PM — UK un-Trussed

It’s a big week next week: The Madbouly government’s highly-anticipated economic conference kicks off on Sunday and runs through Tuesday. The gathering will see government officials, experts, and economists come together with the aim of creating a roadmap for the country’s economic future.

The conference has three main tracks: Macroeconomic policies; empowering the private sector and improving the business environment; and formulating a future roadmap for priority sectors.

A technical committee is already looking into some 300 proposals for policies and measures to increase the flexibility and competitiveness of the Egyptian economy. They’re being filtered and passed on to the relevant authorities. At the end of the three days, a closing session will be held to draw attention to the conference’s outcomes.

Want to weigh in throughout the conference? Download the app. The Madbouly government has released the economic conference app for Android and iOS to give participants the chance to follow the proceedings and share their input.

*** READ OUR (RELATIVELY) SIMPLE FIVE-STEP RECIPE policymakers can follow to turn the economy around by capturing a once-in-a-century chance to turn Egypt into a magnet for FDI and make us into an export powerhouse in the process.

Driving the news agenda internationally as we slide into the weekend is the escalating political chaos in the UK: Just an hour ago, Liz Truss officially became the shortest-serving prime minister in British political history, tendering her resignation after barely a month in office amid rebellion in her party. Truss and her ex-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng made the most of their six weeks running the country, with their neoliberalism-on-steroids package of tax cuts and deregulation nearly blowing up the UK financial system, punching a multi-bn GBP hole in the country’s public finances, and consigning the ruling Conservative Party to almost certain electoral defeat in 2024. A new PM is expected to be appointed by the party in the coming week, with ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak the bookies’ favorite. (BBC | AP | Reuters | FT | Bloomberg | WSJ | Sky News | CNBC)

The JPY is getting a lot of attention in the global business press after it slipped a further 0.1% against the greenback today, falling past JPY 150 for the first time since 1990. A USD 20 bn intervention by the central bank last month has failed to stem the currency’s slide, which has seen it lose more than 23% of its value against the greenback YTD. Markets are now expecting more action from the BOJ in the coming days. (Reuters | FT | Bloomberg)

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Qatar could invest as much as USD 2.5 bn in state-held firms: Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is reportedly in advanced talks to buy up 20% of Vodafone Egypt from minority shareholder Telecom Egypt, as well as other state-held stakes in unlisted companies, in transactions worth up to USD 2.5 bn.
• valU makes another acquisition: EFG Hermes’ BNPL platform, valU, has acquired an undisclosed minority stake in fintech Kiwe.
• Our 3 GW electricity linkup with Saudi is going live in mid-2025: Trial operations for the USD 1.8 bn Egypt-Saudi electricity interconnection are set to begin in May 2025 with an official operational launch set for later in the same year.

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It’s your last chance to take our EV survey: Are you an ex-petrolhead shopping around for your first electric vehicle? EV-curious and wondering what all the fuss is about? Or are you not ready to say goodbye to that sweet smell of benzene as you wait at the gas station?

We want to hear from you: We’re taking the pulse on how the nation feels about Egypt’s nascent EV transition. Take a few minutes to fill out our short survey. We’ll be back soon with the results.

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???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Egypt and the UAE will host a two-day conference marking 50 years of bilateral ties. The gathering will take place next Wednesday-Friday, 26-28 October and is being produced in association with the two governments. Day one is an economic forum featuring ministers, senior officials and business leaders, while the following day will feature a cultural forum, according to a statement.

The Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) will launch a promotional campaign next week to drum up interest in investing there, SCZone head Walid Gamal El Din said, according to a statement. The pre-COP campaign will launch domestically next Sunday, 23 October, before the international campaign kicks off on Monday, 24 October.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER– Expect temperatures to peak at 29°C during the day over the weekend and to hit a low of 18-19°C at night, according to our favorite weather app.

