charisma is about big part about charisma is about the way that i perceive myself which is about self-confidence understanding myself and understanding my limitations on my key areas of his strength so when people are pretty happy with themselves they become more charismatic because you can see through them through their energy how they are expressing themselves of interaction as well exactly so one way of looking at charisma is self-development and understanding yourself in order to become more charismatic once you understand yourself you have to look at what people are looking for so there is a key skill of cold reading is reading the audience understanding what the audience are expecting uh what inspires this kind of audience what this audience are looking for and accordingly i address them with the language with the uh thinking level that they would be um more ready to understand and and and commit with so what are the basic principles of communication and public speaking yeah if i would sit like basic principles it would be understand your audience you have to understand the audience you have to understand the environment in which that you’re delivering the speech you have to do preparations yes you have to research and especially if the topic is uh has some dense content you have to research you mean that anyone can deliver a speech in a good way and attract audience or uh only some people have uh this talent well some people do have more talent so they are talented by nature and some people can work in developing that so we would say that everyone can start developing their public speaking skills through finding the right environment to develop their speaking skills

[Nile TV] Addressing Technology Disruption For Business Builders[Nile TV]

[Nile TV] Addressing Technology Disruption For Business Builders[Nile TV]

be talking on the second segment of the show on the effect of new technologies and advanced technologies and accomplishing business in egypt and worldwide of course we will be talking about youth entrepreneurship and how can they accomplish business using the different applications and specified or made for this uh special target and we also be using talking about using internet mobiles even the social media to accomplish business and on this issue we’re glad to be joined by mr abraham entrepreneurship and expert on smes thank you for joining us and good morning

thank you for having me thank you good morning mr dr abdulrahman and let’s first uh talk about the effect of what you’re doing on entrepreneurship and how could it be able to be pushing business uh climate in any country yeah i think what are we talking about when it comes to technology and how technology disrupting the business i think like in the recent years we all see how fast technology is evolving so it’s just a matter of years and technology are being turned around and people have to update their software and change their hardware and also like the vast growth of the internet and in the best decade that makes things evolving very very fast and i think when we talk about either starting a new business or existing businesses this evolution of technology and this rapid change in technology will have to affect the way business is conducting is being conducted and we can look at this from an entrepreneur as people who are starting new businesses they have to take into consideration the utilization tools and the potential customer base that’s using this technology if we can look at like businesses like the car sharing apps like um different type of applications that reporting traffic like using events we can see lots of successful examples that’s utilizing the um active users on the internet and if we look at industries especially in the us for example there’s a massive technology industry that takes advantage of the availability of users on internet for e-commerce or different types of applications like ending with the application uh pokemon go even like it’s uh it’s an old game that was brought back as a mobile application and increased the valuation of the company by almost nine billion dollars so all these are ways in which technology is changing the business sphere right uh what about the you’ve just mentioned the different applications used specifically for watching business would you tell us more in detail so what types of applications are used to accomplish business definitely i think it’s uh starting from the business creation process i think if you’re doing planning for your business you will find different tools that’s currently available that can help you plan ahead for your business like even developing a business strategy uh hiring you can use internet for hiring you can use accounting softwares online accounting softwares to manage your accounts you can use um like different websites with which is going to send you some knowledge about your industry updates about what’s happening with your industry you can use what we call the crm or customer relation management tools which that you can have all your customers in a single tool and you can even like connect the records to the internet so you can look at their twitter stream their facebook profiles what they are sharing online so all these are different set of tools that businesses can use today in order to enhance their knowledge and awareness about their clients and also save a lot of coasts and have much more efficiency in the way they conduct business right uh what are the challenges that are meeting interpretership here in cairo from your own perspective if we’re talking about entrepreneurship we’re just starting new businesses we’re going to see that like technology makes it easy but in order for you to kind of move move ahead you have to have the right to bring the right talent into building the right software tools or technology tools and i think like the funding space in egypt did not mature to the um to the needed maturity level for entrepreneurs to be able to kind of graduate um world-class applications and world-class uh software and technologies so in terms of developing new technologies it’s still challenging to write to find the right like funding sources for that so lots of egyptian entrepreneurs and companies who start in cairo and find some success or potential we receive funding from outside each when we have to relocate either to the gcc or to the u.s to further invest in building their technologies and eventually it becomes um like a a company founded by egyptian but it’s not an egyptian company so um the challenge of the funding the challenge also the market itself is that the user days in egypt egyptians and the region the use of technology did not mature that much yet the use of online payment is not that popular so all these are challenging challenges in accessing the user base in egypt and monetizing that so usually the talent front and development of technology for entrepreneurs and also the customer base for them and utilization of online payments these are the two sided challenges that usually technology entrepreneurs face right as an entrepreneurship expert how do you think we can or the government maybe can help the youth in establishing small businesses of course we’re talking here about smes or small and medium enterprises how can the government support this yeah i think like if we look at different um environments and how the evolution of small medium enterprises and startups has happened i think there was a little intervention from the government where only like the green light which i see that in egypt the government is doing some efforts when it comes to different entities like etida for example it’s a it’s an entity by the government by the ministry of communication information technology it’s specialized in helping small medium enterprises in a technology space and also there is a subdivision called teak or technology innovation and entrepreneurship center which is also specialized in helping entrepreneurs so these are government entities um that’s working with entrepreneurs i think like there has to be a different way to look at the industry because most of the government decision comes into building um real estate building hubs and and i think we need investments more in the mines and investing more into the culture of utilizing technology looking at very seriously at online payments so things that goes into the routes like online payments and like investing in the talent i think these would be more valuable um beside the investment in real estate and the major projects tell me exactly what do you do in your office i mean uh telling you to project and how important is it in that field or that medium yeah for us we’re specializing in helping entrepreneurs so like usually entrepreneurs find us by searching on google searching for egyptian entrepreneurs or startups usually land on our website and then they register and they send us their problems or they send us what do you want to accomplish so what we do is that we analyze the profiles of these entrepreneurs and we categorize them as well we can see that there are startups there’s high growth companies usually started by people with experience in technology or having someone who’s experienced in technology on board who want to scale very fast so these are fast growth companies that’s called startups there are others that’s small and medium enterprises companies that existed in the past five years they’re already very stable they have a number of employees and things have been moving steadily and usually these are looking for how to use technology to grow our business so the challenge for the first segment is how do we build our business based on technology and and kind of utilize technology as a platform the small medium enterprise which i think is going to be the vast majority of egyptian entrepreneurs they are running small medium enterprises stable yet small companies that wants to utilize technology to scale its operation which i think that’s where the majority of work is being done is that facilitating access to advanced technology to small medium enterprises so our mission is usually how do we bring the best available technologies to egyptian small medium enterprises there are some very interesting business models that make the investment and technology early on for businesses very small for example you can subscribe to a tool for your accounting needs and you can do this by paying a monthly subscription so it’s a pay-as-you-go basis um these are type of private uh companies private business companies support giving this this support this yes right of course there’s a lot of obstacles hindering small and medium enterprises in egypt up till now what are the major obstacles and how can we overcome them yeah i think like to distinguish also between the startups and the small and medium enterprises serves that they be young fast growth companies they have their own set of challenges and also smes do have their own challenges i think if we if we look at the uh the positive side i think ceremonial enterprises needs it we need to look at their structures and we need to kind of advance the business knowledge to kind of manage the business more professionally and firmly and like above all looking at the business opportunities differently so having the the knowledge of business strategy and understanding where the market is going and how to shift towards that so i think um like evolving a small business into a dynamic evolving environment changing the market and changing with the technology and that’s where the opportunities lies for a majority of these small businesses of course there will be challenges when it comes to funding do you want to scale their operation and you want to like find external funding there are some challenges there there are challenges in finding and retaining the right talent for them so all these are challenges that exist for small medium enterprises but we look at if things are going well on the technology in an innovation market front you’re going to always find a solution to these kind of challenges right mr abdulrahman magdie entrepreneurship expert many thanks for joining us sir thank you thank you for coming and i guess this brings us to the end of this edition of the breakfast show my name is tina and all the pleasure to have with me ramsey for saturday morning partners until we see you again tomorrow have a great day [Music]

