Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman of his namesake organization discusses trade, education, intellectual property and why capacity building in knowledge will be particularly important for Africa, the Europe of 2050

Stepping inside the large, corner office of Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, one is taken aback and perhaps a little overwhelmed by a man whose imposing presence in myriad ventures across the Arab world and now the globe can in fact be so humble and down to earth.

Dressed in a sharp suit and blue tie while clutching glasses, the 74-year-old relaxes on one of the couches beside his table. The chairman has elevated the self-named Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org) into a far-reaching and wide-in-scope empire that by the end of 2013 will have reached 100 offices worldwide.

With its office located in Smart Village in Cairo, hundreds of employees work in an open concept workspace, a Google-like think tank where capacity building is front and center. This is undoubtedly the premiere creed that comes to mind when defining TAG-Org.

"[W]e started as an Arab regional organization and now, of course, we are international with 86 offices all over the world and another 14 under establishment," Abu-Ghazaleh says. [I]f you want to serve your country, you don't need to become political, you don't need to be an activist. You can dedicate your time and capabilities to serving the country through capacity building."

According to Abu-Ghazaleh, his organization has been growing at an average rate of 10-20% since its establishment in 1972. Simply, it is a professional firm that succeeds on the strength of the quality of its services.

The question remains, 'what does TAG-Org do?' Perhaps the better question is, 'what does TAG-Org not do?'

"We [engage in] capacity building in every field, in accounting, in management services, in intellectual property (IP). We are the largest IP company in the world, not in the region, in the whole world."

As well, under the TAG-Org umbrella is Talal Abu-Ghazaleh & Co. International (TAGI), which provides assurance services, bookkeeping, auditing and taxation help.

Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) delivers trademark, patent, copyright and design registrations as well as the maintenance of IP rights. It boasts a client list that makes up approximately half of the Fortune 500 list. TAG-LEGAL, now in its 16th year, includes over 400 lawyers on four continents, rendering anything from banking and bankruptcy to investment funds and Islamic finance. And this is not the end. In fact, it is just the beginning.

Additionally, TAG-Org is also a tour de force in information technology (IT). "We are the only organization in this field which runs its services and its operations IT-based, ICT-based.

This gave us an edge over every competitor," Abu-Ghazaleh says. "In 2013, we will have our own computing cloud, which will be the first of any private organization in the entire Arab world.

We are not going to be linked to any of the other clouds: Microsoft, Google, etc. No, it will be a Talal Abu-Ghazaleh cloud, our own cloud."

Mission accomplished

Why does TAG-Org function so well? The keyword remains 'mission,' a word that Talal Abu-Ghazaleh uses nearly a dozen times when the chairman eloquently speaks over the better part of an hour. Evident in his own body language, verbiage and excitement, Abu-Ghazaleh is incredibly passionate about what he and his team do every day.

The organization may simply be the brainchild of one man, but its success lies behind the many faces of business in a dizzying array of facets.

One endeavor that Abu-Ghazaleh is particularly excited about, in part because of the possibilities, is education. The chairman admits that TAG-Org went forcefully in education in 2012.

The resultant was Talal Abu-Ghazaleh University, a completely web-based environment. The university does not have any programs of its own -- it only delivers programs of accredited universities.

 "We believe that we have a message, a mission to deliver to the world. People talk about education for everybody, I don't agree.

If you want education, it should be accredited education for everybody, but to give me a degree from a university  nobody recognizes except the university that issues it, you're not doing any service to your citizens."

The university recently signed an agreement with Thunderbird School of Global Management in the US, one of the leading management schools in the world,to deliver their programs worldwide. It has also partnered with the University of Cambridge in the UK to teach IT skills.

In addition to its association with universities in academic programs, vocational, executive and language courses are also taught. Abu-Ghazaleh also states humbly that he wants to be able to teach Arabic, English and Chinese all over the world.

A partnership has been launched with the British Council in order to teach the English language as well as IT skills that can be utilized throughout the world. Additionally, the TAG-Confucius Institute was established in 2007 to teach Mandarin and Cantonese.

