Nearing the end of the semester for many university students is usually accompanied by many challenging prospects and difficulties juggling a multiplicity of academic tasks that need to be attended to. For this reason, we asked several members of our valued School of Business faculty about their personal advice on how students can create a more smooth-sailing experience for themselves during finals week.
Tip One: Do your best and work hard
Academic success does not come easy. Business students must uphold excellence in everything they do, which entails studying and working our hardest to achieve our academic goals.
“Don’t lose your concentration. It’s time to make all your hard work pay off,” emphasized Moataz El Helaly, assistant professor of accounting. Furthermore, Hamed Shamma, associate professor of marketing and BP endowed chair, also highlighted the same principle stating: “One should aim to be the highest and give their 100 percent effort and beyond. Work exceedingly hard and make it happen.”
Tip two: Create a study plan and manage your time to minimize stress
Organization is key to staying on top of our studies and motivates us to get things done, in addition, creating study plans helps alleviate a lot of stress going into finals week.
This was illustrated by several of the School’s professors, for example, Ahmed Abdel Meguid, associate professor of accounting, contended that “if your target is getting an A, don’t stress out, do your best and line up a study plan to avoid cramming.”
Additionally, Ahmed Tolba, chair and, associate professor stated: “My advice is for students to relax by planning how they will organize their work ahead of time.”
Tip three: Allocate enough time for your physical rest
Making sure that you are well-rested and are taking proper breaks enables you to be at peak performance whilst taking your final semester assessments. Therefore, it is necessary for students to recharge and take care of their bodily health. “It is important to sleep well before taking an exam,” stated Abdel Meguid.
“Remember to manage your time effectively and allocate enough time for your physical rest in order to have optimum performance,” highlighted Khaled Dahawy, associate professor of accounting.
Tip four: Know what to expect
For students, having a clear idea of what is expected of them or what they are expected to acquire in terms of knowledge to be ready for final assessments and submissions is essential in helping relieve much of the stress associated with finals week.
Sherwat Elwan, associate professor and director of MBA and Executive MBA programs, elaborated on this matter by stating: “Students should connect personally with professors to communicate clearly with them about final exam or project expectations.” She continued: “In my experience, the vagueness of deliverable requirements is the main cause of anxiety for students during this time.”
Tip five: Consider practical applications of course topics
A helpful tool to allow for better knowledge retention is to think about how one would enact their theoretical knowledge practically. Mohga Badran, associate professor, Department of Management, stated: “For each topic in a course, students need to try and think how it can be applied practically and how each of the topics is related to other ones in the same course.” She further elaborated: “In this way, students will have a whole picture of the course and its practical application in mind.”
Tip six: Cherish present achievements
In order to be mentally prepared for final examinations, it is best to be content with one’s current achievements or progress and avoid setting false future expectations, but rather stay focused on the present. Nellie El Enany, associate professor of management, aligns with this viewpoint. “The future self we imagine may not eventually make us fulfilled. Alternatively, being in the 'present' is much healthier for us,” contended El Enany. She further added: “It is important to avoid the positivity bias about things that may never happen, and which may never make us happy like we imagine they may, is the best way to rewire the brain to think.”
Tip 7: Have an internal drive to learn
The process of learning should be motivated by an internal willingness and enthusiasm to learn and become a more well-rounded individual rather than the extrinsic motivation related to getting good grades. Assistant Professor of Finance Wael Abdallah, touched on this stating: "The way to reach success is through the intrinsic motivation of a person, which is the drive that keeps them going even in times of hardships".
Final notes
In summary, students must exert the maximum possible effort they can and effectively manage their time as well as their mental or physical well-being in the process. You must also make sure that you properly understand what is expected from you in final exams or submissions. Furthermore, you should consider real-life applications of acquired concepts to enhance the learning process. Lastly, continuously focus on being content with your current progress and strive to be motivated by a desire to learn rather than being motivated by grades. And as the final words by Associate Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Management Randa El Bedawy go: “Don’t just study hard, study smart, and don’t stress!”
In light of the increasing challenges that have been facing startups since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the AUC Venture Lab launched the V-Lab Innovation Fund Award in partnership with Oxfam and the Danish-Arab Partnership Programme to honor its graduate startups that have been creating impact and launching innovative initiatives during difficult times.
