A Middle East Entrepreneur - Essay Example

A Middle East Entrepreneur Introduction Starting a business is a task that anyone who ever started his or her own business will tell you is a difficult adventure. It entails having an idea that you are ready and willing to venture into even if you know there are risks involved. The problems of starting a business as a group are demanding, but not as much as when starting a sole proprietor one more so in a region where it is not a usual ocuttence. When Jinanne Tabra started her business in the Middle East, she took a bold decision in venturing into a relatively unknown business in her area at the time. She took up the challenge risking all her investment let alone to mention that she was 22 years old at the time. She successfully established one of the fast growing online bookstore business in her region that is now operating internationally in a span of few years. Profile Jinanne Tabra is an Arabic Iraq woman that had an upbringing in Scotland. She was a former pupil of Carlogie Primary School, Carnoustie. When she was five years old, her family went back to Iraq to her father’s home town of Baghdad. They wanted to raise her in the Arabic culture and develop her Arabic language (Araboh’s story 2012, 1). However, for the family safety as the gulf war was eminent they relocated back to Scotland. Like most other Arabic children growing abroad she did not find Arabic enjoyable to learn but it was a struggle and difficult for her. While growing up, she did not have any access to fun Arabic books or cartoons although she wished that she had them. She did not even have any access to Arabic games to play with like other children growing in her native country. The best access she had to Arabic teachings was a community run Arabic school. She attended the community school during weekends something, which she did not find appealing. According to Araboh.com (2012, 1) Tabra says that, for her, it was no fun giving up playing time and enjoying your weekend for studying intensive Arabic. Tabra relocated the gulf, back to her native and homeland country while she was in high school. She was glad to relocate finally back to her home where she did not have to joggle with two cultures, as it was in Scotland. In Scotland, she had to live with two different and conflicting cultures. One was that of being Arabic, and striving to maintain her identity and roots as an Arab, while the other was the acquired culture of Scotland where she was born and bred. When she eventually moved back to her country, she was delighted of the prospect of living in a country with one culture. Here, she was at home and not a foreigner anymore. She fitted in seamlessly and adapted quickly to her new environment. Her little Arabic, which she had learnt from the community school, was helpful for her to adjust to her new environment. As she put her Arabic to use every day in her new home, she was grateful to her family and community back in Scotland for their hard work, in ensuring that she had a strong establishment in the Arabic language. She still struggled with her Arabic, and she was embarrassed to read out aloud and ashamed of her handwriting. Tabra is a graduate of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University of Qatar. She studied business administration. In addition, she recently finished a certification course by The Academy for Arabic Teachers for teaching Arabic as a second and foreign language. Currently she is studying for a Masters level in International Education Policy at Harvard University. Among her achievements, while aged 22 years, the Arabian CEO Magazine, named Tabra as one of the 30 under 30 Arab leaders in 2009. She was also featured in the Qatar Foundation achievers Campaign in 2011, which earned her appearances in leading broadcasters in the world, such as CNN and Al-Jazeera. She is also the CEO of Araboh.com the Middle East’s first e-commerce business, which she set up half way through her final year in campus. Today her start-up boosts a wealth of fun educational materials learners of all ages. Tabra through her experience while growing up is determined to change the future generations’ experience of learning Arabic language. She wants the best Arabic education to be made available to families living in non-Arab regions. Burn’s Model Burn’s model highlighted key entrepreneurship ingredients as the entrepreneurial character, the business culture, company strengths and business decisions. However, this in away overlooks the crucial influence of the exterior business surroundings (Burns 2nd ed 2001, 243). Simply put, an entrepreneur is a person who embarks on to categorize, supervise, and presume the risks of a business (Burns 2012, 144). Entrepreneurs have burnt desires that drive and influence them in their businesses. The initial start-up effects on entrepreneurial conduct are represented by integration of the “Burns start-up influences” model. The main qualities of a booming tycoon are then harmonized against the model to verify the aspects that led to its success or failure. However, other factors that pressure the entrepreneurial activities are not covered in Burns Model (Burns 2001, 10). Therefore, as the model is incomplete, new