Bruce Willis stars in a real-life version of Face/Off: The recent Bruce Willis deepfake saga has sparked a debate on how actors can protect their identities to avoid exploitation, Wired writes. Deepfake tech can replace a person’s face in a video so seamlessly that most viewers are unable to spot the fake from the real. And that’s exactly what happened with Willis, whose digital version appeared in a Russian ad despite the actor refuting an agreement with the deepfake company behind his digital twin. Some believe that the emergence of the technology concerns all those in the entertainment industry who could be exploited in their contracts due to their ignorance about AI.

Surely you have the right to the use of your own face? It’s complicated. In the US, people can appeal to various state laws to prevent people from appropriating their identities, though the degree of protection varies from state to state. Some have rules safeguarding the “right of publicity” — prohibiting people from using others' identities without their permission — though it's not entirely clear whether this applies to deepfakes. “A private individual or company that simply creates a deepfake of a person, without more, does not obviously run afoul of the right of publicity,” says David A. Simon, a research fellow at Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School. And in some situations, the free speech protection of the First Amendment could get in the way of actors trying to protect their digital rights.

It doesn’t help that some actors are on board with this: Small-time actors who’d never be able to make it big in the industry see the AI tech as a chance for profit. “While many never become ‘famous,’ their names, voices, images or likenesses still attain commercial value,” a Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) official says.

Could climate change trigger a new pandemic? Genetic examination of the largest Arctic freshwater lake in the world suggests that a new viral infection could occur because of melting glaciers, according to research from the University of Ottawa picked up by the Guardian. The findings suggest that frozen viruses that have remained trapped in glaciers and permafrost for mns of years could re-enter circulation as ice continues to melt.

Farfetched? Look no further than Siberia which suffered an outbreak of anthrax in 2016 which was thought to have been caused by a diseased reindeer carcass that had thawed with the melting of permafrost.

Known unknowns: It’s not exactly clear how many dormant viruses may lie in wait, how many of them are unknown or whether they could trigger mass infections, though the researchers say they plan to answer the second of these points in the coming months. A separate study by a team from Ohio State University identified genetic material from 33 viruses — 28 of which are new — in ice samples taken from the Tibetan plateau in China,

Employees speaking up and quitting in droves is becoming the new normal in the US, according to a recent CNBC report. High monthly turnover rates make the Great Resignation — a recent trend where workers are quitting their jobs voluntarily en masse — seem less unusual. Almost 4 mn people, or 3% of the workforce, have resigned every month since April 2021, the report says. That’s a lot of disgruntled employees.

What’s driving this trend? Experts suggest that “work has always been dysfunctional, our tolerance for it just got lower,” according to the report. Covid-era remote work has given employees hope for how things may look different than before. In 2019, the World Health Organization officially declared work burnout an occupational danger. “There were people who felt like the world of work wasn’t sustainable in 2019, and then the pandemic happened,” says Anthony Klotz, an organizational psychologist. “I don’t know if there’s more dysfunction so much as, in many cases, we’re saying: No, we’ve seen a better path, or we have this opportunity right now, to make the world of work better,” he says. People are no longer going above and beyond when it doesn't suit them at work, as seen by the rise of Quiet Quitting, a controversial replacement for resignations.

The solution? Give employees respect and recognition, says Gallup CEO Jon Clifton. According to a Gallup poll, while 20% of workers worldwide are thriving, 19% are “downright miserable,” says Clifton. He argues the greatest approach to keep people from “running” from work is to establish better work environments that meet workers’ basic but unmet needs: clear job objectives, suitable resources for doing their best work, opportunities to learn and improve, and managers who help them through it all.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
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A must-watch movie based on a true story: Molly’s Game is based on Molly Bloom’s 2014 memoir, an Olympic-class skier who created the world’s most exclusive under-ground poker empire, hosting VIPs, business tycoons, and the Aviator spiel. The film follows Bloom as her business gets exposed owing to involvement of the Italian mafia, leading to her becoming an FBI target. The 2017 American biographical crime drama starred Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba, and was directed by Aaron Sorkin. Stream it on Shahid.

⚽Gameweek 12 of the English Premier League wraps up tonight: Fulham hosts Aston Villa at 8:30pm, while Leicester City plays against Leeds at 9:15pm.

