Salah Werfelli
Wherever you look in Qatar you will see transformation. All the transformation is well planned to make a better life for the people of Qatar. I can say with full confidence that history will show that the Father Amir, H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and, the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani transformed the nation to be one of the most advanced countries making the lives of their people better with focus on the health and happiness of their citizens.
There are transformations in transportation, technology, education, economy, communications and health in addition to other areas. In this article, I want to explore technology as an example.
Qatar has most of the potential to be a world-class leader in science and technology innovation. It has the government leadership, support and encouragement. It has the best schools, most sophisticated and modern facilities, roads, science parks, and communications infrastructure and transportation systems in the world. As a USA citizen from the Silicon Valley, California, I can testify to this. The question is how to improve innovation, produce innovative products, and new technology development given all these enablers.
In my last 40 years as a scientist and technologist inventing, building products and as entrepreneur, I came to the conclusion that the Silicon Valley is not a place but a structure of ideas and beliefs. Ideas on how to do things differently, and in some cases these ideas are radical or may be looked at as crazy ideas. For example: When two young men started to build what launched the personal computer industry “Apple” for the masses, the smart people from IBM called it crazy. They said we have all the computer power we need by using mainframe and minicomputers so who will use a PC. This perspective was in line with what had been said in 1943: “I think there is a world market for may be five computers.” Thomas Watson, president of IBM, 1943.
Looking at Qatar and what it will take to become a science and technology leader.
First, I would like to talk about my observations in the short period about one year being in Qatar. I have had the fortune to visit and learn a lot about the Qatar foundation. There is a lot transformation going on in all fields of science and technology. There are great universities, both domestic and foreign. Also there is great infrastructure including communications, roads, science parks, and transportation systems. There has been significant investment in the last 10 to 15 years to make this a reality thanks to the vision of the leaders, especially H H Sheika Mozah. H H Sheika Mozah’s vision and contribution to education goes beyond Qatar. It is a pinnacle of hope to lead Qatar and the world to a better place of education, technology, hope and happiness.
Second, Qatar has the most potential to be a world-class invention leader in science and technology. It has the government leadership, support and encouragement. It has the schools, infrastructure, communications, roads, science parks, and transportation. So then the question is; why has invention, product development, and technology development been limited?
This will lead me to the third point. During my discussions I found a few things that need to be tuned up and a few things that need to change. Here are a few handicaps that I see as the obstacles to achieving the transformation to a world-class invention leader in science and technology.
1) I heard again and again that Qatar has a different culture than the people in the Silicon Valley. We don’t need to duplicate the culture of the people in the Silicon Valley. We need to use the structure of ideas and beliefs. Ideas on how to do things differently, and in some case these ideas are radical ideas or it may be looked at as crazy ideas. Let me share with you one story that supports my point. In the early 1990’s I went with a coworker to visit South Korea on a business trip. On the way to the hotel we could see that the Korean cars were small, with a lot of smoke from their tailpipes and some were broken down on the side of the road. My coworker looked at me and said “Those people will never make cars or electronics like the west. They should just stick to fishing and assembly. They don’t have the culture or the will.” The same was said about Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and other countries. So the first thing to do to solve this is to change the mindset by removing the people who believe in this and bring in people who believe that structure is what is needed to be implemented to fit the country and the culture.
2) The Incubator Program doesn’t address the reality of start-ups and its needs. Need restructuring and different look. It needs people with experiences in the filed. There is a saying “Leave the baking to the baker if you want great loaf of bread.”
3) A lot of planning and preplanning is required to understand the cost of change. If you want to move physically from one place to another there will be a cost to this physical move
Don’t compare Qatar with other countries but use the common value and structures. Invest in local companies as a first priority. Invest in the early stage of the companies, encourage entrepreneurship and support it. In all my involvement in science and technology in the USA, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Europe, companies like Toshiba, Oki, Sony, Samsung, LG, Cadence, Unisys, NEC, TI, Intel, and others, I found that investment in start-ups in the early stage was the path to their success. Availability of Angel (very early stage) Investors and VCs is a critical component of great ecosystems. In this early stage in Qatar, the Angel Investors and VCs can be the government.
4) Embrace the unknown and disruptive change instead of fearing it. Disruptive ideas were and are responsible for most of the advancement we have today
5) Must have critical mass of technologists to achieve world-changing ideas. You need other scientists and engineers to get together and help make it happen.
6) The nucleus. As I said earlier, Qatar has most of the enablers but without the nucleus nothing will happen. All science and technology parks have one thing in common. They started to orbit around an existing company or new company which serves as a training ground for teams initiating and launching new ideas and technology developments. I haven’t seen entities in Qatar to serve this purpose so I started Ogoul Technology Co. in Doha open to anyone who can add value while we hope that in few years the engineers will start new ventures either in or outside of Ogoul.
Salah Werfelli
CEO of Ogoul Technology Co. W.L.L.
To contact the writer: Salahw@ogoul.com
