ASPIRE - An Entrepreneur and Lifestyle Magazine - Aug-Sept 2021

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AUG-SEP 2021 ISSUE 11 aspiredubai.ae — AED 30.00

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Samiha Al Balooshi

WH AT M AK ES HER AN AWARD WINNING HR LE ADER

Mona Tajarbi

INFLUENCER WHO TURNED ENTREPRENEUR IN A ‘BLINK ’

ALIA AL NABOODA FOUNDER OF FI AFI A PL AY ARE A AND C AFÉ ON THE BUSINES S OF PL AY

LEND ME YOUR E ARS

The Most Popular Podcasts to tune in to SPECI AL FE ATURE

Customization of merchandize the next big thing

Parenting is a pleasurable experience, but it becomes especially challenging if you as a parent are faced with issues in your own life, such as work & financial issues, separation or divorce, family tension, health issues and societal pressures. These personal issues you face rubs off on your kids and affects their upbringing. Raising a child is no mean task and you would have faced issues with your child like ● Temper Tantrums ● Fears and Nightmares ● Stubornness ● Shyness ● Aggression ● Concentration in Academics ● Eating disorders / Fussiness ● Nail Biting / Bed Wetting ● Socially unacceptable behaviours ● Bullying / Being bullied

brings to you

The Proven Parent Solution For Kids

SleepTalk Process ®

● 45 years of success history ● Practiced worldwide ● No medication required ● Easy to implement and practice ● For ages between 0-12 years ● Ethical and 100% safe Book an Appointment: +971 565 77 4075 or Email: shagufta@changewithrenae.com Website: www.changewithrenae.com

www.aspiredubai.ae

Inside

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FEMME POWER

The UAE has taken giant strides in setting up and maintaining gender equality. Read the story, an ever-weaving saga, of the women of this proud nation

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Bulletin Bytes Positive and interesting news from around the world!

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Lend me your ears

The Business of Behaviors

Podcasts and audio-blogging have come into their own turning into a movement few of us can ignore

A look at the new marketing dimension called the Internet of Behaviors and its contribution to businesses understanding their customers 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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INSIDE 16

Opinion

Everyone has one. Here is our point of view!

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Events

Regional happenings on the horizon

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The Business of Play

Meet Alia Al Nabooda, mother of four and founder of Fiafia Play area and Café on creating an enterprise with a difference

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Success in a Blink

The mutli-faceted influencer, entrepreneur, parent and Ambassador of Hope, Mona Tajarbi, about her life, journey and mission

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The People’s Person Samiha Al Balooshi, HR Director at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray on what makes her an award-winning leader

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Put your stamp on it Is personalization and customization of branded merchandise catching up as a mushrooming trend?

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The Upstart Sell

Selling is a critical aspect of any business, and these simple ideas and reminders will make it easier

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Put on your best face Here’s why it’s super important to have a profile image that reflects your best professional self

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Never walk alone

As a new entrepreneur how fast or how well you get on?

Creating the right network is the key

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The Humanitarian Hotelier From environment to humankind, Roxana Jaffer is a hotelier who is making a real difference to the world around her

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Business without borders

Summer Love

A jet-setting entrepreneurtraveler, David Tee shows us there’s much pleasure to be found in business travels

As business heats up, Ayaat Attar tells you how to stay cool while donning the perfect look that takes you effortlessly from workplace to funplace

PUBLISHER

Sumeet Gupta CHIEF EDITOR

Shagufta Patel CONSULTING EDITOR

Sangeetha Shinde Tee HONORARY EDITOR

Rizwan Bhutta

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The Gut Affair

Aspire+

Let’s talk about the importance of the oftenignored gut microbiota to keep our insides working their best

We bring you a range of know-how each month that will keep you effortlessly in the loop beyond business

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Auto

Make It So

ASPIRE pick of the month - RAV4 Hybrid Limited 2021

Find out the unwritten rule in our job descriptions that we need to embrace beyond our salaries and designations

JUNIOR EDITORIAL MANAGER:

Qiraat Attar EDITORIAL

Ayaat Attar, Misbaah Mansuri, Bindu Gopal Rao EDITORIAL INTERN

Clarilda Sharon, Sreeram Vishvanath, Arundhati Surendran PRODUCTION, MARKETING & SALES

The Purple Stroke M: +971 508 498820 « OUR CONTRIBUTORS »

David Tee

Serial entrepreneur, Speaker and Author

Phil Bedford Business Growth Coach

Alan Bell Director & Photographer

1601, Corporate Business Hub, Burj Gate, Dubai, United Arab Emirates W: thepurplestroke.com Neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the persmission of The Purple Stroke FZE LLC. All the information carried herein is checked and verified to the best of our knowledge and abilities. In matters of views expressed and opinions held, it is solely that of the authors and contributors themselves. The editorial or publisher or ASPIRE cannot be held responsible for unintended errors and oversights if any.

Email: hello@aspiredubai.ae 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Editor's note Marhaban Habibti!