Targeting exclusively V-Lab graduates, the award offered up to EGP 120K for nine V-Lab alumni who managed to create innovative solutions and empower the community through job creation and impact, especially in areas of financial inclusion, and green economy, social impact and inclusion, agri-tech, health-tech and ed-tech.
“We really wanted to offer our startups a boost through this fund. These startups are creating a wonderful impact and the award highlights and celebrates their stories and empowers them with funding that would help them expand their operations and provide better support to their communities,” said Ayman Ismail, AUC Venture Lab director and Abdul Latif Jameel endowed chair of entrepreneurship at AUC School of Business.
“Oxfam is very proud of our partnership with AUC Venture Lab with the support of the Danish-Arab Partnership Programme to see the Innovation fund award winners for 2021-2022. Egyptian youth have come up with innovative ideas that will now become reality, supporting more growth and more social inclusion. We have developed the prizes in partnership with AUC V-Lab to provide immediate support to these youth entrepreneurs who can innovatively respond to current market problems and needs,” said Mirjam van Dorssen, director of the North Africa Sub-Region at Oxfam.
Check out the winners below and read what their founders had to say.
The ed-tech platform was founded back in 2013 to provide high-quality babysitting and tutoring services for children. After exploring the market with booklets and a Facebook page, Orcas launched its mobile application and acquired more than 20,000 users across Egyptian cities including Cairo, Alexandria, El Gouna and the North Coast.
The Startup Accelerator Cycle Four graduate has set its mission to provide children with defined, enhanced and customized learning experiences through its online marketplace platform that connects tutors with parents and students.
"Our mission is to upgrade the way students learn outside the classroom through an innovative product experience. It is an honor and a great motivation to be recognized by AUC V-Lab’s Innovation Fund Award for it," said Hossam Taher, CEO and head of product at Orcas.
After getting recognized by HolonIQ among the 50 most promising ed-tech startups in MENA, Orcas announced its plans to expand in MENAP with eyes on the Pakistani and Saudi markets.
Having joined V-Lab in 2021, Brandloca’s team was set on a mission to penetrate the fashion, beauty and home decor products, connecting customers with different local producers from every corner of the country through their e-commerce platform.
Founded by Sarah Hegazy and Sarah Abdelsalam, Brandloca is committed to elevating the pains of shoppers when it comes to time, money and effort by enabling them to find a wide variety of products in one place and allowing them to make one order from several vendors and pay a single delivery fee. On the other hand, it empowers local brand owners and factories with an online presence allowing them to access a wider customer base and keep up with the rapid development of the fashion industry.
Since its inception, the platform has also joined several collaborations to help local creators enhance their products, build stronger brands and acquire new customers.
As a graduate of V-Lab’s first Fintech Accelerator cohort, Neqabty has worked tirelessly to avail the services of syndicates to its members through online solutions. They automate transactions for healthcare services, provide user management services and integration with the syndicates’ internal systems, and offer easier communication channels and ease of payments.
"The first steps for NEQABTY were born inside the AUC Venture Lab Fintech Accelerator powered by CIB Egypt. It was an adventure that we believed in from the first moment, and they believed in us as well and the real journey started there,” said Mohammed Gamal, founder and CEO of Neqabty.
The startup currently serves more than 500,000 engineers and has processed more than 120 million operational financial transactions, with plans to expand in Africa.
Skilldi, formerly known as ArabCBT, is an Arabic-speaking e-learning hub that develops Arab talents of different qualifications and enables highly qualified technology calibers to enhance the ICT job market in the region. The platform provides learners with a customized career development plan with integrated localized training and mentoring sessions.
“This award gives us confidence and a push towards realizing our mission of providing effective and accessible skill-building experiences to help individuals lead the life they aspire for,” said Mohamed Abdallah, founder of Skilldi.
Abdallah added that by utilizing modern and proven learning techniques, powered by cutting-edge technologies, they continue to work on revolutionizing the EdTech industry.
Skill has recently expanded its services to the Saudi Arabian market by partnering up with the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
The Spring ’20 Fintech Accelerator graduate Logista provides solutions for digitizing the logistics and delivery operations of businesses, allowing them to access crucial insights, optimize routing and improve efficiency.