models are incorporated to cover the other aspects to give the whole model a broad approach. Tabra's background is one of humble begins with challenges like every other human being. She was born of an Iraqi father and Scottish mother. She schooled at local primary school; briefly relocated to Iraq but then came back as the gulf war heated up. She returned to Iraq after high school. Tabra is well read, and she has combined her love for her Arabic culture, with her education achievement, to establish a business empire that has rapidly escalated to higher status. Although her business has grown rapidly, it does not mean that it did not face challenges. Tabra faced problems especially in the domain of e-commerce, and internet advertising whereby, when she started her business, e-commerce was not known in the Middle East (Thomson 1999, 116). Therefore, convincing a bank to sign her up was difficult. She also had to cope with sceptical Arabic language publishers who had never handled a business as her’s before. It was a challenge explaining to such publishers that she needed their data and images of their products to sell online were unfamiliar. She had to resort in scanning weigh and write a summary on each book herself. The lack of an entrepreneurial society in Qatar was also a key challenge to her. While starting her business in Qatar, she had no contacts apart from her professor. However, she wished to meet businesspersons who had established their businesses to seek advice from them. She did not know whom to turn to for advice. When starting she also faced problems of doing almost everything on her own. She had to write emails, work on spreadsheets as well control cash flow, and organize her inventory. All this made dispassionate of her work and hindered her performance. These days she faces different challenges from those she encountered earlier when starting up. Since her business is now established in the U.S., she faces challenges of high costs of shipping products from the Middle East. She also faces the challenge of facilitating a secure, easy-to- use online payment system, which is the backbone of her business (Bridge, O’neil and Cromie, 2003, 130). While living in Scotland, Tabra felt as if she was losing her clasp on the heart and fluency of her Arabic language heritage. Tabra recalls her experience as a little girl in primary school growing up in a mixed culture, and how she struggled to find her inherited culture. She gives an insight how this period in her life, shaped the foundation of her nascent Arabic language, and in a wider way gave rise to her future entrepreneurial vocation. She explains while, as a child, she had to read Arab in bed under the covers using a flashlight while she was supposed to sleep. The difficult she encountered while growing up in Arabic language; she later found was a problem faced with many Arabs in the Diaspora. This challenge inspired and motivated her to start araboh.com, her escalating online business (Storey 1994, 245). The idea of entrepreneurship came to her one day when she was conversing with her mother who is currently working as a librarian in Qatar (Guide and Gazette 2009, 56). They were discussing the distinct lack of Arabic language books for children. While studying at the university, she took the idea for the website to her tutor using resources accessible at the Doha campus of the world famous business school to help her nurture it. She later developed this idea to Araboh.com in 2008, and the online bookstore has now sold thousands and thousands of books worldwide. Since its launch, the business has grown to over 200 percent. This is a remarkable achievement for young entrepreneur something that is a dream of most young entrepreneurs. She is living her dream. The business has Tabra as the founder and managing director and other 13 staff members and several part-time others. The foundation delivers books as far as Australia and Japan. She intends to move her main base of operations to the U.S. with thousands of titles. She has already set up a logistics side of her business in Sharjah in the U.A.E. where there is a free zone of business (Guide and Gazette 2009, 55). The site has boomed in business that it does not only sell Arabic educational language books to children, but also DVDs to consumers in over 50 countries universally. The company has formed an alliance with renowned publishers where it sources its books. These publishers include Asala, scholastic and academia International. The site has also recently hosted the AL Jazeera Children’s Channel DVDs Lulu and Marmar giving the Qatar based channel enormous influence (Perren 2009, 4). According to Burns (2001, 56), an entrepreneur needs to be independent to take risks when starting a business. Tabra exhibits this trait as she engages in establishing her e-commerce business while still in college. It is a massive risk that she decided to invest in Arabic language, which is somehow not held in high regards by those outside the Arabic world (Thompson, 1999, 211). Learning Arabic is somehow old-fashioned and requires a lot of effort to learn and understand. Tabra took this as a challenge that motivated her to soldier on and established her business to