‘I

, Being Born a Woman and Distressed’ is a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay written in 1923. In summary, the 14 lines of the poem describe the emotional turmoil that relationships can evoke in a woman and how she can walk away, unpossessed from the frenzy of it.

What gets me, however, is the title - the association of being born a woman and “distressed”, as a given de-facto. And honest to God truth is that we did buy into it for eons on end.

Being born a ‘girl’ in the highly patriarchal land of India, I have had my fair share of ‘distressing moments’ as a young girl and later as a grown-up woman too.

The distress continued till I, like the woman in Millay’s sonnet, decided to walk away from the frenzy of it all.

The saga of a woman has found its place in countless paintings, poems, articles, and works of fiction. One that instantly comes to mind is John Gray’s book ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’. Metaphorically and quite humorously, it draws out the fact that men and women are different, each unique and each special in their

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own gifted ways. A fact that somewhere was left behind in the societal system that we built over the millenniums.

Not anymore. Not here in the UAE, at least, where building up women to own and shine in their gifted potential has been as important as building the dazzling scrapers on a deserted landscape.

To honor Emirati Womens’ Day celebrated on 28th August each year, we bring you three Emirati women who are a testimony of the changing norms and times. Each one sparkling in their unique ways.

Alia Al Nabooda, stakeholder at Khalifa Juma Al Nabooda group of companies and founder of FiaFia play area and café; Mona Tajarbi, one of the first social media influencer from Ras-Al-Khaimah and an entrepreneur with her beauty product line ‘Blink’; and Samiha Al Balooshi, award-winning HR Director at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray who has also launched her brand of perfume.

Femme Power is the new trend that the world is witnessing now.

Speaking of trends, Podcasts have got us by our ears, and we bring you a list of the most

popular ones. Be it the Internet of Behaviors or the personalization of branded merchandise or the importance of a profile image and zoom etiquettes to networking and selling for an entrepreneur; from managing anxiety at the workplace to the joys and learning gathered on business travels; from our review on the RAV4 Hybrid Limited 2021 to our pick on you-tube videos, books, cloud-kitchen; from sprucing up your gut health to the clothes that could be a great summer choice to the one unwritten rule that makes life easy for all; there is a lot that you can get from this edition.

Coming back to our main protagonist, now that I live in this land that celebrates a day just in honor of their women, I tell myself a day is not too far when all the world will follow suit.

Marhaban Habibti! ✪

Bulletin

Raise a toast to the environment

Fleet of trucks to run on whiskey waste Whiskey has fueled many things over the years—rebellion, imagination, and some epic poetry, and now, it will potentially power the huge tractor-trailer trucks that deliver the Glenfiddich Scotch!

Scottish whiskey maker Glenfiddich is converting its delivery trucks to run on biogas as a part of the brand’s ‘closed loop’ sustainable initiative. The low-carbon, low-particulate biofuel is made from the waste of its whiskey distilling process. The parent company of Glenfiddich, William Grant & Sons, has developed a technology that converts the production waste from the whiskey distilleries into an Ultra-Low Carbon Fuel (ULCF), reducing emissions down to a minimum. According to Glenfiddich, the biogas helps cut CO2 emissions by over 95%, compared to the standard diesel-powered trucks. It also lessens harmful particulates and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 99%.

“It has taken more than a decade for Glenfiddich to become the first distillery to process 100% of its waste residues on its site, then to be the first to process those

residues into biogas fuels to power its trucks, and finally to be the first to install a biogas truck fueling station,” said Kirsty Dagnan, from the distillery’s Dufftown facility.

In addition to producing eco-friendly petrol, the distillery has also gone a step ahead and is using the leftover solids from the fuel processing as fertilizer to grow the main ingredient in whiskey – barley, which not only enriches the soil but also reduces CO2 emission to the atmosphere.

Williams Grant & Sons also look forward to expanding and scaling up the production of the biogas, where it can be used to power trucks of other companies as well.

As the concerns over global warming and environmental crises surge, more companies have started looking into sustainable alternatives. This fleet of low-carbon trucks powered by biomethane will cut the annual greenhouse gas emissions by up to 99%, which is equivalent to planting 4,000 trees every year. And every “Fueled by Glenfiddich” truck on the highway will displace up to 250 tons of CO2 every year.

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Bulletin

NV Capital aims at UAE investors for India’s new media and entertainment credit fund NV Capital, India’s first media and entertainment credit fund, plans to organize virtual roadshows to tap investors across the UAE, aimed at a whopping AED246 million ($67 million) corpus.

Founded by industry professionals and ex-bankers Nitin Menon and Vivek Menon, NV Capital is looking forward to raising funds from NRIs, HNIs, family offices, and financial institutions based out of the UAE to participate in this growth story.

The Indian diaspora is actively investing across various equity and debt instruments in India while exploring new alternative asset classes. NV Capital will also be the first credit fund focused on the ‘Media and Entertainment’ sector in India to invest in content creators, over-the-top platforms, and gaming and entertainment start-ups.

