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HIGHLIGHTS:

October 2019/2020

ACK TEAM PREPARATIONS FOR ARAB

ENTREPRENEURSHIP RALLY COMPETITION

JOB SHADOW AT BPG

BUSINESS TALK - “SECRETS OF SUCCESS

MINDSET”

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Business Talk - “Secrets of Success

Mindset”

On 7 October 2019, The School of Business

Talk guest speaker was Mr. Hussain Ashoor,

a Self-Development Trainer and Life Coach

as well as a Leadership and Financial

Consultant for Small and Medium-Sized

Enterprises (SME). Mr. Hussain travelled

from Bahrain to Kuwait to deliver a very

inspiring and motivating talk about the

mindset for success in setting and

achieving goals to ACK students. A large

number of students attended the talk as

well as a number of external visitors.

The feedback on the talk was highly

positive and great.

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Research Seminar Series

During the month of October, two Research Seminars were conducted for

School of Business faculty. The Introduction to Research Series delivered by

Dr. Ayça Tekin-Koru commenced on 7 October 2019, and focused on

“Research Process, Formulating and Clarifying the Research Topic”. Dr. Tekin-

Koru discussed a plethora of methods and shared her own experience with

the audience. A lively and friendly discussion was the highlight of the

seminar.

At the inaugural brown-bag seminar of the 2019-2020, Dr. Ayça Tekin-Koru

also presented on 14 October 2019 her paper called "Market Substitution in

Capital Goods Imports and Export Quality Upgrading”, joint work with Mr.

Nazire Nergiz Dinçer from TED University Trade Research Center. The paper

was motivated by Turkish firms, having significantly increased their capital

goods imports from China in the 2003-2015 period, reaching to one quarter of

Turkish capital goods imports. Furthermore, the growth rate of export prices

of Turkey has steadily declined starting from 2003, which may indicate a

decline in export quality. The paper which tries to establish the link between

these two observations using confidential firm-product level data for Turkey

for the period 2003-2015, has attracted the attention of the ACK SOB faculty

members and triggered a good amount of discussion across the audience.

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Business Talk - “The Vertical Farm

Solutions in Kuwait”

in the container farm grow vertically

indoors without soil: The plants obtain

all their nutrition from water and their

light energy from powerful LEDs. The

containers have been kitted out with

specialized automated technology to

operate and monitor the conditions

that the plants grow in, linked to a

Cloud-based system with complete IoT

connectivity (IoT: Internet of Things

refers to the ever-growing network of

physical objects that feature an IP

address for internet connectivity, and

the communication that occurs

between these objects and other

Internet-enabled devices and systems),

the farmhand® application relays data

to a smartphone or desktop, providing

the operator with remote monitoring

and control for all components.

Mr. Osama Bastaki, the owner and

CEO of Osama Bastaki International

Group, presented a Business Talk to

students and staff in the ACK

auditorium on 9 October 2019 about

Freight Farms. He is the MENA

partner for Freight Farms Inc. USA, a

company that created the first

vertical hydroponic farm that thrives

within an insulated, custom-built

shipping container which means that

now, anyone can become a farmer

anywhere. Unlike traditional farms,

the plants (mostly leafy greens at this

stage)

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This independence from land, climate

and season allows these container

farms to bring the power of food

production anywhere in the world,

due to its modular design.

Students were offered a business

opportunity to purchase their own

subsidized Freight Farm with

application support through The

Kuwait National Fund for SME

Development. Several students

showed their interest. Finally, the

Business Talk was concluded with a

Q&A session where Mr. Bastaki shared

with the audience the contact email

for those who are interested in starting

a new business and getting involved in

Freight Farms: MIKE@obig-online.com

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ACK Team Preparations for the Arab

Entrepreneurship Rally Competition

ACK submitted its nomination for the upcoming Arab Entrepreneurship Rally

Competition 2019 which included a report, business canvas model and a video

on 13 October 2019. The ACK team are Yousef Ali (Team leader), Afsah

Abdullah, Talal Al Mouli and Ms. Rupali Bhagat (Team Mentor). Dr Arthur King,

Dean - School of Business, highly supported the team and acted as a

consultant. He gave his advice on the idea and assisted the team at every

stage. The team worked hard for their submissions and the video, which was a

bit challenging, was shot at LOYAC. ACK appreciates LOYAC’s help in shooting

the video. It was a proud moment for us, as ACK’s project titled TPO (The

Portable Office) was selected from all the local projects to represent Kuwait at

the prestigious competition. It was rated as the best project from Kuwait. The

team will now attend trainings and programs starting 7 November 2019 where

they will present, pitch and showcase their product to various sponsors and

investors. The final result will be announced on 13 November 2019 in the

conference called 18th Arab Businessmen and Investors conference held

concurrently with The World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum at Arena Hall,

Ritz Carlton in Bahrain.

