Session Six (Part 2) - Landscaping The Future: Who Should Take The Lead

Fahad, Chief Editor
Diaa, Thamer, Noufal & Ahmed; Contributing Editors

What a wonderful city Jeddah is, full of life. There is always something happening that separates this city from the crowd (not your ordinary city) and makes it so ostentatious. And JEF is one of the big attractions but sadly it’s the last day of the event.

It’s the final 6th session and it started with same level of commotion & uproar as the first day of the event. Alaistair Stewart the moderator started the conference by outlining today’s theme which is, “LANDSCAPING THE FUTURE: WHO SHOULD TAKE THE LEAD?”

There was an unexpected but gratifying surprise in store for everyone. As HRH Prince Khalid Bin Faisal arrived to join us in JEF, with a grand entrance. HRH Prince Khalid was there to give away the first ever JEF Award to NCB for their efforts in benefiting the dynamics of the society. A few other awards were also given which were of the same nature.

Next agenda was Dr. Hayat Sindi, a visiting scholar, from Harvard University, a very intelligent lady indeed making the entire nation proud by her international achievements. She is the first woman in Gulf to receive a PhD in biotechnology. She spoke about her new company with Professor George Whitesides and others. The new company is called Paper Diagnostics Inc (PDI). PDI is a for-profit company, with non-profit objectives. She talked about the different area’s concerning education and believes that educating one-self should not just be about finding a job with a lush office and a handsome salary but, leaving university with the intent of being able to provide skills training and creating jobs for others. Be leaders and not followers to put it short.

This was followed by a panel discussion that included Mr.Saleh Turky, Sami Bharawi, Our very own Dr.Haifa, Dr. Ghazi Binzagar, and Dr. Mona Mursheed. Basically, the discussion surrounded how education influences our lives, the positive and negative affects of different characteristics and trends in education. Also they discussed the elements that are wrong in our system when delivering this extremely important and valuable product (education).

One of the key factors towards making a change is “accountability”. If we move in this direction perhaps more things will start falling right into place. This requires shifting from a system based on inputs to one based on outputs, but making this shift is a monumental task. Of course the end result could give us the flying colors that we are looking for. I really enjoyed Dr. Haifa’s comments; the points she stressed were not only critical but essential if we desire a change.

The highlight of today’s session had to be Sir Richard Branson who needs no introduction, a well known figure by all. I think there is no fixed meaning behind the term success as everyone’s perception of success is different. What makes one successful? Is it having a million dollar sports car or a mansion with a golden bathtub or the girl of your dreams? Some could consider success all these things but others may think the opposite. But when the founder of the Virgin Group name is mentioned all shall agree. His name appears in books and whenever there is a talk about top ‘entrepreneurs’ his name pops up. The man has grown from a single shop on Oxford Street to owning his own airlines, record company, healthcare foundations and the list goes on and on. He even lives on an Island owned by him.

He was here, looking sharp as ever and talked about how to be a leader. He spoke about what motivates him to do what he does, the satisfaction he gets from helping others, and how every business should be involved in not only furthering their own interests but working towards mutual gain. This means making money while not tearing down the fabric of society but also contributing to building and maintaining the essence of society.

Let’s be honest here for a second. When anybody starts a business they get into it for all the superficial things (money, cars, travel, power) those are generally what some say really matters.

As time passes and you have achieved all that you set out to do perhaps you are in a position to make a difference. This is when it would not hurt for you to start taking steps towards innovating, creating value, and helping others. Basically, at the end of the day there is more to life then just buying something for a dollar and selling it for two.

Before I end, I just want to say that in this year’s event my three favorite speakers were HRH, Prince Turki (a real man of substance), Richard Branson (a true prodigy in the business world), and the phenomenal Professor Mohammad Yunus.