Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/90487
We asked, "How can we produce innovative leaders who will develop more of these startups that will transform our economy?" To stay competitive and rel- evant, the School of Business needed to graduate entrepreneurs who did not just start companies, but who also intro- duced change to Egyptian society. Entrepreneurial Uprising BY SHERIF KAMEL ometimes a business school can choose just the right strategy at just the right time. That was the case for the American University of Cai- ro's School of Business when it decided to launch its Entrepreneurship and Inno- vation Program (EIP)—just three months before the Egyptian Uprising, one of the most pivotal political, social, and eco- nomic events in our country's history. Since the Egyptian Uprising of January 2011, there has been a growing senti- ment across Egypt that it is time to focus on the private sector—that entrepreneur- ship will change the lives of Egyptians. This is a huge shift in mindset. Egyptians are traditionally risk averse, preferring to "wait and see" over taking action. Now people want to learn how they can make a difference. EIP, as it turned out, was the right program at the right time. S 46 November/December 2012 BizEd Where Do We Want to Be? The origins of EIP began in 2009, when we were conducting a survey of our mar- ket. There had been a proliferation of new business schools and programs in the Mid- dle East, and we knew that the only way to stay ahead of this pack was through con- tinuous improvement. We began looking ahead to the university's 2019 centennial and asking ourselves one question: Where do we want to be by that year? We looked at the fact that Egypt's population is increasing by 1.9 percent, or 2 million people, each year. Of Egypt's 85 million citizens, 7.1 million work for the government. That leaves a huge population ready for a more robust pri- vate sector. It would be a catastrophe for Egypt not to utilize its most precious resource—its human capital. We also noted that Egypt is not home to many large corporations—it has more small and medium-sized enterprises. All Citizens Welcome To accomplish this ambitious goal, we launched EIP in October 2010. Through EIP, we offer seminars, workshops, net- working events, a mentorship program, business boot camps, and business plan competitions. We help entrepreneurs generate ideas for businesses; then, we connect the most viable startups to incu- bators and help them find venture capital- ists, angel investors, and other sources of seed funding. We hold a number of men- toring events, such as "Speed Mentoring," in which mentees have a series of 30- minute networking sessions with a range of startup veterans. We realize that great ideas come not only from our big cities, but also from the 4,000 villages across Egypt. For that reason, EIP's events and services are open to students at all Egyptian universi- ties and to all citizens in Egypt's 26 prov- inces. Most of them come to our Cairo campus to attend workshops and men- torship sessions, as well as interact with other students and future entrepreneurs. Some of them access information and services online, because our program is offered in a blended mode.