io81

Brief

After aramex started to charge really high fees on any packages that comes to Kuwait i started to hesitate to buy online, i’v bought a book for 7 dollars on amazon and got it to be sent via free delivery. But when Aramex delivers the book to me, i get charged 9KD. So you can see the difference how business runs in the states and compared us here in Kuwait from a price perspective. There are reasons why but i will not get into them because i need a different post by itself. Anyways so i got hit by an ad about audie books and said lets check out the site. Then i started thinking would listening to a book be any different than from reading it. From a usability perspective its much better, i cant run on the treadmill and  read a book simlataneously, but surly can listen to one.

The Book

Its about behaviorural economics and one interesting subject i never knew about, when i started listing i got hooked fast. The book is called Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, and its about how economies behave based on our hardwired thinking process. Give the book a try, you wont regret it.

Non Kuwaiti companies ownership rules

Back to the post,  after reading the book and after remembering my economic classes at KU which i failed strongly, i noticed how important it is today to understand Kuwaits economy. One major part i have many questions for is job creation. I’ll post one day about the cupcake and khalajeen economy we are building now. So like many developed economies they run more efficiently by utilizing the private sector, and we all know from a broader understanding why, due to profit making and searching for better markets to make more profits using efficent means. Then i started thinking about the Kuwaiti labor force and how we are not up to the job due to lack of skills. To create a better job market and increase levels of skill acquiring, we need to open the market to foreign companies. Some will argue that this will demolish our local companies, but remember how competitiveness makes us learn more and become creative. Because our local companies our working within a semi closed economy, our companies are not even close to international standards from a efficiency perspective. Why? because they only compete locally. So now imagine the law opens to non Kuwaiti companies and staffing should be done by 50% Kuwaitis,  the international skills will filter down to Kuwaitis resulting in creating more jobs for Kuwaitis and higher learning curves.  But the question here, why is Kuwait not opening up?? doing so would employ many Kuwaitis and create a better and more efficient work force. A small example would be the telecoms sector, now you can see how Viva blow the prices out of proportion and the influx of employees moving between these companies. The newly established telecommunication commission to regulate these companies is a result of Viva entering the market. Because of Viva now you have the option to switch your provider without changing your phone number. I really would like to ask such questions in the parliament instead of giving a holiday for the last 10 days in ramadan or if the Persian gulf should be recalled to the Arabian gulf!

The last time I posted it was the last parliamentary elections, and i was so happy that at-last 4 ladies made it and it seemed like new blood have circulated Kuwait. What a great feeling it was, it makes me proud that we gave respect to the other sex and gave a blow to the religious zealots in this country that want to run it with their own assumption of how the world should be ruled. But soon after things became worse and i felt depressed again, and had nothing to write for a while so I apologize.

Back to business, to me a slogan of a company is important and reflects the direction and assumption of the customers. Before i continue, a small tip: never come up with your start-up company slogan at the beginning try to start operations and work it from there. See who are your customers and if that you have reached your target audience. But with well established companies its a must to have a correct reflection of your business. Ya3ne a stupid example would be the Oula Fuel Marketing Company slogan, its says “We are changing”. simple thinking will make you say ok! yes you have taken over the government fuel station and have been changing them, but you will change them till when? Is this an eternal change? So you can figure out that this is a stupid slogan done by idiots. But now lets go to the World Olympics( the one held every four years): and their slogans goes like “Celebrate Humanity”. In a sporting event all countries of the world come and compete, you are talking about Muslim, Christien, Jewish, Non Believers, Communist, Socialites countries that all come together. So in the Olympic games all of the world comes to play their best, hence the slogan makes perfect sense.

Another slogan i personally love, its not a company its a TV Channel but their slogans still reflects their purpose, it goes like this “Question Everything” again when watching Discovery Channel you do get the feeling that they provide shows that many of us would like to know the answers too. Such slogans make you think and their meanings reflect the institutions purpose. I always question myself when will we stop adding “increasing shareholders equity” in our missions statmemts and why cant we come up with sensible slogans that really reflect our internal processes. I will broadly answer the question: Wasta, i know its not only wasta, but because we do have many wrong people in the wrong places. The only good thing that may come out of this recession is that related idiots to certain board members will not run most Kuwaiti companies anymore because of their inabilities and the right people should be put in their places because in bad times you need visionaries to run companies not spoon fed kids.