competitive heights (Manimala, Gopal, and Sridhar 2002, 78). Her online bookstore for children had developed within just three years. She had grown through her creativity and sold quality Arabic Materials selected for their interactive elements, funny storylines as well as engaging content (Shepherd and Katz, 2009, 56). As an independent manager, she was able to make difficult decisions for her business, and ensured that it grew and gained acceptance to all Arabic families outside the Arab region who used her bookstore to teach their children Arabic culture. As Burns (2007, 25) say, leaders and their followers engage in a mutual process of raising each other to higher levels of impetus and integrity. He argues that a leader raises the bar by pleasing to higher ideals and values of followers. Tabra qualifies as a leader, and innovator as her self-confidence that has helped her transcend and venture in a field that many could have shied away from is recommendable. Burn’s model discusses that the characteristics of the entrepreneur are critical and acceptable components that influences growth. The traits that drive an entrepreneur are influenced by the previous management experiences, demographics of the entrepreneur and the individual’s motivation (Smallbone and Wyer 2006, 90). A person’s age and education can influence growth of a business. Research conducted has shown that middle-aged founders benefit from their previous experience and they have the energy necessary to drive a business forward enhancing growth. It is also a fact that, entrepreneurs, who have higher educational qualifications, are likely to find high-tech and knowledge based foundations that tend to be linked with higher rates (fundamental of entrepreneurship, 2004, 2). Tabra’s business was founded mostly to meet the needs of children that were going through similar circumstances as her while growing up, but also gapped an opportunity in a fast growing market that has higher returns. Burns argued that a business started by a group of entrepreneurs is more likely to grow than those by one-person bands. According to him access to a variety of skills, experiences and assets are crucial to growth, and an entrepreneurial team is more likely to have held these attributes as compared to one person. Other factors, that he put forward to argue his point of growth of a business include, family history, gender, social marginality and training and skills (Morris, 2011, 1). However, these factors are not binding as more often than less many people have started businesses and prospered without conforming to these factors. For instance, if these factors were to work, Tabra’s business was doomed from the onset. This is because she comes from an Arabic family; she is a woman, and she is a sole proprietor. By the standards of these factors, one will hardly expect a successful business from Tabra. Nevertheless, because the model did not take into account other factors such as a market opportunity and impact of the business and its relevance we get contrary results. (Bridge, O’Neil and Cromie, 2003 132). Task two Strengths On taking an aptitude test on my capabilities as an entrepreneur, it dawned on me that I have several characteristics that indicate my entrepreneurial potential. Most of my test results indicated that I possessed the individuality traits and skills necessary for a typical entrepreneur. It was flattering to discover that I was assessed as being-well equipped to tackle the difficult tasks of owning my own business (Bill, 2012, 2). Through the test, I discovered my strengths to be as follows. As An entrepreneur, I am self sufficient, optimistic, independent, confident, persistent, and determined as well as task and result oriented. In Addition, I am an imaginative and innovative entrepreneur, curious and versatile with lots of ideas and enjoy new challenges as well as novelty and change. I tend to work dependently, and I am strong-willed that ideas in my mind matter more to me over what others thinks of me (Bill, 2012, 1). I am fiery and passionate as things that interest me get me excited. This is vital as an entrepreneur as it helps in getting new ideas into business. This trait of eagerness is also critical when a business encounters tough times and can as well help get an enterprise off the ground. I always aim high and do not allow obstacles to block my way. Perseverance is crucial when faced with tough challenges, but if one stays focused at the end he will meet his goals. Being goal oriented ensures that I do not falter on the way (Richmond, 2012, 5). Furthermore, my natural people skills are top notch. This is an essential skill in business, as entrepreneurs need to meet and mingle with probable clients, putting them at ease while networking and making critical business contacts (Stokes and Blackburn, 2002, 1462). Additionally, when I am with a group of people I am most likely to take charge when necessary and people usually gravitate to me due to my assertive attitude that allows me to take the lead. I also like investing in risky businesses thus i need mentors and my family to give a shoulder to lean on when faces with problems. Weaknesses Sometimes I tend to be neither over nor under- ambitious. This is