CLEARTAG ACQUISITION | ELECTRONIC EXCHANGE | HISTORY OF WASTE No.198 www.executive-magazine.com January 2016 CHANGE CHANCE CLIMATE LET’S MAKE IT OUR BUSINESS Lebanon: LL 10,000 - Bahrain: BD2 - Egypt: EP20 - Jordan: JD5 - Iraq: ID6000 - Kuwait: KD2 - Oman: OR2 - Qatar: QR20 - Saudi Arabia: SR20 - Syria: SP200 - UAE: Drhm20 - Morocco: Drhm30 - Tunisia: TD5.5 - Tunisia: Drhm30 - Morocco: Drhm20 - UAE: SP200 - Syria: SR20 Arabia: - Saudi - Qatar: QR20 OR2 KD2 - Oman: ID6000 - Kuwait: JD5 - Iraq: LL 10,000 - Bahrain: - Egypt: BD2 EP20 - Jordan: Lebanon: 12 NOVEMBER 2012 LEB_8953_BMW_X5_X6_Executive_20x28cm_ENG.indd 1 12/23/2015 10:40 AM JANUARY 2016 Editorial RESOLUTIONS FOR 2016 he magazine proposes a few resolutions for 2016. And we’re starting the year by practicing them. First, we call on the best and brightest Lebanese minds to seize the potentially lucrative opportunities that the Paris Agreement on climate change will afford. This is why we’ve put climate change on our cover. Our second, and most important, resolution is that 2016 will be our year of business ethics. There’s no better place to Tstart than with the worst disaster this country has seen in recent memory: the (mis)handling of waste management. We take an in-depth look at a local company given far more opportunity than international best practice suggests it should have had. We’re setting the stage for a year in which we will take a very hard look at business ethics in this law-ignoring country. Milton Friedman wrote that a company’s top brass — be they a board of directors or a small number of executives — has only one objective: make more profit year-on-year for the benefit of the company’s most important stakeholder, its shareholders. Of course, the company must obey the law, conduct business in a responsible manner and treat its employees respectfully and well. As we publish our months-long investigation into Averda, parent company of waste managers Sukleen and Sukomi, what we’ve found is plenty of government malpractice. Yet for every rumor we chased, we could not substantiate illegal behavior on the company’s part. Even the notion that the company only received contracts because of its founder’s religion or alleged ties to the late Rafik Hariri is undermined by the fact that each time Sukleen or Sukomi were given a no-bid contract, the entire cabinet approved. The conspiracy to divide the pie is one all of our politicians are in on. Our system is so broken and the laws and regulations we have on the books are so poorly enforced that it looks perfectly legal for a company to be given not only a monopoly on waste management, but years and years of taxpayer-financed work without having bid on a contract in more than 20 years. In fact, the Shura Council in 2001 gave Averda’s contracting in Lebanon a legal seal of approval. It’s bewildering. No-bid contracts might be legal in Lebanon, but they are neither reflective of international best practice nor of the Lebanon we want to see. The summer of 2015 saw protests we hoped would achieve more. We published a manifesto to help inform this country’s citizens because we’ve spent nearly 20 years pointing out what’s wrong in Lebanon and what needs to be done to right it. In 2016, you can expect us to name and shame both corporates and government officials. And we won’t be using Lebanese standards. Like the manifesto, our coverage this year is meant to help activists and pressure groups know who is doing wrong and how and what can be done better. We want an inclusive economic system, and the most effective way to get there is by promoting best in class corporate behavior. We’re on a mission, so keep reading. Yasser Akkaoui Editor-in-chief www.executive-magazine.com | JANUARY 2016 1 Contents JANUARY 2016 #198 On the cover 14 Last Month 6 Entrepreneurship 40 6 December’s essential 40 Smart Money Talks headlines 42 Bireme Ad (ventures) Leaders 10 Retail 44 10 Climate change: A 44 Q&A: Tae Hun Ryu, Climate change talks in Paris have broken new 5,000-year opportunity LG Levant general ground and nations are now taking on responsibility 11 Waste management: manager at the local level. Opportunites in Lebanon look Recycling history promising, but they require political will. LIFE 48 Cover Story: 14 Climate change 48 Beirut Chants 50 UBay: Zen indeed 14 A chance for Lebanon 52 The craftsmanship 18 L’accord de Paris of Rolex 20 Comment: One drop 54 Silver screen’s at a time golden age Economics & Policy 22 Business Essentials 56 22 Dissecting a waste ECONOMICS & POLICY 22 empire 56 Company bulletin Government oversight played a large role in Averda’s waste monopoly 26 Globalization of 60 Conferences & resettlement exhibitions 30 Comment: Renewed dynamism Last Word 64 Companies 64 A problem of & Strategies 32 domestication 32 Spinning content from every virtual angle 36 Q&A: Patrick RETAIL 44 Alexandre, Air France LG Electronics is refining their target market in the Levant 2 JANUARY 2016 | www.executive-magazine.com HOME COMES FIRST There's plenty in life that requires your attention, but nothing is more important than having a roof over your head. 