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Vivek Menon, NV Capital, says, “Given the rise of the UAE as a preferred destination for global Foreign Portfolio Investments (FPIs), it is eminent for the country to become the gateway of new-age sectoral funding to countries like India. At the same time, owing to cultural similarities, a large expat population of Indian origin, and sustained tie-ups with the Indian media and entertainment industry, the UAE remains a key market for garnering funds for pouring pioneering offering.”

The value of content has been growing greatly fused with the rapid rise of multiple OTT monetization platforms with a whooping 1500 movies being released a year, 180+ web series, and 80+ direct to OTT film launches in Hindi alone

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The investment in programming by media houses in OTT more than doubled from $260M in 2017 to $700M in 2020

since last year. NV Capital is contemplating establishing a new alternative asset class in the media & entertainment space concerning the rapid rise of Category II credit funds in India over the last few years.

Digital media & gaming are the other two subsegments continuing to grow rapidly, where online gaming singly is majorly expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 25%.

In the absence of institutional credit and with this demand for content, digital & gaming rising, NV Capital envisions to be pioneers in financing these verticals and establish new alternative asset classes.

Nitin Menon, the other Co-Founder & Managing Partner, NV Capital, said, “The last 10-15 years have witnessed me-

teoric growth in this alternative asset class with the support of ancillary revenue monetization platforms like broadcasting and music among others, and now the recent OTT phenomenon.

The investment in programming by media houses in OTT more than doubled from $260M in 2017 to $700M in 2020. Further, with the recent Amazon-MGM and the Warner-discovery deal, the war for content manufacturing is getting bigger globally and India would be a recipient of these content spends as the next big market.”

This trend highlights the tremendous opportunity in entertainment financing where content creators are always scarce of capital to scale up, thereby aiding in nurturing and monetizing the creative ecosystem.

Bulletin

UAE architect duo makes cement out of salt

" (from L) Kenichi Teramoto and Wael Al Awar

Photos: National Pavilion UAE

Breaking away from conventional building practices, a Dubai-based architect duo is looking at alternative cement, an idea conceived in the salt flat and made using a problematic waste material.

UAE’s mineral-rich Sabkha– salt flats that are part of the country’s wetlands have inspired Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto, principal architects at Waiwai, to create a cement made using brine that comes from the UAE’s desalination plants, which removes salt from seawater.

UAE, which is freshwater-scarce, has one of the largest desalination operations in the world. According to a 2019 UNbacked report, it produces roughly one-fifth of the world’s brine as a byproduct – approximately 28 million cubic meters a day. But discharging brine into the sea can damage and harm marine life. Earlier this year, a 3.4 million AED ($930,000) “Rethink Brine Challenge” was launched to find uses for the brine, which gained national focus.

Speaking on how the brine bricks could be used and how the technology already is in usable shape, Al Awar says, “Precast blocks could be used to construct a single-story building ‘tomorrow’.” He claims that magnesium-based cement can perform to the equivalent of Portland cement, which uses calcium carbonate as a raw ingredient and is the most commonly used cement in concrete manufacture. However, he and Teramoto hope to develop the product further for use in multi-story buildings as they are motivated to construct more sustainable and ecologically friendly architecture. “Given

$ UAE’s Sabkha–salt

Cement is currently the second most consumed substance globally

CO2 emissions in the world and global warming, and all these alarms that have been ringing for many years, it’s our duty and our responsibility to take action,” he says.

Cement is currently the second most consumed substance globally. Its production has a high environmental impact as it releases a weighty amount of carbon dioxide into the air and accounts for 8% of all greenhouse emissions. The modern architectural process aims to find a solution to the environmental problems brought on by the manufacture of concrete.

Professor John Provis, deputy head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at

the UK’s University of Sheffield, unaffiliated with the salt-based cement project, said it is “a really good idea,” adding that the brines are a pain to dispose of.

“They’re taking a local waste and doing cool things with it. I think it’s a nice synergy there.”

Kemal Celik, an assistant professor of civil and urban engineering at New York University, Abu Dhabi, and part of a team at the university’s AMBER Lab, extracted a magnesium compound from the liquid and used it to make the cement.

Establishing their magnesium cement’s carbon footprint is part of an ongoing lifecycle study, which he says will later be compared to ordinary Portland cement and other materials.

A large-scale structure made of environmentally friendly cement has been unveiled at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale and is open to public display at the UAE’s National Pavilion from May 22 to November 21. J 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Trending

E A L R Y EM S O NE D U R

Podcasts have come into their own and the audio-blogging of the past has turned into a revolutionary digital culture movement few of us can ignore. Qiraat Attar explores the trend that is essentially a conversation amongst millions

C

an you take a gander at how many podcasts exist today? More than 1 million unique podcasts and around 66 million podcast episodes online. Just for comparison, there are 500,000 movies in all of existence. This unassuming, audio-centric, conversational art form has transformed into a prime medium of expression of today’s times, a space for discussion, dissent, and dissemination of ideas. So, what gives? What has caused the meteoric rise of the podcast?

