First things first, I received an sms warning about possible storms in the upcoming days and decided to share the info -

According to Mishaal AlRoomi at his website , and more specifically on his 5 day forecast -

http://www.q8weather.com/dynamicdata/5DaysForecast.aspx

There is a moderate chance of a storm on Wednesday and a relatively high chance of a storm on Thursday. So stay indoors and stay safe! Definitely avoid sea activity just in case.

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Now to an email I received from a friend of mine earlier today, notice the second email from bottom, I couldn’t stop laughing -

From: —– (Employee X)
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 —-
To: —— (My friend)
Subject: FW: Re: ——–

THIS IS WHAT CAN WE DO —–

SO ADVISE US IF YOU AGREE OR NOT

From: ———— (Boss)
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 —–
To: ——– (Employee)
Subject: RE: Re: ———

We can can —— and make link also by —— but inform him pls

Regards,
———- (Boss)

From: — (Employee)
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 —–
To: —- (Boss)
Subject: FW: Re: ————–

Bu —–

This customer is talkative too much and we would like to get approval if it’s possible

From: —– (My friend)
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 —-
To: —– (Company Employee)
Subject: Re: —————

Dear ——-,

I just tried getting ———————— and they said that only the [boss] can do that, so may you please advise me on what can be done?

Regards,

—— (My friend)

Sorry the quality isnt great, did it using paint.

In line with the environment issue in the past post, I want to discuss corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Kuwait.

One definition for CSR is -

concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment in all aspects of their operations.

The field is relatively new, and has been gaining attention slowly but surely in the region. Apparently there is an annual Corporate Social Responsibility conference held in Kuwait as well as a few in the region ( 1 , 2 ).

In Kuwait, as far as I can recall, the two companies that are the most active are NBK and Zain. The best example of their efforts is the NBK pediatric hospital and the Zain Hospital (previously MTC) for Ear-Nose-Throat. I can’t really recall any other company really contributing to that extent in that field. I am sure there are other examples but nothing comes to mind right now.

I was looking through several websites of Kuwaiti companies seeing which of them have a section for CSR, and to my surprise, there were more than I expected -

NBK
Zain
Gulf Bank
Agility
Commercial Bank
KIPCO
Equate
Sultan Center
KNPC (pdf)
KPC
Dar Investment

(if you know any more, please tell me so I can update the list)

I was surprised that companies like Wataniya Telecom or KFH didn’t have a section on their website. This doesn’t mean that they don’t contribute to the society as much as others, it just isn’t reflected as an important issue on their website. Some of the links above are very impressive, especially the NBK website dedicated for the CSR.

While looking for some information, I stumbled onto a couple of interesting links.

First, there is the CSR Middle East organization, which is the Middle East’s First Online Corporate Social Responsibility Platform. I like the concept behind it, which at least puts the spotlight on such an important issue.

Another interesting website was the CSR Awards website, which is basically a competition in Kuwait for Kuwaiti companies to award the best of them and give them the recognition they deserve. (Looking through the website, the deadline for submitting a company is in 4 days!)

Its great to see such initiatives from the companies and different organizations on CSR, and glad to see that it is gaining importance. I just hope to see more environemntal issues tackled in these efforts, like the one on the streets from about 3 weeks ago -

This was done by “Challenge the Era Company” (which is sadly a very poor translation of the Arabic name تحدي العصر), which also are related to Environment Friends Campaign (EFC) . Many companies mentioned above and others are involved in sponsoring this campaign.

We need more of that. The main problem we have right now in Kuwait is awareness. Many people are not aware about the environmental issues and their impact. Hopefully the companies with the CSR departments will start looking at this aspect to work on.

The other day I had a discussion with a friend following the Logo R.I.P post on logos in Kuwait in general. We were discussing which logos we liked and which we didn’t like. We agreed on most but had some disagreements on a few. So I decided to have a Rate the Logo post, where I post the logo and the readers give it a rating from 0-10, in a couple of months we will have some idea as to which logos are most hated and loved!

There is no criterea, it is just a matter of taste, whether you like it or not.

