By Anthon Garcia
Diversity has many faces — gender, socioeconomic, racial, and cultural, among others. In industries like health, tech, and finance, female entrepreneurs from different ethnic backgrounds are proving diversity can be a boon for business. For them, it’s an opportunity to leverage multiple advantages, including having a helping hand whenever diversity presents its challenges.
There’s no denying that diversity is a critical ingredient in an organisation’s success, financially speaking or otherwise. Several studies back this up, and many pieces of literature reveal that gender parity is driving better business outcomes.
However, diversity is more than just about gender. It comes in many forms — including ethnic and cultural.
Diversity wins
A McKinsey report found that among the companies included in its study, the top 25% of ethnically and culturally diverse entities were 36% more profitable than the bottom 25%. This trend is in parallel to how businesses with over 30% women executives are more likely to outperform those with only 10 to 30%.
Separately, gender and ethnic diversity prove to be beneficial for organisations. How much more if both forms of diversity exist in one workplace?
Globally, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has become a hub where women founders from different ethnic backgrounds are finding success in establishing game-changing businesses in their respective industries.
Case in point: the UAE-based Nabta Health, a leading healthtech company in the region founded by Sophie Smith and Dr. Mussaad Al-Razouki.
In an interview, Sophie breaks down the sheer diversity of their organisation, “One of my parents is half-Austrian, and one is half-French, so I technically have Austrian, French, and British ethnicity. My founding investor is a Dutch Kuwaiti. Our executive team is of Lebanese, Iraqi, Indian, and Kazakh origin. The Board of Directors (Emirati, Pakistani, Syrian, British) and core team (Egyptian, Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Filipino, Syrian, Kenyan) are more diverse — not only in terms of ethnicity but in terms of age, gender, socioeconomic status, and ability.”
“Our diversity as a team is perhaps our greatest strength, affording us an unparalleled breadth of vision when it comes to addressing the gaps and opportunities in women’s health in the Middle East,” she adds.
Nabta Health is also a pioneering player in femtech, a sector that leverages technology to address women-specific healthcare issues. And like its founder Sophie, many more women in the region are entering interracial partnerships to leave their own mark in the business world.
One such example of how diversity in leadership is not just a social or moral imperative but a business advantage is Queen Mode.
Multicultural experiences
Queen Mode is a platform that connects women entrepreneurs, executives, and founders with resources, mentorship, and community, all within the Web3 space. The visionary founders behind them are Hajar Ouhsine from Morocco and Ghizlan Guenez from Algeria.
Hajar’s entrepreneurial journey took off when she joined the founding team of Jumia, one of Africa’s largest retailers, in 2012. She later moved to Egypt and Nigeria, gaining exposure to different cultures in the region.
“These experiences gave me a deep understanding of what it takes to scale businesses in diverse, challenging environments. After several years with Jumia, I decided to pursue an MBA in France to further broaden my knowledge, and I later managed one of the largest luxury marketplaces in the Middle East. These diverse regional experiences — from Morocco to Egypt, Nigeria, France, and then the UAE — have shaped my approach to operating Queen Mode,” she tells in an interview for The European Business Review.
Meanwhile, Ghizlan is someone who grew up in a home of various nationalities across different countries — from her home country of Algeria to Lebanon to the UAE. For her, diversity was ingrained from the start, well before her career as an entrepreneur began.
“I have realised early on the richness that one experiences when exposed to a myriad of nationalities and backgrounds and how that melting pot truly enriches our thoughts, ideas, and lives, be it in school or at work. My first real job was in a private equity firm that grew to boast over 300 employees from over 30 nationalities,” Ghizlan notes.
Her first entrepreneurial venture, also with Oushine, was The Modist. The retail giant boasted a workforce of over 25 nationalities, and more than 70% were women — proof of their belief in the power of inclusivity and cross-cultural collaboration.
A shared vision is what’s important
When the two decided to launch Queen Mode, they knew one thing for certain: Their shared experiences of navigating male-dominated industries would be a strong drive to create a more inclusive future, especially for women in tech and entrepreneurship.
“This is why Queen Mode was born — to create an inclusive, safe, and empowering network where women executives, entrepreneurs, founders, and bankers can collaborate, share experiences, and grow together. My career path has taught me the importance of building scalable systems while ensuring that everyone, regardless of background or experience level, has a seat at the table,” Hajar says.
Today, Queen Mode has become a prominent non-fungible token (NFT) community in MENA and beyond. One of their projects is creating NFT designs that represent diverse women, including Berber tribes from the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, African Queens from Nigeria or Côte d’Ivoire, and women from Latin America and India.
For them, representation is crucial because it opens up opportunities for those who may have felt marginalised or left out. They were intentional in ensuring that the company not only serves women but also highlights the wealth of cultural diversity within the global business and digital spheres.
Working with — not overturning — cultural norms
By having such a purposeful common goal, even women entrepreneurs with different racial backgrounds can make a change. And it also helps that the region they’re in is making an effort to rewrite the narrative and bring diversity to the forefront of this change.
Providing insight into how diversity is a winning recipe in business, Sophie remarks, “Cultural norms differ from country to country, community to community. The diversity of the team at Nabta Health has helped us meet the region and its women where they are. We are not attempting to overturn or fly in the face of cultural norms. Instead, we are working with them.”
Eighteen months ago, their leadership team completed an exercise to map their strengths, key drivers, and personality traits. They used a combination of Hogan and CliftonStrengths psychometric assessments.
“The objective of the exercise was to demonstrate to the team that yes, we are different, but look — our differences are our greatest strength. All of us had different top five strengths. But between us, we had pretty much all of them covered. That is what diversity brings: breadth, strength, and insight.”
Looking past ethnic backgrounds — or any other form of diversity for that matter — business boils down to harnessing collective strengths and setting sights on the same goal.
Borrowing Oushine’s words, “In the end, the real challenge isn’t cultural differences, but finding someone you can work with who shares the same dedication, vision, and values. That’s what makes a strong leadership team.”