(Sound)waves from history

While they may feel millennial and in-season, podcasting originated in the 1980s, when it was called audio blogging (which is still catchy!). However, it took the release of the first iPod, making it easier to upload recorded files to portable audio devices, which popularized the art form. We can all thank journalist

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Ben Hammersley who artfully combined ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’ to coin ‘podcast’, which has since endured.

The ‘cool’ kid on the block

It is challenging to stand toe-to-toe with our more accepted visual-heavy entertainment, so how are podcasts thriving? Podcasts are unusual. You’ve got the famous and the virtually unknown, the orators and

the comics, the politicians and the miscreants, all vying for your attention with nothing but a good, interesting conversation. Topics can vary from a discussion about bugs and beetles, to country politics, from true crime to feminism. From the evangelists to the atheists, everyone’s got a podcast. They are not unlike the intellectual gatherings in the olden days where people flocked around to listen to philosophers, thinkers, poets. As humans, we thrive on conversation, on connection. Podcasts are a modern-day rendition of the fireside chats of yore, which fulfills this instinct.

2020 has been a defining year for entertainment. OTT content exploded, social media ‘influencers’ became commonplace, independent journalism proliferated, and science and medicine became tenets to live by.

Stuck at home, battling anxiety about the world and the uncertainty of our lives, our need for information catapulted into high gear. News channels were all riding the Covid news cycle, but people realized that having information is critical to stay on top of things. And no one said the mode of information had to be boring or monotonous. Enter - the new-fangled podcast.

The renewed popularity of podcasts can be explained by its 21st century-compatible concept. It is basically an on-demand radio show, combining the erstwhile audio format with the on-demand availability of streaming services.

The numbers speak for themselves. The Vulture article, ‘Yes, Podcast Listenership is still on the rise’, reveals that podcast listeners grew in number in the USA, now clocking in at 115 million Americans. The overall familiarity with the medium also grew from 75% the year before the pandemic to 78% during the period.

UAE sees 1.3 million regular podcast listeners, a 2019 report by Markettiers MENA revealed, and 9 out of 10 listeners report trusting them more than traditional media. In India, podcasts saw a 42 percent increase on popular audio streaming platforms after an initial decline during the pandemic in 2020. While global audience overall leans sharply in favour of the West, sample surveys have revealed a penchant for podcasts amongst South Koreans.

Our favorite auditory companions

UAE sees 1.3 million regular podcast listeners, a 2019 report by Markettiers MENA

Enough chit-chat already! We would be remiss if we didn’t talk about the most popular podcasts that dominate our streaming platforms.

The ‘Joe Rogan Experience’ has been called the most influential show on the internet. Started in 2009 by comedian Joe Rogan, it’s the world’s most popular rule-breakers being unabashedly themselves. Over the years, he’s had Elon Musk, Edward Snowden (on video), Robert Downey Jr, Mike Tyson, and even some polarising public figures on his show. He often reaps the rewards of the ‘shock factor’ that the episodes cause.

Episodes sometimes run into three hours, and guests 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Trending are loath to stick to a single topic, but no matter how many rules the show breaks, or maybe because of it, it remains enduring in today’s digital culture.

‘How I built this’ is like a catnip for budding entrepreneurs. Hosted by astute journalist Guy Raz, he talks with the creators and founders of our most renowned brands and companies - from ‘Instagram’ to ‘Kate Spade’ to avant-garde makeup ‘Bobbi Brown’.

The comfort and non-intrusiveness offered by his tone gets them to reveal their origin story, their motivations, and how those with unbridled passion are not interested in living that retirement life, constantly churning on a new idea.

Truth be told, there are so many podcasts that exploring them all is probably worth a podcast of its own! Love Data science? There’s Data Skeptic with Kyle Polich, talking analytics without hurry or extravagance, a true learner’s delight. Looking for feminist discourse around body neutrality and fatphobia? iWeigh with actress Jameela Jamil is wonderfully inclusive, hilarious, and eye-opening.

Obsessed by how brands compete? ‘Business Wars’ hosted by David Brown takes you into battles fought in boardrooms and stock markets. Looking to undergo a complete health transformation? ‘Hurdle’ by Emily

Truth be told, there are so many podcasts that exploring them all is probably worth a podcast of its own!

" Joe Rogan with Elon Musk on his show ‘Joe Rogan Experience’

# Guy Raz of ‘How I built this’ podcast

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Abbate has taken the journey, knows the pitfalls and provides heaps of motivation. And finally, for all those stumbling when building your business, ‘Build a Badass Business’ by Diane Sanfilippo talks how to navigate the obstacle course of entrepreneurship.

