Johannesburg & surroundings: Visit of local leadership academy and business school, Maboneng tour, apartheid museum and cultural farewell dinner
South Africa immersion II/III
Limpopo province: Private game reserve close to Bela-Bela
South Africa immersion I/III
Westkap: Cape Town including Table Mountain walk, Robben Island visit and Hout Bay tour - followed by Franschhoek and Stellenbosch excursions
Last day in Dubai: DGWorld & Abu Dhabi excursion
The last visit of the week took us to Dubai’s production city. Steering through the manufacturing free zone, we reached the technology development zone of DGWorld. The team of DG World produces high-tech machinery in combination with AI and Software development. Watching the chess-playing robot and hearing about the self-driving car coming into effect with self-driving cargo machines at seaports soon, we were again amazed on how much power small companies in the UAE can bring into the world of technology. After an inspiring discussion on the future of robots, we said had to say goodbye to the DGWorld team as well as Dubai.
Next stop: Abu Dhabi - the neighbouring Emirate. On our way we stopped at the “Last Exit”, a food town developed after a Mad Max Movie which offered many picture opportunities. In Abu Dhabi, our local guide took us on a tour including Corniche stroll, presidential palace views and sunset at the impressive Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. After our last group dinner it is time for farewell. Some participants fly back to home to Singapore or Switzerland, some travel to the Oman, and some extend their stay in Abu Dhabi for a desert and beach experience under the blue sky.
Dubai: An innovation oasis
Rochester-Bern alumni had the pleasure to visit Dtec, the largest start-up coworking campus in the Middle East. Located in the heart of Silicon Oasis, Dubai’s integrated technology free zone, Dtec is at the epicenter of entrepreneurship and innovation in the UAE. It is an integrated entrepreneurial ecosystem that provides everything founders need to set up a new business in Dubai: Coworking space, help with company formation in Dubai and free zone registration, plus events to learn and meet with other entrepreneurs.
A big SHUKRAN to Dtec for a great tour, insightful presentations including start-up pitches, and the opportunity to network with experts and founders.
Day five in Dubai - Part 2: RIT & Al Nassma
From the University of Dubai we moved to the Rochester Institute of Technology. We had the chance to visit the existing campus while not too far away a new campus is built. It was a delight to meet the president who introduced us to the RIT expert panel including Silicon Oasis representatives. After a prelude including first inputs from the panelists, the floor was opened for a lively discussion on how technology and digital change will form a new economy in Dubai, the UAE and potentially the rest of the world. This very interesting exchange was followed by a networking lunch, where business cards and ideas for future collaboration were interchanged.
In time for dessert we arrived at Al Nassma Chocolate LLC. We met with the management team who explained us how they produce the high-quality brand chocolate with the speciality that cow milk is completely substituted by camel milk which guarantees a unique taste. During the factory tour we were able to witness the carefully carried out manual steps each completed with a rigorous quality control. Thereafter we were lucky to enjoy an extensive tasting of the rich assortment including camel-shaped chocolate.
Once we dropped off our chocolate souvenirs, we went to a local restaurant for dinner before exploring some of the rooftop bars in town. Dubai has it all!
RIT Panel
RIT farewell picture
Al Nassma Chocolate Factory
Day five in Dubai - Part 1: University of Dubai
Accompanied by rare rain, we reach the academic city. The “contrasting” weather made the journey fast due to little traffic – contrasting as the sun usually shines in Dubai with two or three rainy days a year. Rain in Dubai means that many public and government entities remained closed due to – flooding. What a strange thought to suffer of floods in a desert area. However due to the minimal rain per year, most of the roads and buildings do not have a drainage system – hence the little water collects and “floods”.
While the University of Dubai cancelled all classes because of a storm warning, we were privileged to still have the opportunity to realize our planned visit. The provost gave us a warm welcome at the modern campus, and we had the chance to mingle with faculty as well as staff members during breakfast. Together with a resident expert and the international audience we then focused on the question “What does it need to be / become a great leader?” – it was great to benefit from inputs linked to different industries, cultures and countries. As final highlight we had the honour to meet the president of the university for an inspiring interaction.
