Comments on: Silicon Arabia (Part 3): The Talent Equation

By: Maan Al-Majali

Maan Al-Majali — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:21:03 +0000

Shashi, I would like to start by saying this is a great piece and very accurate, and in whole, I agree with it. Now, to start with this attraction to government jobs, I have two things to say about this; 1) Government jobs in the region offer so much more job security, benefits and attractive retirement schemes in comparison to the emerging private sector, in the levant region especially. In the GCC, most of the respective countries wealth is accumilated from oil or energy resources revenue, and this spills into the private sector, so the attraction here is, why not just work for the government, as a national, its my given right that I work for my government, let the expats work in the private sector and leave after 5 years of accumilating wealth. It's the same in the levant, however the governments are less wealthy but offer great job security and benefits. All across the region, governments are feared by their people, the lack of democracy dictates this, and to work within the governmental sphere offers a sense of prestige on many fronts. 2) there is a culture of what we call in Arabic 'wasta', where even if my fellow applicant is more qualified and experienced, if daddy knows the boss, then I'm in!! this is both for the private sector and government. So in many countries, you see the youth and the young relying on such a culture, and hence, we see a lack of innovation and determination. This will continue and there are little ways to stop it, it's like a snowball effect.

The comfort of a government or even a private sector job makes or breaks the region as a hub for entrepreneurs. I disagree to some extent to what the European venture capitalist you mention that has described entrepreneurship more as being a workaholic – I have come to realise entrepreneurship is more about getting out there in the world, speaking to people, listening more, spotting opportunities, seeing where the market is heading and going the opposite direction, finding that needle in the haystack, taking over your business and not letting your business take over you! Either way, whether workaholic or entrepreneur, your average Arab would say, 'screw this, I'm comfortable and secure where I am at present'.

I see the GCC as talent and content consumers, while other areas in the Middle East as talent providers, these technological parks you mention are and will be packed with western expats and also Arabs from the levant. Even these initiatives seem to be government initiatives masqueraded as private sector initiatives, if you dig deep enough, you will see that they are owned by government holding companies. Nevertheless, they are there to support start-ups and encourage entrepreneurship.

I agree with Suster when he says there are a lack of popular success stories in the region, and furthermore I would say there are lack of motivational examples. Take the life of a journalist or media professional for example and how its glamorised by hollywood over the years, hence you see a booming media industry in the West in parallel with that, its just not the case over here in the region! It's the American dream factor you mentioned, it's more in your face in the west.

Education, society, and family upbringing plays a big role. Risk taking and following your own path rather than your family's expectation is frowned upon, society is still very, very conservative in general, politics dictates, and therefore dictates education and family values, traditions are still very much ripe.

Consider everything above, and add to it a pinch of corruption, a dash of lack of direction and lack of promotion of funding and investment bodies, a handful of self-pride, and bake under the heat of political and economic uncertainty in the majority of the region, you're left with a lack of motivation and education about entrepreneurship….In general, that is!!

By: Maryam

Maryam — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 08:37:57 +0000

Nice article Shashi. It is very impressive that youths like to work for gov! I never thought of it.
Let me share some info from Iran as a part of M.E.
There are 3 main technical uni and with 70M+ population and 30M+ internet users who are well educated, I do hope and plan to see and start some entrepreneurship activities there.

By: 3ammar

3ammar — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:24:42 +0000

I love your article

It also made laugh that you mentioned Amman University as the lead technical uni of Jordan. This particuluar piece of infroamtion is extremely inaccurate. Please correct it before i kill myself!

By: Georgina M.

Georgina M. — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:25:06 +0000

That's very interesting. I would like to refer to the Middle East Youth Initiative (http://shababinclusion.org/) which was launched to better understand and respond to the specific needs of the youth. In one of its publications, entitled "Missed by the Boom, Hurt by the Bust: Making Markets Work for Young People in the Middle East", the main recommendations for the emergence of strong Middle Eastern economies is expanding the role of the private sector, and reducing the appeal of government employment (Dhillon et al, http://shababinclusion.org/content/document/detai… Another interesting study quantified the cost of youth exclusion as high as US$53 billion in Egypt (17% of GDP) and US$1.5 billion in Jordan (7% of GDP) (Chaaban, http://shababinclusion.org/content/document/detai… which is to say the least a big foregone figure.
Hence, start ups can be a great medium for youth inclusion, but we still lag the enabling environments, access to finance, and as you've mentioned in part 1, a change of culture. This will not only benefit the youth, but will also trickle down to the economy which will have a stronger more lucrative entrepreneurial class.

By: Shashi Menon

Shashi Menon — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:24:36 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Mark, and I think the answer lies in my upcoming posts. I think the angel funding community has spurred innovation in the U.S. — such a community is markedly absent in the MENA region. I also think mentors in the region are quite rare compared to the U.S. Fred Wilson recently wrote a great post about role models ( http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/01/role-models.html ) and gave an interview for Fast Company ( http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/01/why-you-should-st… ) in which he said that second- and third-time entrepreneurs are real drivers of change. Accordingly, I'd posit that harnessing more effectively the leaders of the various success stories originating from the MENA region could really make a big difference.

By: Mark Suster

Mark Suster — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:35:50 +0000

Thanks for the mention, Shashi. Super interesting findings. I would have never guessed that so many people in the GCC countries aspired to work for the government. I'm sure that youth everywhere aspire to work in the professions that are seen as most lucrative financially and from an interpersonal fulfillment perspective. To chance the views of the youth there need to be more success stories. In Silicon Valley there are so many people who want to be the next Jerry Yang / David Filo, Larry Page / Sergey Brin or Mark Zuckerberg. I think the real question is – what can we do to make these success stories of self-made people successful in the Middle East. Right now it would appear to many in the US that people tend to acquire wealth in the GCC through oil, real estate and exports of any raw materials. These are all businesses that favor people who come from wealth already. How do we change that?