Podcasts aren’t just good or bad; some are worth checking out for novelty alone. Try these on for size - a songwriter duo from Liverpool chat with musicians about how tunes go from the brain to the stage in ‘Sodajerker on songwriting’, or a show on real-world science about issues we should really know more about in ‘Science v/s’. There are words to captivate you, no matter your obsession - be it bugs (‘Arthro-pod’ by Jonathan Larson), love (Anna Faris’ ‘Unqualified’) or just falling asleep (‘Sleepy’ by Otis Gray).

All these must make podcasts seem overwhelmingly western and you can’t be faulted for it. Often touted as verbose and opinionated, Americans especially have a long history of talk shows, news channels debates, sports analysis, celebrity interviews, and the like, so obviously, podcasts were going to find fertile ground in the western airspace. Well, some hosts are making sure the UAE is not one to be left behind.

Anas Bukhash’s show #ABTalks promises the ‘raw’ side of celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and influencers as human beings. There are some lesser-known gems too. Starting a business even on the home ground can be a tangle of exhaustion and red-tape, so how did two expats find their footing in UAE for business? Barry and Oskar talk about their journey and uncover stories of other hustlers on ‘Swenglanese’.

Confused about legal norms in UAE and not sure whom to ask? Lawyer Ahmed Odeh has got your back

on ‘Legal-ish’, where he answers questions posed to them via email, under total anonymity. And if you’re looking for a super-chill walk-through food and fine living culture in the UAE, ‘Afternoons with Helen Farmer’ is your siren song.

Statistics show that 35 percent of people who don’t listen to podcasts (despite being aware of them) say it’s because they don’t know how to locate one. Let us help you out! Google Podcasts, Apple Music, and Spotify have most of the best ones, and check listicles online to keep discovering cool and niche content.

A ‘get smart’ scheme

It is tough to beat the entertainment quotient of film and TV, and now OTT platforms - but that’s what’s great about podcasts - they’re not trying to. Podcasts, for the most part offer non-fiction, conversation-based entertainment, very different from the visual, story, and drama-driven forms of film and TV. They occupy a different niche, one growing bigger with each day. It is for this reason that podcasts are not for those bingeing entertainment as a lifestyle, but for those who want their entertainment to supplement an already highly-packed, productive lifestyle, and offer more than just a distraction. Over time, a layered development of the space has established it as a medium that focuses on learning and bright ideas, not mere frivolity. In fact, nearly three out of every four podcast consumers in the US say they enjoy tuning in to podcasts to learn new things (Statista, 2019).

Everyone has opinions, but some opinions are more sought-after than others. And it is the opinions and

Statistics show that 35 percent of people who don’t listen to podcasts (despite being aware of them) say it’s because they don’t know how to locate one ideas that matter that make for the most successful podcasts of our time. Of course, podcasts are so democratic that you needn’t bother with the gatekeeping of a broadcasting network or a production house; anyone with a mic and a computer can start a podcast.

But know that either being absolutely obsessed with a topic or a unique, radical point of view can actually make for riveting content, whether you’re looking to listen to a new podcast or kickstart one.

We’re in a vacuum of noise with mainstream media - blatant fear-mongering, tantalizing gossip, and a push for propaganda like never before. Podcasts may just be our way out if they can maintain the sanctity they’ve managed to achieve. Their niche topics and laudable speakers try to infuse clarity in place of confusion, discussions in place of arguments. Topics often discarded in mainstream media such as activism, hardcore science, or philosophy find a home here, stretching out and comfortably explored to their fullest. The length and nature allow these ideas to flourish, unencumbered by airtime and the pressure of advertisements. With clear routes for monetization and sponsorship, podcasting is becoming increasingly profitable, not just a mere hobby. As humans, telling each other stories is our evolutionary trump card, and we stay true to it. When all else has turned to dust, that will still endure. J 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Tech love

BRAVE NEW WORLD As the internet of things comes into its own and companies gain access to spending preferences across markets, Sreeram Viswanath looks at the highs and lows of this new dimension to marketing and niche marketing

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T

he Internet of Things (IoT) introduced a welcome change, making our lives simpler amidst our already busy schedules, aiding our life with its interconnectedness. IoT devices are now an almost indispensable part of our lives, such as the smart bands that track our fitness 24x7 to the emerging concept of smart cities & connected homes. The data collected by these brilliant technologies provide valuable information about our behaviors, interests, and preferences. This has given rise to a new technology, an extension of IoT, known as the Internet of Behaviour (IoB) which is changing the way businesses understand customers.

With close to 17.5 billion IoT devices being used, the concept of IoB is rapidly gaining attention and is evolving as we speak. Gartner (a global research and advisory firm) announced in their strategic predictions that, by 2023, around 40% of the global population would be tracked digitally in order to influence purchasing behaviors. Let’s look at the various ways this most trending technology could have a progressive impact on the way we work and live if used with diligent care.