[Nile TV] Challenges And Opportunities in Starting a Business In Egypt in 2016

[Nile TV] Challenges And Opportunities in Starting a Business In Egypt in 2016

welcome back and it’s time for our first segment here on breakfast show and today we will be talking about youth and entrepreneurship and means of helping them in starting a new business in terms of labor marketing as well as the various improvements that could be added to their business and economic empowerment and joining us right now in the studio to shed more light on that topic is mr abdulrahman maggie is a writer as well as an entrepreneur expert welcome with us and good morning

good morning it’s a pleasure to be here good morning now let’s start by defining uh what is entrepreneurship because so many people don’t really understand the definition how would you define it to us yeah entrepreneurship is defined as the practice and the skill set needed for people who want to start and grow their own businesses so the word entrepreneur it comes from the French and it actually into two uh segments which are the ones who start enterprises or the ones who start companies yes and um like even like one of the things that we did we tried to figure out in the Arabic culture an Arabic word that corresponds to entrepreneurship and we couldn’t get any close to that but uh i mean like there are some words that expresses being self-reliant and dependent and the ability to build things in your own so entrepreneurship is the practice of building businesses

okay mr abdulrahman now in terms of our youth how can we help them sort of business especially that usually they have a low budget

yeah i think the good thing is that startup entrepreneurs usually start with a very low budget and i think the good thing also that we can look at most of the successive stories that’s very popular around the world globally and also in Egypt because like in the recent year we started having some local success stories as well if you look at the Microsoft the apple all these companies we know that they start in the garage so the good thing about entrepreneurship is that you can start from anywhere and it becomes a matter of the skill sets and the ability to build move step by step to be able to build and scale the business so for Egyptian youth the good news is and now we have the internet now we have like changes in the structure of how business is being conducted now we have more openness from the bigger business historic with the smaller businesses and now we have like smaller opportunities exist exists in uh in the market which entrepreneurs can take advantage of of course it’s not an easy process there is lots of steps and lots of challenges along the way but we can say that the opportunity exists for those who can get themselves involved with the network because if we talk about it step by step if i get the idea or i have the passion or i have the dream to start my own business first thing i need to do is that i need to hang out with the people who are starting their businesses so if i have to find if i’m an egyptian youth and i want to start my own business i have to find where are the people who are starting their businesses hang out yes and you can find lots of events lots of clubs or you can join other youth for starting your own businesses online of course yes online and offline there’s lots of events taking places there’s lots of hubs that’s starting that’s called startups and like if you use uh even like google you can figure out some of these hubs that exists in in Cairo and also in other governorates around Egypt so if you hang out with the right group of people already starting their own businesses you will be involved with the events the right events that will equip you with the skills with the network and then you have to get the idea once you have a solid idea that actually touches your own passion by then you can really start taking the first step uh searching for your co-founders the guys or the girls that I’m gonna start the business with i kind of start assessing the financials i can start looking at building my marketing plan and my business plan probably i would need funding i would like to hire a couple of people get my first office scale get my first client and keep moving until i able to expand a business and the good thing is that if you look at the past five years there are at least four egyptian companies that were able to raise funds from outside egypt in more than one million dollars so egyptian youth who started businesses in the past five years they were able to get external funding of the amount of i mean external funding like international funding from major investment companies in the uk in europe and even in the u.s these egyptian entrepreneurs they just they were just like me and you and they uh they started up the exact same way that i just told you hanging out with the right crowd uh like being open to learn new skills engage with the right crowd work an idea be flexible to pivot and change the direction and by carrying all these steps and enjoying the process eventually we’ll be able to build and scale a great company

okay perhaps what distinguishes startups from other types of business is that you can cut down the number of staff and you can actually start up on your own and i have seen personally so many people who started just on their own and they started their online business and that was what distinguished them from from other types of business for example i’ve seen people working in the field of jewelry making jewelry and marketing their jewelry uh online so uh how do you see the what characterizes uh entrepreneurship from other types of business

I like to define is entrepreneurship i like to say that entrepreneurship is is a quite a generic word for people who want to start their businesses but there are different types of businesses okay there’s a lifestyle business and there’s a startup business so a lifestyle business is something that depends on my own lifestyle if I’m a jewelry designer for example and i think that um i used to work at a specific shop and I want to start my own business and the way I think about this and by the end of the day what distinguishes a lifestyle business from a startup business is how I think about it I might have the attitude is that i want to just build this as my own business so other than giving my time for employment I’m going to work in this business and keep it a small business to a lot of extent have my own job and this is going to be my lifestyle business on the other hand startup business is something that i design for growth so start usually have innovation lots of innovation and have massive potential so in the lifestyle business I’m gonna design like five pieces and sell it per month and I’m gonna make x amount of money and that’s how I think about it for the next five years for a startup business i would like to write down the process of designing the jewelry and i want to organize the production line of the jewelry and i want to scale this globally i want to sell all around the world and i have no ceiling to the amount that I would like to to sell so these are some of the decisions that entrepreneurs have to take early on would i like would i like to go for a lifestyle business or what would i like to do for a startup business um actually both can be started in a low budget uh but startups would require more effort would require more knowledge and also require external capital because eventually even if i start with two employees and i proved the concept so i built a product for example a technology product a product where people can purchase um like anything online for example and by then i started with with two people two employees and i arrived at the area that there is demand that i have to scale and i have delivery to handle so then i need external funding so startups requires external funding it needs lots of other different types of support so startups is high growth and this might not be suitable for everybody because it’s quite challenging a lifestyle business on the other hand and like one of the things that i see and actually lots of ladies for that is that especially ladies they get into the lifestyle business and they do excellent and some of them actually scale this and make it much more bigger businesses so um a lifetime even more convenient for women who have children who are working on other jobs for example unions especially i mean stay-at-home moms yes or usually are not employed we usually start lots of them in Egypt right now they are starting lifestyle businesses and they’re even even to shift and to scale these businesses like and also um ladies are also starting startup businesses there are some like some of the best startups in Egypt are actually started and led uh by ladies as well so it’s like a decision that you have to take when i go for a lifestyle or go for a startup um and actually i can shift i can start as a lifestyle lifestyle and then i shift at the right moment into this is a startup I’m going to open up I’m going to hire people and by then i decide to get myself out of the process and just oversee and design the process and make sure we’re able to grow tremendously now in terms of the startup business these they need as you said external finance and although recently like during this month there were a lot of inter and advertisement from certain national banks that encouraging the use come and do your own startup business and we’ll finance you but still do you feel that the banks in Egypt especially the interest rate is really helping the youth in terms of taking a loan and starting their own business because usually the interest rate is quite high well like i know about the initiatives of lowering the interest rate to five percent which is an interesting initiative but i think that that would go for more established businesses because the banking sector do have requirements and these requirements are not fit for someone who’s just starting a business so you need like they’re going to be requested at least three years of fully furnished accounting which is not gonna be available for a company that’s just starting out so there are some complexities that comes into that like dealing with banks and also banks are risk sensitive um so it just makes the startup the early stage businesses are not very favorable choice for them to get involved with but the good thing is that this startup in industry actually there’s especially in the us there’s which is something also that’s arriving in Egypt like quite slowly but it’s it is starting to evolve with time there is a finance industry that works in a startups there is a venture capital this is an industry that’s specialized in hunting the ideas that would have a potential for growth that things like Facebook things like all these small businesses that have the potential to grow these investors would be able to kind of invest a hundred thousand US dollars today and probably in six months this hundred thousand would become a one million dollars or 10 million dollars and in some cases can like get a 1000 x if the company is successful and growing properly so probably if we want to look at this strategically we would look at the possibility of finding the right investment vehicles for this startup stage because it requires a different mentality a different risk appetite and around the world the tools that entrepreneurs can use to develop and grow their businesses have been emerging and the biggest trend right now which I think is suitable to the Egyptian mentality is the crowd funding which is basically that you can submit your idea and you can allow other people to invest in your business so I think this is an excellent opportunity for Egyptians because lots of Egyptians would have a small amount of capital we usually put it in the banks or the invest in real estate if we tell them that there are existing startups that needs cash to scale and these actually are highly qualified individuals running these startups and they have been doing this for three five years and right now they need five hundred thousand Egyptian pounds and the potential for them in two years to reach this amount and you can actually each contribute like 20,000 pounds or 100,000 pounds and you own an equity in this company so like potentially a tool like that would allow entrepreneurs in Egypt and would give them access to something that would like help them source the the right capital for their companies and also with given an alternative investment opportunities to those with a small amount of capital would like to invest so I think when it comes to the banking sector maybe if we think about it differently of empowering the emerging vehicles for investing in startups and small businesses this might be a good option because I’m not sure how the banking sector would get into investing in startups even like this didn’t happen in the U.S. this didn’t happen like in a lot of other countries around the world the banks are still very risk sensitive so you usually do not engage in a very early stage of start-ups

okay how do you see entrepreneurship when it comes to affecting the egyptian economy ?