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HOUSING LOAN / o *Subject to study and approval of the application. 01 03 79 13 32 Short N : 1332 Call Center: 1272 [email protected] www.eblf.com Executiv E Responsible director Antoine Chidiac Managing director & editor-in-chief Yasser Akkaoui Editor-at-large Thomas Schellen Real estate & industry editor Matt Nash Hospitality & tourism editor Nabila Rahhal Economics & policy editor Jeremy Arbid Deputy editor Livia Bergmeijer Executive Life editor Olga Habre Photojournalist Greg Demarque (Additional photos from AFP, Getty, Maryam Amstrad and Reuters) Art direction Tanya Salem of Smart Box sarl Illustrations Joseph Kaï Contributors Riad al Khouri, Mona Sukkarieh, Jessica Saade Operations manager Lucy Moussa Web development manager Magali Hardan Sales & marketing manager Graziella Nassar Aouad Marketing representative Karine Ayoub Mattar Online advertising Michele Hobeika Public relations manager Maguy Ghorayeb Subscriptions manager Roula Emanuel Subscriptions Gladys Najjar Distribution manager Katia Massoud Accountant Fadi Bechara Published by NewsMedia sal Sehnaoui Center, 7th floor, Ashrafieh, Beirut Tel/fax: 01/611-696 [email protected] Contact us – We need your input. Please contact us with any suggestions or comments at: www.executive-magazine.com or [email protected] For subscriptions – [email protected] © 2015 All rights reserved. Copying for purposes other than personal or internal reference use without express written permission from NewsMedia sal is prohibited. 4 JANUARY 2016 | www.executive-magazine.com DAZZLING COMFORT New full lie-flat Business seat: discover the comfort of a fully horizontal bed and exceptional service. EXECUTIVEAIRFRANCE.COM.LB 2012-2013 5 The New Business Cabin is available on AF565 flight, departure from Beirut at 04.00pm LAST MONTH > A new study Circular 331 in 2013. The to invest in repairing matter. Hezbollah fired four released by the World Bank event highlighted the key basic services and retaliatory rockets from and Lebanon’s Central steps Lebanon needs to take stimulate employment southern Lebanon into Administration of Statistics in order to maintain strong in Lebanon’s poorest Israel. shows that one in four foundations for a sustainable areas, thus aiding both Lebanese live in poverty, ecosystem. refugees and local residents, > On December 21, despite the country being who have themselves new rounds of cross- classified as an “upper > Lebanese Prime suffered from the refugee party talks began in middle income” economy. Minister Tammam Salam, crisis, and encouraging Lebanon to discuss With a population of around the United Nations Special cohesion between the two the implementation of 4 million, this means that 1 Coordinator for Lebanon populations. The plan will government functions, as million Lebanese are living Sigrid Kaag and Deputy provide funding assistance well as the establishment on insufficient income to UN Special Coordinator to 300,000 of Lebanon’s of a new electoral law. The cover the basic costs of Philippe Lazzarini launched most vulnerable citizens. meeting, initiated by former rent, food and health care. a plan at the Grand Serail Prime Minister Saad Hariri, According to the study, to ask the international > On December 20 took place at Speaker Nabih the threshold determining community for $2.1 an Israeli aerial strike Berri’s residence in Ayn Al poverty is an income of $266 billion to help finance killed Hezbollah leader Tineh and included heads per month. The results of Lebanon’s Crisis Samir Kuntar in a of major parliamentary the study do not include Response Plan (LCRP) Damascus suburb from blocs who set out to find a the vast majority of where he was allegedly solution to the country’s Syrian and Palestinian involved in planning 19-month presidential refugees living in Lebanon, strikes against the occupied impasse. The need to fill since the data was collected Golan Heights. Kuntar the presidency is becoming between 2011 and 2012 was the longest serving all the more important since when only 100,000 Syrian Lebanese prisoner in Israeli the vacuum has largely refugees were registered jails. He was released in prevented Parliament in Lebanon, and no data a negotiated prisoner and the government was collected from the swap with Hezbollah in from continuing work as UNRWA-administered 2008 alongside four other usual. Hariri’s initiative Palestinian refugee camps. Lebanese prisoners. Kuntar to nominate Marada Lebanese Prime Minister The study found that 36 Tammam Salam spent 29 years imprisoned Movement leader Suleiman to 38 percent of residents in Israel after being Frangieh has not been in North Lebanon and the for 2016.