Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Bangalore
Bangalore's abysmal infrastructure is back in the news. The new airport is scheduled to partially open this weekend...
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
El Gouna
The most exceptional meeting we had in the entire study trip was with Naguib Sawiris, the CEO of Orascom Telecom.
Orascom Telecom is the largest telecom operator in a number of emerging markets including Pakistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Zimbabwe, Tunisia, and Bangladesh. Naguib is a famously high risk businessman, and has just bid to become the first mobile operator in North Korea.
Since Naguib was on the vacation at the beach town his family created, he flew our group of 40 people from Cairo to El Gouna (a beach town his family has created) for the day.
He was one of the most interesting speakers I have heard over the past two years. His father was one of the wealthiest Egyptians until his construction business was nationalized in the 1960s. The family was reduced to poverty. Then Naguib's father, later with the help of his three sons, built the current business up to its $30B total valuation. It seems to me like watching his father's rise and fall and rise inspired Naguib's determination to seize opportunities and to take risks against the advice of all others.
I have been meaning to write more about this for the past five months, so I just decided to post what I have now and to add a few pictures.
Orascom Telecom is the largest telecom operator in a number of emerging markets including Pakistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Zimbabwe, Tunisia, and Bangladesh. Naguib is a famously high risk businessman, and has just bid to become the first mobile operator in North Korea.
Since Naguib was on the vacation at the beach town his family created, he flew our group of 40 people from Cairo to El Gouna (a beach town his family has created) for the day.
He was one of the most interesting speakers I have heard over the past two years. His father was one of the wealthiest Egyptians until his construction business was nationalized in the 1960s. The family was reduced to poverty. Then Naguib's father, later with the help of his three sons, built the current business up to its $30B total valuation. It seems to me like watching his father's rise and fall and rise inspired Naguib's determination to seize opportunities and to take risks against the advice of all others.
I have been meaning to write more about this for the past five months, so I just decided to post what I have now and to add a few pictures.
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