well i think to be honest i think that’s how like where the egyptian economy should be going and it should be going way more stronger because if you look at egypt like you have like a youthful huge youth population these youth population they are mostly graduating from university universities they are highly skilled uh they are very ambitious they are very well connected with the rest of the world in social media and they are very good at using technologies they they speak foreign languages so they become a very very important and strategic asset that can actually build businesses to sell products and services all around the world so right now there are the business models that allows building businesses that works on the internet or even like that uses the internet as a marketing channel for the products and services so i think if we look at the egyptian economy and if we look at the youth and the potential that start-ups would happen and actually around the region we have examples of countries that was able to create what they call the startup nation is that like the whole university all those graduating they are actually starting businesses so they are not the graduation projects for example becomes an actual business and we have some successful stories of egyptians who actually took their graduation project into becoming an actual business so i think if we want if you want to think about the egyptian economy strategically given also the huge youth population that we have we say that it becomes a startup nation let’s go for a startup nation model we want to empower these young people we would like to give them access to the knowledge to the tools to the network and we would like to evolve lots of startups that would be able to kind of um contribute to advancing egypt itself and also be able to sell and create economic value for the global economy and all around the world now what about the challenges facing young entrepreneurs in egypt well there are plenty of that and i would say that uh challenges are different from the step in which the business is is emerging um so there are like one challenge that has to do with the experience and knowledge is that to a lot of extent the idea of starting your own business and a scalable business it’s not something that’s uh that’s very popular i mean like we have the understanding of the classic business model of starting a shop starting like a small business in a in a cookie-cutter way that’s something that you really know how it works but it’s trying an innovative business with the potential to fail um i think we there’s a lot of learning when it comes to understanding the tools and the attitude about going into that there are some cultural problems also to be honest like given what we talked about is that we’re not used to this type of business so when someone really say that i’m innovative and i’m starting a new business to do something we’re ever heard about so usually there’s attitude okay okay good luck but there is uh to a lot of extent lack of belief people are not going to put their their money into these businesses so like um like understanding that innovation or something with potential this is also leaves quite a cultural challenge as we move forward we could find uh probably a challenge when it comes to the funding is that if i built a business and i need um to bump in more capital right now to scale the business i think that the options are very very limited at the current point in time so lots of lots of these startups they have to offer services rely on their cash flow to finance their expansion which is a very exhausting process and lots of worthy startups and worthy companies that could scale otherwise with external capital it has to provide services that’s not in the core to be able to attract the capital so all these are challenges and i think it becomes a matter of maturing and and here become comes the endurance part i think there are some very very interesting stories for the ones who were able to make it of how they actually went through downsizing like some of the success stories that exists right now some of them went into 70 downsizing so if they had a team of 20 they ended up just they lost most of their team and they ended up like small group and most likely they had like delays and uh and their salaries and lots of lots of challenges um but they went through that so they learned how to go through that another part is the flexibility of pivoting okay i was intending to do that but all right let’s say that this didn’t work so now like i say that this is uh we have the stigma around failure but so for me to convince that this didn’t work probably it might seem like i’m saying that i was not uh i was not smart enough at the beginning so like but to me for me to have the courage to say that this didn’t work it’s time to visit and also to communicate this to the team around me and to even the parents everyone who’s looking at the startup to do this pivot also this becomes quite like a sharp change um so all these are challenges but it comes down to the tense and endurance of the entrepreneurs are starting to process okay since we are running out of time i have just one final question for you if you would like to answer it briefly you touched on a very important issue which is funding perhaps this is an essential issue when it comes to entrepreneurship how would young entrepreneurs convince investors with their ideas oh um the good thing is that i’m writing a book about that i’m writing a small book about that and um like i think it comes down to a core belief in what they are doing understanding of what investors are looking for because you have to look at it from an investor standpoint an investor would like to put right now ten thousand pounds in one year it’s gonna be a hundred thousand so an investor someone who puts ten thousand and it gets ten percent of the company after a year the ten percent of the company right now equals hundred thousand so that’s what he’s thinking about that one challenge is that entrepreneurs usually get there with the attitude is that this is my i’m passionate about i’m gonna talk to you about myself and my ideas and what you’re doing you have to think about it from the perspective of investors is that i’m going to give you a stake in this company and this company to have the potential to grow and in order for them to be able to communicate that there are some hard scales and there are some soft skills the hard skills comes into understanding the potential for scale the potential for growth and being able to calculate and and kind of um do this properly and on the other hand he has to communicate this and have the charisma to convince the investors that i am the qualified entrepreneur to tap into this market opportunity and to scale this company so i think with the balance of the hard skills and the softer skills if i’m convincing right convincing you right now with the facts and figures and you see that i’m qualified enough most likely you’re going to put money on the table so a balance between both of that that’s that’s usually what gets entrepreneurs to respond to formula of success

yeah okay mr abdulrahman meghdi water an entrepreneur uh entrepreneur and expert uh thank you very much for shedding light on this very important topic and coming today thank you very much

thank you well indeed thank you

My top 27 things to do before I die.

As a part of an exercise at Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence class on @Coursera. Prof Richard Boyatzis Asked to write down the top 27 things to do before we die.

On a second thought, I decided not to share my 27 list, though, the general theme in my 27 list had been about “sacrifice” and “fulfilling commitments” other than enjoying or having my own thing, which actually made me rethink a lot of things.

I highly recommend for you to write down your top 27 things to do before you die, it’ll help you very much discover more about the real you.

Cheers for now!

Your soul is in your keeping alone…

Your soul is in your keeping alone…

Come. Sit. Do you play? The whole world is in chess. Any move can be the death of you. Do anything except remain where you started and you can’t be sure of your end.

When I was sixteen I won a great victory. I felt in that moment that I should live to be one hundred, now I know I shall not see thirty.

None of us know our end really, or what hand will guide us there.

A King may move a man, a father may claim a son.

That man can also move himself. And only then does that man truly begin his own game.

Remember that howsoever you are played, or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone.

Even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say “but I was told by others to do thus” or that “virtue was not convenient at the time.”

This will not suffice.

Remember that.

Tales of Corruption from USAID-funded Bamyan Media, with #ElMashrou3 Part I

After the striking wave of criticism the launch of ElMashrou3 was received with from entrepreneurs and despite all possible PR and Advertising tricks the money can buy; the opinion of professionals and obvious impact assessment have shown a great failure to a potentially massive project to Unleash Entrepreneurship in Egypt, for which the United Sates Development Agency seeded Bamyan Media with a $4.1 Million Cheque.

My blogs in this regard started as an observation to the feedback shared by entrepreneurs and knowing only little of behind the scenes from what I experienced with Bamyan Media, this topic evolved into an actual investigation as each communication I received led to another and ended up with mega stories of what is really going on there. The scope of corruption and deceit with which Bamyan Media dealt with their surrounding is extremely unbelievable.

Not to repeat myself, please refer to my other post Who is really behind El Mashrou3, to tack down the evidence of the entity controlling the project and its background.