detrimental as it means that my set objectives will either be too high to achieve or too low to motivate my business to grow (Thomson 1999, 116). I also tend to be perplexed equating results with effort. Wherever I fail to meet a targeted objective, I tend to forget looking for the main reason of the failure and more or less claim it on a different aspect. Sometimes I dislike taking orders from my superiors more so when i am working on a deadline task. It often annoys me when I am ordered around leading me to collide with authorities. This is perhaps the reason why working for me is appealing. Opportunity Since I am highly creative and imaginative as an entrepreneur, I grab a chance to invest in a business that appeals to me. I excel thinking outside the box, as I am acutely innovative. My remarkable insight in creating a new approach to old problems allows me to perceive opportunities that others may not notice. I also like trying something new all the time in the road that many do not follow. I consider calculated risks as long as they are reasonable and fit into my plans. I try to maintain my strategy in mind and spring it into action whenever an opportunity comes knocking. Threats Since I am a high-risk taker sometimes, I travel into a new road of business investment, which its result is unknown. As I engage in the new investment, I tend to overlook my previous businesses. This becomes a threat to my existing businesses that begin to incur losses and sometimes even collapse (Palgrave Macmillan 2012, 1). Another threat I posses as an entrepreneur is my stubbornness to work for someone. I prefer working for me, but when I work under someone, the relationship often ends sourly. This is a threat to my entrepreneurship career as it becomes difficult to work with partners. Conclusion Entrepreneurship is a critical party in a society that should be given all the support it would require for it to prosper. This is necessary, as it will affect income generation for both individuals and the government at large. Entrepreneurship also offers alternative form of employment from the public sector. It offers different challenges and benefits as compared to the public sector therefore; it should be encouraged in a democratic and competitive society. List of references Araboh's Story. (n.d.). Araboh.com - Arabic books, Arabic educational resources, and more, Retrieved March 17, 2012, from < http://www.araboh.com/about/> Bill Wagner's - The Entrepreneur Next Door, (n.d.), Bill Wagner's - The Entrepreneur Next Door, Retrieved March 17, 2012, from Bridge, S., O'neill, K., & Cromie, S. (2003), Understanding enterprise, entrepreneurship, and small business, Basingstoke, UK., Palgrave Macmillan. Burns' Transformational Leadership Theory, (n.d.), Changing minds and persuasion -- How we change what others think, believe, feel and do. Retrieved March 17, 2012, from Burns, P., (2001), Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Basingstoke, Palgrave. Burns, P. (2007), Entrepreneurship and small business (2nd ed.). Basingstoke [England: Palgrave. Burns, T., (2001), Entrepreneurship.com, Chicago, Ill, Dearborn Trade, businesses, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Spring, 9 (1): 1462–6004. Fundamentals of entrepreneurship, (2004), Selangor, Malaysia, Pearson/Prentice Hall. Local Headlines - Guide & Gazette, (2009, September 9), Guide & Gazette. Retrieved March 17, 2012, from Manimala, M. J., Gopal, M. V, & Sridhar, P., (2002), GEM, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: India report 2002, Bangalore: N.S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Indian Institute of Management. Morris R.( 2011), Books Smart Cyber savvy. Busineinterview Palgrave Macmillan - Business - Entrepreneurship and Small Business, (n.d.), Palgrave Macmillan - academic publisher serving learning and scholarship in higher education and the professional world, Retrieved March 17, 2012, from Perren L. (2009) comparing entrepreneurship and leadership: a textual analysis, Richmond, A., (n.d.), The Entrepreneur's Checklist | Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs | The career-intelligence.com, Career Assessment, Career Management, Career Transition, Career Advice for Women, Career Advancement, Job Search|career-intelligence.com, Retrieved March 17, 2012, from Shepherd, D. A., & Katz, J. A, (2009), Cognitive approaches to entreprenuership research (Illustrated ed.), New York: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Smallbone, D. and Wyer, P., (2006) Growth and development in the small business, in Carter, S. and Jones-Evans, D., (eds) Enterprise and Small Business: Principles, Practice and Policy, Harlow: Pearson Education. Stokes, D. and Blackburn, R.A. (2002) Learning the hard way: The lessons of owner- managers who have closed theirbusinesses, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Spring, 9 (1): 1462–6004. Storey, D.J. (1994) Understanding the Small Business Sector, London: Routledge, Chapters 4 and 5. Thomson_Learning Projects Entrepreneurship Production, 3d,48(115–141), Thompson, J.L., (1999) 'The world of the entrepreneur- a new perspective', Journal of Workplace Learning: Employee Counselling Today,Vol. 11, No. 6, pp. 209-224. Read More