JUNE 2013 004

Bahrain

IN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH TAMKEEN

startup

WAFA OBAIDATTHE STORY OF 26 YEAROLD LADY ENTREPRENEUR

CONTENTS Tap on a topic to go to it

Features Bahrain

Advice Resources Worldwide

Entrepreneurship Conference

Mix n’ Mentor Highlights

@ltijara Payment Solution

Wafa Obaidat, the story a 26 year old lady entrepreneur

‘Moving Customizable Comforts’ Winners of Injaz Competition

Get Branded !

Success, a sticky trap

Co-opetition

Websites We Like

Gadgets Debrief

APPS Debrief

Ikea, the game changer

‘Tim Ferriss’ 3 Rules for Success

Features

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Entrepreneurship ConferenceKPMG in partnership with Tamkeen organized a one day conference on Entrepreneurship. The event was held at the Intercontinental Regen-cy Hotel on Monday May 27th, 2013Professor Filipe Santos, an associ-ate professor of entrepreneurship at INSEAD and the conference’s keynote speaker, was an engag-ing guest with a lot of interesting things to say. Santos definitely hit the overriding target: he discussed how to model the development of sustainable business, and how to

intellectually equip entrepreneurs to use panoramic perspectives to grow companies on a global scale.

Conference KickoffJamal Fakhro led off the conference. He talked about recognizing the importance of small and medium enterprises, especially in a growing Bahrain economy. Fakhro recog-nized that small and medium en-terprises, or SMEs, could help push Bahrain’s economy forward from its already prosperous position. Filipe

Santos followed Fakhro to discuss the steps that entrepreneurs can take in modeling their enterprises. He specifically targeted individuals involved in SMEs.

The Building Blocks of BusinessSantos argued that entrepre-neur-led companies are the back-bone of economies, and the source of job creation. He stressed that looking at the big picture is of utmost importance when plan-ning and developing a business. Throughout the talk, Santos did not underestimate the difficulty of growing business in a global eco-nomic environment. Instead, Fil-ipe Santos offered an architectural

guideline – building blocks – of a successful business. These building blocks comprise what Santos sees as a successful and working busi-ness model.

The Filipe Santos ModelThe steps focus on goal-oriented techniques, including targeting the right customers, and communicat-ing correctly. Santos was able to design these building blocks using his real world experience, educa-tion, and lifetime expertise in areas like family enterprise and business modeling. Each piece of the Santos model is a building block, which urges entrepreneurs to examine a different aspect of business.

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The Spirit of Small BusinessThe entrepreneurial spirit was in the air at this conference where small and medium enterprises were the stars of the show. The big-pic-ture at the conference was seeing the big picture. Professor Santos urged his guests to “step back from the complexity of day-to-day busi-ness decisions and focus on the es-sential elements of their business model – their source of competitive advantage.” This piece of advice is simple but effective.

More Than a Meeting PlaceThe crowd at the conference was filled with entrepreneurs, business owners, and other officials. It was an excellent opportunity to forge key partnerships, which by no slight coincidence is the eighth building block of Professor Santos’ business model. Santos advised the attend-ees to create “strategic alliances” and his talk was an opportunity to do so. This conference was more than just a meeting place for ambi-tious and successful people. It was an excellent opportunity for entre-preneurs to share ideas and explore potential partnerships.

Filipe Santos Bio:• 2003 Ph.D. from Stanford in Man-agement Science and Engineering• Associate Professor of Entrepre-neurship at INSEAD• Academic director of the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship initiative• Director for the Maag Internation-al Centre for Entrepreneurship• Social entrepreneurship lecturer and teacher• Entrepreneurial & business-mod-eling mentor• Interested in social entrepreneur-ship, entrepreneurial growth, and business model innovation

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Features

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Mix n’ Mentor HighlightsMix N’ Mentor Bahrain was a one day event organized by Wamda in part-nership with Tamkeen, Bahrain De-velopment Bank and Tenmou to bring together promising entrepreneurs with industry experts and investors. Held on the 11th of May at the Al Jasra Business and Professional Women’s Club, it brought together an eclectic mix of entrepreneurs, mentors and

industry experts from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and UAE to share their expe-riences and advice in a casual, high energy setting.

