Melodena Stephens – författare

There are many myths about Artificial Intelligence (AI) relating to what it is and what it can and cannot do. The people making decisions on AI projects are often not technologically savvy and unable to find easy answers. The spending on and the returns from AI projects are not necessarily straightforward. Part of the reason for this is the lack of understanding of the impact of critical decision criteria. AI touches on many ethical concepts - data privacy, validity, and, more importantly, its potential misuse. AI often replaces human decision-making, as managers do not clearly understand the implications of those choices. This book provides an easy and accessible guide for practitioners without a technological background to understand AI. It guides the reader through the fundamental issues confronting decision-makers. It offers advice on ‘how to ask relevant questions’ using the 15 decision scales. There is currently no comparable book on the market that acts as a pocketbook management reference guide for the AI layman.

There are many myths about Artificial Intelligence (AI) relating to what it is and what it can and cannot do. The people making decisions on AI projects are often not technologically savvy and unable to find easy answers. The spending on and the returns from AI projects are not necessarily straightforward. Part of the reason for this is the lack of understanding of the impact of critical decision criteria. AI touches on many ethical concepts - data privacy, validity, and, more importantly, its potential misuse. AI often replaces human decision-making, as managers do not clearly understand the implications of those choices. This book provides an easy and accessible guide for practitioners without a technological background to understand AI. It guides the reader through the fundamental issues confronting decision-makers. It offers advice on ‘how to ask relevant questions’ using the 15 decision scales. There is currently no comparable book on the market that acts as a pocketbook management reference guide for the AI layman.

The Academy of International Business - Middle East North Africa (AIB-MENA) Chapter presents the second volume in its series of books, this volume celebrates AIB-MENA's second conference themed "Managing in Uncertain Times" in Dubai, UAE. The focus of this book is to shed light on the real business management problems that MENA-based organizations face. The cases presented document the context, challenges and opportunities of these problems. The cases, documenting government, private and SME organizations, will appeal to international business academics, MENA researchers, trainers and organizations that want to know more about similar scenarios.

The Academy of International Business is a leading global association of scholars and specialists in the field of international business which was established in 1959. The focus of this book is to shed light on the real business management problems that MENA-based organizations face through teaching cases. The last few years have seen the world grappling with many challenges from persistent recession, environmental challenges, political instability and resource constraint management issues. Slowly but steadily, the centre of business gravity is moving eastwards. Emerging economies are proving promising business markets with large populations with future purchasing power and sources of FDI. The youthful human capital provides potential opportunities for innovation. MENA is strategically placed at the hub between East and West. The challenges and opportunities as two worlds collide - the developed west and the developing east bring a rich variety of perspectives of innovative solutions to business dilemmas. "Perspectives", our new section, has explorative thought pieces on trending topics. Cases include regional leaders at various stages of growth who are beginning to dominating global markets like Emirates airlines, the fastest growing global airline; Aramex PSJC, the only Arab company to be listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange; Americana Group (Kuwait Food Company), one of MENA's leading restaurant operations and manufacturing group of companies; and Lammtara Pictures, the first Middle Eastern company to produce 3D animations. Cases on international companies operating in MENA like General Electric, ranked 6th in the Fortune 500 list; PepsiCo, the 2nd largest global food and beverage company; Impression et Enregistrement des Resultats, a leading supplier of printing terminals and IT Solutions for the air transportation industry and GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, one of the largest system providers for food and energy processes. The case contexts are varied: international business (cross-cultural, global value chain, standardization and adaptation); management strategy (culture, change, growth), marketing strategy (communication, packaging, service marketing, brand management), CSR & sustainability (like PPPs), and entrepreneurship (funding, growth cycles). AIB-MENA hopes that this book will spur more organizations and individuals to contribute to teaching and research. After all, the winds of changes are sweeping over the business world quickly and the sands of time are moving mountains.

Slowly but steadily, the geographic centre of business gravity is moving eastwards. Emerging economies are proving promising business markets with large populations that have strong future purchasing power. The youthful human capital provides potential opportunities for innovation. The MENA region is strategically placed at the hub between East and West. As the developed West and the developing East collide, the challenges and opportunities that arise bring a rich variety of perspectives of innovative solutions to business dilemmas. This set of cases in our 4th volume explores why and how some successful Indian entrepreneurs have relocated themselves to the UAE. It traces their entrepreneurial stories. Two cases are from the healthcare industry: Dr. B.R. Shetty is the founder of NMC Healthcare, UAE Exchange and Neo Pharma. Dr Azad Moopen is the founder of Aster DM Healthcare. This case traces the story of Yogesh Mehta who moved from Mumbai, Maharashtra to begin Petrochem Middle East.The book also documents the stories of a few women entrepreneurs, including Uma Ghosh Deshpande who carved a career for herself in the competitive UAE media production industry, and the Karla sisters who are on a quest to make the world disability friendly.

