International student Sara Carere has never experienced a month quite like Ramadan in Egypt. Living in wust el balad, or downtown Cairo, Carere has fasted with friends from Assiut, eaten suhoor on the street with her neighbors and watched hours of musalsalat (Ramadan TV series). 

“I was most surprised by how special and collective fasting feels,” Carere says. “Back home in the Netherlands I had some Muslim friends who fasted, but seeing Ramadan on a country-wide scale is incredible.”

Carere fasted the first two days of Ramadan to understand what her Muslim friends and neighbors were feeling firsthand. “It was really hard for me,” Carere recalls. “Maybe it's because I haven’t done it before, but not drinking water was so tough. That first iftar was incredible, though; water and dates have never tasted so good.” 

As a Middle Eastern studies student from the University of Groningen, Carere has spent her study abroad year at AUC making friends from all over the world. Her iftars have included traditional Egyptian foods and sweets, like molokhia, mahshi, kunafa and atayef, in addition to international foods, like Spanish omelets and pasta bolognese.

“I’ve really enjoyed this month because my roommates and I always have dinner together at iftar. Planning the meals, going grocery shopping and visiting the local market in Sayeda Zaynab to see the lanterns has been a lot of fun,” Carere says. “The fresh fruit juice from the street vendors is so good. My favorite is the coconut drink, sobia.” 

Living in downtown Cairo has immersed Carere in the Ramadan spirit. “The first night we walked around downtown until suhoor. Everyone seemed so happy and energetic,” Carere recalls. “We spent the night playing dominoes at an awha (local coffee shop) and drinking tea. It’s been a great chance to practice my Arabic.”

Ramadan has also highlighted some amusing cultural differences between the Netherlands and Egypt, particularly with regard to watching musalsalat. “In the Netherlands, we usually watch a show in silence and discuss it after,” Carere explains. “Watching the shows here with my Egyptian friends involves a lot more commenting and asking questions. I like it; it's more engaging. My favorite shows so far are Al Maddah and Al Soffara.”

At other times, the month feels bittersweet for Carere. “Seeing everyone breaking fast with their families and spending so much time together does make me a little homesick,” Carere says. “Thankfully, my dad is coming to visit next month, and I am so excited to show him how special Egypt is during Ramadan.”

While a business school education can be the foundation for a young entrepreneur's career, nothing matches hands-on industry experience. Courtesy of AUC's Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) and Shorooq Partners, one of Egypt's leading investment firms, AUC students were invited last month to test their mettle in a competitive venture capital investment simulation, the first of its kind in Egypt, and likely the entire Middle East.

The competition was designed to accurately simulate the tough, high-stakes world of private investment. Although most competitors were from AUC’s School of Business, ultimately it was Ghoroub Partners, a team of computer scientists from the School of Sciences and Engineering, who took first prize, winning an impressive $2,000. If they are as talented with computers as they are with investments, all members (Nourhan Nada, Ahmad Ashraf, Lobna Aboudoma, Tamer Osman, and Mohamed Moghazy) have bright futures ahead of them.

"It was an honor to win first place in this competition," said Nada, a computer engineering student and Ghoroub Partners team member. "Our team conducted thorough research and analysis on the startup we were investing in, putting in a lot of hard work and effort. It was incredibly rewarding to see that pay off."

Nada attributed her team's success to the experience and ability of each member. "We have participated in more than 12 competitions and have won several of them, which gave us a competitive edge," she added. 

Honorable mentions went to the second and third-place competitors, Alpha Team and Agora, who took home $1,500 and $500 respectively.

Following the announcement of the competition in January, students were invited to form teams and tasked with hypothetically investing $100,000 in real startups, just as Shorooq investors deal with in the real industry. These were summarized into memos for judges. Although the investment risks for students were merely hypothetical, the rewards were not; $4,000 in cash prizes were up for grabs for the three most talented teams.

All in all, 27 teams and four individuals, some 122 AUC students from various departments submitted memos to participate. Students had to perform their due diligence, analyze the investment prospects and devise investment plans just like any investment fund does in the real business world. Over successive rounds of elimination, students were offered industry training by professional investors at Shorooq Partners, met with real startups, and narrowed the field to 22 teams, then 16 and finally eight for the final round. At this stage, the finalists presented and negotiated their investment proposals with judges.

