big business

My dear friend Lizzy Tomber sent this article to me b/c once I mentioned to her my crackpot idea about wanting to start my own car maintenance business for women! Well, sure enough, it seems like women around the world will beat me to it! Can't believe she remembered my idea:) And Meg, if you are reading this, all I could think of was the infamous "cash cab" night. Perhaps you could start a line of cabs in DC. Women in Business Begin to Shine in Lebanon Written by Don Duncan Published Tuesday, September 15, 2009	E-Mail This Printer-Friendly Archives
[Beirut, Lebanon] Randa Bdeir made her name in business among the ruins of post-war Beirut. In any era, post-war reconstruction is big business but while most in Lebanon made their money replacing what had been destroyed, Bdeir saw opportunity in what was never there to begin with – ATM machines. “While other countries were busy installing machines and getting cards out to customers, Lebanon was still at war,” she tells The Media Line. Bdeir is the woman credited with bringing the ATM to Lebanon in the early 1990s, and later, with introducing credit cards. She is now head of Electronic Banking and Card Services at Bank Audi, Lebanon's largest consumer bank, and she is widely regarded as one of Lebanon's most successful and powerful businesswomen. It is no accident that Bdeir's fortune began as Lebanon's misfortune, the 1975 – 1990 civil war, ended. The war is largely seen as a period when aspects of female empowerment on either side saw very little progress. Women emerged from the war facing the same repressive business-legal frameworks that faced them when the war started. “It was either a brother or a husband who would have to serve as guarantor for any woman seeking to start her own business,” says Eva Turk, program manager of the Lebanese League for Women in Business (LLWB), a Beirut-based NGO. Women had trouble opening business bank accounts and other vital administrative processes, without the explicit permission of a father or husband. But a rash of business laws passed in 1992 leveled the playing field for women, and they have been playing catch-up in business ever since. “Now the banking, advertising, marketing, fashion and IT sectors have very high numbers of women active in them,” says Turk of the LLWB, whose primary role is to facilitate female entrepreneurism. The organization has seen its membership increase by over five-fold to 70 members since being founded in 2005. While Ms. Bdeir is an example of eroding male dominance in the corporate sector, Turk's organization shows another front in the ever-expanding field of Lebanese women in business – women doing it for themselves. “The trend is moving upwards in terms of numbers, in terms of impact, in terms of positions they occupy and in terms of the rate at which they enter the world of business successfully,” says George Najjar, Dean of the Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut, widely regarded as Lebanon's top business school. Over recent years he has seen the number of women attending the school grow. Their numbers now exceed 50%. He says he has also seen a new trend developing – an entrepreneurial sub-sector of businesses by women for women. Banet Taxi is one example. “I can offer my clients a feminine atmosphere in which to travel,” says Nawal Fakhri, founder of Beirut's first taxi service for women by women. “And every day we have more and more clients. The number grows every day,” she says. Since launching in March, Fakhri has seen her business increase five-fold. She is on target to earn a full return on her initial $200,000 investment by the year's end. Alongside Banet Taxi's pink fleet are other entrepreneurial ideas in the 'for women by women' sphere: women-only beaches, women-only gyms, and, for a time, a women-only plumbing company. Ms. Bdeir at Bank Audi sees much potential in this burgeoning sphere. “Women are an essential part of society and the economy especially in terms of spending,” says Bdeir in her spacious office at the Bank Audi offices in Beirut's Achrafieh district. “And what matters for us in the credit card business is spending.” Bdeir launched the “Shine Card,” a credit card especially for women, with an special extra feature for the Lebanese lady – one side of the card is a mirror. “A woman can put on her lipstick by looking at herself in the card and after finishing, hand this card to the waiter at the restaurant to pay the bill,” says Bdeir with a chuckle. The product may seem whimsical but it has become one of the most successful cards in Bank Audi's portfolio. Back down the business ladder, at the American University of Beirut, Dean Najjar is seeing his female students show similar entrepreneurial spirit – they are also thinking of business ideas targeting women. “You see that in terms of issues raised in classes and research projects pursued,” he said. “We are moving very quickly toward a world of equality where women are given their due and it's from nobody's favor, they have earned it.” This kind of progress is most apparent in Beirut where opportunity, and societal norms, are more conducive to women's increased involvement in business. Moving away from Beirut though, remoteness from resources as well as entrenched patriarchal social norms become increasingly debilitating factors for women wanting to get into business. “We know that most university graduates, some 55%, are women, but only half of them go into the labor force,” says Turk of the LLWB. “I believe there is a very strong need to empower women and tell them 'you can take the lead and succeed.'” One recent factor though, has unexpectedly been helping many women gain access to work and entrepreneurialship – the financial crisis. Lebanon is one of the countries least hit by the global recession. However, says Turk, many families here are feeling the pinch and are pushed to adopt a two salary household model. “The social mentality is often about maintaining women at home to take care of the family while the husband goes out to work,” she says. “ But now a lot of Lebanese households are finding themselves having to by-pass this mentality and let women work.”
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