砂之椅子

July Edition: In our July edition we are presenting the leading Consumer facing brands of the Top 100 Companies of the Muslim World.  Given the ever more importance of branding in helping companies differentiate and command premium (Interbrand values - Coca Cola's brand value to be $65 bill), we are presenting this updated benchmark.  Consumer brands from Turkey dominate this list, eg Arcelik, Vestel, Beko (Electronics) and Ulker (Confectionery). 

The reason for our focus on this?  To date none of the indigenous brands from Muslim majority countries have every made it to the Top 100 Global brand list (published by Interbrand) We hope this benchmark plays a small part in changing this fact.  There's already much positive momentum as the last two years seven of the DS100 companies have completely re-branded themselves.  We will soon also be covering some of the emerging brands in addition to the one's from the Top 100 Companies.

In our Innovation channel, Guest contributor Athar Mian, provides tremendous expert insights on Mobile technology innovation opportunities and the role of Islamic Finance.  Its specific focus on opportunities within Muslim world provides much direction for entrepreneurs in this pace to consider.  We are also proud to highlight this issue the exceptional achievement of Jordan originated Hikma Pharmaceutical, that through quality global R&D is becoming a global player.

In our continuing focus on the Muslim Lifestyle space we look at one of the most prominent global Muslim children's book publisher - India based, Goodword Books.

Finally, in Finance, given the growing focus on the agriculture sector globally, we look at how Agri-businessess in Malaysia are exploring creative financing.   From Malaysia we also present a profile of Ms. Tengku Rozidar, CEO of '1901 Hotdog' outlets on success in franchising. 

We hope you will find this issue valuable.  Look forward to your feedback.