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(INSET) Team with LOYAC General Manager Mr. Al Razi Al Badawi

(INSET) ACK team for the Arab Entrepreneurship Rally Competition Shooting

their Final Video Prior Competition

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Job Shadow at BPG Group

BPG Group is an integrated

communications marketing agency

that brings together specialist

thinkers and creators. Besides their

operations in Dubai, and for more

than three decades, they have been

serving key clients in Kuwait such as

National Bank of Kuwait, Boubyan

Bank, Alshaya Group and the

Behbehani Group - Porsche,

Volkswagen and Skoda. BPG Kuwait

has the largest network office among

BPG Group outside of its Dubai

Headquarters. They provide

businesses with multi-faceted

solutions in advertising, social media,

public relations, media management

and digital communications.

On 16 October 2019, the Australian

College of Kuwait students currently

studying Marketing Plans in their

final year with Dr. Sam Toglaw;

visited BPG - Bates Pan-Gulf Group

in their head office in Tijaria Tower

to be familiar with applied

marketing planning and creative

design approaches.

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Finally, Mr. Jimcine Fernandez, BPG

account director presented the

Avenues CSR campaign which was

created and launched by BPG Kuwait.

It raised funds to provide neonatal

incubators for premature babies in

Yemen. He indicated that the power

of social media drove the awareness

through locally known influencers and

maximized the emotional appeal of

the campaign inciting viewers to

instantly act on their emotional

impulse. The marketing design

process from brief to idea to

execution is as much art as it is

science.

Mr. Souheil Arabi - CEO of BPG

Kuwait, provided a brief presentation

about the BPG Group as a whole and

described it as an agile change agent

with multicultural experiences. Then

Mr. Aaron Arthur - Executive Creative

Director, presented a few interesting

case studies from Kuwait such as

‘Ms3ed’, the first automated chatbot

in Kuwait by Boubyan Bank as well as

the Al-Shaya 2018 World Cup food

delivery campaign which was video-

led with sponsored posts on social

media and cinema pre-show ads and

ended with 114% increase in delivery

orders.

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Business Talk - “Breaking Challenges in

Achieving your Career Goals”

On 23 October 2019, Mr. Ibrahim Al-Awadhi,

the CEO of Aayan Real Estate Company, was

the guest speaker for School of Business Talk

titled “Breaking Challenges in Achieving your

Career Goals”. He presented a very useful talk

to students and staff in the ACK auditorium

and shared with the audience his personal

experience about the relevant topic. He

discussed different topics such as improving

skills and experience to reach the career

target, managing teams and encouraging

them through motivation, dealing with

different attitudes and difficulties facing

changes and benefiting from challenges to

create new opportunities. Finally, he

discussed about success in the current

market condition. The talk was concluded

with a Q&A session where students were

highly interested and involved.

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UNHCR Forum

On 23 October 2019, the United Nations

High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

held its first Humanitarian Corporate Social

Responsibility Forum at Jumeirah Messilah

Beach Hotel. UNHCR works to help and

protect refugees all around the world. Their

team are ready to deliver life-saving

assistance to millions of people in Iraq, Syria

and other people in the region who have

been driven from their homes. Dr. Sam

Toglaw from the School of Business was one

of the participants in the CSR panel

discussion of the seminar. Ms. Rola Mourdaa,

Treva AlDhahi and Mahsa Rahimi were

among the ACK staff who attended the

forum. Also, students from the School of

Business were present to understand the

activities that are taking place to support

refugees in the region within the Corporate

Social Responsibility Concept.

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CFA Challenge Kick-off Meeting

On 28 October 2019, the Australian College of Kuwait participated through a

group of students and two faculty members in the kick-off meeting of CFA

Challenge Competition 2020. The meeting was held in the Four Seasons

Hotel; representatives from ACK were faculty: Ms. Rola Mourdaa and Dr.

Omar Al-Hussainan and from students: Abdul Wahab Al-Obaid, Shahad

Dawara and Sara Dawara. The challenge will have the following competitors:

Kuwait University, ACK, AUK, AUM and GUST.

