ABSTRACT
GEMS is currently the largest private education management company in the world, with annual revenues exceeding USD $500 million (Sharif 2013). In its home country of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the GEMS corporation currently educates approximately one-quarter of all private school students in Dubai (Shabandri 2013), and globally nearly 100,000 children attend its schools (GEMS MEA Sukuk Limited 2013). e company runs over 70 schools in countries such as the UAE, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Kenya, and India (GEMS Education 2014a) and employs over 11,000 teachers, administrators, and support sta worldwide (GEMS Education 2014b; Ernst and Young 2014). e Founder and Managing Director of GEMS Sunny Varkey embraces a philosophy of “you get what you pay for,” embodied by his statement above of providing economy, business, and rst-class education (Rai 2014). Hayden and ompson (2013) have therefore compared the GEMS enterprise to a hotel chain for the way it oers various levels of service at dierent price points.