Event Day HighlightsIt was attended by more than 100 entrepreneurs who had the unique opportunity to meet, engage and dis-cuss specific start up challenges with

By Jennifer Yakub

industry experts and investors. The event commenced with inspirational talks and stories from Sheikh Hisham Al Khalifa of Bahrain Development Bank, Yousif Ali from Tamkeen and Francis of PayPal. Sheikh Hisham narrated an interesting story on how historically Bahrain was an entrepre-neur’s paradise and everybody was an entrepreneur or worked for an entrepreneur, but with banking, oil and other sectors taking center stage, entrepreneurship was side-lined but it remains within every Bahraini’s DNA and it should be nurtured and brought forth.Soon after the opening address, entre-preneurs and mentors were divided into breakout groups of 10, based on

their skills and challenges. Each group attended 3 sessions, each tackling specific entrepreneurial challenges. Mentors and entrepreneurs in each group were rotated for each session to ensure maximum diversity. Men-tors ranged from a wide array of in-dustry experts and investors to serial entrepreneurs.

The first sessionSession 1 addressed Team Building. With mentors like Ms. Amy Morgan of Unisono and Mr. Mazin Al Shehabi of Mazin Computer Centre leading discussions, insightful and immedi-ately actionable advice was doled out to entrepreneur’s questions ranging from “When to hire the first employ-

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ee?” to “What are the best approaches for employee retention?”. The men-tors stressed on the importance of reference checks and contracts prior to employing staff and being aware of government and other programs available to support start up recruit-ment.

The Second SessionSession 2 discussed the various Funding Options available to entrepreneurs. Mr. Hasan Heider, CEO of Tenmou, emphasized the importance of identi-fying the right funding option. Mentors discussed with the entrepreneurs the various funding options ranging from loans and angel investors to equity in detail. The benefits of having angel investors who would succeed and fail with you, have vested interest in making you succeed and benefits of less pressure with regard to cash flow as opposed to a loan were discussed.This was followed by lunch, which was an extravagant authentic Bah-raini affair that gave the mentors and entrepreneurs the perfect casual setting to relax and mingle.

The Third SessionThe afternoon session had a detailed look at the key role of Customer De-velopment in making or breaking a startup. Mentors discussed Customer Development specific to the MENA region, how to increase and retain

customers and how to develop a niche for your startup. Social Me-dia and word of mouth as being key ways to get in touch with customers were mentioned. Need for creating sub-products from your existing prod-uct or service line targeting smaller customers was highlighted. Ms. Deena Al Ansari of The Mobile Spa encour-aged entrepreneurs to constantly innovate and not rely only on price point to maintain market advantage.

The Fireside ChatAfter the sessions, a panel of entre-preneurs including Ahmed Husain of Reload and Hasan Heider of Ten-mou engaged with the audience and shared their own stories in what was labeled as a Fireside Chat. The event was concluded with the Wamda or-ganizers listing key tips to take back from the event:- Think Big, Start Small- Build a Strong Team- Get Great Mentor/s- Be Flexible and Adapt- Don’t overestimate yourself- Build relationship with Investors- Launch and fine tune as you goWhether you were just starting up, trying to scale or looking for an exit, The event provided a unique oppor-tunity to bounce ideas off of peers and industry leaders you wouldn’t be able to interact with elsewhere.

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Features

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@ltijaraAltijara Online is an e-commerce solution by Batelco targeting small & medium businesses. It enables anybusiness to set up a webshop and start selling online in no time with-out the need to hire developers or designers. It features different op-tions enabling the business owners to organize their products, custom-ize their storefront design, accept credit card payments, track the re-ceived orders, manage stock and view registered customers all with a few clicks of a button.

Sponsored by Batelco

Taking your business online

90 Days Free Trial1 - Fill in the application form2 - Batelco will set up a trial web shop for you within a few days3 - You will receive your free webshop details on your email.

Note: All the webshop function-alities are granted in the trial version. However, payments will only function if a valid Merchant ID is provided.

Accessing the webshopBy default, any webshop will be accessible through a sub domain of altijara.bh (for example: myshop.altijara.bh). However, the service is flexible to be mapped to any domain provided by the user if required.