There goes a lot of in-depth look of the work of Bamyan Media and it’s first ever project, El Mashrou3 in Egypt:

  • Strategy
  • Track record
  • The Funding
  • Production Industry
  • Media Agency
  • Entrepreneurship / Egypreneur
  • Contestants
  • Waste of energy and resources

Strategy

The business strategy of Bamyan Media is quite clearly stated in the LinkedIn profile of David Elliot, the one actually running Bamyan Media, I understand it might be quite sensitive to state that as David Elliot is obviously doing everything possible to make his daughter, Anna Elliot, feel like in charge, but her lack of any basic CEO skills  make this extremely obvious.

david_linkedin

Bamyans Approach is to access resources directed towards social entrepreneurs around the world and supposedly channel these resources, through some kind of “media platform” into social entrepreneurs. If we search for definition of Corruption and Mismanagement well find that most cases of corruption in development around the world is about entities that access large pools of resources and misdirect, mismanage or use these resources for private gains.

If we briefly survey entrepreneurs in Egypt whether they have sensed the $4.1 Million USD or whether it directly or indirectly contributed to Unleashing Entrepreneurship in Egypt, the response will be very obvious, if we add to it the fact that the non profit corporation Bamyan Media and its founders own a Limited Liability Company in Egypt that was created based on the assets of their project in Egypt, we will know who is really profiting from this.

Corruption is positioning yourself as a receiver of “donor” funding that you are not only unable to manage, but you abuse the whole surrounding in the process of trying to make use of it, the business strategy of Bamyan Media as stated by David Elliot is a perfect example of positioning for corruption.

Track record

Bamyan Media was awarded a $4.1 Million USD grant to “Unleash Entrepreneurship in Egypt”, Bamyan Media established in 2010 as per their website, had absolutely no track record in performing any of these activities, though, the only argument is that Anna Elliot, the daughter of Mr. David Elliot and presumably CEO of Bamyan Media was the “executive producer” of a similar TV Show in Afghanistan executed by USAID.

This part is covered in my post: Who is really behind El Mashrou3, makes it obvious that the show in Afghanistan was executed by USAID itself with funds from ASMED project which was managed by David Elliot, furthermore, by this time Anna Elliot was a student at Hampshire university and part time bar-tender she didnt qualify even as a junior producer to be credited as a the executive producer of a TV Show.

Meaning that the only supporting reason behind bringing Bamyan Media to Egypt was the fact that David Elliot managed a $54 Million USD funds for USAID in Afghanistan, part of which was used in funding a pilot season TV Show there, then with his daughter they set up Bamyan Media to continue running the same model at different environments where there are any “grant” money directed towards entrepreneurship according to the strategy above.

This is very striking in USAID’s approach  in contracting entities for impact, which obviously known to be former consultants with no experience or linkage to the economy who can cover up all their shortcomings through clever PR machines and creating a network of beneficiaries who would be interested in covering up on these cases of corruption and mismanagement for pieces of the pie.

The Funding

In this official document from USAID Egypt Entrepreneurship Fact Sheet, its confirmed that Bamyan Media, with no track record was able to secure $4.1 Million USD for their operation in Egypt. It is not an easy job for anyone around the world, but it sounded like a piece of cake for the Elliot’s. When I first met David Elliot on a one-on-one basis which resolving a strategic conflict he did everything possible to claim that he just joined his daughter after she started Bamyan Media which recently while looking at the background of the organization proved to be completely false. Why so keen on hiding this background?

USAID-Bamyan

U.S. State Department try to reflect pride in big numbers for supporting youth and entrepreneurs in Egypt and region, while USAID comes along as a PR initiative that doesnt mind, intentionally or unintentionally wasting potential for the sake of a few good mouths and a few articles in western news sites that doesnt take the effort to investigate real impact on the ground.

The funding which was granted for a non-profit was then used in setting up a Limited Liability Company, EL Mashrou3 LLC, registration number #63834 that its founders and cashing out from right now, even more, as they had no understanding of what they should be doing with the funds, Bamyan Media abused an unbelievable number of professionals, local entrepreneurs and even one of the largest media agencies in the world on their way to graduating El Msahrou3.

Below are some of these cases:

Production Industry

I interviewed exactly 7 producers who repeated the same story of the manipulative, amateurish, unethical approach of Bamyan Media. Beside David Elliot and Anna Elliot, Bamyan Media was joined by Asim Haneef, he was credited as the Executive Producer for the show, but practically speaking he was as far from production as it can be, following the same pattern of crediting Anna Elliot as Executive Producer of the TV Show in Afghanistan, Asim Haneef is obviously trying to use his journalistic background in building the image of Bamyan Media and expand their business in different countries.

My first accidental interview was with Mohammad A., the producer of the popular Khawater TV Series, he mentioned to me that when they arrived to Egypt, they tried to reflect their preference to work with him, while they shied away from presenting the TV Show produced in Afghanistan, as of being amateurish, Mohamed worked on formatting the concept for production, while is almost equivalent to starting from the scratch, meaning, they came with nothing, he also managed to  introduce them to a TV Network which accepted the project.

As the reformatting was done and introduction to the channel made, Bamyan Media turned their back on Mohammad A. and proceeded with their project then when they wanted to access the TV Network, they were turned down by the network which didnt knew them rather they approved the project for him, they were forced to get back to him and as he states it as a result of their manipulative, unethical approach he unreasonably increased the production budget to turn them away and he preferred to keep a cool personal relationship away from work.

What happened with the producer of Khawater was repeated dozens of times with the rest of the production industry in Egypt to the extent that Mr. Hisham Mahmoud former Vice President of ONTV mentioned that Egypt always had a mature, decent media industry, such abusive, unethical behavior was never witnessed in his years of experience.

Hisham Mahmoud former Vice President of ONTV also had more serious experience, he was brought aboard as a Senior Producer with the mission to aid the work on raising corporate funding for the production of the TV Show, Bamyan Media intended to use the $4.1 Million granted from USAID for its own operation and rather as its easier once you have the setup raise the production cost from corporate sponsors, initially a budget of 10-12 Million EGP was estimated, then reduced into $1 Million dollar.

Mr. Hisham states that they had colorful promises that attracted a lot of people as the media industry is challenged since Jan 2011, yet, they used some bureaucratic limitations imposed from USAID not to commit beyond three months with their sub-contractors, which as per his saying, was only a trick to get the juice and skip the payment.

The experience of Mr. Hisham Mahmoud included using him to initiate communication with potential sponsors and skipping his commission once deals are secured against the agreement made, using the three months limitation period as a legal cover. He also goes further to mention a weird situation when he arranged a meeting with a Senior Director at a leading Egyptian Bank that was interested in sponsorship, yet, David Elliot heard about a study conducted by the bank and got unreasonably clingy in accessing information, he says, the bank turned down the offer because of Elliots suspicious behavior relating to accessing the important economic study.

I always wanted to do something about this but never had the time and focus to, Mr. Hisham Mahmoud mentioned to me by the end of our meeting, this should really be known, it should be known that we have a decent and mature media industry in Egypt, I have never in my past professional experience ran by such manipulative, unethical example, who repeated the story with plenty of others.

Tamer E., Director of the popular Ray7een 3ala Feen Reality TV Show is also one of the Directors/Producers who was brought aboard, Tamer sensed the amateurish approach early on, after being squeezed for basic information and as he described it feeling violated like never before. Tamer excused himself from further involved with an SMS communication stating that The Dynamics are Awkward.

Another production house in Maadi witnessed a repeated story, after Bamyan Media approached them to lead the production for the show and they got the word, Asim Haneef requested a one-on-one meeting with one of three partners of the firm and offered her to join on her own individual capacity, which obviously is betraying the interest and trust of her partners, Haneef didnt find any issues with repeating the same pattern with several organizations, the situation fired back as she responded in an aggressive email communication CCing her partners that this was very stupid and unethical to propose.

It seems that Asim Haneef has repeated the same approach with several other organizations, the attitude of snitching, stealing and manipulating is not an attitude of someone who want to stay, we are a small industry and everyone knows everyone, no one would work with Bamyan Media anymore after being known for deceit and manipulation, main partner of the Production House stated, while requested Asim Haneef to be brought into the office, youll find half the production industry so keen on kicking his butt as he described it.

