Starting a Global Business from the Middle East
Where would you start your global business idea?
If your idea is local, you can definitely start it up anywhere, but what if its a global idea. A rule of thumb is to start it up in the US. If you think you have the option to start anywhere else, I have tried to start something in the Middle East, I did not fail yet, but i will share with you my challenges.
I don’t know about the rest of the world, but let me talk about how people perceive new ideas in the Middle East. I can sum it up in one sentence. “It’s a new idea, no one even tried it in the whole world, it will not make it!!!!!”
Our region is full of startups. But almost all startups are copycats of US startups. We try to copy them, if we are lucky, in a couple of years they expand to our region and buy us out. For me that’s disgusting.
Its about an idea that we grew up on to consume anything. If we excel in business, for us it happens when we trade. Yes thats our ultimate. But we never think of producing a product. Even when someone tries to startup a new product, the other will be fighting him with an American or Chinese product. I know that Chinese low cost products have invaded the world, but this is not what I mean here.
I don’t want the Middle Easterns to build cars, but guys, please just build ideas. We don’t even listen to ideas coming from our people. Our ideas are quickly stereotyped as “non-sense”. We only accept and endorse ideas coming from developed economies. Now let me tell the reason why developed countries succeed. First, because they listen to each others’ ideas. Second, because they believe that they can do it. Third, because they are bold enough to take the risk.
Building it ourselves might not work, so let us buy it and resell it. Get our greatest business man out there, and ask him about two ideas: One is innovative but from the Middle East, and another that is old but coming from developed economies, and he will support the second idea.
The secret is that the vast majority of decision makers in the Middle East, or the people who can financially do a change, have succeeded through the trade business. They are either resellers of trademarks or service providers for global knowledge companies. They are used to follow. Throughout their life, the more they follow, the more they were able to succeed.
Why would I risk it and innovate, let us take what is used abroad and resell it. Then a couple of competing resellers go out to please the mother company to sell their products locally. And guess who is the winner:
The winner is the reseller who will price the product higher on his own country men, so that he makes more profits for the mother company.
The winner is who can kiss ass all the day, and follow the procedures set by the mother company without questioning why. (Even though, some of these processes do not work locally)
The winner is he who contribute much less to the economy and advertise for it more, to save money for the mother company and still show a cool CSR image.
The winner is he who agree to get all the management from abroad and get a couple of local slaves in lower positions to execute without learning anything.
The winner is he who can be more coward than the other.
Look at our people succeed abroad. Those guys are Middle Eastern, had some cool ideas, no one believed in them. They left abroad, people liked their ideas, they supported them and generated millions out of them.
Its a strong reason that you guys must trust our ideas, defend them, and cheer for them until they make it. Lets start by you listening more openly to your friend’s new Idea :-)