Receiving PaymentsCustomers can pay on the webshop using credit cards: VISA, MasterCard or AMEX. In order to activate the payment function, the business will require to obtain an active Merchant ID from a local acquiring bank.

Delivering productsWhen setting a product on altijara service, the weight and size can be defined. The business owner can setup different delivery options based on weight and the system will take care of calculating the delivery cost.

Planning to sell online? You can get in touch with Batelco’s e-commerce team for general advice or for more insight about altijara online service. Just drop your request and contact details to biz@btc.com.bh.

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@ltijara Online Promo video - Tap to Play

OBAIDATW A F A

An Interview with 26 year old lady entrepreneur, Founder of The Sketchbook Magazine and Creative Director at Obai & Hill

Bahrain

Wafa, tell us about yourself.I am 26 years old entrepreneur, grew up in Bahrain and studied Interior Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. I founded a de-sign/art/fashion/illustration maga-zine called Sketchbook from a studio in Notting Hill, London when I was 21 years old. Sketchbook is a digital online magazine that supports the emerging creative scene in both the UK and the GCC, with focus on illus-tration.

These days my time is split between managing the Sketchbook digital magazine and running my second business Obai and Hill, which is a PR and Design agency.

Most girls in your age chose the corporate world and are now em-ployees, what made you take a dif-ferent route?I decided from a young age that if I was to spend the rest of my life working, it had better be for myself, building and creating the world that I envisioned, so 50 years down the line I would be able to say I made an impact.

Are there any differences between a male entrepreneur and a female entrepreneur in this part of the world ?Absolutely not. I grew up in a house-hold where I was expected to do as well as the boys if not better. My

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Video Messege from Wafa - Tap to play

brothers and I always had the same curfew and expectations - I never felt any different.

How do you start a business with no money?You start by first figuring out what you want to do and achieve. With Sketchbook I had to convince more than a hundred contributors to send me work for my publication. Through connections, friends and classmates, I managed to score a free website, logo, and content to boot.When you are passionate about your work, others quickly catch on to this energy and lend a supporting hand. You just have to be clear to those you are approaching about what it is that you would like and how the situation can be mutually benefi-cial. With Sketchbook for example, although I was getting content for free - my contributors were getting a great platform to display their work and get noticed.

Tell us about Obai & Hill.Obai and Hill is my company and second baby. Again I founded this back in London in 2010 and built a strong portfolio of clients that were based in the UK. When we expanded to the GCC we realized there was a bigger demand for our services and relocated.

Primarily focused on the Middle Eastern market, the Obai and Hill mission is to provide its clients with creative and innovative designs and strategic solutions that will give them the needed competitive edge in the current market place.

We aim to bring young innovative designers into a new light and bridge the gap between the un-established younger talents and the client. We aim to be approachable, friendly and innovative.

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How many employees do you have so far ?My Obai and Hill family consists of 6 Bahraini women in the fields of PR, Design, Accounts, and Business man-agement. Our London team consists of a senior designer, a London Sketch-book editor, a fashion consultant and communications specialist.

Are you meeting your growth and business targets ?I have only been in business in Bah-rain and the GCC for 2 years, so we are relatively new to the market. The first year was a struggle but things have definitely picked up and the company has seen a very healthy growth particularly in 2013.

How would you evaluate the local entrepreneurship support system ?I would like to see more platforms that support innovation, a stronger mentorship program where entrepre-neurs can have easy access to deci-sion makers and potential investors. I also think we need more grants that can support innovative ideas.

What’s your advice to young entre-preneurs?Don’t start listing why you can’t do something, that is the easiest thing a person can do. We are raised in a culture of fear and people are always ready to tell you that your ideas are not realistic. I think you NEED to be unrealistic to pursue what you want.

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Moving Customizable Comforts

The story of the Winners of the ‘Company’ Competition

by Injaz Bahrain

startupBahrain was delighted to meet with a young, ambitious and energetic team from Bahrain Bayan School that participated and won the first place in “The Company” competition run by Injaz Bahrain. The winning team was selected based on the scores provided by a judging panel, which consisted of professionals from several entities in Bahrain. The team received the trophy from Sheikha Hessa Bint Khalifa Al Khalifa, Executive Direc-tor of inJAz Bahrain.Although all team members are in their 11th grade, the way they spoke and the knowledge they have about various business topics such as fi-nance, manufacturing, marketing and management was impressive.