I’ll start today with the telecoms, Zain and Wataniya logos -

I hope this leads to some interesting discussions! I would appreciate if you would say why you voted to what.

Let the voting begin!

I was working on a different post when I stumbled to this website - www.logorip.com , some sort of graveyard for old logos. They have some great ones such as the old Arsenal logo, the BP logo, Enron, PanAm, and even the swastika and interesting discussions about them.

Got me thinking about our dead logos here in Kuwait! Here are a few that would be added -

Kuwaiti Logos R.I.P -

Zain old logo, when it was MTC . Died in 2007.

Agility’s old logo, when it was Public Warehousing Company (PWC). Died in 2006.

NBK’s old logo, before they modified it with the red line and resizing he camel to match the words. Died 2005.

Old Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME) logo, before it was bought by Ahli United Bank and modified the logo to look closer to the AUB brand. Died in 2005.

(thanks to Ra7aLaH for finding it)

Wataniya Telecom old logo, before the whole rebranding.  Not sure if the reason was that it was an exact copy of an american company’s logo. Died in 2001.

Any others you can think of??

This is the second furniture exhibition by Optimus Designs

(click on picture for better view and details)

See you there!

Back to the topic of coffee.

First of all, I have to say that I was contacted by someone at AlShaya who’s opinion really does matter to me. That person pointed out that they have seen the post, which is a good thing in my opinion, and that they appreciate that this blog like others is a chance for them to see their consumer’s opinions. This person gave me some reasons for the increase in prices, which will be discussed below, but was also offended in the “daylight robbery” phrase.

Just to clear things out, here are two different websites (1, 2)that explain what “daylight robbery” means -

Here is an excerpt from the second one -

Meaning

Blatant and unfair overcharging.

Origin

This isn’t used to describe actual robberies - whatever time of day they might take place. It is a figurative phrase that associates an instance of unfair trading with actual robbery.

So I hope that clears that phrase out. Any readers from my blog know that I rarely offend or use offensive language.

Now back to the main topic, coffee. Since my last post, there have been changes, MANY changes!!

The first main change is that since then, I know for a fact that Caribou coffee raised their prices to be on par with Starbucks. I also know that Coffee Bean raised their prices in Dubai (not sure about Kuwait, and not sure about Second Cup or Costa either). So, in effect, the other stores could have just been waiting for Starbucks to do that so they can follow, since it is by far the dominant player in this market.

Secondly, and more significantly, Starbucks in the US also raised their prices as of October. Since my post was published on Sept 26th, there is an article 2 days later announcing the expected price increase, and another article here written in October about people’s reactions to the increase. Even though the price increase happened in Kuwait first and then the US, I still think that the margin is steep. In the US, the average increase is 3%, in Kuwait, it is more around the 15% average!!

Thirdly, from an article published last week on the Financial Times website, coffee prices have reached a 10-year high. Supply is getting lower from factors such as droughts in Brazil, while demand has been increasing in recent years! My favorite line in the article is -

Traders said the price direction would depend on Brazil’s rains. If the drought persisted, Arabica coffee might jump above $2 a pound. But if it rained, prices would drop towards $1 a pound.

This is probably a good explanation of why all these coffee shops have increased their prices, as well as brands such as Nescafe and Folgers coffee!

Fourthly, speaking of price increases, to make things worse, milk is going through the same price increase that coffee has been going through! There are several reasons for that. One article from ABC News points out the corn based ethanol which uses milk is one reason for the increased demand, while another article picks up on prices of feeding cattle, and more interestingly, demand from Asia!

All the previous reasons are good reasons for increasing prices of coffee worldwide, but why significant difference in price increase between Kuwait’s starbucks and the US chain??

One plausible reason might be that just like everything else here, the price of coffee had to go up regardless of the previously mentioned reasons. That it because of our inflation here. Inflation in Kuwait reached a 12-year high!

Another reason mentioned by the AlShaya representative that I have not considered is the ridicuous increase in real estate prices in Kuwait, which I have to admit is also a valid point. But it did make me wonder as to why did these reasons have to come to me because I wrote this post instead of being shared from the beginning with ther customers in general!?

