It’s still in it’s infancy stage, they are just conducting their first voting sessions this month.

Will it grow to become a stand alone ‘market watch’ type of non-profit NGO? Not sure…

Will it really provide real un-bias feedback that this market needs? Not sure…

I’m not exactly sure consumers here are at that stage, the opportunity cost of price, value & service comparisons is still unrealized.

It’s an interesting start though… Thought I’d share…

www.servicehero.com

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Kuwait Initiative for Leaders of Development (Thukhur) originated with the intention of carefully selecting and training 100 professionals that will be part of an elite network (Thukhur Club) with the right skills to manage projects that carry forward Kuwait’s development plans.

Kuwait Initiative for Leaders of Development (Thukhur) network members are also expected to be creative and innovative. They will address issues, create solutions and solve problems to avoid duplication of effort and to expedite the completion of projects within the planned scope and budget.

Members of Thukhur Club will be eligible for pivotal positions that will implement the Kuwait Development Plan. Based on the right mix of the graduate’s background, skills, and fit with the projects being developed, they may be eligible to be chosen for responsible management positions related to a specific project.

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For more information  Click Here

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P.S : The Question is who really need this program? as7aab fekrat Thukhur Club wely gathbeen khe6at el tanmeya wela a7na ? for more explanation Click Here

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A new creative way by Cebu Pacific Air flight to catch passenger attention for the safety instructions on the plane .Cebu Pacific Airlines is a Philippine-based airline that flies within the Philippines and from the Philippines to 16 international cities.

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Viva Philippine  :r

I have given up a long time ago on Corporate Kuwait and how they perform their Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) towards their customers that they serve, its always the usual CSR that wake up today thinking “Oh lets give PS3 to some kids in a hospital ward” it like giving an African poor kid a laptop with no real use, don’t get me wrong here this is not defined as CSR it is what it is  “giveaways”. But a friend of mine have told me about Small to Big, i knew  about it last year but missed it. But this year it came in with a bang, Small to big is sponsoring a trip to Kings College in the UK for entrepreneurs to join workshops in leadership, strategy, and execution.Its about time some Kuwaiti company is investing back in its community. I think its an excellent step by Viva and many other Kuwaiti companies should follow suite. Its the first time i get interested in any CSR program in Kuwait.

The Small to Big (STB) is a program fully sponsored trip to Kings College in the UK, by Viva Company. One major point that i really like in the requirements is that the company has to be registered officially and running for a year, so bye bye cup cakes and accessory business:P This requirement by STB means that the people applying are real business people that would like to establish a business with a prospect of growth, and i’m going to be applying too. Entrepreneurs in Kuwait who have the guts to take a risk and enter the start-up world are in dire need of such workshops. These workshops help especially non business people to understand the main element in entering such a field, think about engineer, designers and pharmacists that have great idea’s but know nothing about business. These workshops close such gaps.Visit STB site and take a look.

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.