The Company CompetitionThe competition is broken into four stages, each stage is designed to evaluate the acquired skills, knowl-edge and lessons the students have learned from the programme. The stages are assessed and rated by a panel of judges, formed from mem-bers representing different work-ing sectors. This year 13 teams from 8 secondary government schools, one team from a private school, two centers and two universities participated in the competition.

The team is now set to represent inJAz Bahrain and the Kingdom at the regional inJAz competition tak-ing place in United Arab Emirates in October this year.

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The team receiving the trophy from Sh. Hessa Bint Khaifa AlKhalifa

Moving Customizable ComfortsThis is the name of the company those young students formed to participate in the competition. They aim to become the premier provid-er of customizable transportable products in Bahrain by providing high quality products with excel-lent customer support and service.

The product they deve loped “myTray” is a portable tray that when closed can be carried as a bag. When the tray is placed on the lap, a comfortable pillow pre-vents any pressure from bothering the user, and if tired can be easily flipped to become a pillow to sleep on. The tray has a pocket that al-lows easy access when in use, or it can be zipped up to prevent any-thing from falling when in motion.

The product might sound simple, but the overall process this team has gone through and the profes-sional skills they have gained can-not be delivered through textbooks. The team fully grasped concepts such as outsourcing, product de-velopment, customer demand, and most importantly business flexibil-ity and agility. Since they devel-oped their first product, they took it further by introducing different generations based on customer de-mand and their own research. They

also started building customized products to customers, WOW !

We must congratulate Injaz Bah-rain for this program, which is de-veloping the skills of the younger generation and nurturing entre-preneurship at a very young age. This program is not only creating entrepreneurs, its actually creating change agents whom we believe will transform Bahrain and make it a very competitive country.

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From ‘myTray’ Instagram Gallery Swipe for more

GET Branded Your name and logo is NOT your brand !

by Isa AlMoawdah

Advice

You are an entrepreneur with an amazing and original idea. You did your homework and got everything you need to execute your idea and turn it to a profitable busi-ness. You probably know who your target audience is too. So, what’s next? If you’re planning to figure out a catchy name and design a creative logo and call it a brand, then you’re mistaken. First, you need to know what ‘brand’ is.

What is a brand?A brand is an experience that one lives when seeing, hear-ing, touching, or even smelling, any part of your business. The brand name and logo is part of the experience, but is that it ?! When you walk into Starbucks, you get a Star-bucks experience. The Barista welcoming you, the music, the aroma of the roasted coffee, the design, and the taste are all parts of an experience that they work hard to com-municate.

Advice

Offer a unique experienceHere is when you think strategically. You will need to re-search the market, find out the segments that will like what you offer and specifically the ones that are not very happy with your potential competitors. Never copy what you competitors are doing as this will significantly weak-en your brand.Pepsi, for example, was copying Coca-Cola for years. They had a similar strategy, logo and even target audience. They failed to the point that Coca-Cola didn’t even bother about them. Things changed when they decided to deliv-er a new experience. Coke is classic, so Pepsi decided to be the young and energetic brand.Pepsi delivered the Pepsi experience throughout their logo, slogan, bottle’s size, pricing, and lively events. This proved to be extremely successful and made Coke go out of their minds.

Your brand needs a soulThe soul of your brand is what will make it alive. It allows it to communicate with its audience, build relationships, and tell a story. In order to give your brand a soul you need to think of it as a real person. But can a brand act as a real person?A brand can have a personality, Tiffany is sophisticated, Coca-Cola is genuine, Apple is smart, Nike is active, and Toyota is practical. A brand has an age too, Mercedes is in its 60s while Audi is in its 30s. You can also feel that Batel-co is more mature in terms of age than Zain, one is on its late 30s while the other is on its early 20s.You can also communicate the brand’s beliefs by support-ing certain causes or social responsibilities. Automobile brands support environmental causes while Fast food chains have funds to support children (to tell us they are part of the family).A brand personality makes a big difference. For example,

Advice

you can’t trust a financial adviser that is too young or too humorous (Banks), or can’t relax in the hospitality of a very rigged and serious person (Cafes). When deciding your brands personality, think of the relationship that your target audience will build with your brand.