“Being a part of this competition was a new experience for me,” says Nada. “It pushed me to expand my knowledge of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and venture capital, and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

Aside from being the first of its kind in Egypt, the CEI-Shorooq VC competition provided fantastic professional experience for students. Risk assessment; management of time, money and people; data analysis and decision making were all necessary ingredients of success for participants, just as they are for professional investors. "We were treating them as real venture capitalists like those who are hired at Shorooq Partners," says Nadine Ramadan, senior officer of performance optimization at CEI and the competition’s manager. "Accordingly, this competition gave them a chance to experience how this ecosystem works and what could be their role and daily work as venture capitalists if they are interested in pursuing their careers in that field." 

AUC's liberal arts approach to education, allowing students to pursue interests and classes across disciplinary boundaries, "enables us to know something of everything," says Ramadan. Well-rounded students like those of the competition's winning teams were able to adapt what they learned in their studies, whether in business, engineering or psychology, to new contexts and practical problems.

The 2023 CEI-Shorooq VC competition is what venture capitalists might call the "initial public offering" for something much larger and much more exciting. Organizers plan to open up the competition to public and private universities across Egypt in 2024 and beyond, bringing together more teams and more young business professionals to hone their skills, and of course, compete for the top prize.

If the competition’s first edition at AUC is any indication, it will be well worth their time.

“This competition not only honed our venture capital skills,” says Nada, “but also deepened our passion for entrepreneurship. It was an incredible experience overall."

This February, the AUC School of Business hosted the fourth edition of its annual flagship event, the AUC Business Forum, for the first time back on campus since the onset of COVID-19.

The forum featured five insightful roundtable discussions, where renowned and distinguished scholars, practitioners from business and industry, as well as policymakers from Egypt and other parts of the world, discussed timely and relevant issues related to the changing role of business schools in society and how business and management education needs to transform itself to remain not just relevant, but also impactful to help society face the growing diverse challenges.

Representatives and top executives from the World Bank, Central Bank of Egypt, Commercial International Bank, PwC Professional Services, SEKEM, Abou Ghaly Motors Group, Al Qalaa Holdings, IFRS Foundation, and the American Marketing Association, as well as academics from Edinburgh Business School, University of Paris-Saclay, the American University of Beirut, the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University, Harvard Business Publishing, and The Case Centre, deliberated on issues of sustainable financial reporting, family businesses’ challenges, case studies as a pedagogical approach, micro-credentials and the future of work, as well as the pressing and challenging issues related to addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the discipline of economics. 

The 2023 AUC Business Forum was powered by the Willard W. Brown International Business Leadership Series.

Roundtable One on Sustainable Finance

The first roundtable discussed the need for a shift to sustainability and how it is becoming a crucial part of our financial statements. The session featured Dalia Abdel Kader, Chief Sustainability Officer, CIB, Egypt, and Maysa Bedair, Corporate Sustainability Lead, PwC, Egypt, and was moderated by Noah Farhadi, professor of practice in finance, AUC School of Business, Khaled Dahawy, professor of accounting, AUC School of Business, and Rim Cherif, assistant professor of finance, AUC School of Business.

The unrestricted and inexpensive utilization of resources has been causing the wide-reaching environmental impact of today's world. For decades, decision-makers have been overlooking the environmental ramifications of our current economic models. Legal frameworks and financial instruments have emerged to uphold corporate social licenses and implement global transformation toward sustainability reporting. In March 2022, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) launched a consultation concerning its first two proposed standards - one on climate and the other on sustainability-related disclosures in general. The AUC and CIB have worked together to develop a better understanding of recent trends and the imperative for the implementation of sustainable financial reporting. The roundtable discussion brought together experts from academia, business professionals, and policymakers to explore the technical implication of the ISSB disclosures for the business world, regional difficulties and opportunities arising from the standards, as well as institutional collaboration to facilitate the necessary organizational changes.

Watch the full roundtable discussion here.

Roundtable Two on the Resilience of the Family Business Mindset in a  Disruptive Environment

Family businesses are a key pillar of economic growth and social development; however, their environment is a complex ecosystem where family roles, management, and ownership can be easily confused. This session featured a number of family business owners from different generations to discuss the opportunities, challenges, goals, and strategies for promoting the sustainability and growth of family businesses. This roundtable discussion was one of a year-long series of initiatives organized by the AUC School of Business to share the working knowledge and best practices on the family business to support family business sustainability. Helmy Abouleish, chief executive officer of SEKEM Holding, Ohannes Kozobiokian, managing partner, Dekerco Foods and Processing SAL and lecturer, American University of Beirut, Lebanon, as well as Senator Mohamed Abou Ghaly, board member of Abou Ghaly Motors Group, were the session’s keynote speakers. The session was moderated by Randa El-Bedawy, associate professor of management at AUC School of Business, and Hoda El-Kolaly, assistant professor of marketing AUC School of Business.

Watch the full roundtable discussion here.