Silicon Oasis Dubai: Rochester Institute of Technology
The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT Dubai) is a leading U.S. university based in Dubai’s technological hub, Silicon Oasis. RIT Dubai’s parent campus in Rochester (New York, USA) dates back to 1829, and is a pioneer in technology, design, engineering and business. More about our insightful exchange with the RIT president and faculty in the next blog entry.
Dubai: The Sustainable City
Rochester-Bern alumni and friends visited the sustainable city in Dubai.
Social sustainability is achieved through an abundance of amenities and community outreach programs. Environmental sustainability is maintained through passive and active design strategies, as well as strategic partnerships with an individual focus on each element of sustainability. Economic sustainability is facilitated by taking advantage of operational efficiencies and passing on the savings to the residents, in addition to various offerings designed to give back to the community.
Day four in Dubai: Hospital, Consulate & CRESCO expert exchanges
On Day 4 we start at the American Hospital Dubai (AHD), a Mayo-associate clinic in the midst of the city. Our host leads the paediatric part of the clinic, he moved to Dubai about a year ago. His colleague - an experienced endocrinologist - introduces us to the hospital’s strategy and also touches on health tech and insurance topics. Thereafter, our host takes us on a hospital tour and outlines respective processes, further he points out differences between the local healthcare system and the Swiss one in specific since he used to work in Switzerland. Back in the meeting room, we discuss lifestyle differences between Dubai and other global cites. Life is considered as very safe and agreeable in Dubai, however, summers are hot (both day and night), cars need to be sand-proof due to sandstorms and to obtain alcohol, one must have a specific licence.
After an extensive local lunch, we head off to the Swiss Consulate in one of the first “business” buildings of the city – the Dubai World Trade Center. The Counsul General and two experts in the field of company connections, explain us how Switzerland Global Enterprises can assist companies from Switzerland to have a footprint in the GCC. The unit here provides Service Public to all Swiss companies – but also offers more extensive counselling service for companies with a more dedicated strategy towards the region. They serve the whole UAE-region and surroundings.
As final highlight of the day we meet CRESCO Holding’s Managing Director and his wonderful team. When established in 2010, the goal was to build a home for companies working in different industries supporting respective synergies. Five years ago, the firm started to build up a service structure for accounting, compliance, process design and legal consulting. The latest baby, however, lies in the pristine waters of the Philippines – we look forward to this place in action! We are then invited to a networking exchange with the full local team (further teams work in the Philippines and Seychelles and can only watch us on video).
Today was another great opportunity to dive into Dubai’s business world which is not completely different from the one in Europe. However you ought to be mindful of the local culture – and it is recommended to rely on people with expert knowledge who can help set-up required connections.
Day three in Dubai: Silicon Oasis, Expo 2020 & Jafza Logistic City
With the morning sun on the horizon and temperatures on the rise, the Rochester-Bern alumni group starts off to day 3 of our journey through Dubai.
Today is all about the future and transformation. We start with the visit of the Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Campus (Dtec) at Silicon Oasis. After a short walk through the campus, where start-ups and small tech companies can find co.-working space or small office space for lease, we are heading into the largest meeting room to receive inputs about how the government tries to bring Dubai to the start-up map, how the start-ups in the region work cluster and how financing is achieved. While the incubator with its financing partner usually takes up to 6% equity of the 4 times 1o start-ups per cohort, the founders then receive aid and support in bringing their idea to a next level. This often ends with financing. We also learnt that financing rounds tend to be in a lower range compared to the American Silicon Valley. Two start-ups then presented their idea:
Catchway, a web-based website and app software that makes it easier to get one solution for your web experience and
Freesigners, a designer marketplace for small designers from all over the place.
Both founders, joined us for lunch to extend. A big thank you to the Dtec team for having us!
Excited by the start-spirit of a yet still very small cluster in Dubai (again, they have their own free zone they operate in), we head on to the Emirates next mega project – the Expo2020. Dubai is to host the next world exhibition and are therefore building an enormous city somewhat further away from the city. In the middle of the desert, huge building complexes are built. I a short presentation, our hosts show us the concept to build and run the show in 2020. It is amazing to see how much they still have to build, but everyone is very sure this will all be done. Maybe this should be worth a visit in 2020 again – together with the expected other 25 million tourists that are expected to visit.