I was given plenty of other names and contacts for producers and production houses who were brought aboard, but this was enough for me to understand how they approached the production industry.

Furthermore, I was told another awkward story from the production house they finally worked with, I never had the chance to verify it and prefer not to publish it until its verified from its source.

Media Agency

Bamyan Media strike a strategic partnership with a leading Media Agency in the states before coming to Egypt where they started working with their local office on their branding and media strategy, I followed up with a lead that founder of Bamyan Media claimed before being over charged by the agency, as I went through a print out of Bamyan Medias account with the agency in a meeting with their CEO, It was clear who is lying, plus, the fact that, probably for emotional reasons, Bamyan Media didnt pay 70% of its pending installments to the agency and they might go for a legal action from their US office.

Moreover, the Media Agency CEO mentioned that Bamyan Media repeated the same pattern of behavior with professionals and production houses with the media agency, the agency brought an expensive format editor to write the format for the show, the agency endured the cost which was supposed to be covered from sponsors, upon securing the sponsorship deals Bamyan Media cut their relationship with the agency and denied payment, the CEO said that they used a void in the contract to avoid that, given that it was their fault they didnt request payment except for direct services.

At some point Bamyan Media announced being sponsored by a Major telecom, it seems like David Elliots attitude was repeated in a meeting with the CMO of the same teleco that resulted on turning down their offer, he was crazy, shouting at the CMO of a major teleco while securing a sponsorship deal? commented the CEO of the media agency.

To be continued

How do people react upon resentment?

How do people react upon resentment?

Multiple times I’m being advised on taking care of my “personal brand” and tackle only generic generally accepted topic, I see everyone around me do it, but as I get to explore myself, I see I don’t need to lie about my personal brand on the internet(s), I’m searching for what’s true, for what’s real and I believe that doing great things in the world can only come when we are being real and true, not worried about our brand or plastic public image.

Who of you never felt the bitterness of being deserted by the people you fought and sacrificed for the most?

Who of you never experienced the salty sweat of a sword while being repetitively stabbed in your back, in the darkness, where no one can see?

Chances are you never did, unless you are in the habit of challenging your surrounding with new ideas and taking the lead in bringing change and disrupting the status quo, you’ll never experience that, and these words and clips below will remain to you as experiences of the less fortunateز

It is only when it’s just you out there challenging the word, planting more beautiful gardens, fighting for fairness, alone, that’s when you are vulnerable to all sort of betrayals and wounds that would naturally result in resentment, the ugly feeling of being let down by the people you trusted the most, you cared for the most, you sacrificed for the most, quietly and silentlyز

As I’m interested in sociology I tried to track down a few cases of how people reacted to that, I’m in love with stories and moving pictures so I’ll bring you a few known examples from movies most of us have watched.

1. Brave heart – Vengeance

William Wallace, the warrior with a broken heart storms the club of politica with his countrymen gathering asking them for only one thing, unity, he doesn’t care about governing or owning rather about freedom and all the beautiful principles worth fighting for and he gets it and they shake hands on it, though, when it’s time to interfere in the battlefield, the countrymen sell their souls to the English kind and leave him and the men followed naked in the battle field.

Minute 1:00 as countrymen get the sign to attack and desert their warriors

With the heart of a warrior William Wallace tracks down the English king to be stopped by a knight, that he discovers is the same countryman who has shaken hands with before the battle, now look at his eyes, it’s a window to a broken heart, sinking in a stream of pain and resentment

But what is a socially acceptable reaction to that? We all watched Braveheart and maybe it was our favorite part when he appears in the nightmares of his countrymen to take away their filthy traitor souls, by then, all of what considered vengeance  was very acceptable to us.

2. The Rock – Twisting Arms

We can't hold out much longer, sir!

General Hummel, you've gotta
get us outta here now!

I won't let you down.
I won't let you down, son.

Goddamn it, sir! How long do we have
to wait? I've lost *many* men already!

Sir, they're lightin' us up
like a firestorm!

This is General Hummel.
You gotta get my men outta there!

We don't have clearance
to go behind enemy lines, sir.

They're not coming for us,
are they, sir?

We all watched the crazy general, General Hummel, stealing destructive weapons to attack the same land he swore to defend and made heroic sacrifices fighting for, now, he is not being listened to, after his men was deserted  in battle, he is being neglected by the congressmen, pentagon and everyone. He visits his wife’s grave for some last words asking her: “whatever happens, please, don’t think less of me”.

Now the angry general has chosen to Twist arms, he requests a $100 Million fund or he will launch the gas against his own people, well, he never actually considered launching the gas or anything but it was a worthy game to twist their arm.

3. The Recruit – Betrayal

In another mode, Walter chooses to betray for being neglected after 27 years, neck deep in shit as he describes it. He allows this sense of resentment to turn him into a traitor against the same institution he helped develop

4. Warrior: confrontation and forgiveness

Thought, there is a completely different mode, in the combination of this fabulous scene from Warrior and The National’s about today, it doesn’t need lots of explanation as it’s quite self explanatory:

Today you were far away
and I didn’t ask you why
What could I say
I was far away
You just walked away
and I just watched you
What could I say
How close am I to losing you
Tonight you just close your eyes
and I just watch you
slip away
How close am I to losing you
Hey, are you awake
Yeah I’m right here
Well can I ask you about today
How close am I to losing you
How close am I to losing you

Highlights from the World Bank Annual Meeting

Highlights from the World Bank Annual Meeting


I was invited to attend The World Bank/IMF Annual Meeting in Washington DC during October last year and participate in The Civil Society Policy Forum, you know me, I wouldn’t pass such an opportunity without leaving my mark so Egypreneur organized a panel discussion there entitled: Engaging Local Entrepreneurs on Solving Development Challenges, featuring, in order of the photo below, beside myself, Lana Newishy, Chris Schroeder, Hasina Kharbhih and Magdi Amin, will write more about it on Egypreneur Stories.

مين اللي فعلاً ورا برنامج المشروع؟

طويب, من ساعة ما كتبت أول مقالة عن ردود فعل رواد الأعمال عن برنامج المشروع, ناس كانت قريبة من البرنامج تواصلت معايا وشاركت معلومات مهمة هتفيدنا وإحنا بندور علي فعلاً هل البرنامج كان ليه تأثير ولا لأ, وبما إن فيه أكتر من أربع حلقات من البرنامج اتذاعت خلاص, أكيد ده بيدي مادة كفاية تفيد في التحليل

طبعاً في الفترة اللي فاتت نفس ردود أفعال رواد الأعمال هيه هيه, إعتبار البرنامج معمول “سبوبة” من غير ما يعرض فعلاً حال رواد الأعمال في مصر, وعرض التحديات والبيئة المصرية بشكل مش مناسب, زيادة علي كده نسبة المشاهدة علي يوتيوب كمان بتقل مع الوقت بالرغم من إن الشركة بتدفع فلوس أكتر في الإعلانات علي اليوتيوب بجانب الإعلان علي فيس بوك, و طبعاً تكونت دايرة من مئات بتتواصل مع البرنامج بشكل سطحي جداً غالباً لأنهم مرتبطين بالفريق اللي ورا البرنامج

حتي الفريق في الشركة المنتجة مبقاش عنده مانع انه يدخل في خناقات علي رأي الناس في اللي بيعملوه, بعد مانشروا أغنية شعبية والناس بدأت تشتم فيها عاصم حنيف, المنتج المنفذ للبرنامج داخل يقولهم ديه أحسن أغنية في الدنيا, ممكن تشوف التعليقات من هنا

ومن الواضح ان بما إن الإستثمار الضخم اللي عملوه في الإعلانات في السنة اللي فاتت مجابش مشاهدات فعلية, قرروا انهم يعملوا تسويق ميداني, بيروحوا قهاوي وسط البلد ويقلبوا التلفزيون علي قناة النهار في معاد البرنامج ويشجعوا الناس انها تتفرج, الحاجة المضحكة ان الصور اللي شاركوها من الحملات ديه بتبين الفريق بتاعهم قاعد عامل نفسه بيتفرج والناس حواليهم ولاااا أي اهتمام, لدرجة انهم حتي حطوا علي صفحتهم بيطلبوا ناس اكتر ينضموا للحملات ديه معاهم

علي الرغم من كل ده, زي ماكتبت المرة اللي فاتت لو عايزين فعلاً نقيم التأثير بتاعت أي حاجة بتتنفذ, المفروض بجانب ردود الأفعال اننا ندور فعلاً علي أكثر العوامل تأثيراً وبعدين نفحصها بشكل عميق. طبعاً هيكون أول عامل هو مين اللي عامل الحاجة ديه, مين اللي ليه السلطة انه يتخذ قرارات وبيوجه دفة الحاجة اللي بتتنفذ.