Committed to streamlining delivery operations Logista has succeeded in creating job opportunities and a social impact.
Science Crafts brings science to life by designing hands-on educational kits and learning scenarios that offer children gamified experiences they can enjoy and learn from. Science Crafts’ solutions indulge children in a fun environment with maximum engagement and learning potential.
“It's exciting and fascinating when we see the children’s faces at their maximum engagement level, using their hands and minds to find that "Eureka moment" when they understand an educational concept while having fun,” said Mahmoud El-Amir, co-founder of Science Crafts and Jaykerz Co.
Throughout their journey, the team has been dedicated and committed to transforming the educational sector and displayed strong agility in the face of COVID-19 challenges.
Science Crafts is now covering a variety of educational subjects through its sister brand Jaykerz and diverse gamification services for schools and teachers to help learners reach their full social, cognitive and physical potential. On the partnerships side, Science Crafts has joined hands with Nahdet Misr and Wataneya Society to widen its impact.
Founded in 2015, the Startup Accelerator graduate ClickMare started with a mission to bridge the gap for those in need of health insurance. They provide users with microinsurance that makes private healthcare services accessible and breaks financial barriers.
ClickMare has so far helped more than 40,000 Egyptians access quality healthcare services offering up to 80 percent benefit coverage at monthly premiums less than EGP 50 ($3) per family and a network of 2,600+ providers.
“Egypt’s large and growing population will continue to fuel demand for healthcare projects. There is a neglected category of SMEs and families that can’t pay the private sector’s medical insurance and can’t appeal to the national health insurance,” said Dr. Ahmed Yousef, founder and CEO of ClickMare, explaining the pain his team is trying to provide a solution for.
The startup’s growth rate doubled in 2021 due to the rapid increase in syndicates and the expansion of SMEs. ClickMare’s upcoming plans include expanding in Alexandria and enhancing medical records
The Spring ’21 graduate SehaTech has been selected to win among nine V-Lab alumni for their efforts to bridge the communication and financial gaps between the healthcare stakeholders.
“We are very glad that SehaTech won the AUC V-Lab Innovation Fund Award. V-Lab has always been very supportive and played a crucial role in our journey,” commented Mostafa Tarek, founder of SehaTech.
In efforts to make healthcare services more affordable, SehaTech’s customers will soon be able to benefit from vast discounts on the platform and can choose to pay in monthly installments.
When it comes to the automotive industry, the Cycle 13 graduate Turbo One provides every on-demand service a car owner could need.
Turbo One’s team works relentlessly to provide customers with the most convenient services according to their locations and schedules while offering service providers growth opportunities and a scalable demand of orders.
“I’m really proud that I’ve graduated from AUC Venture Lab Startup Accelerator in 2019. The acceleration program is still - as always - pushing all graduate startups with all the support possible. Thank you to all our mentors, the V-Lab team and Professor Ayman Ismail who have helped us access networks for business opportunities and investment,” said Mohammed Sayed, founder of Turbo One. Sayed added that they are currently exploring a new model with wider scalability opportunities.
Just five years after joining the AUC Venture Lab as a budding startup, Swvl has made its debut on the Nasdaq –– the first Egyptian unicorn, first V-Lab graduate and first North African tech startup to list on the U.S. stock exchange.
Entering the exchange next to other tech giants with a valuation of $1.5 billion, the fast-growing transportation company is also the second in the Middle East to list on Nasdaq via a SPAC (Special Purpose Action Committee) merger, following Anghami. The company merged in July of last year with Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital, a SPAC that boasts being 100% female-led.
Founded by Mostafa Kandil '15, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh, Swvl set out to improve public transportation in Egypt through tech-enabled ridesharing services. The company now operates in 115 cities in 18 countries across Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Kandil rang the Nasdaq Opening Bell on March 31 in a ceremony marking the company’s debut.
"We are very excited to see Swvl's team reach this inspiring milestone,” said Ayman Ismail ’95, ’97, founding director of the V-Lab and associate professor and Abdul Latif Jameel Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship. “At AUC Venture Lab, we take pride in having been part of Swvl's early journey and continue to be committed to being a catalyst for growth and to empowering more inspiring founders during their journeys. [Swvl is] “an inspiration to many entrepreneurs and one that paves the way for an entire generation of tech startups.”