Roundtable Three on Micro-Credentials and the Future of Lifelong Learning and Development

As business schools strive to remain relevant to the ever-changing corporate learning and development landscape, new forms of life-long learning are emerging to respond to the preferences of learners and the skills needed in the market. University World News has dubbed micro-credentials a ‘new category of education … that falls between courses and degrees.’ They are characterized by portability and stackability. As the European Commission notes, they are “… owned by the learner, … may be standalone or combined into larger credentials … [and] are underpinned by quality assurance following agreed standards in the relevant sector ….”. According to a recent study by AACSB, 47 percent of business schools offer some kind of micro-credentials. These include certificates, digital badges, licenses, and in some cases, apprenticeships. They are seen to create efficient lifelong learning opportunities, make visible skills, and enable higher education institutions to meet student and workforce demands while opening up new revenue streams. This roundtable addressed the dynamic and fluid evolution of micro-credentials from the perspectives of business leaders, learning and development experts, professional associations, universities, and learners themselves. 

The session was led by Kevin Bradford, associate professor of marketing and associate dean for undergraduate studies, Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, and chair, American Marketing Association, USA, and Angus Laing, executive dean, Edinburgh Business School and The School of Social Science, Heriot-Watt University UK, and was moderated by Ghada Howaidy, associate dean for executive education, AUC School of Business, and Mohamed Kesseba, senior director for programs, Executive Education, AUC School of Business.

Watch the full roundtable discussion here.

Roundtable Four on Case Studies as a Pedagogical Tool

Learning from experience or experiential learning approaches has been perceived during the last decade as fundamental to meaningful learning. Case studies play a vital role in the world of experiential learning. Cases simulate the managerial work experience as closely as possible by being problem-focused, managerially relevant, and intellectually and emotionally engaging. Teaching with case studies allows students to become actively engaged in figuring out the principles by abstracting from the examples. This develops their skills in problem-solving, analytical tools, and decision-making. Several educators believe that cases help students bridge the gap between theory and practice by applying theory to practice and developing theory from practice. Another perspective is that it provides an opportunity to integrate and solve some multi-dimensional issues facing the organization in the new era of global competition. Case studies are gaining momentum in higher education and are considered a very effective and innovative pedagogical tool. Currently, they are heavily used in several institutions, which have the readiness to adopt such tools due to their financial resources and faculty development programs. Nevertheless, the practice is lagging behind in the MENA region due to various challenges. Changing the educational culture within the MENA region is challenging. The shift from traditional teaching methods to more experiential approaches through teaching with cases is always an argument within academics, even within the same institutions. These points and more were discussed during this session, which was led by Vicky Lester, chief executive officer, The Case Centre, UK, Dviwesh Mehta, director – Higher Education | Middle East and South Asia, Harvard Business Publishing, and Virginia Bodolica, the Said T. Khoury chair of leadership studies, the Head of Department of Management, and professor of management, the School of Business Administration, the American University of Sharjah, UAE. The session was moderated by Maha Mourad, associate dean for undergraduate studies and administration, AUC School of Business, and Engy Magdy, director El-Khazindar Business Research and Case Center, AUC School of Business.

Watch the full roundtable discussion here.

Roundtable Five on Discipline of Economics in Addressing the SDG’s Challenges

A new global economic discourse emerged post-pandemic, giving rise to structural transitions to accommodate new realities such as de-globalization, demographic shifts, climate change, and digitalization. This comes with a regression in the realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), more so in the developing rather than developed world, and on the backdrop of a bleak macroeconomic outlook by the Bretton Woods institutions. These new realities represent a new challenge facing economics as a profession and discipline. The American Economic Association has defined economics as a “broad discipline that helps us understand historical trends, interpret today’s headlines and make predictions about the coming years.” With its complex mathematical and econometric modeling, the discipline of economics in academia has managed to define and inform economic problems. It is constantly challenged to provide potential solutions to these problems. Recent literature analyzing the role of the discipline of economics has suggested that these mathematical models have failed economics, given the recurrent recessions we face. The multiple assumptions that mathematical models and economic theory depend on do not represent real-life economic problems. The real question remains: To what extent is the science of economics ready to address the pressing and challenging issues and meet the universal SDGs? These questions and more were discussed during the session led by Sherine Al Shawarby, professor of economics at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, Jose De Sousa, professor of economics, University of Paris-Saclay, France, and Hoda Youssef, senior economist, World Bank. The discussion was moderated by Dina Abdel Fattah, chair of the Department of Economics, AUC School of Business, and Ismaeel Tharwat, visiting assistant professor of economics, AUC School of Business.

Watch the full roundtable discussion here.