Can Barcelona catch up to Real Madrid? Barça takes on Villarreal at 9 pm, hoping to close the gap with Real Madrid at the top of the Spanish League, which grew to 6 points yesterday. Almeria faces Girona at 7pm, and Osasuna faces Espanyol at 8pm.

Arsenal plays its rescheduled European League match against PSV Eindhoven at 7pm.

In the Egyptian League:

Al Mokawloon v Ghazl El Mahalla (3pm)

Haras El Hudood v Future (5pm)

Al Dakhiliya v Tala’ei El Geish (7pm)

On Saturday-

Premier League:

Nottingham Forest v Liverpool (1:30pm)

Everton v Crystal Palace (4pm)

Manchester City v Brighton (4pm)

Chelsea v Manchester United (6:30pm)

La Liga:

Rayo Vallecano v Cadiz (2pm)

Valladolid v Real Sociedad (4:15pm)

Valencia v Real Mallorca (6:30pm)

Real Madrid v Sevilla (9pm)

The picks from Serie A and the Bundesliga:

Hoffenheim v Bayern Munich (3:30pm)

Borussia Dortmund v Stuttgart (3:30pm)

Milan v Monza (6pm)

Fiorentina v Inter Milan (8:45pm)

????EAT THIS TONIGHT-

Are you craving Thai food this weekend? Bua Khao in Maadi is hands down one of the best Thai food restaurants we’ve been to. Having been around for quite a long time, it has hosted celebrities in the golden era of the Egyptian film industry, including Omar El Sherif — you will see a picture of him with the founders when you walk into the restaurant. The restaurant remains famous among Egyptians and many expats. Apart from the delicious selection of soups, salad, curries, sauteed, noodles, and rice dishes, Bao Khao has an entire section on their menu dedicated to their specialities under “something you must try.” They also have great hospitality and the waiters are well-trained and welcoming, making your experience even more memorable.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-
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Warm up your vocal cords: It's Karaoke Night at Room New Cairo tonight at 8pm.

Okasha takes the stage at Jazz Bar at the Kempinski Nile Hotel tonight for a night of blues, jazz and soul from 9:30pm.

Mohab Kaddah is performing tonight at Room Art Space Garden City at 9pm, sharing a personal anecdote or common experience to give context to each song.

Alaa Waardi and Rock Band Hayajan take the stage at El Sawy Culturewheel on Friday night at 7pm.

The AUC Alumni Folklore Group is back after a three-year hiatus with Reviving the Art Vol. II at AUC Tahrir at 7pm on Saturday night.

Finding the humor in relationship woes: The one topic standup comedy show starts at 9pm on Saturday night at Room Art Space New Cairo and features this lineup of comedians: Ahmed Maged, Mohamed Maher, Aliaa Essameldin, Ahmed Magdy, Ahmed Hassan and Badr Nour.

???? EARS TO THE GROUND-

WHAT’S NEXT- Acquired is all about tech companies, how they’re created, and how they get acquired. In each episode, hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal take a deep dive into the history and story of a different company. They explore how it was founded, what made it successful, and what challenges it faced along the way. They frequently interview successful entrepreneurs (like Zoom CEO Eric Yuan) and investors (like Katherine Boyle of Andreessen Horowitz) to discuss the tactics that turn great startups into even greater businesses. The podcast is essential listening for anyone who wants to learn more about the tech industry, whether you're a startup founder looking to sell your company or an investor interested in the latest acquisition trends.

Start with the Pinterest episode (listen, runtime 1:41:02), which examines the world's largest non-social networking site. Ten years after being heralded as the "new Facebook" by investors and the media, Pinterest has proven to be anything but.

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Bill Gates’ favorite author, Vaclav Smil’s book Numbers Don't Lie is his most accessible book to-date and packs a lot of punch. Its 71 chapters cover a wide range of topics from science to history, each taking a seemingly random statistic and putting it into a greater context. In one of the chapters he explains that in 1926, the average French person drank 136 liters of wine but by 2020, that figure had fallen to a third of what it was, at 40 liters. He then goes on to question if the drastic decrease in drinks is owed to French people’s increased health consciousness or to the myriad of ways people can distract themselves that have emerged over the last century.