What made me come up with the idea of this post is the affect of staffing Kuwaitis in top management of a non Kuwaitis company, (Vivs, STC). When they entered the Kuwaiti market they made sure that the company was run by a Kuwaiti and not by a Saudi, yes its a simple and known fact in business that to run an effective company in country that the company does not originate from the management should be staffed by locals. HSBC promotes it in their ads, and still we see Kuwaiti companies run by expats. Nothing against expats but to under stand the inner working of the Kuwaiti culture you have to live it. ViVa made a smart move (in my own sense) lately when you require opening a new phone line at Viva, you are requested to sign the Ci-net agreement that allows the company to see you credit history. Before i explain further, the Ci-net is an independent company created by the Kuwaiti banks to keep track of individuals credit history in Kuwait; that includes loans, credit cards and other services from financing companies. User banks use the information to set the internal credit policies to provide financing to customers and such information shows how often customer pay their bills and if the have late payments and any legal actions against them. So Viva uses such a service (which he is not a bank) to have a window into the customers credit history and can build a preconceived decision to provide a service for a customer or not, Smart! Because not doing so creates another problem of collections and legal fees that the company does not want to incur. So if you were not a Kuwaiti and do not know anything about our banking system, how can you come up with such an idea or policy to be implemented within the company. Another thing is that now Viva become a third mobile provider in Kuwait and wants to make sure that it does not start taking in the worst paying customers from Zain and Wataniya already kicked out because of their bad credit history.

Just another point, Ci-net is nothing amazing just a system that is linked between the Kuwaiti banks and financial institutions, and due to its old ad hoc systems, it has many loop holes and problems. It is not anything close to credit scoring systems in Europe or the states but its a start. I personally hope that they themselves can add value to the Kuwaiti financial system, by providing more online services and being more transparent.

We are all going through some tough times, maybe even more at the private sector but none the less we should all try to pitch in to find better ways to save the business or lower cost so the people managing companies around Kuwait can contribute to society and the economy and not to fire and lower salaries more increasing the fear within the country of an all out recession after many Kuwaitis and non Kuwaiti will default on their loans. Sorry to say we live in a capitalist structure where our lives are based on debt but we still can make the passage to the other side.

I only wish that one company or any for that matter in Kuwait take a decision and sit with its employee’s and explain the situation, then try to come up with solutions to save and increase business. How hard is it to take such a decision, meet with the employees and brain storm ways to lower daily expenses, ie like employees watering the plants in the branches (banks) instead of outsourcing the hard back breaking duty to others:P, cutting down on printing material or is the real truth behind the firing and lower wages is nothing but an opportunity to be seized!?

Check out many inspiring stories.

(Warning this post is a bunch of gibberish, and only to be read to waste time:P)

Driving around Kuwait city and looking at some beautiful buildings that reflects the owner tastes  (the new raya building) compared to other commercial business men that live based on the bottom line, then i thought how bad it feels to know that you may have stop construction on your building, then the domino affects start to take shape, more job losses. Now imagine many of the Kuwaiti economy sectors are following the same path, i personally got effected too. Then i think; is their a bright side to all this; i can at least tell my mom to stop nagging me from getting married:P i guess its a plus to not have responsibilities like kids or school tuition at such bad times. Back when i visited the UK in September, i watched the news and said “naaaaaaah” this would never reach Kuwait, , how naive.  All of my friends in the private sector are threatened with salary cuts, some are even threatened with losing their jobs, some got the salary cut by up to 30%. The weird thing is places like McDonald’s and Hardees are making a come back. One of the top recruiters in the world is McDonald’s. When you think about it, yes it does make sense. Slow food is more expensive now and everybody is trying to save up. Fast food is cheap and readily available and factor in depression! olaa laaah (singing) for fast food executives. I have said a while ago about Zain’s theme;” a wonderful world”. Man!! can they stick their heads in the sand any more deeper. Picture this, Al Arabiya channel two weeks ago airing pictures of young Gazan’s kids in the news then for a commercial break “Zain 3alam jameel”. The thing is i have not seen any article or report that blames the culprits of such a financialtsunami, in the US off course.

Then i hear in the news that the new york times is facing bankruptcy if it does not secure a loan, one of the major reasons is that audiences are switching to the Internet to read not only one news site but many online news sites. Yes what i have said above has nothing to do with us but it does, hold on sec; when you start thinking of opening any business, you have to factor in the Internet and if it plays a threatening role directly. So how many newspapers have opened up in the past year in Kuwait, how will the Internet effect them when we start getting the same caliber of news but on the net. Kuwait has two internet based newspapers now. Down the road maybe 8 years from now, whats going to happen with the new print based newspapers? they are trying to gain new market share in the wrong place! yes they got websites but they are not web based, they are print based. 

In such times, the best business plan would be a one that provides daily needed service but with convenience and lower price, and when i say lower prices i mean ridiculously lower prices. Think like Jazeera airlines, 20kd tickets to Dubai or Bahrain, i guess even the owners of the cross country old green & white striped suburbans got scared:P that kind of cheap prices urges people to change!

I will end the post with a funny pic just to take the negative vibe that i introduced away:P

And we still do not want to give gays their rights!!

