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The Mowgli Foundation
Annual Review and Accounts
Financial period June 1 - Dec 31 2011
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The Mowgli Foundation - Annual Review June 1 - Dec 31 2011
“Meeting new business people from different sectors and different
backgrounds, at my Mowgli training workshops in 2011, taught me
a lot. Now, I have 2 mentees who I am very proud of. The Mowgli
experience provides unique opportunities for both mentors and
mentees: I believe that the time invested with both my mentees was
fruitful not just for them but for me as well. I consider that mentoring
is a pillar, if not one of the most important pillars in improving
entrepreneurship in Jordan.”
Nidal Bitar
CEO of SCOPI / Board Member of our partner, Young Entrepreneurs Association Jordan
Mowgli Foundation (UK/Head Office)
The 3rd Floor
Bush House
72 Prince Street
Bristol
BS1 4QD, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1179 292 540
Email: info@mowgli.org.uk
2
Mowgli Jordan
Care of: Young Entrepreneurs Association
King Abdullah ll Street, King Hussein Business Park
Bldg.10 First Floor
PO Box 1652
Amman 11821, Jordan
Tel: +962 6 580 5379
Fax: +962 6 580 5375
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Nada Jreissati Daher:
“It was a great
experience, the
matching was great.
The tools and hints my
mentor gave me were
mind blowing. I hope
that next year I will
be on the other side
helping entrepreneurs.”
Mentee, Lebanon programme,
November 2011
Welcome to the
Mowgli Foundation’s
Annual Report 2011
2011 was a year of growth, development, and exciting new
opportunities for Mowgli in the Middle East and North Africa region
(MENA). I am proud to introduce our 2011 Report and share with our
supporters how far we have come in building a strong programme of
mentoring for entrepreneurs.
Many initiatives in MENA have made progress in 2011, despite the
region’s economic challenges and political turmoil. We launched 8
new mentoring programmes this year, supporting 81 entrepreneurs, in
addition to continuing our ongoing programmes of support in Lebanon,
Jordan and Syria. Mowgli also engaged with key decision makers in
the region: the World Economic Forum’s Special Meeting on Economic
Growth & Job Creation in the Arab World was a key event for us. We
have continued to focus on developing the strong partnerships we
have across MENA. The huge challenge we now face is the same one
that was the initial reason for Mowgli’s inception: how can we, and our
partners, support and re-generate local economies, create employment,
and strengthen enterprising eco-systems across MENA? Our answer, of
course, is training mentors and matching them with entrepreneurs who
have potential. We have achieved some fantastic milestones in 2011,
which will move us closer to our vision of placing mentoring at the heart
of leadership development and encouraging local business communities
to build their own enterprise support networks.
One such milestone is that in 2011 we were successful in securing
the support of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office for four
mentoring programmes in Jordan. We would like to extend our thanks to
the British Embassy in Jordan, and to all our Jordanian supporters, and
hope that we can continue this successful partnership in the future. The
Body Shop Foundation was another generous donor to our cause, and
we would like to thank them for supporting a group of Lebanese women
through the Mowgli programme in 2011. We would like to also thank
key partners in each country - Berytech in Lebanon, the Syrian Young
Entrepreneur’s Association, and the Young Entrepreneur’s Association in
Jordan for their on-going support.
The achievements of the inspirational entrepreneurs and mentors we
work with at Mowgli are, however, the most important highlight of this
Report. I would like to invite you to read on and hear some of their
success stories in their own words.
I am looking forward to another year where we help more entrepreneurs
across MENA fulfil their potential through mentoring.
Andrew Fischer
Chair of Mowgli Foundation
www.mowgli.org.uk
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The Mowgli Foundation - Annual Review June 1 - Dec 31 2011
“Investing in the development
of future entrepreneurial
leaders is the key to
supporting sustainable
economic growth in MENA.”
Bahaa Dababneh, Mentor:
Although in the past I was doing some
coaching and mentoring as part of my work
at the Bank, when I attended Mowgli‘s
fantastic training program in Jordan, I
discovered that what I was doing was right
but needed some tuning. I believe that my
mentee Mohammed’s current success and
progress reflects my support and my help.