Kandil began his studies as a petroleum engineering student at AUC but ended up seeking a more dynamic path, as he was always keen on exploring the business world. In 2017, Swvl joined AUC Venture Lab, Egypt’s first University-based accelerator and incubator which offers acceleration programs to high-growth, innovation-driven tech startups.
In August 201, when Swvl announced that it would list on the Nasdaq, Kandil said, "I’m proud to say that being an AUC student was the start of the journey that brought me to this moment in my life."
Accelerated by the V-Lab in Cycle 8, the team was able to launch the application before graduating from the cycle. The startup has seen impressive growth since its launch, crossing Egypt’s borders and establishing roots abroad. Kandil was named — along with co-founders Nouh and Sabbah — among Forbes Middle East’s Top Arab 30 under 30 in 2018.
To date, the V-Lab has graduated over 300 graduate startups that have gained EGP 3 billion in investments and created 10,000 jobs, leaving a lasting impact on the greater community and regional development ecosystem. In 2021, the lab was recognized as the Best Accelerator/Incubator Program in North Africa by the Global Startup Awards.
The realm of business around the globe is becoming increasingly dynamic and complex. This requires persons in business to be agile critical thinkers that take initiative in solving organizational problems that arise due to the dynamic nature of the industry. This makes the use of case studies in academia of utmost importance because they engage university students’ problem-solving skills and create a culture of active learning, critical thinking, and proactivity.
With this in mind, El-Khazindar Business Research and Case Center (KCC) at the AUC School of Business, in partnership with Emerald Publishing, launched the Emerald - AUC School of Business Case Writing Competition in 2020. The competition primarily aims to inspire a culture of proficient business case writing in and about the MENA region, leading to the creation of excellent case studies to be used by students in the region and elsewhere.
"Launching this case writing competition with such a prominent publisher as Emerald comes in line with KCC’s mission and vision of fostering the culture and promoting the development of high-quality case studies within the MENA region," stated Engy Magdy, director of KCC.
In its second run, a total number of 13 case studies from five countries (Egypt, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey and United Arab Emirates) were submitted for the competition. The judges selected short-listed cases, reviewed them, and evaluated them based on the competition criteria.
Winners were announced on March 29, 2022 during a webinar featuring competition judge Virginia Bodolica, Said T. Khoury chair of leadership studies and professor at the School of Business Administration at the American University of Sharjah, and Emerald Cases Publisher James Hobbs. In addition, the speakers showcased the highlights of the 2021 case writing competition and explained the facets of a well-written case study. The webinar was moderated by Nadine Salah, marketing manager for MENA, Pakistan, and Turkey at Emerald Publishing.
Two cases by the AUC School of Business won the first and second places, respectively. The winning case entitled Scarabaeus Sacer: An Iconic Green Brand Advocating Sustainability in the Era of Digital Economy and Connectivity was written by Ayman Ismail, associate professor, Abdul Latif Jameel endowed chair of entrepreneurship and founding director of the AUC Venture Lab, Seham Ghalwash, doctoral researcher at the Technical University in Denmark and senior researcher at AUC, and Mohit Maurya, associate professor at Sharda University in India.
“In this case study we discuss an Egyptian sustainable fashion enterprise called Scarabaeus Sacer,” remarked Ghalwash. “The core mission of Scarabaeus is promoting Egyptian organic cotton textiles with a premium quality globally and their main dilemma, which is what the case revolves around, involves marketing-related challenges faced by the founders at the beginning of 2020 when trying to build their global brand awareness and penetrate new markets,” she explained.
The second winning case by the School and the first runner-up was a case titled The Pharaoh Rises: Z-Generation Startup PIK written by Randa El Bedawy, associate professor and associate chair at the AUC School of Business, and Mayar Farrag El Sayed, assistant professor and head of the marketing department at the Egyptian Chinese University. Their case, as El Bedawy explained, “traces the development of an Egyptian software startup and the challenges faced regarding the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt.”
