Journal 1
I have been in Amman, Jordan for a month now, working with Jeeran.com. My project is to help the company figure out possible monetization strategies. Online advertising is not a great option, even in the United States, and with much lower advertising rates in emerging markets, it is even less lucrative here. Businesses and consumers are also reluctant to spend online, which makes monetization even more challenging for internet businesses. After brainstorming for a couple of weeks, we decided on a couple of options to implement as mini-experiments. Since one is mostly in unchartered territory here the experimental mindset is key, as it is very likely that we will have to tweak our strategy as we meet potential customers. We are trying to borrow from the Customer Development Methodology and see if a hypothesis is validated before we invest resources in building a new offering.
Journal 2
As the world gets increasingly global, a lot of us will find ourselves in environments where English is not the primary language. In Amman, even though many of my colleagues spoke nearly perfect English, it was still a challenge not knowing any Arabic. My colleagues, when speaking with each other, typically spoke in Arabic. This made it very hard to take part in conversations, understand the office jokes, and, as a result, bond with my colleagues. To a certain extent, I always felt like an outsider because of the language barrier.
As businesses and careers increasingly become global, I believe this will be an interesting problem for companies and for individuals planning their careers. An obvious solution is for a person to learn as many languages as they can. But, as someone who speaks three languages and is starting on his fourth, I am fully cognizant of the human limitations in being multi-lingual. Out of respect to local cultures, and the linguistic differences within countries, companies cannot impose rules on which language should be used in the office. I guess young professionals like me, who are looking to establish a global career, have to pick up what we can of a language before we move to another country, and then show a genuine interest in the country’s culture and language. Days of surviving just on English — if they ever existed — might truly be over.
Journal 3
This summer was a great experience for me, professionally and personally. I learned a lot by dealing with the constant challenge of balancing the desire to execute a lot — in hopes of making a measurable impact in two months — and taking some time to understand the dynamics of the local market.
Professionally, I really enjoyed the fact that I was able to work in the space of social commerce. While going over Groupon’s 10-K with my colleagues, I felt like we were having conversations similar to those going on in a number of Silicon Valley companies. We eventually decided on a particular monetization model to start experimenting with, and I wrote a document detailing best practices based on this strategy. Unfortunately, I left before implementation of the strategy began, but I hope my recommendations will be of use.
Personally, it was a great experience to be in the Middle East after the Arab Spring. Talking to locals, and having a chance to travel in other countries in the region such as Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates, gave me a first-hand understanding of the broader political and economic situation in the Middle East. My experiences this summer have definitely energized me to pursue an entrepreneurial career in developing countries.