Edita’s board of directors has approved plans to buy back 3.8% of its shares as the company looks to support its share price, it said in disclosures to the EGX (pdf and pdf) yesterday. The company will repurchase 28 mn shares over the next three months, taking its buyback program to 4.8%, having already repurchased 1% of its shares during August and September. The company did not disclose how much it plans to spend on the repurchases.

The buybacks seem to be doing the trick: Since announcing the program at the beginning of August, Edita’s share price has rebounded almost 20% to reach highs not seen since 2020. Shares fell 1.0% to EGP 9.62 during today’s trading session.

The EGX30 rose 1.2% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.18 bn (14.7% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 14.0% YTD.

In the green: Fawry (+5.6%), Ezz Steel (+4.4%) and e-Finance (+3.5%).

In the red: Telecom Egypt (-1.5%), QNB-Alahly (-1.4%) and Talaat Moustafa Holding (-0.5%).

Have you been promoted into incompetence yet? Hierarchies are all around us and they often work in strange (and not so effective) ways. In the workplace — where many of us are most familiar with hierarchy — a decades-old theory known as the Peter Principle suggests that unfettered promotions within organizations are destined to leave most firms lost and mismanaged over the long run.

The ABCs of the Peter Principle: First coined in the 1960s by University of Southern California Professor Laurence J. Peter, the Peter Principle suggests that at the root of all managerial incompetence is a general tendency among firms to constantly promote high-performing workers into roles they aren’t suited for or unprepared to take on. The logical endpoint to this phenomenon, Peter suggested, is that every single worker at an organization ends up occupying a role they are incompetent at fullfilling. “In any hierarchy an employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence and that’s where he stays,” says Peter in an interview recorded back in 1974 (shoutout to the longevity of the BBC archive: watch, runtime 6:47).

It may have started life as a tongue-in-cheek observation, but the Peter Principle begs a few essential questions managers and workers can benefit from entertaining, including: Who is actually best suited for the specific demands of a new role? And if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

The problem is that being good at one job doesn’t necessarily make you good at the one ‘above’ it: To Peter, who co-authored his 1969 book on the principle along with Raymond Hull, the issue isn’t that incompetence is pervasive among the workforce. It’s that people will continue to move up the ranks as long as they excel at what they do — but then reach a ceiling where they can no longer ascend the professional ladder and even struggle to meet the basic demands of their new role.

Doing a job ≠ managing somebody else doing it: The skills and traits required to expertly fulfill a specific task are not the same as the skills required to effectively manage others (watch, runtime 7:09). On the flipside, some people might rank high in managerial ability even when they have no idea how to do the tasks carried out by the people who work under them.

If you feel a bit too senior right now — it’s (probably) not your fault. Another reason is of course due to inadequate training. Companies can sometimes better prepare recently promoted employees by offering more extensive training, rather than assuming they are naturally fit for the job because they were able to perform well in the past.

There are of course some holes in this model: The Peter Principle paints a very simplistic and perhaps dated picture of businesses and the workforce — which have become much more adaptive and complex in the intervening 50 years. People are more likely to change jobs than they were before and often need a wider skillset to land a job today. Crucially, we are all continuously learning and improving on the job — a point that might have been overlooked by Peter.

Discrimination is notably absent from this theory: For women and minority groups, who have long faced disadvantages when it comes to pay and the prospects of promotion, the Peter Principle can ring awfully hollow.

Something to consider if you run a business: Promotion is not the only reward. Instead of promoting top performers, companies could opt to offer incentives or additional pay for those excelling at their responsibilities. Companies who employ additional pay as their preferred method of reward are also the ones most likely to promote managers who go on to perform the best, according to a 2018 study (pdf) examining the Peter Principle among 214 sales firms.

Or consider dual career ladders: Firms could also follow Microsoft’s lead in creating two distinct promotional mechanisms that decouple responsibility from pay. At Microsoft, programmers can follow a technical career track with increasing tiers of financial reward and prestige, while leaders can follow a distinct yet equally rewarding track specifically designed to recognize managerial performance.