What a year it has been in the Middle East! Among the good news from 2009:
• Qatar Airways completed the world’s first commercial passenger flight powered by natural gas
• The fully automated Dubai Metro became the first urban train network in the Middle East
• In Saudi Arabia, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology opened its doors. Called “an oasis of freedom,” the university aims to fund research that will spawn economic diversity.
2009 has truly been a year of breakthrough achievements in the Middle East. It was also a year of disappointments. Who would have thought that the bottom would fall out of the real estate market in most of the Middle East? Or that unemployment would rise and workers without a stake in the Gulf countries would flee, leaving their debts unpaid? Or that Dubai World would need a $26 billion bailout?
Yet, as disastrous as these situations may seem, I believe they provide an unprecedented opportunity for the growth of innovation and entrepreneurs in the region. 2010 could finally be the year that start-ups and companies investing in innovative products, services, business models, and management come into serious play in the Middle East. The conditions are ripe:
Cheaper resources – The events of 2009 have made resources – office space, talented personnel, supplies – that are often too expensive more affordable.
Access to information – Newer businesses, which tend to place more value on individual contributions, know that information and knowledge is essential to growth. So, while traditional companies hunker down and wait for things to get better, innovators and entrepreneurs continue to make things better by continuously learning and adapting.
Process innovation – smart companies (many of them led by entrepreneurs) reduced job losses by focusing on management processes, making them more cost-effective, innovative, and efficient.
So here’s my question to the Middle East: Where will you put your money and effort this year? Should we continue to follow the U.S. model of bailing out established corporations, or should we increase support for entrepreneurs, start-ups, and innovators that can make a real difference and also turn a profit?
View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovation in the Middle East