Our next transfer brings us through the heavily secured gates of Dubai South in to Jafza Logistic City (the cargo and transit area) to DSV/Panalpina. After a short introduction of the current business model (not only storage, but also assembly and repairs for other brands), the Logistics Manager takes us on a walking tour to discover parts of the 10000m2 warehouse space sharing his hands-on expertise. A large amount of cargo is going through the Dubai South free zone with the port Jabal Ali on one side and the new (cargo) airport on the other side. This is the perfect spot to ship your goods through in case you want to deliver to UAE or other Arab countries from Europe or Asia.
We close the day with a traditional dinner joint by local Rochester-Bern alumni and discuss the impressions of yet another input-strong day. We look forward to what comes next…
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Expo 2020 site: Building construction to be finished by the end of the year
Dubai views: Level 43 rooftop bar
Our Rochester-Bern alumni group meets for drinks on floor 43 at Four Points by Sheraton at Sheikh Zayed Road. See for yourself…
Day two in Dubai: ENOC, 3D printed office, UBS & Sustainable City
Day two in Dubai – and the group of 9 Explorers meet again to deepen their understanding in the bustling business world of Dubai. While it is Sunday in Europe, the working week in the Emirates starts today.
Our driver navigates us through the dense morning traffic in the city out to ENOC, the Emirate National Oil Company, which is responsible for the coverage of fuel, gas and lubricants of Dubai. While they operate over 100 gas stations in the Emirate itself, they are also refiners and worldwide traders in fuels and gas. Jitendra Sharma, the Head of Group Treasury & Insurance of the company explains us in a swift manner how the company’s strategy looks like, how and where they operate and what challenges lie ahead of ENOC. While the Gulf states remain rich in oil, the refining more and more shifts into Asia. Margins in the business are under pressure and the local government, aware of the dependency on oil, seems to have planned ahead. Of course, this also includes diversification into solar or other power supplies. With a big thanks to Mr Sharma, the group then moves on to the next site visit.
A short ride later, we encounter a very specific – for once small – office site. The building itself was 3D-printed in China and then assembled in Dubai. This site shows us, what the new technology can potentially do and amazes us in the lightweight it is built.
Our next stop – actually in walking distance in the Dubai sun – brings us to the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), the special-trade zone of the financial industry in Dubai. The zone was established in 2004 as a financial hub in the MESEA markets and is governed by specific laws and supported by the UEA in this regard. We met (in alphabetic order) Christoph Kueffer, Omar Saeed and Zi Udezue from UBS AG Dubai Branch, a subsidiary of UBS AG. They explained us the specialities of the DIFC within Dubai and the role UBS plays in the international private banking here in the region. Among others, we spoke about specific differences (e.g. Switzerland, Europe and the local customs). It was an insightful discussion led by our three local experts with great knowledge of the local market. And because chatting is even more successful with good food on the table, we moved to a local restaurant and enjoyed regional speciality dishes. With a strong coffee to finish, we say goodbye - appreciative that they found the time to talk to us between their busy schedules.
The next stop is Sustainable City – a complex of houses dedicated to decrease its footprint in several ways. Established about 5 years ago by two architects/investors looking at environmental issues all over the world, the complex boosts about 300 houses and flats that are built in a way that reduces emissions and make it sustainable on a environmental, economic and social level. The architecture for example is all built towards north, hence has less sun and therefore need not as much A/C capacity. Furthermore, they grow their own crops and even the school curriculum hosts classes on environmental and sustainable topics. The complex, even with the ride of about 45 minutes into town, is completely rented and sold out. A success-story that even in an oil-rich country, there is space for sustainability – and some green. Tim Roggmans and Anastaciia Onishchuk (part of the SEED team: Sustainable and Environmental Education) covered the benefits of the complex and the ongoing developments. They made a site tour with us and provided us a first-hand insight in one of the villas on the ground. Thanks again for your dedication and time to show us around.
The day ended at Madinath Jumeirah, a large resort spreading across over 40 hectares of landscapes and gardens designed to resemble a traditional Arabian town.