Further educational partnerships involve the Germans and the French. "We want to make this organization a place for anyone who wants to study a foreign language while still on their job, earn their salary and live with their family."

Abu-Ghazaleh is proud of the fact that the majority of registered students today are not from the Arab world, but from Africa in particular, as well as Asia and South America -- students that can use Talal Abu-Ghazaleh the most advantageously.

"Our mission is we believe that through this creative, innovative approach, we are going to make accredited, elite or world-class education available to everybody in the world," Abu-Ghazaleh says. "The only charge the student will pay is the charge of the partner university.

There is no fee for us. There is no additional cost. [ I'm only talking about the 500 Shanghai Ranking which lists all the top universities in the world."

TAG-Org does not grant the degree or diploma to the student. The student will receive the piece of paper from the Harvards, Stanfords or MITs of the world.

Where TAG comes in is connecting the student with the university in which they've been admitted. TAG also collects regular tuition fees -- another benefit as international students in North America will often pay in excess of 2-3 times the normal fees, excluding accommodation and cost of living.

The chronic problem for many students in the Middle East and Africa in obtaining visas -- particularly for universities in the UK -- is thus irrelevant as the student remains in their home country.

The burden of moving their entire hearth and home and altering their lifestyle is taken out of the equation. Additionally, TAG-Org performs counseling, tutoring, as well as guidance for the students in preparation for their courses.

TAG-Org also engages in capacity building in government, including, but not limited to the United Nations, World Bank, World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The chairman explains that his organization delivers programs for governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

Instead of having to send a team, which the organizations cannot afford because they are under budget constraints, TAG-Org prepares government staff for courses and enables the capacity building process.

"We believe in, what I call, 'democratizing education'," Abu-Ghazaleh says. "When the leadership of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh University feels they have a mission to advance democracy of education, world-class education, they work with a drive which is different from somebody who is doing a routine job, because they have a mission.

Everything we do [ is mission-oriented. And when you're mission-oriented, you have an additional drive, an additional factor that will help you reach your goals."

The fight of the intellectuals

Abu-Ghazaleh is also the chairman of the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP). The mission of ASIP is to protect IP "through the encouragement of the development and modernization of IP systems and laws and regulations that govern them," according to its website. Through his experience with ASIP, he has been able to be deeply involved with the WTO and WIPO by serving on its industry council. He does however issue a caveat for IP in the 21st century.

Abu-Ghazaleh believes the future of IP rights lies within the internet, and so he is quick to point out the holes in the WTO's councils on trade, services and trade-related IP matters (TRIPS) which only marginally protect IP rights on the internet.

"I think we have reached a time where there is maturity in the decision making authorities in the world  that we need to have some jurisdiction and discipline," Abu-Ghazaleh says.

"There are no protection trademarks, you cannot protect trademarks on the internet today.  [T]herefore what I'm talking about, is there is a need for an internet-related IP rights discipline.

Trade made to stay

Abu-Ghazaleh will be traveling to Amman in February as part of a panel of 11 experts announced by the WTO in 2012. He will be the only one from the MENA region during the summit which will discuss the future of world trade and proposals for reform in the WTO itself.

Having worked on his report for the past year, it will be made available on February 11 at a consultative meeting for the Arab region alongside the WTO and with the added presence of director general Pascal Lamy.

"[We will be] talking about multilateral relations with the Arab region as a region. This consultative meeting will discuss the Doha Round and the other issues. I will be circulating my report which includes 22 recommendations," Abu-Ghazaleh says.

The meeting where Abu-Ghazaleh will present his report, 'WTO at the Crossroads', is the first of its kind in the history of the Arab world, that has both WTO leadership and Arab stakeholders present to discuss the Arab perspective on the WTO. He believes that the WTO is facing serious challenges in the near future.

"In fact, since the Doha Round,  I can say that not a single multilateral agreement was agreed upon, not a single major achievement was accomplished.  The WTO has to reform itself as I said when I addressed the assembly of ambassadors in Geneva to the WTO [in November 2012].