Finally, The Name and LogoOnce you’ve decided on your target audience, the rela-tionship you aim to build with them and the brand per-sonality you want to portray, you are then ready to cre-ate the visuals of your brand, starting with the name and logo.Thinking strategically and taking all those factors into account will help you set the bar very high to your com-petitors and will make build a solid foundation of loyal customers.

Success: a sticky trapHow to trap your own success?

by Hamed Fakhro

Advice

Success: A fantasyEverybody wants to be successful, but not many people have a clear definition of what ‘success’ is to them. Suc-cess is ephemeral, a mirage-ish specter constantly shift-ing and drifting away from you like a puff of smoke. Many people have all they want yet still crave more. So what is success? In my opinion, it’s a fantasy.

It’s all relative Like everything else, success is all relative. To one person it may be finding the next meal, to another it may be just staying alive for that day. Some may want to have a seven bedroom mansion on the Riviera, and others may crave buying that island they saw in the Maldives. So where do we start and where do we stop? I suggest benchmarking

Advice

success against happiness. If you’re happy, then you’ve succeeded.

It’s all in your headIf you’re convinced you won’t be happy until you get those material things you want, then you’ve already lost. Hap-piness is in the moment. It’s right now. It’s not next year and it’s not after ten. If you live in that daze then all you’ll be is a slave to your boss, the system, or somebody else.I’m not saying don’t build yourself up and have an awe-some career, I’m just saying make sure you know what you want and why you want it. Material things are fleet-ing but moments last forever.All being said, here are a few tips to ensure success:

Do what you loveIf you do what you love then you’ve already won. It won’t be considered a job, yet you’ll get paid. If you like cheese-burgers imagine waking up every morning looking for-ward to having a nice juicy delicious cheeseburger. Yum.

Be tenaciousThe building blocks of success are simple: Tenacity, te-nacity, tenacity.

Never say neverIf you want something bad enough, you’ll get it. Just keep banging your head against that door till it opens (or breaks) Never give up. Live rough. Be broke. Fail. Get hurt. Go to war. Most importantly, get back up. As long as you’re in the game you can’t lose.

Lead a great teamBeing an entrepreneur is the hardest thing to do, so don’t imagine yourself sitting on a throne with people serving

Advice

as you sip tea and count money. You have to lead others and motivate them. Leadership has many definitions, but in my opinion its simple: Get your hands dirtier and mud-dier than your team, and expect them to do the same. Hire slowly and fire quickly.

Do your homeworkJump into life. Don’t jump into business without a plan, parachute, airbags, and an escape route. Measure twice and cut once. If you don’t calculate scenarios, experiment, get feedback, and learn from others, then you’re just wast-ing time and money.

ThinkThink. No seriously. Just think. A lot. All the time.

ConclusionIn conclusion just be happy. Life ain’t worth it. Make sure you are money’s master and not the other way around. If you are satisfied with what you have, then trust me you’re already successful.

Co-opetitionWhen your competitors become your friends!

by Zain AlZayani

Advice

We all know how competitive the market can be. You might think you have the best business idea and once you are open for business, you find that a similar concept pops up a few weeks later. Of course, you are stumped! but what would you say if I told you that some organiza-tions have made a breakthrough – they befriended their enemies. They got close to their competitors.

So what do you call cooperation and competition? Co-ope-tition.

Barry Nalebuff (1996) wrote a paper on Co-opetition and one statement sums this concept up nicely: “Complemen-tors in making the market. Competitors in dividing the market.”

Advice

For example, the nail salon market is on its way to sat-uration in Bahrain. Competition is intense and the sup-ply seems to outweigh demand. Some businesses are so cutthroat that it can get vicious. Rather than focusing on outdoing the competition, these businesses can unite and lobby for a new law or regulation to be passed, or apply pressure to an exclusive supplier in Bahrain that is asking for unnecessarily high margins.

According to Francesci Garraffo, co-opetition has four main advantages:1. Exchange of knowledge2. Collaborate on research and development activities – which may or not be applicable to startups and really de-pends on the industry3. Market alliance for new standards – could apply to ap-plying pressure to pass or relax laws or even shrink sup-plier margins4. Collaborative agreement to integrate existing busi-nesses. This applies mostly to merging previously com-peting businesses.