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Below: 3D printed office of the future (http://www.officeofthefuture.ae/)
Day one in Dubai: Thank you Selina Neri!
After our “Dubai highlights” tour, we had the pleasure to meet Selina Neri for an insightful pre-dinner exchange. Selina is adjunct Professor at the Hult International Business School. She has extensive international corporate experience in the information & communications technology industry as well as the travel & luxury industries, having served in various global senior executive and board positions. Shukran dear Selina!
The countdown runs...
While the Oman week is coming to an end, Dubai is getting ready to welcome our group. Program outlook: Here
Upcoming trips
Business, culture and networking: Next year’s trips include the continents of Africa, America & Asia. Find the educational journey outlook here.
Collaboration with Rochester-Bern Executive Programs
Why are start-ups so important?
Silicon Valley experience report IV/IV: Written by David Ballagi, Co-Founder and CTO Zippsafe AG
Can start-ups really make such a significant impact on national scale? Why is it that the next big innovation is expected from some guys in the garage instead of a company with vast resources and abundance of expertise and experience? Why are (some) companies less worried about their competition than start-ups?
One often hears that start-ups are more agile, they are not held back by bureaucracy, tedious processes and legal hurdles. They do not have a product which has proved in the past and therefore makes more sense to maintain and develop instead of starting something completely new. Other examples I hear is that with experience you become more aware of why something cannot be done which holds you back to even start compared to a naive inexperienced start-upper who only focused on the goal. Or even if they start an innovative project, the people in charge will never be as passionate as the founders or they are afraid of realizing the innovation fearing that they cannibalizes themselves and so forth.
Despite this, it would still seem that a company with vast resources should be able to replicate the “start-up environment” and thus out-compete the start-up counterparts. If we look at companies like Amazon, Facebook and maybe the most prominent Google, they are all big corporations and still manage to innovate at a very high rate, why can they do it so well? Clearly this is a very complex topic with many variables and there are many reasons. In this case perhaps one of the strongest is that these are young companies where the structure and culture was built on innovation, it lays in their foundation. Something that cannot just be changed from one day to another at firms with longer history.
However one interesting additional thought to the topic relates to what was mentioned in the book AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee , in which he compares the AI race between Silicon Valley and China. While the US still has more expertise, China is much faster at implementing the technology, take for example mobile payment which is the norm over there but still is at an early stage in the US - he argues this fast implementation might eventually give them the edge. While the next big breakthrough which changes the nature of the game like deep learning was for AI a couple of decades ago is still most likely to come out from research lab at a university or a big corporation with high resources and great expertise even today.
Yet when it comes to implementation it is a different story. Consider for example the case of Apple, they did not invent the graphical user interface, it was Xerox Parc (an innovation center of Xerox which among other things made the printers), yet it was Steve visiting the center who had the vision that this will be used everywhere and the flexibility to realise it. Same holds through for AI, it is the big corporations and research center making the technology, but then the implementation especially for very focused application is much easier done by start-ups. A big corporation cannot easily make substantial changes to their product due to processes. Alternatively if it is something completely new, it is simply not interesting for them as a business case as the returns are too small, at least the immediate returns. This allows for start-ups to implement AI for example into drones and help farmers to surveillance a certain crop from which they then can make revenue and continue to grow. It is a niche market outside of the core, exactly the area where start-ups can start off and operate - then eventually move on to attack the core.
To zoom out even more from AI, the overall trend that can be seen is that we are currently in the process of digitalisation of our offline world, being it sharing our apartment or signing contracts online, the tools making these possible are created by the big corporations in likes of computers, internet, AI, google drive, cloud architecture etc. the implementation into everyday life however is then often done by start-ups. This digitalization makes a nation as a whole more effective, allowing all players to become more efficient on the market - including the corporations who then buy up the start-ups when they are mature enough. I believe this is why the start-up concept is so effective and why it is pushed by governments, with the new tools there are simply a lot of things that can be digitized. What was done back in the day by electrical firms installing grid or the developers making electronic appliances following the invention of electricity in its controlled form by Tesla, are start-ups in the digitalization age. The difference is that whilst those required high resources and were therefore relatively slow in realization, digitalization can often be done with by a single engineer with a laptop. This is why in my opinion we are moving so fast now and why all these small companies are of great value to a nation.
