Al-Ektesadia Al-Gadida
§ Talal Abu Ghazaleh: “From the greenmarket of Beirut, I reached to the acme of accounting profession”.
Talal Abu Ghazaleh, the founder & chairman of the biggest company for Intellectual Property Rights valuation worldwide:
Selected Honors
The International Lifetime Achievement Award, Dubai, UAE, 2008.
IP Hall of Fame Inductee, IP Hall of Fame Academy, Chicago, USA, 2007.
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Canisius College, New York, USA, 1988.
Decoration of the Republic of Tunisia, 1985.
Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, France, 1985.
Coat of Arms of the Kuwaiti Association of Accountants and Auditors, 1983.
Gold Mercury International Award, Bahrain, 1978.
Decoration of Independence of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Jordan 1967.
Interview by Muna Al-Rayyouni
He is fond of work, though he is already seventy two years of age; he has been working 14 hours daily for half a century and still does the same until now. He recalled with us beautiful memories which engraved unforgettable deep traces in his life. How could he forget such memories which configured the characteristics of his personality! He was born in Java of Palestine in 1938. He realized the meaning of refuge in 1948 and moved to Lebanon when he was a 10-year old kid. He remembered some of his struggle stories which were crowned with success until he became able to make all persons affiliated with him proud of his name. He is Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, the founder & chairman of one of the major Arab companies which provides professional services in the fields of accounting, management consultations, technology transfer, training, education, Intellectual Property, legal services, information technology, translation, publication and distribution.
Initially, what is meant by Intellectual Property and how is it significant?
Intellectual Property is the most precious value presently available in this world: It has a real price, for example, if we talk about a major company such as Coca Cola, we find that 97% of the company’s value represents its Intellectual Property and only 3% represents other assets. Intellectual Property is everything created by human intellect of inventions that have practical value, whether in the field of industry (inventions), literary and artistic property or trademarks and trade names. For example, "a trademark" becomes of a value proportionate to the importance of a company over time, because it is correlated with a certain product or company. Therefore, when we evaluate (as a valuation company) any company, it will be based on its material and moral assets, and the latter is called Intellectual Property.
How is Intellectual Property valuated?
Intellectual Property valuation, per se, is an integrated science. Thus, we are the only company in the Arab region that is specialized in Intellectual Property valuation, because Abu-Ghazaleh Group is the biggest company in this field worldwide. We also crowned this system on the basis of international standards, such that the Intellectual Property value of any company, whether inventions, trademark, trade name or other rights, is valued on the basis of many considerations. If I want to sell this name or that trademark or invention, I ask how much the price is, what other standards are related to revenues obtained from this right in Intellectual Property, what the value of similar sold companies is and how the value of this property was calculated. Thus, there are several methods and standards to valuate Intellectual Property.
You have just mentioned that your company is the biggest of kind in this field worldwide, do you have the qualified staff for this & how did your company become the biggest worldwide?
Thanks God, we have the best staff in the world. Intellectual Property companies in all over the world are composed of either engineers or lawyers; in U.S.A. they more often composed of lawyers, while in Germany they are made up of expert engineers. However, our company combines both lawyers and engineers. Our system includes experienced engineers, lawyers, economists and technicians. Most importantly, we have transformed this company from just an Intellectual Property company into an information technology company, i.e. we run our activity through information technology and communication, and this is the secret of our success and supremacy. Our client in any part of the world can have an access to his personal file via the Internet to review it and know about the progress of his transaction. The client needs not to contact us by way of correspondences which could take long months. This advanced information technology is the only of its kind in the world to run business via computer.
A Lovely Story
Why has Intellectual Property become one of your priorities?
He answered while smiling; I will tell you a lovely story. It was just one year after graduation from the university, I never had, by then, met any high ranking people. One day, while I was sitting in my office, I had a call from the manager of bureau of his highness late Sheikh Jabir Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah and asked me to see his highness immediately, because he was angry. By then, His highness was Head of the Financial Administration and there were no ministries. I entered the office of his highness the prince who was handsome, well mannered and who made a good reception of me. He asked me “how long have you been in Kuwait?”