في البلوج ده هندور علي مين فعلاً فعلاً اللي ورا البرنامج وبعد كده هنبص أكتر علي طريقة التجهيز والتعامل مع اللي حواليه ونفيمها.

طيب من الاخر يعني دلوقتي مين اللي ورا برنامج “المشروع”؟

who_is_behind

طبعاً لو دخلنا علي الويب سايب بتاعهم هنلاقيهم بيقولوا ان البرنامج هو عمل مشترك بين قناة النهار وشركة الإنتاج وحاجة كده اسمها “باميان ميديا” ومؤسسات دعم وتطوير الأعمال زي كذا وكذا وكذا وحاطين قايمة طويلة باللوجوز بتاعت طوب الأرض, ده حتي يأخي لسه ماشالوش اسم “إيجي برونور” من بعض القنوات عندهم مع إننا قلنالهم يشيلوه من أكتر من سنه, فياريت وانتوا بتقروا ده زي الشطار تشيلوه, احسن ما يتبعت لكم تذكير مش هيعجبكمElMashrou3_Egypreneur2

بالإضافة لده في رسالة بعتوها علي الإيميل ونشروها علي صفحتهم هنا بيعملوا أي حاجة ويقولوا أي حاجة علشان يغطوا علي حقيقة مين الشركة اللي بتنفذ البرنامج ومين اللي بيمولها, كاتبين في الرسالة ان اللي بيشتغل علي البرنامج ده مجموعة من الشباب المصريين علي كام خواجة من الي عملوا البرنامج ده في “بلاد بره” قبل كده. أيوه بقي وهنا نييجي لحتة بلاد بره ديه, لأن بلاد بره هنا بتعود علي فين؟ علي أفعانستان

egyptian_youth

ده يخلينا نسأل نفسنا ايه اللي مخليهم مش وضحين كده وبيخبوا علي حقيقة من المالك للبرنامج وايه طبيعة علاقتهم مع “الشركاء” دول

لو رجعت كده للإيميل بتاعي هلاقي في إبريل 2012 لما كانت مؤسسة باميان ميديا الأمريكية بتبتدي شغلها في مصر وشغلت كام مصري معاها كده بعتولي إيميل بيطلبوا فيه يحطوا اللوجو بتاع إيجي برونور في كتيب هيطبعوه في أحد الفعاليات, ساعتها أنا ما كنتش أعرف حاجات كتير والموضوع كان معروض بشكل احترافي محترم يعني فعديتها ومقولتلهومش لأ, بس ياسيدي, هما خدوا موافقة علي ديه, وداروا يحطوا اللوجو في كل حتة في كل مناسبة من غير استئذان واللي هو لعب عيال يعني.

early_partnerships

طبعاً المؤسسة الأمريكية باميان ميديا كانت بتستفيد جداً من وا انها تحط اللوجوز مع بعضها, لما تييجي تدخل سوق طبعاً بتحب تصاحب الناس كلها لحد مايبقي ليك رجل, وطبعاً لو قلت للمؤسسات ديه أنا هطلعكم في التلفزيون مش هيبقي عندهم مانع. بعد كده هتستخدم ان الناس ديه قايلة انها معاك انك تروح للممولين والرعاة تقولهم بصوا كل الناس ديه شغالة علي الحاجة ديه واحنا عايزين دعمكم فيها وطبعاً وجود كل المؤسسات ديه هيقوي موقفك كتير, بعد كده ابقي زحلقهم, اضحك عليهم, اي حاجة. لو لحظتوا في ردود الأفعال المرة اللي فاتت جزء كبير جداً كان جاي من المؤسسين لشركات وانشطة معروضة كأنها شريك للبرنامج, معني كده ان ملهومش إيد في اللي بيحصل

بعد ماجابوا أول كام مؤسسة اللي حصل بعدها هبل, باقوا بيدوروا علي أي لوجو ممكن يلاقوه يحطوه معاهم كشريك, يعني انت لو عامل نشاط طلابي في أي كلية ممكن تروح وتحط اللوجو بتاعك معاهم, عمر عيشة كاتب سابق في موقع ومضة, بيقول انهم عملوا كده علشان يخبوا علي مين؟ علي حقيقة ان المعونة الأمريكية هي الممول الرئيسي للشركة اللي ورا البرنامج واللي هي المالكة والمتحكة في المشروع, علشان لو حد عايز ينتقدهم, ينتقد كل المؤسسات ديه, زي “يتفرق دمه بين القبائيييل” كده.

omar_bamyan

الفكرة بأه ان كل اللوجوز والأسامي اللي انتم شايفينها ديه ماكانش ليها دخل في القرارات المتعلقة بالبرنامج بتاتاً, هم بس هيعزموهم علي فعاليات وعلي جلسات استماع علشان يسمعوا منهم وبعدين يعملوا اللي هما عايزين حتي لو كان ضد مصلحتهم, وطبعاً المؤسسة الأمريكية ديه شغلت معاها فريق من المصرين, ناس محترمين اه بس مهمتهم انهم يلمعوا صورة البرنامج في المجتمع ويبانوا هما في الواجهة كأنهم الشباب المصري الكيوت اللي بيعمل البرنامج وهو المؤسسة الأمريكية مسيطرة علي كل كبيرة وصغيرة, وطبعاً هيكون فيه ناس مستفيدين مش هيهمهم مين جاي يعمل أيه فهيعاملوا معاه ويدعموه طالما انهم هيستفادوا.

الحقيقة بأه أن شبكة التلفزيون هي مجرد قناة لإذاعة البرنامج والترويج له بنفس الشكل اللي بتعمله مع كل البرامج, شركة الإنتاج هي زي أي شركة انتاج في الدنيا بيروح ليها عميل ويقولها عايزين ننتج البرنامج الفلاني ويدفعل لها, وكل اللوجو اللي محطوطه هي لشركاء كل التعامل معاهم بالشكل اللي اتكلمت عليه فوق مجرد لوجوز جمب بعض وفعاليات واحتفاليات وعشا وده اخره, وهم مستفيدين انهم يعرضوا نفسهم كأن كل الناس واقفة معاهم, معادا مؤسستين اللي دخلين في الموضوع بجد وهما “المعونة الأمريكية” وهي الممول الرئيس لبامينان ميديا ومؤسسة قطرية اسمها “صلتك”..

علشان فعلاً نبقي بنحلل صح, بندور علي مين, بندور علي المالك, مين صاحب البرنامج ده واللي يقدر يتخد كل القرارات

وده هيرجعنا للمكان اللي بدأ فيه البرنامج من الأول

Anna_Afghanistan2أنا إليوت, المؤسسة والمديرة التنفيذية لباميان ميديا في أفغانستان

في سنة 2007 واحد اسمه ديفيد إليوت كان شغال كبير مستشارين التنمية في هيئة المعونة الأمريكية في أفغانستان, في الوقت ده بنته اسمها أنا إليوت, كان عندها 23 سنة في الوقت ده وكانت بتدرس في جامعة هامبشير وشغالا في بار بعد الدراسة, وديه حاجة عادي عندهم, راحت تزوار أبوها في أفغانستان, ساعتها كان شغال برامج مسابقات واقعية زي “أفغان ستار” اللي هو شبه البرامج الأمريكية بالظبط. طبعاً أنا اتكلمت مع ابوها في انها عايزة تعمل حاجة زي كده, وبما إن أبوها شغال في “التنمية” أكيد هيختاروا حاجة ليه علاقة بالتنمية, فإختاروا الرواد المجتمعيين, الناس اللي بتعمل بزنس وتفيد المجتمع في افغانستان وكده

david_linkedin

في الوقت ده كان ديفيد إليوت مسئول عن ادارة 54 مليون دولار أمريكي من أموال المعونة الأمريكية في مشروع تطوير الشركات الصغيرة والمتوسطة في أفغانستان بيسموه, ASMED طبعاً عارفين بعد الحرب الأمريكية علي أفغانستان الحكومة الأمريكية قررت انها توجه كمية كبيرة جداً من الأموال لما سموه إعادة إعمار أفغانستان وكده, وطبعاً الأخ ديفيد ملقاش الموضوع صعب أنه يجيب لبنته 500 ألف دولار علشان تحقق حلمها وتنتج البرنامج في أفغانستان, طبعاً فرصة ذهبية في سوق ميعرفش الكلام ده, ومفيهوش أي منافسة, ولا شفافية محدش هيسأل ولا يعرف الفلوس جاية منين ولا رايجة فين.