Then in some rare cases the start-ups that are successful become huge corporations on their own. What is the secret to that, they started with something on the perisphere, how did they suddenly become bigger than the companies that were competing with? What was mentioned several times was to create platforms or hubs in a network if you like to which other companies connect or build upon. This not only allows your product to become more scalable, which is of course a key criteria on its own for success but gives you protection against your competition. The more you become the hub in the network the harder it becomes to replace you even if the product is copied. In addition it allows you to offer more services in turn attracting more customers. So if you have the key ingredients to be scalable as well as having more and more links to your “hub” your chances to become the next unicorn will drastically increase.
To compare this further to network theory, if one observes a bundle of christmas light from above and these are lighted one bulb after the other then what will happen is not that it slowly becomes brighter and brighter as one might expect. No, instead it is dark for a long time, then suddenly patches start to appear, these are the small local networks with hubs and then finally when these hubs start to connect initially through a single links forming one network, the transition until the whole bundle appears lit is extremely rapid. Similarly in this case if more and more companies connect to you, and then maybe one that is linked to another hub as well the scaling is just out of proportion in speed compared to if you are on your own. As this is usually easier to achieve with software, because of the amount of resources needed, flexibility to make changes, easiness to make APIs where other applications can connect to it and the fact that there are no logistics makes it easier to scale very fast. In fact we know most start-ups are coming from software. However, on the other side if you do not manage to create the hub effect fast enough, software is usually also easier to copy. In this regards hardware has an advantage!
Join next year’s Silicon Valley adventure to find out more! Check out our upcoming trips
Investment Culture U.S. vs Europe
Silicon Valley experience report III/IV: Written by David Ballagi, Co-Founder and CTO Zippsafe AG
Listening to several VCs presentation one of my favorite analogies characterizing the valley was that if you have a good idea written on a napkin and you can sell it well, it is perfectly possible to get an investment of millions over a cup of coffee. While this might be a bit exaggerated, it definitely captures the attitude of investors in the valley of believing in people, moving fast and be ready to take risks. There are no NDAs, minimal excels and elaborate business plans, instead they want to hear your story and how you will achieve it. Whilst a European VC would analyze the business plan back and forth, here in the most extreme case for example at the Y-combinator event they invest during the presentation. Whilst they are ready to invest at a very early stage, they also require that the idea has the potential to become a Unicorn (evaluation higher than 1 billion) otherwise they will not invest. They know that if out of 100 if they catch one of these at an early stage it will more than make up for the rest.
The whole valley seems to be very laid back when it comes to formalities, everybody dresses casually, more deals are struck in coffee houses than in offices we were told, presentations are just a tool where content is the only thing that matters not the design at least amongst the VCs.
While I am not familiar with so many VCs in Europe, the ones we met here at least were very focused on a given area and made sure to only invest in that, e.g. cyber security in combination with AI. This then also shows after the investment is made, they are very much active in helping the startups and guide them in the right way as it is their area of expertise. Investors and VCs I met in Europe had the tendency to invest in a much broader portfolio. Regarding the evaluation, it was mentioned from several sources that the same idea and people if brought from Europe to Silicon Valley the evaluation automatically goes up 2-4 times just by the fact that it is there. Companies also exit much earlier than their European counterparts, the reason for this was mentioned to be that bigger companies in general prefer to buy up to move faster than developing it themselves, something that is more common in Europe.
When it comes to the “startupers” themselves, what seems to differentiate them from their European counterparts is not the talent, but instead the global mindset, thinking big from the very first moment aiming for the Unicorn status from day one. Secondly, what was mentioned several times is their ability to sell themselves and their ideas, whilst Europeans tend to focus on what has been achieved so far and the current status thus underselling themselves, in the US they are focused on the future and what it can be. The ability to sell yourself is not only important when founding, but also in everyday working life, to be able to motivate your team members, get your ideas through etc.
