Entrepreneurship in Arab World Changing
Washington - Nabil Shalaby made money for the first time at age 9 as a printer. Using a plastic toy, he made miniature name tags and sold them to his father, mother and other members of his big family in Mansoura, Egypt. Eighteen years later, with two partners, he started a company in a modern-day version: desktop publishing. Later, he sold his share for a handsome profit.
Today, Shalaby promotes entrepreneurship in Egypt and Saudi Arabia as a consultant, manager, innovator, educator and author. He has developed and run support programs for small businesses and helped start high-tech incubators.
In 1998, Shalaby managed the first technology incubator hosted by a university in Egypt. He realized quickly that locating the incubator on the campus of Mansoura University had advantages and disadvantages.
"The proximity to researchers and academic experts was vital," Shalaby said. But the campus was walled off from the rest of the city, with security guards posted at the gate. "This restricted access and commingling, and free access and exchange of ideas are necessary for technology innovation to thrive." He moved the incubator outside campus walls and implemented other ideas to foster close relationships among researchers, entrepreneurs, donors and financiers.
A chance to promote entrepreneurship on a broader scale came in 2000, when a regional chamber of commerce in Saudi Arabia hired Shalaby to establish the first support center for small businesses and young entrepreneurs. Initially, he worked as a one-man band, planning events, providing consultation and training, attracting financing, and designing the first small business incubator in the kingdom. Since then, 23 local chambers of commerce in the kingdom have opened business support centers, involving many more people in entrepreneurship. In 2008, the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology launched the BADIR-ICT technology incubator in Riyadh, the first in Saudi Arabia, for which Shalaby did a feasibility study and other work.
A millennium ago, Arab traders plied the intricate routes of the Silk Road that connected much of the Eurasian landmass. At the same time, Arab inventors gave the world the crankshaft, surgical instruments and other inventions. Shalaby is convinced that the same spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship is alive and well in the new Arab generation, especially in the Gulf states. It just needs to be nurtured and tapped, he said.
He's going to talk about how to do that at George Washington University in Washington when he attends the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship ( http://www.america.gov/entrepreneurship_summit.html ) April 26-27.
Shalaby expects the move toward entrepreneurship - driven more by economic and social reality than promoters like him - to accelerate in the Arab world in the coming years.
"I am just a person who tries to do a positive change, one step at a time," he said.
See also a profile of Shalaby at BusinessChamber.com ( http://businesschamber.com/member/nabil-shalaby ).