I said we have to remember the WTO was born before the internet era, so it's a prehistoric organization. It has to become a knowledge organization and it has to cope with the changes in the world."

Abu-Ghazaleh is a firm believer in what companies like Google are doing because he believes that the future of trade is in knowledge, that is, knowledge products.

This, he argues, will be the source of wealth creation, one that is new, easily adaptable, internationally recognized, without language barriers, free of visa restrictions, where the possibilities are limitless: something that TAG-Org, its host of professional services and family of companies and the chairman behind it all, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, truly stand by and firmly believe in.

 "In order to promote and facilitate trade in knowledge products, I am devoting a lot of time to the issue of world trade and now it's one of my great concerns."

Africa will be the next Europe by 2050

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh wants his legacy to be that he reached out to everyone in the world

Q: Where is somewhere in the world that you would like to be, that you are not?

Abu-Ghazaleh: I can tell you now, when we started, we started as a regional organization. Now if you look at our website and all our literature, we removed the word 'Arab'. We are now a global organization. We are Talal Abu-Ghazaleh International. The accounting firm is a member of the G20, which is called the forum of firms under the International Federation of Accountants. We are the only member of the G20 firms in accounting from the region. In every respect we are international, by number of offices, by clients, by services, so we are now an international organization.

Our mission, which started with a feeling of responsibility to serve the Arab world through capacity building, has now transformed to a feeling for the rest of the world, particularly Africa. My top priority today is Africa. Africa will be, before 2050, the Europe of the world. [...] [T]he IMF issued a report saying that the greatest economies and the most powerful countries in the future are the ones with large populations. This is not me, this is the IMF, and I fully agree.

Our grandfathers used to have dozens of children because they could help them on the farm. If you have more children, you have more production. [...] We were misled for a while that a large population is a burden, and now we're back to believing the right thing, which is: a population which is large means a large productivity base. [This is true] particularly in the knowledge age [...] If you have more knowledge workers, you have more knowledge created. If you have more knowledge created, you have more wealth created.

I would like to focus on -- and this is my drive, at least as far as the Arab world is concerned -- to emphasize the knowledge development of the individual because that is what is going to be developing and developed. I want us to be developed as knowledge individuals rather than talking to me about indicators which are meaningless. You can have a growth rate of 8% and 50% of the people are poor. Any high rate of growth and as a result of bad distribution of wealth or bad laws, it is not an indicator of the health of the country, health of the economy, only the benefit to the individual, the citizen. But I think what is going to be important is the knowledge indicator because if I can get 10 or 20 Zuckerbergs or Steve Jobs or Bill Gates in the Arab world, then I think that will make it more than developed. What we need is to emphasize in the Arab world -- and in the world at large -- the knowledge indicator more than, to me, the meaningless indicators.

I have a map of the world on [my desk] which I always look at. I have to remember that there is a world, [so I don't] lose perspective. I learned this from French President Charles de Gaulle who used to have history books on his desk and a map of the world on his wall. He would always say, 'you cannot make an intelligent decision without looking at history and geography'. Looking at the geography of the world, I can find huge [gaps]. In fact, at least 80% of the world is still not 'in' the world, is not linked to the world, and I'm not talking about governments being in the United Nations, that's not linking to me.

I want the Nigerian boy in [his] small village to be connected like my granddaughter [is connected] at three years of age. I want that and that's what I call linkage. I think at least 80% of the world is not yet networked [...] and I don't mean having a mobile, because again, that is misleading. Every time I go to a conference they talk about the knowledge development and the knowledge revolution through the use of mobiles. Mobiles are used mostly for unintelligent uses [...]. I don't have a mobile personally. I don't believe that the mobile was a great invention. I only have an email address.

What I'm trying to say is that a large portion of the world population has not been reached yet and I want to reach out to them. I want to reach people in South America, in east Europe, all of Africa and most of Asia. Those are the millions of the world. When we look at countries we have a different picture and that is wrong. I look at the individual and I hope if I can leave one legacy after my death it would be that I reached out to every person in the world and not to a country or to people in one country.

© Business Today Egypt 2013