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The purpose of the meeting was to introduce the CFA challenge for the

students, to shed light on the importance and rules of the challenge as

well as benefits for the participants and requirements. Deadlines were

shared as the competition will be in February 2020 for the report

submission and in March 2020 for the presentations. The university that

wins first place in Kuwait will compete regionally in Jordan wins and the

regional winners will compete globally in New York. Every university was

assigned an industry mentor, ACK’s team mentor will be Mr. Ahmad Asiri

who works as a Financial Manager in Al-Markaz and the company that was

given to the teams to analyze is Integrated Holding Company K.S.C.P. The

meeting concluded with every team meeting and connecting with their

industry mentor. ACK looks forward to a fruitful participation; we wish the

best of luck to our team.

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Brown-Bag Seminar Series - PBL

In recent years, the once trusted

traditional approaches to teaching

and learning have been facing

criticism of being too teacher

centered, retrogressive and hence

incompatible with the modern

education system. The key drivers of

this paradigm shift are twofold. The

first relates to an increase in

demand for graduates with new

skills sets which the traditional

approach to teaching and learning

seem unable to offer. Employers are

looking for graduates who are

productive from the day they join a

company. The second, concerns the

changes in the learning preferences

of university student worldwide.

Dr. Arthur King - Dean - School of

Business presented to the Business

faculty a Brown-Bag Seminar Series II

on 28 October 2019 which was about

PBL - A Paradigm Shift in Teaching

and Learning topic.

A quiet revolution seems to be taking

place in the tertiary education sector,

which includes colleges and

universities, worldwide.

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Yesteryear students appeared more

content with being lectured on, the

so-called ‘Death by PowerPoint’, and

having the teacher being at the

center of their learning.

The new student is the exact

opposite; s/he would like to be at the

center of the learning process with

the teacher on the peripheral of it.

Consequently, universities are

increasingly searching for approaches

to teaching and learning which puts

the student as the center of the

learning process. The PBL approach

to teaching and learning is one such

approach. In the PBL approach, the

student is in charge of his or her own

learning and the teacher is found on

the peripherals, playing the role of a

facilitator.

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Business Talk - “Overcoming the

Challenges of Change - A Success Story”

Dr. Ahmad Al-Shatti is the former Middle

East Deputy CEO for Zain

Telecommunications Group and he is the

Founder and Chairman of Global Vision

Consultancy and Training, which focuses on

Change Management and Corporate

Renewal Practices.

As part of ACK’s mission to connect the

academic teaching to industry practice, Dr.

Al Shatti has been presenting a real-life case

study every semester to Change

Management students over the past 4

years. Change Management students study

Kotter’s Eight Steps for Change

Management. On 30 October 2019, Dr. Al

Shatti presented a Business Talk on how he

implemented each of the 8 steps in Zain

Jordan to successfully turn the business

over.

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ACK MEREN Team Final Preparations

for INJAZ Regional Competition

As ACK team MEREN is travelling on 3 November 2019 to participate in INJAZ

Company Program - 2019 regionals to represent Kuwait in Oman, they are

preparing every week for different levels of the competition.

During this month October 2019, MEREN has got support from faculty

members from School of Business and also attended a workshop on

Presentation Skills from Mr. Curtis Sims from Corporate Training department.

The team also visited INJAZ to present their mock presentation and

interview. They received feedback to improve. However, their efforts were

highly appreciated.

The team is excited to participate in this regional competition. After winning

the competition in Kuwait last April 2019, the team has worked on their

product and on other skills like presentation, booth interview and also panel

interview. Ms. Rupali Bhagat, the team mentor, mentioned that all the team

members have been assigned with their own roles and designation within

the company. They have worked very hard to achieve the set targets. The

team will be presenting to the judges new improved images and videos of

their product. It has been a great learning experience for all the team. We all

wish the best for all the team in the competition!

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(INSET) Corporate Training Department Met with MEREN Team for Supporting them

(INSET) Dr. Omar Al Hussainan Met

with the Team to Share Valuable Advice

(INSET) Ms. Yvonne Vann Zyl Supporting

the Team

(INSET) Ms. Dania El Achmar Supporting the Team

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(INSET) MEREN Team Meeting with Last

Year’s Team Members in ACK Campus

(INSET) Ms. Rawan Alayan Supporting the

Team

(INSET) Dr. Arthur King and Ms. Louise

Whiteside Supporting the Team

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(INSET) Last Minute Planning (INSET) Final Rehearsal in Auditorium

(INSET) Meeting with Dr. Arthur King - Dean -

School of Business

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Upcoming Events - Stay Tuned!

Event Management Students in First Aid Day Event

INJAZ Final Competition - Oman

Business Talk - “You Are What You Repeatedly Do”

Retail Marketing 3D Model Project Display

Fill the Gap Event

CSR Projects

Job Shadow at NBK Capital

Job Shadow at World Bank Group