He and I have become close friends in a
short period of time, and I believe in his
business too- I try and promote it wherever
I go. But I have also felt a personal impact
from the mentoring experience: I feel that I
can communicate my opinions better to my
colleagues and to people in my personal life,
and I started to change my way of thinking
and to take more mature decisions. I also feel
ready to be more positive, to treat negative
happenings with a positive approach; and
I feel ready to play a part in my community
and share my stories with others.
4
Tony Bury - Founder
and Trustee, Mowgli
Foundation
Mowgli provides mentors who can make a real impact and these
mentors also fill some of the gaps that exist, in supporting at a personal
level the leaders of tomorrow - entrepreneurs. In the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) region, despite a year of political and economic
uncertainty, the results you see in these pages from all our mentors
and mentees show that mentoring has a real impact on the capacity
of individuals to succeed. Importantly, our mentees have created jobs,
and will continue to create jobs. This is the reason I founded Mowgli:
after doing business in MENA countries for so many years, one cannot
remain unaware of the need that these small businesses have for advice
and support, or of the massive challenge of unemployment, particularly
amongst young people. Our mentors also experience immense
satisfaction from mentoring, as well as taking important learning and
leadership skills back to their working life. Our hope is that mentoring
helps to build human capital within businesses across the region.
There is now great opportunity in the MENA region to continue our
work, and put entrepreneurial leadership at the heart of the community
development and economic growth that we and our partners are
working hard to support. But entrepreneurial leadership, we believe at
Mowgli, will only have a lasting impact with a key ingredient included: a
‘mentoring culture’, driven by local needs at the community level which
gives successful people an opportunity to ‘pay it forward’. This is why
Mowgli’s informal motto is ‘to serve is to lead.’
The Mowgli Foundation is making plans now to expand and roll out
our work across new countries in the MENA region, with a number
of exceptional partners who share our vision of a healthy eco-system
of support for the entrepreneurs they work with on the ground. We
have now begun training local leaders to deliver our programmes in
Arabic and French, a major step towards sustainability of Mowgli’s
programmes, and we will be launching in a number of new countries in
the next few months. There is still plenty of work to be done in 2012,
however. If you are reading this in any one of the MENA countries,
I can guarantee there are entrepreneurs who need mentoring in a
community near you. We need companies, individual business leaders
and public sector bodies at every level of enterprise support and within
the business community to help Mowgli and our mentors to support
entrepreneurs to make a difference. Please do get in touch with us and
find out how you can help.
My congratulations to all the exceptional Mowgli entrepreneurs who
have achieved so much this year, and to the inspirational mentors who
volunteered their time to help them succeed - without you, Mowgli’s
work simply would not be possible. On behalf of the Mowgli team,
thank you all for your dedication and drive, and we look forward to
working with you again in 2012.
Tony Bury
Founder and Trustee, Mowgli Foundation
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Infographic created by Mowgli Graduate -
Feb 2011 WonderEight.com
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The Mowgli Foundation - Annual Review June 1 - Dec 31 2011
Our Impact
We would ask readers to bear in mind the challenges faced by those who were running small businesses in the Arab world, during the
widespread upheaval which occurred in 2011. Mowgli Syria mentees were often unable to continue their relationships past 6 months
due to being cut off from communications, meaning we cannot collect data from them - and indeed many have sadly been forced to
leave both the country and their business. These issues also affected operational aspects of running our programmes in 2010-11.
6
2011. We launched a further two programmes in Jordan
and the UK in January 2012.
entrepreneurs in the Middle East since 2009, and 19 UK
entrepreneurs since 2010.
Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the UK.
within the 8 countries, including Beirut, Ramallah, Amman,
Jericho, Irbid, Damascus, Aleppo, Aqaba, Karak, Tunis,
Programmes that ended in 2011:
the programme and 88% felt the programme
was beneficial to them and their business.
for at least six months. 69% of relationships
continued with regular contact for one year.
the mentee feels they have moved from being a
‘mentee’ to an equal or a peer.
12 months will continue keeping in touch with
their mentor on an unofficial basis.
Gender balance on Mowgli
programmes
Since the first programme in March 2009.
57/175 entrepreneurs have been female (32%)
We are working to improve the number of
women who work with us. In 2010 34% of
Mowgli entrepreneurs were female and in
2011 the figure was 35%.