Another famous saying “keep your friends closer and your enemies closer” can mean the same thing. A statement often accredited to Sun Tzu (although there is a debate on whether those exact words where what he wrote) and Al Pacino in “The Godfather” – you can’t help but take notice of it. When analyzed, this statement can easily be applied strategically to a business. Keep track of not only your business partners but most importantly – of what your competitors are doing and stay ahead of the game.

In contrast to the traditional way of ‘winning & losing’ – cooperating and collaborating with your competitors (hello frenemies!) has a lot more advantages. Back in 1997,

Advice

Microsoft saved its rival Apple by investing $150 million. This enabled both organizations to work closely together and learn from each other’s advancements. The rest, as they say, is history.

In a nutshell, whether you are a newly started business or an established one, realize that you do not operate in a silo. You have partners, suppliers, customers and com-petitors. Some competitors are fierce and can disrupt you, others are passive and just there – making money. It is important to get close to both types, no matter how difficult the feat proves to be. Knowing them makes you stronger.

WEBSITES WE LIKEBy Mohamed Isa. Tap the next or back arrows to browse the sites

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Resources

Waveapps.com

This website is too good to be available for free. We spent some time trying to look for a reason why something this good is available for no cost and we were left scratching our heads. Wave miraculously captures the full accounting in few easy steps. The site is able to produce invoices, record transactions and generate account statements that you only see in newspapers. Wave is supported by a handful of mobile apps to capture receipts and look at your shiny dashboard. Too bad some of the features are available in US only, but there are ways around it.

WEBSITES WE LIKEBy Mohamed Isa. Tap the next or back arrows to browse the sites

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Resources

Squarespace.com

SquareSpace is a perfect spot to start your online presence. The company provides a stable platform for your small business to be online in no time. The simple plan which costs only 10$ a month provides you with the basics, double that amount and you’ll have a full-fledged website with unlimited bandwidth and storage. SquareSpace provides a large number of gorgeous templates and amazing designs that look good on your computer or mobile device. Tech savvy users and developers are also free to tweak things based on their requirements.

WEBSITES WE LIKEBy Mohamed Isa. Tap the next or back arrows to browse the sites

Tap on the snapshot to visit the site

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Resources

Instructables.com

Here’s a simple website that combines thousands of user made Do It Yourself tutorials and guides in technology, lifestyle and even food. Instructables is a treasure for people looking for ideas or ways to make things, many things. Guides are available in a series of step by step photos or even videos. The site provides a pro membership service for hardcore users and is supported by an army of dedicated community members to help and discuss ideas. The mobile app is equally awesome.

WEBSITES WE LIKEBy Mohamed Isa. Tap the next or back arrows to browse the sites

Tap on the snapshot to visit the site

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Resources

Dealextreme.com

Deal Extreme or DX.com is our favorite site when we are looking for cheap and affordable gadgets. The store never fails to surprise you with unbelievable prices and wacko things to buy. Some of the items are terrible knock-off, but you can easily find hidden jewels for less than 1 BD. The free shipping options makes this site unbeatable, if only if was a little bit faster. Overall, a great place for tiny useful things and accessories.

APPS DEBRIEFBy Mohamed Isa. click the next or back arrows to browse the apps

click on the app itself to grab it from the apps store

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Resources

Umano - News Read to You(iOS, Android)

Umano delivers an exciting concept. The app provides you with the required dose of your favorite news from various sources and categories such as business, entertainment, technology and Entrepreneurial. What’s different is that you hear the news from professional readers or voice actors, making your waiting time in morning traffic less painful and more useful. The amount of news items can be disappointing if you’re driving from Muharraq to Riffa though.

APPS DEBRIEFBy Mohamed Isa. click the next or back arrows to browse the apps

click on the app itself to grab it from the apps store

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Resources

Aramex Shop & Ship(iOS, Android)

This useful little app is the natural extension to Aramex’s mail forwarding service that allows you to buy items from the US, UK, China, UAE and now Turkey through a local address. The app features a simplified method to track all you upcoming shipments, receive timely notifications for all activities and to simply copy or forward your address to an email or note. The only thing missing is the ability to pay.