الغريب برضه في الموضوع ان الفيديوهات الرسمية الوحيدة الموجودة عن البرنامج اللي اتعمل في أفغانستان موجودة علي قناة علي يوتيوب بنفس اسم المشروع أبو 54 مليون دولار اللي ديفيد إليوت بيديره, معني كده أنا وجه الفلوس علشان ينفذ المشروع ممكن تتأكد من كلامي عن طريق اسم القناة علي يوتيوب من هنا  https://www.youtube.com/user/ASMEDInfo/videos

طبعاً أنا إليوت لقيتها فرصة ذهبية فأجلت دراستها وانشغلت بإنها تشرف علي انتاج المرحلة الأولية من البرنامج في أفغانسان واللي بيسموه Pilot يعني مرحلة تجريبية كده, وطبعاً المعونة الأمريكة استخدمت نفوذها انها تعرض البرنامج علي أشهر قناة أفغانية TOLO TV بيتفرج عليها أكتر من نص مشاهدي التلفزيون في أفغانستان, الشركة صاحبة القناة نفسها بتقول 59% و مقالة في NBCNews بتقول ان القناة بيتفرج عليها 17 مليون أفغاني.

طبعاً المعونة الأمريكية بتفتخر ان الموسم التجريبي من البرنامج اتفرج عليه 7 مليون أفغاني, وطبعاً ديه شكلها جامد جداً في الإعلام, بس لو حللت الموضوع هتلاقي لو قناة بيتفرج عليها 17 مليون أفغاني والبرنامج اللي علي القناة اتفرج عليه 7 مليون, معني كده ان 10 مليون كانوا لإيلا بيقفلوا التلفزيون لما يشوفوا البرنامج أو يجيبوا قناة تانية, لو عندهم يعني قنوات تانية في افغانستان. 

بس علي أي حال, اطلقوا حملة إعلامية كبيرة في الإعلام الغربي وبدئت الجرايد والمواقع الكبيرة تكتب عن ازاي “أنا إليوت” و “المعونة الأمريكية” أطلقت برنامج جامد علشان إعادة إعمار أفغانستان والذي منه. 

حاجة مهمة نلاحظها هنا انه في المرحلة ديه, شركات الميديا الأمريكية كانت بتسيطر تماماً علي الإعلام في أفغانستان, المقال ده بيتكلم عن أزاي المشاهد الأمريكي هيقدر يتعرف بسهولة علي المناظرات الرئاسية في أفغانستان علشان شركات الإنتاج هي هيه, فــ في الوقت ده الشركات الأمريكية كانت مكتسحة الملعب في الإعلام الأفغاني وكل اللي عايز يعمل حاجة في الإعلام يروح أفغانستان. 

طبعاً موقع المعونة الأمريكية USAID حاطط البرنامج ده في أفغانستان علي انه قصة نجاح عظيمة وبيقول انهم خلاص هيشتغلوا علي الموسم التاني, ولازم طبعاً الكلمتين الجمدين عن ازاي المعونة الأمريكية بتعرف تعمل إصلاح وتنمية حول العالم والكلام ده ممكن تشوف المقال من هنا http://www.usaid.gov/results-data/success-stories/afghan-entrepreneurs-%E2%80%9Cdream-and-achieve%E2%80%9D

بس من الناحية التانية بقي أشهر موقع أخبار في أفغانستان KabulPress.org حاطط البرنامج ده في تقرير عاملة أسمه “الفساد الأمريكي وسوء الإدارة يهدد مستقبل أفغانستان” كاتب عن البرنامج ده تحت بند “مشاريع مشبوهة من المعونة الأمريكية” وقايل انه في حين ان المعونة الأمريكية بتدعي ان البرنامج عمل تأثير ضخم الناس في أفغانستان محستش بأي حاجة خالص, ممكن تقري المقال من هنا برضه  http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article4037

والسؤال البديهي اللي بيطرح نفسه هنا, لو البرنامج كان ناجح أوي كده في أفغانستان, مكملوش ليه بموسم تاني هناك؟

DreamAchieve

دلوقتي بقي, إزاي باميان ميديا, بتحتفل بنفسها علي انها اللي عملت البرنامج في أفغانستان لما البرنامج اتزاع في 2008 وعلي الموقع الرسمي لبامينان ميديا كاتبين انهم تأسسوا في 2010, علي أساس ان بنت ديفيد إليوت, اللي كان مسئول عن الــ 54 مليون دولار هي اللي كانت محطوطة كمنتج منفذ للبرنامج حتي الصفحة ديه من موقع Devev بتعرض بشكل واضح ان البرنامج كان مملوك وبيتنفذ لــ هيئة المعونة الأمريكية  معني كده ان كلام باميان ميديا ان عندها سابقة أعمال في الموضوع ده أي كلام. و بيني وبينك علي أيه يعني حتي!

أنا قعدت أتطقس أون لاين علي أي حاجة ليها علاقة بالبرنامج اللي اتعمل في أفغانستان وملقتش حاجة ليها لازمة خالص, حتي لو دورت علي يوتيوب هتلاقي مقاطع عبيطة. لما إتكلمت مع أول منتج باميان ميديا كانت عايز تنتج من خلالة قالي انهم ماوروهوش أي حاجة من البرنامج اللي اتعمل في أفغانستان وقالوله انهم كانت مجرد تجربة مش احترافية ودلوقتي عايزين يعملوا الإحترافي معاه. بالإضافة لده علي لسان أنا إليوت نفسها قالت ان البرنامج اللي انتجناه في أفغانستان كان ممل جداً, وبعدين استدرجت “بس 7 مليون اتفرجوا عليه” راح واحد من الفريق قام يغطي علي الموضوع ويقول معلش أصل أنا مش بتعرف تبيع نفسها كويس!!

علي أي حال في 2010 بناءاً علي الموقع الرسمي, ديفيد إليوت و بنته أنا إليوت عملوا باميان ميديا Bamyan Media علشان ياخدوا السمعة اللي اتعملت من البرنامج الفكسان في أفغانستان ويقتحموا دول العالم التالت علشان ينشروا ريادة الأعمال والذي منه زي ما بيقولوا, باميان ميديا مسجلة نفسها كمؤسسة لا تهدف للبرج في امريكا Non Profit Corporation وده طبعاً علشان يعرفوا ياخدوا فلوس من المتبرعين والمؤسسات العالمية بس لما ييجوا بلد بيسجلوا شركة تهدف للربح زي ماعملوا في مصر لما سجلوا شركة El Mashrou3 LLC الغريبة ان حتي الداعمين لبامينان ميديا في التغطية الإعلامية اللي عملوها في المقال اللي هتلاقيه في الاخر كاتبين “من الوهلة الأولي تبدوا استراتيجية باميان ميديا كما لو كانت استراتيجية مغول الميديا لإقتحام أسواق العالم الثالث”.  