El Sayed further elaborated on what the case entails by stating that “for many startups, financing is an everlasting struggle, the founder of PIK dealt with this struggle.” El Sayed also added that “another issue faced by PIK was the need to create market awareness for a price-sensitive market and whether the ecosystem of this emerging market was going to support their business, or if they needed to look into other markets to explore instead.”
The second runner-up case entitled The Pandemic: Learning the Way of Continuous Communication with Customers was written by Nilsah Cavdar Aksoy at the Galatasaray University in Turkey and Alev Kocak Alev at Albeka Consulting in Turkey. The case tackles marketing communication challenges faced by businesses in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pro-tip: Writing a successful case study
During the event, Bodolica explained the criteria for successful case study writing. She emphasized the importance of the “five Ps” of effective case writing.
Click here to watch the full webinar and here to watch the winners’ remarks.
For more information about the entry criteria for the 2022 round of the Emerald - AUC School of Business Case Writing Competition as well as the deadline, click here.
AUC’s Mina Sami, assistant professor of Economics, and Wael Abdallah, assistant professor of Finance, have published a first-of-its-kind report on Africa’s crypto boom, aptly entitled “Does Cryptocurrency Hurt African Firms?”
A lack of data around cryptocurrency in Africa, coupled with ever-increasing public interest, earned Sami and Abdallah recognition as among the top 10% of SSRN authors in the MENA region.
Their latest report, published in February 2022, shows that cryptocurrency negatively impacts African micro-entities, particularly those in “less competitive” sectors such as energy, financial, industrial, and consumer services. “Each 10% growth in the cryptocurrency market cap reduces the market value of African firms by 0.76%,” Sami and Abdallah’s paper outlines.
It also finds that cryptocurrency trading in Africa has a particularly adverse effect on firms that are less experienced and highly indebted.
Additionally, Sami and Abdallah outline how macroeconomic factors and companies’ internal policies are part of the adverse landscape created by the crypto boom. Even with cryptocurrency banned in many African countries, this fails to protect companies in less competitive sectors.
The reason for this, Sami argues, lies in behavioral finance. “The pain of loss is higher than satisfaction from gains,” he affirms; consequently, with some sectors underperforming as the coronavirus pandemic shook businesses and economies globally, investors are looking for alternatives.
In much of the world, including developing economies, the answer became crypto.
The crypto boom is particularly worth watching in MENA and Africa as it may, on the surface, seem at odds with low financial inclusion levels plaguing emerging and developing markets in the same geographic vicinity—a shocking 57% of Africa’s population is unbanked.
Despite the parallels in many of these emerging markets, they are far from being a monolith. According to global data, 2.6% of Africa’s population are crypto users, although this figure is calculated through median ranges, and is not necessarily representative of every market in Africa. Egypt’s crypto users stand at 1.7 million, a massive number despite the stigma and skepticism with which the public widely views crypto and digital currencies, and as the Central Bank of Egypt does not yet allow crypto trading. Another commendable market is Kenya, ranking fourth globally with 8.5% of the country’s population being crypto users.
Sami and Abdallah see that crypto’s popularity is poised to grow even more. “I believe there will be great growth in Africa’s crypto markets in the next year. People are unbanked and the stock market has high transaction costs, while cryptocurrency is decentralized and transaction costs are low…So the trend is very likely to grow in Africa, especially with the prospect of inflation and depreciating currencies in much of the continent; this makes crypto very attractive for traders…a safe haven,” Sami explains, grouping crypto with more traditional safe haven assets like gold and crude oil.
While Sami and Abdallah don’t offer a solid answer as to whether crypto should be legalized in more African markets, they do say that their findings call for an excruciating need for further innovation—this, they say, is the one prime aspect that might mitigate the adverse effect crypto growth has on African micro-entities.
“Firms must be more competitive in the market,” Sami affirmed, quoting Robert Solow, winner of a Nobel Prize in Economics, in saying, “What guarantees country-level economic growth in the long-term is innovation.”
He continued: “Real estate and IT thrive [in Africa] because they innovate, whilst in other sectors productivity is very low—something that we need to boost. Entrepreneurs in Africa are not well guided or backed with enough knowledge, which makes companies [especially SMEs] less productive.”
