Huffington Post Spotlights Vital Wave Consulting CEO

The Huffington Post’s Jim Luce just published an article about Vital Wave Consulting CEO Brooke Partridge. The article highlights Brooke’s thought leadership in making ICT sustainable and profitable in the developing world and traces her path into this pioneering work.

For those of us that work at Vital Wave Consulting, it’s wonderful to see Brooke’s leadership and the “behind the scenes” work of the company recognized. Brooke leadership comes out not just in envisioning the possibilities of technology for the developing world, but in understanding how to put all the pieces together to make a good idea a sustainable business, from substantiating the business case to structuring the necessary partnerships to getting organizational buy-in for investments.

Congrats to Brooke on this well-deserved recognition!

Shifting Sands: Recent growth highlights the Middle East's technology potential

Jordan's budding IT industry got a big boost recently with the announcement of a new fund intended to help meet the financing needs of the country's growing crop of startup firms. Backers aim to launch the fund in 2010 with a combination of local enterprise and bank resources, along with support from the government and multinational investors in Jordan. The country's leader, King Abdullah, has made growing Jordan's $900 million technology industry a key part of his economic policy and is supporting the fund's creation. Initiatives like this are intended to give a further lift to indigenous firms and raise Jordan's status as a hub for the Arab technology industry, a position highlighted by Yahoo's recent acquisition of Amman-based Maktoob, the leading Arabic Internet portal.

These developments underscore the emergence of Middle Eastern countries as players in the global technology and communications industries as they try to diversify their economies. Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) made a big splash with its multi-billion dollar investment in AMD/GlobalFoundries and Chartered Semiconductor this year, while the brand new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and its $10 billion endowment are attracting leading talent to Saudi Arabia. Mobile penetration has skyrocketed across the region and homegrown companies like Egypt's Orascom and Kuwait's Zain have become major operators both inside and outside of the Middle East.

The growth of Middle Eastern markets presents opportunities and challenges to multinationals. As noted above, companies based in the region are raising their profile both as acquirers and targets for foreign acquisition. Arab countries' populations are growing quickly and are disproportionately young, which makes them attractive markets for products and services in areas like education and entertainment. Despite recent liberalization, though, countries like Egypt, Morocco and Algeria remain heavily regulated in many aspects of their economy. The region is culturally diverse and politics remain a fault line. Learning the ins and outs of each national market may enable firms to better capitalize on this growing and multifaceted region.

Western Union Joins Mobile Remittance Market

Western Union has been so slow to respond to the market impact of mobile-phone based remittances, the company risks losing decades of market leadership in the money transfer business. The recent announcement of a partnership with the GSM Association (GSMA) may be an attempt to catch MasterCard, which announced a similar initiative at the 3GSM conference in February. According to Reuters, Western Union and GSMA will help operators let customers transfer funds from a mobile phone to a Western Union location and vice versa, and enable mobile-to-mobile transfers. A pilot program of the service will be available by mid-2008 and Western Union expects to see a material contribution to revenues in 3-5 years.

Western Union’s slow rollout of a mobile remittance program opened the door for companies like Visa, MasterCard, banks, and local service providers. Mobile-to-mobile money transfer programs are already generating revenue for more nimble players like Smart in the Philippines and Safaricom in Kenya, among others. By 2012, the number of recipients of international remittances could reach 1.5 billion and the size of the remittances market could total US$1 trillion, according to GSMA.

Non-technology companies like Western Union are being drawn into the telecommunications market by the increasing utility of mobile phones. The GSMA, its members and other mobile technology companies will benefit from new partnerships with global non-technology companies like Western Union. They provide valuable assets such as global brand and new services that can now be delivered via mobile technology. Association with a strong brand like Western Union can allay customer fears associated with accessing services and executing transactions via mobile phones. And, the added services present opportunities for additional revenue sources for all involved partners.

Also in the news:

• Mitec plans to enter low-cost PC space
• Eee PC makes a hot debut
• Norhtec thin client surfaces again