Driven for Empathy & Influence

Marketers of any age dwell on psychological persuasion, an art that the writing world refers to as rhetoric. IoB, resulting from a stellar combination of technology, data analytics, and behavioral science, centers on this. The basic objective of the technology is to gather relevant data, draw insights from it, and use the same to position and promote products/services. Such data can be gathered from numerous sources such as websites, social media profiles, telematics, health monitors, facial recognition software, and a range of other devices and spaces.

A slew of unique applications collects different types of data. A health & fitness app could keep tabs on your lifestyle, eating habits, sleeping patterns, heart rate, or blood sugar levels; a website gets to know your likes and preferences based on the pages you visit and the time you spent on each of them; a search you do on a particular e-commerce website could show up on your Facebook newsfeed later that day as a reminder. The purpose of such a comprehensive data collection is primarily to influence purchase by understanding the intrinsic needs of every individual or even change the behaviors of employers or stakeholders to ensure proper compliance with procedures.

IoB is not one of a kind; it is the kind. This system evolved in the tech space to help us utilize a repository of customer data. It facilitates analysis of their purchase habits across platforms; provides a thorough understanding of how customers interact with products, services, and devices; replaces time-consuming and inaccurate surveys; throws greater insights into a customer’s buying habits; influences customer choices; and quickly resolves issues that concern the customer.

Some prospective customers are happy to share data as long as privacy is valued and their preferences are accurately mapped. It is a win-win as it helps companies customize how they present themselves and market products/ services in a more personalized way, thereby improving customer experiences. As for cus-

THE BASIC OBJECTIVE OF THE TECHNOLOGY IS TO GATHER RELEVANT DATA, DRAW INSIGHTS FROM IT, AND USE THE SAME TO POSITION AND PROMOTE PRODUCTS/SERVICES 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Tech love INTERNET OF BEHAVIOURS HELPED COMPUTER VISION ORGANIZATIONS TRACK AND RECOGNIZE PEOPLE WALKING IN THE STREETS WITHOUT A MASK tomers, they have their preferences met without having to explicitly state them every time, with the expected quality, which goes a long way in providing a seamless experience.

However, there is the possibility that customers may feel ‘creeped out’ about the details tracked, causing a psychological tendency popularly known as the ‘breach fear' – a phenomenon that hinders users from sharing personal information online or even keeps them away from the digital sphere due to fear of data breach.

A Proven Record

The best evidence of a product’s potential lies in its track record. The use of IoB is already widespread, making one wonder about its burgeoning potential. You don’t need to go look for traces of IoB; the technology is all around you. It is at play when you log in to social media and OTT platforms and get recommended music and streaming content that’s been tailored to your taste; and on e-commerce sites where the type of purchase you made comes in handy for future recommendations (yes, IoB knows that you’ve got quite an admirable taste).

Facebook and Google use the behavioral data of users to display relevant ads on their screens, which helps businesses succeed in connecting with potential audiences and tracking their response to Ads through click-through rates.

Unacademy, a popular EdTech Firm, uses IoB to gather essential data about students to deliver content as per their varying educational needs.

American Express, a credit card company with a unique portfolio, analyses historical transactions and a host of variables to incorporate sophisticated predictive models, which enables a more accurate forecast of potential churn and customer loyalty.

Prominently, the IoB strategy also served a greater purpose during the hour of crisis, when necessity called for it. Internet of Behaviours helped computer vision organizations track and recognize people walking in the streets without a mask. Thermal images also helped track people with heavy temperatures.

These use cases attest that we now have a platform that can make the world smart, simple, and less complicated.

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The Other Side of the Coin

The scope of IoB is vast, and so the pitfalls too are immense. The use of facial recognition software is still under scanner due to reports that the police used the technology in the U.S. to track and identify anti-racism protestors after the infamous death of George Floyd. The aftermath resulted in IBM relinquishing its facial recognition business and Microsoft halting the sale of these technologies to the police. Social Media giant Facebook faced public wrath when it partnered with a political data-analyst firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) to gather data of 50 million Facebook users to be used for political campaigns. The true scale of this scandal, and its dangers, is reflected in the words of a former employee of the research institute, Christopher Wylie who has quoted, "We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people's profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons.”

Tech love

FACTS & FIGURES

1.

T he IoB technology will be prevalent in the coming years. It is predicted that by 2023, the individual activities of 40% of the global population will be tracked digitally to influence human behavior.

2.

A ccording to Cisco, currently, there are billions of IoT devices already connected, and it is expected to reach 75 billion in 2025. This will provide us with new capabilities and, in turn, new challenges.

3.

A s per Statista, the total dollars spent on IoT solutions globally is likely to double in 2021, up to $418b from $248b. Not so surprisingly, that number is projected to be USD 1,567 billion by the year 2025. The international market for IoT end-user solutions raised to 212 b U.S. dollars in size by 2019.

The technology hit USD 100 billion in market revenue for the first time in 2017, and predictions proposed that this figure will rise to about 1.6 trillion by 2025.

4.

B y 2025 more than half of the global population will get subjected to at least one (commercial or government) IoB program

5.