Speaking on the paper’s recognition and ranking, Sami said, “This opens a new area for research, encouraging researchers and academics to work on these topics. People living here in the region, or outside, need information and research about this market.”
In a rapidly changing world, there is no one easily digestible answer to tackle the threats posed by shifting market trends and novel prospective assets. Sami and Abdallah’s new report shows just that; with all the merits that crypto offers investors, and all the promise it holds in Africa, this comes at massive cost for conventional institutions and a host of less-than-lucrative sectors.
“The role of the government should be to increase innovation and improve regulation in the traditional financial markets, in order to compete with cryptocurrency,” concludes Abdallah. “In improving the efficiency of our financial markets, we must be more transparent and pass regulations that facilitate investment flows.”
These lessons will not only capitalize on crypto’s promise—despite most cryptocurrencies posing a generally high risk level—but also potentially reap wider gains for economies at large.
In an unannounced move, Egypt’s Central Bank raised key policy rates by 100 basis points and devalued the Egyptian pound by nearly 17% on Monday, March 21, leaving many panicked with flashbacks to 2016 when the bank floated the pound and its price plunged by 48%.
Samer Atallah '97, associate professor of economics and associate dean at AUC’s School of Business, was not surprised this time around — or the last. “We could see the signs of pressure on the currency since maybe late last summer or early fall,” he says. “It was clear that the price at which the dollar was trading for the pound in the market was lower than the value of a dollar.”
Indeed, many news outlets and financial institutions such as Bloomberg and JP Morgan rang warning bells ahead of the recent devaluation, pointing to rising inflation as well as a predicted drop in tourism from Russia and Ukraine due to the war.
Since the floatation of 2016, Atallah and others have hoped that Egypt’s Central Bank would transition to a managed float, allowing market forces to determine the dollar exchange rate, the professor explained.
“The reality is, however, if you go on Google and look at the graph showing the exchange rate, you’re going to find a very straight line for the past two years,” he says.
This straight line is indicative of the bank’s control of the exchange rate, Atallah states. “We’ve had COVID, a decrease in tourism, fewer exports and still, no changes to the exchange rate. It is clear that the value of the Egyptian pound that is listed on your bank’s screen is not reflective of reality.”
Monday’s sudden change, however, has aligned the exchange rate to reflect that which many, including Atallah, previously estimated as a true rate.
Why Now?
Contrary to the whispers one might hear in the streets, the CBE’s move was not only a reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Atallah believes. “While the last step in the race is probably [the conflict], it does not mean that we weren’t already moving in this direction,” he says, citing excessive reliance on volatile portfolio investments and the accumulation of external debt.
There is also chatter about the devaluation preceding the announcement of an additional incoming loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a requirement for securing the funds, as the 2016 devaluation preceded a USD 12 billion dollar loan from the IMF.
While Atallah asserts that he can only speculate on such claims, he explained the difficulty of securing a loan with a quasi-fixed exchange rate.
What Now?
Seeing as this isn’t the first time for this to happen and with less than a decade between now and the last devaluation, what’s to come is rather predictable, according to Atallah: “For a country that relies very much on importing essential commodities, the effects are typical: this will lead to inflation,” he says. “Almost all food, almost everything that is energy is tied to the price of the dollar.”
Pointing out a contrast in how this affects foreign investors and the wealthy versus the average Egyptian, he continues: “While firms that invest in EGP are welcoming this, the people in the street are not. Even without people fully understanding the dynamic of how the dollar price affects the cost of living, once they are aware of the increase, they know that prices will rise and they will ask for higher wages and so on. It has become something inherent in our collective conscience.”
When asked about the pound regaining ground, as it slowly did in 2016, Atallah explains that any predictions are simply estimates and cannot be relied on. “The rates are based on highly sophisticated models that look at transactions, trade and asset pricing. They are also extremely sensitive to market conditions.”
Moving Forward
With devaluation rattling economic stability and escalating prices, and with less than a decade in between Egypt’s last devaluation and this one, many are wondering: How can we avoid repeating this again?
“If we don’t want this to happen again, we must do things differently,” Atallah stresses. “This means that whatever the amount of portfolio investment we get from abroad, we make sure to invest in productive capabilities, meaning projects that lead to jobs and exports, rather than debt instruments and infrastructure.”