I said: “Just one year”.
He said: “Then you do not know customs and traditions of Kuwait!”
I said: ‘I am here to learn, God’s willing, I will learn with the help of your directives.”
He said: “Did you sue me?”
I said: “I dare not to do so, for what? And how can I allow myself to do that?
Then he gave me a file. I had a look at it and I found that he was right when I read the following “Your highness prince Jaber Al-Hhmed Al-Sabah: You are required to attend the court, in your capacity as Head of Finance Department, regarding the lawsuit filed against you by Talal Tawfiq Abu-Ghazaleh, in his capacity as an agent for the trademark of seven up company. Then I quickly realized the matter.
I said “Let me explain something, your highness!
“The problem that this notice came to you in your capacity as the Head of Finance Department, and the law states that if I could not convince the trademarks registrar to get the trademark registered on my behalf, I have the right to file a lawsuit so as to let the court decide upon the matter, and the trademarks registrar refused to get the trademark registered because the two words comprising the trademark (seven & up) are meaningful. Thus, no companies are allowed to own them. I tried to convince him that I did not want the word “up” nor the word “seven” and that I wanted to register a mark in a specific shape and colors for this product, while assigning the right of the words “seven” & “up”, but he refused. So, I had no alternative but to go to the court. Then his highness the prince- a wise, generous and well mannered man- said “That’s logic, but you could have talked to the undersecretary or the general director of finance department or even to me in case of further complications, we in Kuwait do not like to go to the court, because we are one family and we want to resolve our problems through mutual understanding and logic”.
I said while laughing: “I wish I could have reached you, just to shake hands with you, because I am still learning. So, please let me go to the court to drop the case and to go then to my office to smash all seven up bottles, and to write my will in which I warn my kids and grandsons not to drink the seven up ever since”.
His highness laughed showing satisfaction and good manners, to the extent that those moments were one of the best in my life because I was honored by this great meeting. Then he asked what Intellectual Property is, and I found this great man had the wish to know and analyze everything. Since that day and because I met for the first time the most important person in my life, Intellectual Property had become of a special importance for me. It came to my knowledge during that meeting that his highness could have asked to put off this case by telephone, but this is impossible in such a country where justice is "the base for reign", where respect and care are presented to people by the ruler and where there is a keen interest to reach facts and sort out problems.
What are the most important crimes of Intellectual Property which had an impact on you?
The most annoying thing happened to me was an incident when I woke up one day in the morning– being in the profession of Intellectual Property protection for 20 years- I saw a picture of dogs with the following writing underneath on a website “Do not rush ! Get your dog to Talal Abu-Ghazaleh to have its hair cut for free”. So, suddenly I was changed from rights protector to a dog barber, and I never worked as a barber or even with dogs. Being in the profession and because of understanding this matter, I realized that this man had used what is so called “cyber squatting”, i.e. he registered the name of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh on the website so as to force me to pay him in order to give up the name. Then I filed a complaint to the conflict settlement center on the Internet. I was lucky that the people in charge of the Internet by then had realized that the name of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh is famous and ordered to cancel it. Though, the website of dogs pictures remained for almost two months until it was cancelled.
How did a Palestinian refugee deprived of food become interested in the classical music and how did you get the first rank during this suffering?
I deliver lectures to the students at the university under the name of the “blessing of suffering”. People think it is suffering. When I was a kid of 10 years of age, I used to go to school on foot from one village to another for four hour daily round trip. I am 72 years of age now and I thank God for the good health which is caused by exercising that I was forced to do, and I thought it was suffering. There was one scholarship for one Palestinian refugee, I had to be the first among all refugees and I was the first indeed. I had the first rank because I had to be the first and that is the blessing of suffering. My father was old and I had to study and work at the same time. I worked in a music shop, not to hear music, but to get an income for living. I used to run musical records in the shop so as to let people passing by hear it and get into the shop to buy. I used to run them to reassure customers about quality. Over time, I found that I hear and enjoy classical music and opera until the owner of the shop told me one day that I had to quit the work because his son would replace me. I asked him to let me work for free so as to enjoy the music, so he did.