I n 2020 alone, 120$ billion was spent on IT security worldwide, and it will remain a huge concern in the years to come.

Insurers and loan providers can also scan your social media profiles to decide for or against an application, which can be termed extra-legal and debatable. And then there is the threat of governments forcing private companies to share data or private companies selling data to government or 3rd party agencies. There is an urgent need for private and government bodies to chime in and make concerted efforts to strike a balance between personalized marketing and intrusion over individual/group privacy. There is the threat of this technology snowballing out of control.

IoB may also afford cybercriminals a chink in our armor to gain access to sensitive data related to customer patterns, banking codes, OTPs, and other confidential data. The same technology that influences a customer’s purchase could help scammers in their quest to trick even the wariest citizens into giving away critical information. Companies that choose to take the IoB route must have strong domain expertise and a robust cybersecurity system in place. Organizations with a smart and proactive approach have always found ways to integrate security into each step of the agile process. On the flip side, the companies that fail to do so may end up leaking crucial customer data, like fitness app Polar, whose weaker data security features allowed researchers to collect sensitive details of more than 6,460 U.S. military and security personnel.

These grim accounts and possibilities, however scarier, pales in comparison to the many benefits that IoB offers to the society-at-large. No tool is problematic in itself. And as the old saying goes, every coin has two sides. The information revolution holds the key to transforming our lives, and its advantages have led to an increased demand for its implementation from the consumers of today. What matters is navigating the treacherous path of technological growth while not losing sight of the ethics of business.

Technological interventions of the past have always helped companies make the best use of their marketing efforts, create products/ services, and promote what people want to buy. IoB can take this development to a wholly different level. Gartner's predictions suggest that by the end of 2025, more than 50% of the world’s population will be exposed to at least one IoB program, either from the government or a private company. With responsible use, we will have an ecosystem that values empathy in a world that is getting more and more digital. As the efficacy of the tool is now proven, it’s time that we regulate it and make it more secure, reliable, with the value quotient intact. J 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Opinion

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Opinion

Travails and Travels to Space

S

pace is the final frontier. Whether you’ve watched Star Trek or not, this statement holds a certain universal appeal and endorsement.

I mean, what’s left for humanity to conquer on the planet now? The highest peak on the planet is trashed with both garbage and corpses. The deepest part of the ocean has been photographed and filmed. Our home, mother Earth, is already on a fast lane towards climate change. The ocean currents are altering, weather patterns have become erratic, wildfires are laying waste in unlikely places, floods are ravaging the mountains. Taking over from Nostradamus, modern meteorological and science departments are predicting that many coastal cities around the world will be underwater within the next few decades. Makes sense then, that billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and planet Earth’s poster boy Elon Musk are looking towards interstellar conquests. Humans will survive the scourge of nature, the inevitably of the planet’s terraforming, by relocating to the stars. If Musk is to be believed, Mars is the next destination. Next, it could be Saturn’s moon Titan or Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Humanity could be hopping heavenly bodies in a bid to survive and explore.

It’s a vision that makes the 1969 moon landing by NASA seem like a Walt Disney cartoon.

But this isn’t just about a Stanley Kubrick or Chris Nolan type dream. This is the future of the human economy.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic will have a new program called Virgin Galactic (VG), and it will take non-astronaut humans on a space tourism escapade. It’s being speculat-

ed that these trips could cost as much as $450,000 for a single human. Also in the fray is Bezos’ Blue Origin, which plans on revolutionizing space tourism, just like VG. Reportedly, VG started selling its space tickets as low as $200,000, and it’s believed that they’ve already sold 600 tickets. Do the math and you get a capital raised of $120 million even before setting up the infrastructure for this ambitious project. Another US-based company called Space Perspective is offering a cheaper alternative where you can travel up to 19 miles above the Earth at the price of $125,000 per person. Space starts approximately 100 kilometers above the surface, that’s roughly 62.5 miles.

So at 19 miles, you’ll be way short of the authentic space travel experience, but hey, the return on investment ratio isn’t bad at all.

So what is the reality of space travel? Musk’s ambitions entail sending humans to Mars by 2026. And he doesn’t just want to send them there; he wants to kick start a whole new crucible of civilization on a planet that purportedly doesn’t even have a functional atmosphere.

Watching Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall (1990) come to life in reality will surely be worth a few billion dollars. If going to the stratosphere will cost hundreds of thousands, a trip to another planet might just escalate into billions. Ladies and gents, let’s start saving. There’s an old saying, aim for the moon. Let’s aim for Mars then, and who knows, we might just end up on the white sphere of cheese. Godspeed! J ARVIND RAJASEKHAR 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Events

REGIONAL HAPPENINGS ON THE HORIZON

Future Landscape & Play Spaces Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi has had a dynamic and fluid landscape since before the nation’s founding, but never as much as in recent years. With rapid developments in technology and the Sustainability Goals in place, Abu Dhabi is looking to change in a smarter, greener, and more community-friendly way than ever before.