The growing field of social entrepreneurship sits between purpose-built start-ups that pursue a traditional for-profit business model, and the conventional non-profit models that depend on grants, charity and public funding. Because of their position, social entrepreneurs face a unique challenge to balance social impact with financial returns, and must replicate and scale their business models when seeking to internationalize. This book, the fifth in the Actions and Insights series under the auspices of AIB-MENA, explores how various start-up models, whether private sector-led, private sector-incubated, or more traditional non-profit ventures, have built a business model and, in some cases, succeeded in scaling and internationalizing their businesses. Cases here reflect the challenges that social entrepreneurs face, both personal and organizational, and take a variety of perspectives, such as entrepreneurial motivation, ‘doing good well’, empowerment, funding, governance, impact measurement, and understanding the challenges and opportunities that go with scaling.

Public policy is a set of principles used to uphold the well-being of citizens. These principles are often unwritten and form the basis of social laws. This book focuses on 'unlocking the black box of UAE Public Policy'. It presents several cases that give an insight into the UAE leadership, the areas the government has prioritized and how these fold into UAE Vision 2021. Viewpoints on provoking topics by thought leaders like Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi, UAE Cabinet Member and UAE Minister of State for Tolerance; Fadi Ghandour, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of Aramex and Managing Partner, Wamda Capital and Christopher M. Schroeder, Venture Investor and Author.Under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai has grown from a tiny village by a creek to a globally recognized megapolis. Through these cases, you will get a glimpse of strategic decisions taken by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and how these decisions taken by the UAE Government have led to the creation of one of the most connected cities and competitive countries in the world.The book is divided into six sections: Government leadership, national competitive advantage, social and sustainable development, national human capital development, entrepreneurship and government systems. The UAE 2021 Vision aims for UAE to be one of the top 10 countries in the world. The future focus for UAE is to increase competitiveness in foreign markets especially looking at trade, entrepreneurship and focusing on seven high-value adding innovation sectors like renewable energy, transport, education, health, technology, water, and space. One of the challenges this resource-rich country has had is moving away from oil dependency. By 2016, oil formed less than 30% of the UAE GDP, and the plan is to have a 20% dependency by 2021. The book covers a variety of cases that address many of these issues.This book can be used to teach public policy and help international industry leaders and academics understand the context of UAE and the role it plays in the global arena. This project is a series by the Academy of International Business - MENA chapter, supported by the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government, Dubai.For more information on AIB- MENA, go to:http://www.uowdubai.ac.ae/aib

Governments of today need to be future-oriented. The seismic disruptions in demographics, economic and political upheavals, increasing fragmentation between the haves and have-nots, leap-frog societal transformations, climate change, and technological innovations will be critical drivers impacting the context of how governments operate and function. Public sector organizations must be able to deliver services that are affordable, efficient and effective and can compete with the private sector. Governments must not only work towards safeguarding their people and resources, but take a more extensive look at the increasingly inter-connected world. They must work with the private sector and embrace the citizen who is demanding to be included in the decision-making process.  This volume presents a series of case studies of countries, including the UAE, Germany, Estonia, Iceland, Finland, Chile and China, and their experiments with policy under five broad themes: government foresight, future orientation, regulatory reforms & strategy, the happiness agenda and the sharing economy. Each case, written by a leading expert in the field, presents the challenges and opportunities of the future and will provide key insights that will support policy makers, strategists and decision makers in mapping out their plans for tomorrow.

As the use of AI becomes more and more ubiquitous in companies around the world, managers charged with taking key decisions require resources to enable them to evaluate new projects effectively. The business case for AI projects is not necessarily clear cut and part of the reason for this is the lack of understanding on key decision criteria. AI touches on many ethical concepts - data privacy, validity and more importantly, its potential misuse. AI is often being used to replace human decision-making and there is often no real understanding of the implications of this. This book provides a detailed primer for practitioners without a deep technological background. It guides the reader through the basic issues and offers advice on ‘how to take decisions’. There is a dearth of such books currently available and this book aspires to fill a growing niche.