APPS DEBRIEFBy Mohamed Isa. click the next or back arrows to browse the apps

click on the app itself to grab it from the apps store

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Resources

Bahrain City Center (iOS, Android)

If you’re one of the many people I know who are unable to locate a specific shop in Bahrain City Center, then this app is perfect for you. It enables you to search for a specific shop or locate it on a useful map. There are other features and useful information for visitors, like running promotion (some are quite outdated) and a parking location reminder. What’s missing is to have the contact number of shops and try to produce a map for the confusing, maze-like parking lot.

APPS DEBRIEFBy Mohamed Isa. click the next or back arrows to browse the apps

click on the app itself to grab it from the apps store

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Resources

CamScanner(iOS, Android)

Nothing beats the simplicity and features of CamScanner. The app is provides amazing document scanning capabilities with easy to use image enhancement and cropping functions. Once a document is scanned it can be converted to PDF and sent to a fax or email. CamScanner also provides Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities to enable you search within documents and backs up your document in the cloud to enable you to sync them across your devices.

Gadgets DebriefBy Mohamed Isa. Tap on a gadget to read the review

Resources

Pebble Watch

The Pebble Watch was the most funded project to be featured in the crowd funding website Kickstarter. This elegant watch f e a t u r e s a p owe r e ffi c i e n t ePaper display and a decent set of sensors to enable several useful applications that can be built on the available software development kit. The Pebble is not aiming to replace your smartphone, but tries to extend its capabilities through direct Bluetooth communication with your favorite Android or iOS device. Can your Rolex do that?

Gadgets DebriefBy Mohamed Isa. Tap on a gadget to read the review

Resources

Fitbit Flex

Wearable computing is one of this decade’s hottest trends and this trend is expected to boom further with the emergence of smarter wearable gadgets and introduction of additional sensors in existing gadgets like smartphones or watches. Fitbit Flex is the most interesting l i festyle & health tracker in the market. The good looking wristband is able to track your steps and even analyze your sleep patterns, which is sent to your favorite smartphone through a gorgeous app. Recommended!

Gadgets DebriefBy Mohamed Isa. Tap on a gadget to read the review

Resources

Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung dominated the Android market with the introduction of the galaxy line. Their newest addition to the lineup is disappointing for some people and can be considered an incremental update to the successful S3. The new flagship phone features all the bells and whistles expected from a high-end phone. The phone’s design is slightly disappointing compared to the HTC One and the custom interface (Samsung TouchWiz) requires a major redesign. There are so many new features, some of them are quite gimmicky and awkward to use.

Gadgets DebriefBy Mohamed Isa. Tap on a gadget to read the review

Resources

Makerbot Replicator 2

3D printing is a neat concept that was finally made in an affordable way. The concept promises the average person to make physical goods out of plastic in minutes without leaving his seat. Now, what that means to onl ine shopping and delivery of goods on the internet is nothing short of a revolution. Makerbot is one of the leading 3D Printing brands, and the Replicator 2 is a shining example of they are capable of. The Replicator 2 looks good and costs around 2,200$ (which is quite reasonable for a 3D printer).

The Game ChangerAccording to Forbes, as of October 2012 Ikea had $34.5 billion in sales. The company has been growing and expanding since its inception. Ikea has over 330 stores in 38 countries, and its revenue, net income, and to-tal assets, have increased every year for over ten years. Ikea dominates the affordable furniture market. But how did a small Swedish furniture company become a worldwide retail phenomenon and one of Forbes top 50 most powerful brands?

Self SufficiencyIn 1955, twelve years after Ingvar Kamprad founded Ikea as a 17-year-old, furniture suppliers began to boycott Ikea. Other furniture stores were upset that Kamprad was selling furniture so cheaply in his stores. But Kamprad stuck to his initiative: to sell furniture that as many people as possible could afford. Instead of giving up on selling furniture, Ikea began designing its own products. By designing their own furniture, Ikea

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IKEA

was able to cut costs, and created a unique style that has developed into a powerful brand today.

Thinking Inside the BoxA year after the company began design-ing their own furniture, they started considering packing their furniture into flat and portable boxes. The sto-ry goes like this: an employee could not fit a fully assembled table into the back of a car, so he removed the legs and slid the table and legs into the trunk. That way, the customer could reassemble the table later. Now, Ikea packages all of their furniture in pieces inside flat boxes. This requires some work on the cus-tomer’s end, but allows Ikea to cut assembly and shipping costs– savings that passes onto the customer. The flat-box concept is just one way Ikea uses creative thinking to move ahead.