Ramzi Yissi
What is the secret for your sponsorship of world musical parties?
I have a close relationship with a famous pianist called Ramzi Yissi. For the past thirty years, we presented musical parties instead of supper parties to our friends. We performed several parties at the world level, in which Salsburg parties were the most important, which is the most important musical forum in the world. We also presented parties in the British Opera in London which was attended by the Queen of England.
For the first time, I brought the Maestroof Egyptian Opera “Salim Sahab’ who led the band of British Opera, and Ramzi Yissi played the most beautiful classical music on the piano.
How many jobs did you practice until you have become Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, the owner and chairman of a group of various companies in international accounting, translation, Intellectual Property protection and consultancy?
When I was in the secondary school, I worked in teaching and translation of books that made me master both Arabic & English. When I attended the American University, I was exempted from studying Arabic and English languages because my academic level was higher than my colleagues at the university. I also worked in recording entries in books in the greenmarket of Beirut from 5 a.m., where trucks loaded with vegetables and fruit used to come from villages to distribute the same to buyers. So, from this point my interest in accounting starts. Later on, I became the Chairman of the Arab Society of Accountants. I was the first Arab to be elected as the Chairman of the International Federation of Accountants -New York. I am considered the first and last Arab elected for such a post. So, I have reached to the acme of accounting profession worldwide as a result of recording boxes of vegetables and fruit, plus almighty God’s help.
What is your vision for the present and future of your group of companies?
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization is a group of independent companies with common vision. We believe in having no fundamental barriers which prevent the Arab world of reaching the same level of social & economic success like the other nations of the developed world. We also have the capability to contribute to facing challenges being witnessed in our region. We believe as well that we can establish a framework for an Arab renaissance through construction and development of professional, educational and technological infrastructure and improving legal environment.
Abu-Ghazaleh Cambridge
Presently, what are the most important agreements that you have signed in Kuwait?
We have signed an agreement with Kuwait University, which is important because it is the factory that makes men. The agreement provides for accrediting the university as a center for teaching computer basics of “Abu-Ghazaleh Cambridge” program. There is an agreement between our company and Cambridge University to teach computer and Internet usages which we translated into Arabic and run it jointly with Cambridge University. We give a certificate bearing the name “Abu-Ghazaleh Cambridge’ for computer and IT skills. By the way, this is considered the first partnership of its kind between British Cambridge University and a private corporation, because British universities do not sign partnership agreements with private companies, but Cambridge University found that our level and method meet the required standards. We also represent Cambridge in all Arab countries. Certificates are issued and signed by Talal Abu-Ghazaleh & Cambridge. This program will be applied in Kuwait University.
What is the most important achievement you have presented in the current time?
We thank God a lot because we have recently achieved a new model for Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Society.
This society is free for students in Amman University in Jordan, where they can use Internet services, have an access to all libraries of the world as references of study, get trained on computer uses and benefit from teaching languages plus using a hall for meetings.
By establishing this Society, I present a gift to all students in every country. My next step will be in Cairo University, then refugee camps which are considered a duty and a priority for me, and a kind of fulfilling duty towards the community.
What does Kuwait mean for Talal Abu Ghazaleh?
I am totally biased to Kuwait, because it is where I started my business in 1960 and lived for 30 years until the occupation, then I moved to Cairo. I never loved any country before Kuwait, because I do not know Palestine very well and I was just a student in Lebanon. I had most beautiful days of my life in Kuwait: Maximum happiness, abundance and care. I also had certain privileges and love which were unobtainable by any Kuwaiti. I launched my business from Kuwait to the whole world until I have owned 70 branches worldwide.
Did you ever try to get the Kuwaiti citizenship?
Citizenship for me is a feeling and allegiance. There are some people who have the passports, but they destroy their country and damage its interests, though they are citizens. There were some officials who were prepared and willing to give me the citizenship and I wished that, but I did not find a reason to get it, because I am really a Kuwaiti by mind and heart.