Istanbul, Cairo, and in the UK from the Greater
Manchester area and the South West.
entrepreneurs who completed their year.
in 2010 (and has been completed) created 10 jobs. On
average each mentee on 2010 programmes created at
least 1.5 jobs.
created 118 jobs between them in MENA and the UK.
Ramzi Ghurani:
“Mowgli has simply
changed my life and
helped give me the focus
and clarity to succeed.”
Mowgli Jordan Mentee, Oct 2011
2010
2009
23% 34%
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Mentee Case Study
- Kashef Ahmad
Kashef Ahmad is the Founder of the Taxi
Academy, a training centre which helps
people train as taxi or private hire car drivers.
Having helped around 1000 trainees into
self-employment, the Taxi Academy has
received recognition for its business model
from HSBC Startup Stars and the Smarta
100 Awards for Innovation. He was matched
with Andrea, his mentor, in 2010.
www.mowgli.org.uk
“When I applied for the Mowgli programme, I was quite cynical
about what I might get out of it - I’ve been in business 20
years, and I know my industry inside out. But in other ways
I was actually desperate for some sort of outside help, to
release the pressure of all the ideas, risks and decisions you’re
considering constantly as a business owner. I quickly lost my
cynical approach on the matching weekend. The whole thing
was unexpectedly inspirational - we (the mentors and mentees)
became close quickly, almost like a family.
Andrea, my mentor, helped me over the year mainly because
of how much empathy she has; she really took time to listen.
When I had crucial decisions to make, I would ring her and
talk; It was such a relief, to bounce decisions off someone first.
Andrea was always there for me, especially last year when I
had some personal issues to deal with alongside work. I feel
that her support helped me to keep working on my business-
not getting lost in it.
Now, I consider that I’m a mentor to others around me,
including many of the drivers we train. When you’re in business
a long time, you get used to the repeated challenges and
knockbacks that come with it- but, it can still be hard to stay
motivated. Mentoring helps with that motivation. Even though
I make little changes to my big vision every day, I now have a
clear idea of what I’m aiming for with my business.”
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The Mowgli Foundation - Annual Review June 1 - Dec 31 2011
8
63%
in 2011
73%
entrepreneurs
62%
Progress towards localising
our mentoring programs
increasing from
0% in 2009 and
13% in 2010
*progress towards localising our mentoring programs
intend to become
a mentor to
someone else in
their community
*embedding a mentoring culture
were referred
by our local
partners and
incubators
*collaborating with local partners
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Financial stats (period July to December 2011)
Income
82%
£314,993 donations
18%
£67,879 sponsorship
5%
92%
Mentoring programmes
www.mowgli.org.uk
£44,072
received as
Benefits in Kind
3%
Governance
costs
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The Mowgli Foundation - Annual Review June 1 - Dec 31 2011
“Now I have begun to help
others in the same way Chris
helped me, like supporting
other entrepreneurs as well
as my employees.”
Berytech, Mowgli Lebanon
Partner:
Lebanon needs entrepreneurs to contribute to
the economy, limit ‘brain drain’, and create jobs.
Entrepreneurship stimulates innovation, as well
as creating success stories and inspirational
role models within Lebanese communities.
Berytech entrepreneurs who work with Mowgli
mentors receive a number of benefits, including
getting clarity on their vision moving forward; an
unbiased and structured relationship; and they
also expand their network and gain valuable
contacts. It’s important for entrepreneurs to
have someone to bounce ideas off, and to
encourage them to be more systematic and
rigorous about their business growth plans.
In the future, Berytech and Mowgli hope to
work together to develop more Mentor/Mentee
experiences, as well as recruiting more mentors
directly from the local community.”
10
Mowgli Mentee Case
Study - Ala Suleiman
Having graduated from the Jordan University of Science and Technology,
Ala Suleiman, a Mowgli Jordan mentee and one of Oasis 500’s first
companies, went on to work in several companies before opening his
own business: Masmoo3, the first specialized Digital Arabic Audio Books
Production house in the Arab world. Ala joined a Mowgli programme in
May 2011 and was matched with a mentor from the UK, Chris Rawlins.
“When I started (with Mowgli) I thought I wouldn’t need a mentor. On
a personal level I thought I could handle the business on my own, I
thought I was competent and self-motivated. But after being faced with
challenges, market problems, investments… I couldn’t find anyone who
believed in me as Chris believed in me. I found a great friend and a wise
specialist in the business who kept me motivated during the hard times.