The Shopping ExperienceWhen you go to Ikea anywhere in the world you can expect a similar expe-rience. You’ll find furniture pieces and other goods, many of which named after Swedish towns, at low prices. You can stop in for a refreshment at the café or grab some famous Ikea Swedish meatballs. Shopping at Ikea is not a hassle, but rather a lovely ex-perience. The unique Ikea shopping experience is another creative reason why Ikea is a dominant brand today.

Brand ExpansionBrand expansion does not only refer to the fact that there are hundreds of Ikea stores worldwide, which in total see over 600 million annual custom-ers. It also refers to the expansion of products, shipment methods, and service techniques. The company is constantly adjusting and expanding. Ikea has become one of the foremost supporters of environmental sus-tainability in the business world. It is clear that Ikea focuses on constant-ly improving the brand – whether that means packaging things more efficiently, or making things less ex-pensive.

Commitment to a GoalIngvar Kamprad set out to sell good furniture so that as many people as possible could afford it. Today, Ikea is an inexpensive option for mod-ern, well-made furniture. Ikea has not strayed from this goal, and the brand’s loyalty to its original intent is what keeps Ikea a dominant furni-ture force. Ikea sets a new standard for afford-able, high quality furniture stores. It has the success and worldwide dom-ination of a fast-food chain, but the image of an upscale retailer. The above five principles set Ikea apart from the herd, and make it a multi-billion dollar company.

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Tim Ferriss is an accomplished in-dividual in fields as varied as tango dancing and entrepreneurship. One of his greatest achievements is employ-ing unparalleled efficiency to change the common system of the 40-hour, 9-5 work week to an ultra-effective four hour work week. His book on the subject, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich, is an International best seller. Tim Ferriss is the type of person who can conquer any task at

hand – but he is not an inherently, exceptionally talented person. Ferriss has followed these three simple rules to achieve greatness in any task.

Deconstructing TasksIf you asked Tim Ferriss how he was able to learn multiple languages, become a world-class tango danc-er, overcome his fear of swimming, or earn his fortune – one of the first things he would tell you is that he deconstructed tasks. Right out of

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Tim Ferriss

college, with an esteemed degree from Princeton, Ferriss worked in sales at a data company. He was fed up with the company and thought there were too many inefficiencies. He didn’t think his salary was com-parable to the amount of work that he did. So, while still employed at his other job, Ferriss began working on his own company.Ferriss developed BrainQUICKEN, an online supplements company, and found that he was putting in 14-hour work days at it. In order to escape his workaholic lifestyle, Ferriss decon-structed the work week. He exam-ined the most important pieces of the work week and broke those down. The method of deconstructing tasks is the same method Ferriss used to conquer his fear of swimming. It is the same method he used to become a world class ballroom dancer. He looks at issues as a whole, and then examines each piece. By examining the small pieces of an issue it be-comes less daunting, more graspable, and more attainable.

Understanding Parkinson’s LawParkinson’s law really contributed to Ferriss and his ideas of efficiency. The law states that the more time you allot a particular issue, the more complex you think it is. This idea challenged the way he saw everything. Maybe a 40-hour work week only seemed like

40 hours of work because that is the amount of time he gave it. He worked with this idea to develop the four hour work week. Using Parkinson’s law you can change your perception of tasks and their complexity. You will be able to accomplish more in a shorter period of time, if you just change your perception of the task.

Knowing that Fear Is Your FriendAs a child Ferriss feared swimming. He endured a bad experience as a kid in summer camp, and did not get over his fear of swimming for decades. In his early 30s, he used his technique of deconstructing tasks to re-exam-ine swimming. He looked at the me-chanics of swimming and went from swimming one lap in complete fear, to swimming a kilometer in open ocean water. Those things that you fear most, may be the things, which you should overcome. Know that fear can be your friend. It can push you to overcome adversity, to reach potential you never knew you had. Tim Ferriss sees life in a different light than most people. His techniques to success are no secret. If you follow these laws for success, you too can become more efficient, effective, and successful.

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