Sorry for not posting for a while, been working on many stuff lately and had no time to even blog plus i was forced to update my wordpress and then started having problems like logging in to the blog itself, and still having problems with the wordpress because of the conflict with the theme now. So if some have advice out there please help… anyways the last time i wrote anything it was before the credit crisis hit Kuwait and i know everybody is fed-up with the crisis talk so i will discuss something else. I always had a question lingering in my mind, and it only popped when the Shaikh al fally episode started; Does Kuwait Finance House (KFH) staff Shiites? I have been listening to rumors that it never does staff shiite and when you apply to the bank they tend to find out if you are, well i really wish this is untrue because to me the tipping point of racism in the world is when obama got elected, a country always attacked for their racism just elected the first African American president and we are still staff employees by their last names. If anybody knows at least one shiite that works in KFH ( a kuwaiti) that would be great for me to remove this horrible thought that we still in Kuwait think in such a way.

I never thought of seeing the NBK logo on the new trend watching magazine issued by trendwatching.com. This website follows world wide trends and what are the new trend setters out there, like Snack culture and Primuimzation. So what gets me is how does NBK think issues like that are interesting to them. Such a large corporation is heading into the right direction and is surly spotting opportunities within the global market. For NBK to have there sights outwards is a smart move, thats one of the things that make it a bank that wants to become a leader and a major player in the market. BUT, but they still lack social responsibility and community work, and my guess is that this problem is from a Kuwaiti top management structure that still thinks what they studied in the university from 1970′s is important and nothing new has been added. Social responsibility and protecting the environment is the top leading agenda on many world wide corporation and NBK has an obligation to educate the Kuwaiti society about such issues, yet it still keeps its customers in the dark. ….”I just cant wait for the next walkathon to win the new model minicooper!!” one community event is pathetic for NBK’s size and influence towards its community.

I have explained before how companies take a step ahead to enter new markets, well now i understand why Sultan Center Kuwait made a move and acquired the Wasabi brand from Good Food company. Wasabi will branch out now in the GCC region becoming a Kuwaiti chain going regional, and offcourse Sultan Center management are smart, because they can easily handle such business because of there background in food handleing / operations and retailing. Plus they are expanding too, GCC wise. So why not support other brands like Wasabi. Imagine how many countless malls are popping up in Kuwait, now imagine Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and UAE. This may surly take some years to complete, but when done who can compete against them. Creating a brand, recruiting chefs from Green valley in the Philippines now turned into a GCC chain. So what does Good Food company do with the 5million KD buyout, create more brands i guess. Some start to think why did i not come up with such a concept, looks fairly simple yah. Well the same idea came to a guy in Good Food company, but he had the resources to support his idea, and you too can. These business venture are not a one man show but a whole orgnizational project, when i  say resources i mean financial resources, these plus experties etc etc..but hold on; these financial resource are a well studied plan with loans but from a business structure not the ones you take from your branch. So what i’m saying here is that when you’ve got a strong feasible idea, dont be afraid to follow it through and you may be surprised where you end up, 6al7a most probably:P 

on the 10th to the 15 of November, the Dubai air show will begin. So went online at Jazeera airways tried to book my tickets and as usual the Error sign popped. Because i really want to see the air show i kept my cool and called the 177 hotline, booked the tickets. The employee explained that i had to visit the airport and pay there, i did not mind yet because i really wana go! But i have realized one thing, when i tried to pay online using my visa card, the website added a charge of two KD. So my tickets totaled to 105kd, when i reached the airport “confusing line”counter and gave in my flight detail to my surprise i was requested to pay another 2kd per seat for using my visa card, again! So what i would like to explain is why when banks force there visa subcribers like Jazeera airways fees they forward such fees to us as customers, why cant such large corporation handle these charges, and provide the real benefit behind using your visa card. This may happened to you around Kuwait when wanting to buy any product in any store and the clerk request you to pay an extra 3kd charge because of the visa charges imposed on them. Okay i may understand that small shops have lower profit margins but not an airline company. I wasted about 30 minutes of my time today plus the commute to the airport and still get charged extra, why all this happened! because Jazeera website could not handle traffic when they promote there offers, maybe they should change there name to the Frustration Airlines better.

We all now how information in Kuwait is so secret, even though its available in certain places but the gate keepers to such information make it impossible to reach. Many laws are readily available in the ministry but it takes a while to find, normal symptoms of a bureaucratic centralized system. Anyways back to the secret handbook, the ministry of social affairs has a book on how to govern employees in the private sector in Kuwait, this book includes Kuwaitis and non Kuwaitis. I’ll give you a brief idea about it: this book has  a set of rules the companies in Kuwait must follow in situation like when your late or did not show up for work for more than 7 days, what constitute a firing or termination ?  Companies in Kuwait may use it to guide thembut may not use a harsher law written within this hand book. The problem with this book is that it is not written in a clear format, very typical Kuwaiti so the wrongful holders can manipulate the law as they wish and use it to there advantage. The book even includes indemnity for Kuwaitis but companies can always use other means of termination for you to not get anything. The book also explains the disciplinary code on employees, and how many warning and deduction you may get (and what extent of deductions your getting). The book is called “Kuwait private sector law handbook” and is available in some English bookstores, its a good book to browse through just to understand where you stand within a company when you start second guessing your superior.