We now have our own offices and have built our own studio, and have
had to employ more staff. With more than 30 Arabic Audiobooks and 30
Audio stories available for download worldwide, we are developing new
and improved products, and we have launched a new website
(www.masmoo3.com). Now I have begun to help others in the same
way Chris helped me, like supporting other entrepreneurs as well as my
employees. I now try to motivate them and give advice when they need
support.
I was wrong when I thought that mentorship was not for me - I can feel the
results and I know that part of what motivated me was Chris’ mentorship.”
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Mohammed (centre) at a Mowgli mentoring workshop
“Being a mentor has helped
me too, since ultimately as
business people we are all
facing the same difficulties.”
Impact on Mentors
“The experience reinforced
my purpose as a coach,
mentor and business owner.”
Mentor, Ghada El Kurd, Jordan 2011
Mowgli Mentor Case
Study - Mohammad
Masadeh
www.mowgli.org.uk
Mohammad Masadeh holds a BA degree in Business Administration and
Operations Research from Eastern Michigan University. With over 20 years
of experience in consulting mainly in entrepreneurship and enterprise
development in Jordan and across the Middle East, Mohammed now serves
as a Mowgli facilitator and will promote and develop our Mowgli Jordan
mentoring programmes.
“The difference between regular mentoring and Mowgli’s mentoring are that
other types of mentoring are usually done at a much faster pace. Mentors
need to take more time, to ensure the entrepreneur reaches sustainability.
Being a mentor has helped me too, since ultimately as business people we
are all facing the same difficulties. For example, my two mentees were trying
to raise capital for their businesses, as I was also trying to raise capital for my
business the past year- so working with them gave me a better view of what I
was really doing in my business. Also, you feel very good about yourself when
you are giving, and when you help the person in front of you succeed!
We face many problems in Jordan. One of our biggest problems is
unemployment, and the solution is ultimately creating small and medium
enterprises. We need to develop these companies, and the only way to
develop them is through programmes like Mowgli.”
95%
Mowgli programmes to others
87%
to mentor others in their
79%
developed active listening,
empathy and understanding
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11

Learn more about what Mowgli does
Visit our website www.mowgli.org.uk and read our regularly updated blog posts
Register for Mowgli’s quarterly newsletter at www.mowgli.org.uk/about-mowgli/mowgli-newsletter
Follow us on Facebook at
Follow us on Twitter on @mowglitweets
Join our LinkedIn Group at www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1840711
Watch our videos on our Youtube channel -
Join the Mowgli family
– Are you an entrepreneur looking for a mentor to help you grow your business? If so, find out
how you can join the growing network of Mowgli Entrepreneurs at
http://mowgli.org.uk/about-mowgli/become-a-mowgli-entrepreneur
Become a Mowgli Mentor – Are you an experienced professional looking to develop your leadership capability and support an
entrepreneur to grow their business? If so, find out how you can join the growing network of Mowgli Mentors at
http://mowgli.org.uk/about-mowgli/become-a-mowgli-mentor
Become a Mowgli Sponsor – Are you an individual or corporation who wishes to participate in and/or help change the trend that
only 20-25% of start up enterprises succeed, as a result of mentoring? If so, email us at to find out how you
can support entrepreneurs grow their businesses on our year-long Mowgli Mentoring Experience (MME) programs
Become a Mowgli Partner – Are you an organisation that is already established within your country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem
and is looking to broaden your service offering to include mentorship? If so why not become a Mowgli empowered partner?
Contact us at
Become a Mowgli Volunteer – Find out how you can volunteer and support entrepreneurship, mentorship and leadership
development by emailing us at
Contact us
Mowgli Foundation (UK/Head Office)
The 3rd Floor
Bush House
72 Prince Street
Bristol
BS1 4QD, UK
Tel: +44 (0)117 929 2540
Email: info@mowgli.org.uk
Mowgli Jordan
Care of: Young Entrepreneurs Association
King Abdullah ll Street, King Hussein Business Park
Bldg.10 First Floor
PO Box 1652
Amman 11821, Jordan
Tel: +962 6 580 5379
Fax: +962 6 580 5375
Registered address: 1 The Sanctuary, Westminster, London SW1P 3JT
A Company Limited by Guarantee No. 06587752 (Charity Reg No. 1127087)
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