بس يا تري هل باميان ميديا تخلت عن مظلة المعونة الأمريكية اللي كانت بدأت من خلالها؟

طبعاً بعد الموسم في أفغانستان أنا كانت بتتعرض في الميديا الغربية كالبطل المغوار اللي راحت افغانستان علشان تساعد الناس, حتي كانت مستضيفينها في البيت الأبيض ذات نفسه علشان تتكلم عن أمجادها مع أمجاد المعونة الأمريكية المزعومة. الصورة اللي تحت من الصفحة الرسمية لباميان ميديا.

BamyanMedia_WhiteHouse

يا تري ايه تاني هدف بعد أفغانستان ممكن باميان ميديا تسعي اليه؟ مصر طبعاً بعد الثورة. باميان ميديا عرضت علي المعونة الأمريكية انها تروح مصر علشان تعمل برنامج شبيه باللي اتعمل في أفغانستان وطبعاً المعونة الأمريكية ادتلهم شيك مفتوح لمدة تلات سنين علشان ييجوا مصر يعملوا اللي هما عايزينه, طالما أنه بيخدم أهداف المعونة الأمريكية , اللي أصلاً باميان ميديا اتبنت عليها.

في الحته ديه بقي بالذات أنا مش محتاج أدور أون لاين, علشان في الوقت ده بالظبط أنا كنت متفق مع قناة تلفيزيونية ومع راعي رئيسي علي اننا هنعمل برنامج شبيه جداً, ده كان قبل الثورة, بعد الثورة القناة للأسف اتباعت وكان لازم أبدأ من الأول تاني, ده إيميل باعته لواحد من أهم المنتجين في مصر بأطلب منه تقيم مالي لإنتاج البرنامج, يعني البرنامج كان خلصان مش محتاج غير فلوس علشان ينتج ويتذاع. 

abdelsamad-estimation

خلال الفترة ديه قابلي بعض موظفي المعونة الأمريكية في مصر, وطبعاً أنا مكنتش عارف حاجة غير اللي قالوهولي انهم معاهم فلوس ومهمتهم انهم يساعدوا الناس اللي زيي بيعملوا حاجات تفيد المجتمع والشباب المصري بعد الثورة وهكذا, المهم اتقابلت معاهم وشاركتهم في تفاصيل اللي بيحصل وحتي كان فيه خبير في الإعلام موجود في مصر ساعتها قعدت معاه وعجبه جداً الكلام اللي بقولة, بس واستنين يجيني الرد منهم, ففي وسط الطلام بعتولي إيميل مبعوت من أنا إليوت بتقولهم شكراً علي الدعم وحطة معلومات عن الكلام اللي اتعمل في أفغانستان, طبعاً كان بعيد عني فمركزتش فيه

us2email

بس يا سيدي, وإذ فجأة, أعرف إن المعونة الأمريكية مولت باميان ميديا علشان تنتج برنامج شبيه في مصر, طبعاً كان ساعتها إحنا ما استنناش الفوس وفتحنا في الشغل جامد ومبقتش فاضي للبرنامج ده بالذات, فسبتني منه وقولت أهوه أتعلم من الخبرة ديه واتجاهل الموضوع تماماً, بس للأسف الموضوع مكانش راضي يسيبني في حالي

يعني بامينان ميديا اللي لسه معمومة من مشروع بدأ في المعونة الأمريكية قدرت تحصل علي تمويل مفتوح من المعونة الأمريكية لمدة تلات سنين تبرطع فيه في مصر زي ما تحب علشان تعمل برنامج شبية, التمويل بدأ من سبتمبر 2011 والشركة قعدت سنتين لحد ماعرفت تطلع برنامج المشروع دلوقتي. عمر عيشة أحد المحررين السابقين في موقع ومضة بيقول أنه عارف ان باميان ماديا واخدة 5 مليون دولار من المعونة الأمريكية علشان تسيطر علي المؤسسات اللي بتساعد الشباب في مصر عن طريق المشروع, وحتي بيقول للناس علي فيس بوك انهم ميخلوش الغريب اللي بيمثل الحكومة الأمريكية يسيطر علي حاجة مهمة زي دعم الشباب انهم يبدأوا مشاريعهم.

OmarAysha

علي أي حال باميان ميديا اللي هي بتاخد الفلوس من المعونة وغيرها علي انها لا تهدف للربح عملت شركة تهدف للربح في مصر علشان تمشي شغلها عن طريقها, هما قالولي ان باميان ميديا بتمتلك 99% من شركة المشروع بس ده كلام مش مؤكد, يعني من الاخر مفيش مشاكل انهم يكسبوا من وراها من تحت لتحت

ElMashrou3_Header

يبقي كدا بيتأكد لنا إن المتحكم بكل حاجة بيقوم بيها المشروع مش هما الشباب اللطاف اللي بيحاولوا يساعدوا الناس بحسن نية, ولا المتطوعين الي بيحاولوا يقضوا وقتهم في حاجة مفيدة, المتحكم الفعلي هي مؤسسة أمريكية إسمها باميان ميديا وبيدريها ديفيد إليوت وبنته أنا إليوت, طبعاً هما دلوقتي قاعدين شغالين في الإعلام علي أساس إن المشروع ديه شركة مصرية بتساعد الناس وجابوا واحدة مصرية أمريكية سموها المدير التنفيذي للشركة علشان يخبوا كل حاجة من تحت لتحت. ودلوقتي قاعدين يحاربوا علشان يقدروا ياخدوا البرنامج ده انه يكون علي مستوي العالم العربي

طبعاً من غير أي تأثير يذكر ونسبة مشاهدة مكسفة, ضيف ليها حالات كتيرة من الفساد في تعامل باميان ميديا باللي حواليها, اللي خلت أحد أهم الأشخاص في إنتاج البرنامج تبعت لي رسالة وتقلي انهم أكتر ناس مش نضيفة معندهاش أي احترافية وحرامية هي اشتغلت معاهم في حياتها, الرسالة أيها كمان

main-contractor-message

من الواضح إن باميان ميديا مصابة بغرور عجيب نتيجة للدعم الامتناهي والغير مسئول من فلوس الحكومة الأمريكية خليتهم مش بس يستريحوا في فشلهم لمدة سنتين قبل مايطلعوا البرنامج بس كمان يضحكوا علي الناس اللي بيتعاملوا معاهم وينصبوا عليهم وهم بيحاولوا يسيطروا علي موضوع ريادة الأعمال في الشرق الأوسط بالنيابة عن الحكومة الأمريكية اللي مدياهم كل التمويل والتسهيلات. طبعاً سرقة الملكية الفكرية من رواد الأعمال الحقيقيين و النصب وخيانة الناس اللي بيشتغلوا معاهم ده جزء بسيط من اللي عملوه لحد دلوقي.

بص حتي ديفيد إليوت بيتكلم إزاي علي أنه راح اليمن علشان يبيع البرنامج هناك, رحنا هنا وخادونا للقوضا اللي فوق فووووق فوووووووق, وجابولنا كل الناس المهمين, ده كلام حد رايح علشان يساعد الناس ولا علشان “يركبهم” ويسيطر عليهم؟

David_Yemen

المهم, لما نتعرف علي الناس اللي ورا المشروع فعلاً هنسأل نفسنا, هل فعلاً الناس ده مؤهلة أنها تعمل حاجة زي كده؟ هل هم حتي كانوا مهتمين بإنهم يفيدوا الناس, وهيهموا يفيدوا الناس ليه؟ هل الطريقة اللي حصلوا بيها علي التمويل بتعبر فعلاً عن مؤسسة بتحاول تساعد الناس وتنشر روح إيجابية مبينهم؟

يستكمل قريباً…

للوهلة الأولي يبدوا برنامج أنا إليوت كما لوكان استراتيجية المغول لإقتحام الأسواق الناشئة, من مجلة ميلتون الغربية. 

Anna_Elliot_1

Courtesy of Bamyan Media on Facebook

تنبيه: المعلومات اللي موجوده هنا كلها موجودة ومنشورة بشكل علني في أماكن مختلفة تمت الإشارة ليها في كل موضع, المقصود من الكتابة هو توضيح تأثير البرنامج علي الشباب المصري وغير مقصود أي أهانة لأي شخص مذكور, ومحصلش أي تعدي علي خصوصية أي حد علشان نعمل البحث ده.