Business
The First Lady of Syria at Harvard
America is notorious for its policies concerning our region, but it is also a great country with many achievements, among its greatest, in my opinion, is its educational system. This statement comes from someone with first hand experience with the Syrian, French and British educational systems.
Allowing that American universities are the best in the world, among them Harvard ranks at the very top, and the Harvard Business School is the jewel of the Harvard crown. To this school the brightest students go to study business theory and practices, and it was to this school that I headed with my family last week.
Warren Buffett: I think that the recession could be long and fairly deep
Warren Buffett, the world famous American businessman, is regarded as one of the century’s greatest stock market investors, and is the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. The holding company, headquartered in his native Omaha, Nebraska, works mainly in insurance, and for the last 25-years, has averaged a 75%+ annual return to its shareholders. Back in 1973, Berkshire began to acquire stock in the Washington Post Company and Buffett became a member of tis board of directors. By 1979, he had began to acquire stock in ABC, and in 1988, starting buying Coca-Cola stock. He eventually purchased up to 7% of the company for $1.02 billion; one of the finest investment decisions in his long business career.
Syria: Economy Easing
Indicating Syria's economy may not be as immune to the global downturn as initially thought, the IMF lowered its assessment for the country’s growth, while exogenous factors are affecting output in the vital agriculture sector, putting an extra strain on the budget.
Why Transtek has 80% of the ERP market
The Information Technology industry is taking up a big slice of the gross domestic product in the US and pretty much the world. However, the Syrian market for IT-related products has for some while been weak. Despite all of this, nine years ago, father and son Mohamed and Abdulsalam Haykal started Transtek, a technology company that makes ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning ) software, specialized and integrated systems that are deployed across a company to help it manage resources and information as well as optimize for productivity and cost.
Behind the Scenes of Fashion Industry
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Syrian people are often labeled “fashion followers,” spending a great amount of time visiting fashion stores to purchase the trendy and stylish. Making the right choice of catchy clothes, however, becomes ever harder as the Syrian market is stuffed with more brand names, Chinese imports and national lines.
Credit crunch afterthoughts
Young professionals and entrepreneurs discuss the challenges and opportunities for Syria in face of the global financial meltdown. Establishing a small-size, entrepreneurship-style business at these turbulent economic times seems to be what some are going for; others are scared to make an investment. How do Syria’s young men and women view their lives as banks around the world get bankrupt? Julian Weinberg investigates.
Rebirth of the Damascus Bourse
Finance Minister Mohammad Hussein, head of the Economic Bureau in the Baath Party, rang the stock market bell signaling the opening of the Damascus Securities Exchange on March 9, 2009. The launch of the Damascus Securities Exchange (DSE) is deemed an important step, signaling that economic reforms are underway in Syria, coming, however, amidst a diminishing role for world financial markets, due to the international crisis that erupted in the final half of 2008. The DSE’s board has prepared itself for transparent conduct, and will be a tool to mobilize capital that is ready for investment and make use of Syrian money, under good supervision.
Avoiding the blind integration of Syria into world economy
One of the main goals declared by the Syrian government, as part of the economic reform process, was the “integration in the global economy.” Surprisingly enough, this has hardly received any attention despite the fact that it holds serious implications for the structure of the Syrian economy and its position globally.
Elegance Stars: Creativity through social responsibility
When people walk into the factory of any major corporation, they probably expect to be greeted by a company hall-of-fame: walls plastered with product logos, company awards, and employee honors. Anyone who walks into Elegance Confectionary Company will find something different. Sure, the company has a wall of fame, but instead they have exchanged awards for drawings, gold and silver print for crayon: orange, red, green, and blue, and company logos for stickers. The sense you get once you enter the company is a lively world of creativity, blasting colors and big ideas drawn by Aleppo’s little hands, Aleppo’s children.
Rebirth of the Silk Road and un-flattening of the world
In Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World is Flat,” he discusses globalization and the “leveling of the playing field,” where global players are able to compete more evenly due to ten “flattening” effects. Four of these ten points relate to more efficient global supply chain networks, which were related to the relatively low price of oil. This development has helped countries, such as China, become the “world’s factory.”