Anyway, this post is very long, and it took alot of work and research to complete, so I’ll make that my excuse for lack of posts recently

But if there is one thing I really love about this topic, its how the price of the cup of coffee I get from the starbucks near work is directly linked to whether it rains in Brazil this summer or not, and to whether demand in Asia continues because of its growth, and whether the oil prices keeping going up which increases the demand for alternatives such as ethanol! Gotta love this world we live in! Globalization!

I read earlier that MTC’s new logo, Zain, will be launched on Sept 1st, so yesterday I checked the website, zain.com and found that the website is working, but only as a flash intro that keeps repeating. On my way to work today, I also saw their teaser ad with half of the name zain showing.

Their colors seem to be black, purple, and green, which isn’t that different from the logo that was shown here on Kuwaitism earlier 4 months ago!

It was a Kuwaitism exclusive (7arakaat!) back then, and since then I haven’t seen anything about the logo or branding on the net, except a couple of blogs that linked to this blog anyway.

Today, K posted about it, and I will steal his version of the logo which he photoshopped.

When I posted this picture earlier I wasnt sure about the quality of the colors and if the problem was with the picture, but apparently the colors are as they are, and to be honest I dont like th black purple green color scheme, but like I said in my older post, I do like the name quite a bit!

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P.S. - Broke the half million visitors mark yesterday….thanks everyone

The Kuwait Investment Authority has always been one of the leading financial institutions in the region and one of the largest in the world. It is where all our future money is, and has been performing extremely well since its establishment, both with local investments and international ones.

I worked at the KIA for a while as a trainee six years ago, and I remember being very sad and disappointed at the state of things there. The building was extremely old and in shambles from the inside (it is in the ministries complex), people didn’t seem to be very motivated, and in general its reputation as an employer has gone down compared to the opportunities offered at most private sector companies. The website back then was a joke, even three years later (Nov 04), I remember posting about how bad the site is.

A quick look at how things are now, and you will see -

- Their offices have all been fixed up, and now it looks alot more professional! The old ministry design that was used inside has been replaced with a much more modern and businesslike design.

- The salaries have all been raised recently, which definitely helps in motivating the employees!

- The website is totally revamped, and looks really good now.

Yesterday, a colleague at work was telling me that there is a good article about the KIA on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, so I looked it up, and found a preview of it on their website, with the full article published by zawya.com.  It is a very nteresting read. While searching, I also found an article in the New Your Inquirer.

Finding all that lead me to thinking …. Is this part of a PR campaign by the KIA to increase its presence and positive image around the world? If so, is it done internally?

Its really great to see such an organization taking steps forward, and lets hope these positives changes are happening inside out!

I know that the one complain I hear from people working there is about the parliament. Basically, what I’ve heard is that they have been taking most of their time at work just replying to enquiries from parliament members instead of focusing on their core business! And most of these questions have been - “why invest in so and so and not this other investment?” or “why did you invest in something that lost?” It really is sad that they take so much time responding to questions by people who have zero knowledge about finance or investment!

So if we give all members of parliament a short course in finance, or send them on oneof the training courses that we took at the KIA, maybe the KIA can concentrate on making more money of us, and it will cover the cost of educating these ppl! Unless of course the questions are just politically motivated, which never happens in Kuwait

I think this is a Kuwaitism exclusive!

A friend of mine sent this to me and according to him this is the new logo for MTC with the new name -

The colors and resolution are not that great, but at least you can see the logo with the name.

I like it to be honest, but I haven’t seen the colors! The name is in English, but the logo seems to be Zain in Arabic if im not mistaken. My friends and I were debating whether the name change is the right move, and the opinions are divided, I don’t see anything wrong with it, its actually one of the few Arabic names that doesn’t sound too Arabic or complicated and could be a global brand!

If we look at the other telecom companies in the region with an Arabic name - Wataniya, Mobily, Nawras, Zain ….. it sounds the best out of the four, and the easiest to pronounce no matter what ur language is! It is also a less corporate (MTC) and more friendly and human name to match the mass target of the company.