As an outsider what was also striking, that in the valley often the “nerds” are the kings, they are the billionaires. As opposed to wall street or even Zurich where you see the rich walking in fancy suits and nice haircuts, here you saw “programmer fashion” guys stepping out of luxury cars. If you consider the biggest tech companies coming from here, many of the founders are engineers who then also went on in leadership positions, often staying as CEOs. This was also mention for google, a special company in the sense that it is more of a group of startups working under one organization than a classical big company. These sub companies are usually led by the most talented engineers. In the end the selling in its traditional sense might not be done by them, but the fact that they can be in these positions as they are good at selling themselves and their ideas both to colleagues and the public on a daily level is definitely something to aspire too.
Just some examples of engineers staying on as CEOs after founding (in alphabetic company order)
The last part of the experience report will be published next week. Topic: Why are start-ups so important?
Where people “like” to fail and network
Silicon Valley experience report II/IV: Written by David Ballagi, Co-Founder and CTO Zippsafe AG
On the first day we met with Eric Ball, former Senior Vice President (SVP) at Oracle who decided to retire and instead start his own VC fund, when asked why Silicon Valley is so special his primary response was that, here “it is accepted to fail”, well not to fail stupidly but to fail smartly. As long as you demonstrate that you have learnt from the experience it does not lessen your chances to get founded again but in fact often improves it. In Europe we often see failure as a huge set back, something shameful, for this reason we do everything to avoid it ending up spending too much time to fine tune our idea-product instead of getting it out. Over there it is encouraged, in fact the phrase “fail fast” and learn from it came up during almost all of the speeches during the week.
As an interesting side note, this also agrees with the philosophy at Google X (innovation lab google) whereby they work risk oriented with a top-down approach, meaning they look at a project, identify the biggest risk or reason of failure and then start directly to work on that instead of wasting time on things they know can be done. This results that a project doomed from the beginning is brought to failure as quick as possible allowing to reorient much faster resulting in saving costs and time.
This mindset leads to much faster innovation cycles, in the end it is a number game, talented people working on innovation will eventually lead to a breakthrough. If this cycle is more efficient in the valley than Zurich or Budapest, the chance of the next big idea coming out from here is simply bigger. This number game is further enhanced by the concentration of talent and VCs in one place, the yearly investment in startups is 48x bigger than the 1 billion reached nationally in Switzerland on an area which is much smaller (these numbers are based on memory, should be not far off if not correct but do not hold it against me).
This creates an outstanding networking possibility, something that is also strongly embedded in the valley culture, getting a first meeting with anyone is very easy regardless of that person is already an accomplished star, they do not hold their noses high. In fact most of them wear shorts and t-shirts and are very direct, difference is when he gets out of the meeting he steps in to a Tesla S while the other one might take his or her bicycle (by the way, the high concentration of Teslas in the Valley is very apparent). What is difficult however is to get a second meeting, they will only meet you again if they see value gained from you, else they move on. This was also felt in a networking event we took part in, everybody would come and talk to you but if they did not see any benefits for them they would quickly move on. This means you always get a chance, but you also know very fast if you failed.
This network bis further strong in knowhow as the long past of the startup scene has breeded out veterans who have started and exited multiple startups and therefore have a lot of experience. As it is generally expected that somebody who has exited will start a new company within 2-3 years (in Europe this tends to be longer we were told) and they will most likely stay in the valley – this expertise gets back in the network,distributed and eventually multiplied.Just consider how many successful startups each individual founder of Paypal made after they left the company. On top, the startups can learn from each other, copy good practises and avoid making the bad ones before they even started.
Finally this high concentration of talent and success generates a healthy and fierce competition, a competition of which if you come out a winner you will very likely be one globally as well. This filtering of startups and founders locally and at a very early stage makes sure that if you are working on something and it works there, it is definitely worth pursuing and chances are high you will become the next tech giant. As opposed to Europe, you might be winning locally, spend years on the company and in the end not win globally. Hence this is similar to the fast failing effect, if you lose against the competition early on in one field you will move onto the next one very fast.
Conclusion: It is not the location which makes it the Silicon Valley exceptional, it is the people going there ready to work day and night, take high risks and fail hard but stand up again who makes it so unique.
Next topic later this week: Investment Culture US vs Europe