This is why 300 Million AED worth of new projects are being designed and tendered in the Emirate, covering key areas in landscape, horticulture, parks, playgrounds, sustainable irrigation, and new public parks. In light of this investment of time, money, and effort, Future Landscape and Playspaces Abu Dhabi has been the key platform for multiple stakeholders to meet and share their ideas in shaping the Emirate.

This year, the 6th edition of the Annual Future Landscape and Playspaces Abu Dhabi will be

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taking place in the St. Regis Abu Dhabi, 13th-14th September 2021. Be a part of this conference today to leave a mark on the Emirate tomorrow and for the years to come.

Logistics and Transport Management An Intensive 5-Day Training Course from the 5th to the 9th of September will analyze the management of materials in the supply chain of an organization. The smallest of errors, inaccuracies, or the slightest inefficiency can cost a business incredible costs - which is why this course that aims to reduce these costs is knowledge well learned. The price for registering is listed as US $ 4,950 and you can also claim 30 CPE credits from the course. The training institute is located at Business Central Towers, Al Sufouh, Dubai.

The EuroMatech training course will also sharpen your negotiation skills, better warehouse management, and utilize modern purchasing management. It is a muchneeded skill in the modern world for any trading business handling a supply chain and for anyone looking to further their career in the industry.

Exotic Wedding Planning Conference Dubai, 2021 It takes a lot to make the perfect wedding - the flowers, the guests, the food, and a thousand other details need to come together in the most cohesive way to make every matrimony the perfect ceremony - which is why wedding planners exist! But who helps the wedding planners?

The 9th edition of the Exotic Wedding Planning Conference on September 15th and 16th at Sofitel The Obelisk, Dubai, is the perfect platform for every business that has a stake in the wedding planning industry - including event planning businesses, hospitality vendors, tourism boards, travel experts, and other wedding suppliers from around the world to make connections and grow their brand.

Weddings are all about coming together - so it makes perfect sense for the best of wedding planners to come together too! Growing and learning with the community of wedding planners gets higher returns and better engagement with the market (no pun intended).

So make sure to RSVP your attendance to the EWPC this September!

The Gulf Bride Sheikh Maktoum Hall, Dubai World Trade Center will be the venue for The Gulf Bride, organized by Sama Mirage, from the 1st to the 4th of September, one of the most prominent Bridal Events here in the Middle East. Attracting over 12000 visitors from the entire GCC, the show is the prime environment for B2B and B2C opportunities.

If you’re planning to get hitched and wedding shopping is at its fever peak, you need to check the event to get the best of fashion, sparkly nuptial jewelry, and other knick-knacks that make your bridal trousseau complete.

The Bridal exhibition is open to everyone to try, test, indulge, experience, and enjoy! J 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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COVER STORY

FEMME POWERED

The UAE has taken giant strides in setting up and maintaining gender equality. Read the story, an ever-weaving saga, of the women of this proud nation This August 2021, UAE will celebrate its 6th Emirati Women’s Day as a marker of how far women in the Emirate have journeyed to gaining an equal footing to men in society. This achievement is, in no way, neither insignificant nor singular, for the nation’s forces have aligned to make deliberate efforts to craft laws, propel economic prosperity, and provide the system where women feel empowered and encouraged to seize every opportunity and do not let antiquated gender norms stand in the way of their progress.

Women have seen their rights, status, and prosperity grow in sync with the UAE. With the discovery of oil, UAE began a swift march towards economic stability, which gave women the opportunity to seek education and aspire for the great skies of opportunity.

One person instrumental in bringing this transformational change, as well as initiating the custom of Emirati Women’s Day, is a woman without whom this conversation would be several milestones behind - Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Al Ketbi. Born to a religious Bedouin family and married to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder and inaugural president

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COVER STORY

Women have seen their rights, status, and prosperity grow in sync with the UAE

of United Arab Emirates, she ably recognized the limited, curtailed lives being led by women in the UAE. Armed with wisdom and unafraid to make broad sweeping changes, she set to the task with determination. She founded the first women’s assembly ever in 1973, followed by her establishing the General Woman’s Union (GWU) in 1975, which has steadfastly persevered to empower the national mechanism for the empowerment and entrepreneurship of women in the United Arab Emirates. Over four decades, she launched initiatives and put in resolute effort to create spaces for women to engage in public and private spheres, bringing the nation together for a common goal, which was recognized by the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum in 2014 – UAE was now at the forefront of championing women’s rights, maintaining their dignity and cementing their social standing.

The efforts yielded stupendous results, causing the UAE to jump up into the top 30 positions amongst 177 countries that have made strides in women’s rights by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Commemorating UAE’s strides in this area and commitment to its women, the first Emirati Women’s Day was celebrated on August 28th, 2015. The choice of date is a deliberate coin-

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cidence with the foundation of the UAE’s General Women’s Union launched on the same date in 1975.

An equal letter of the law Over the years, as voices of women grow more robust, and as the nation wakes up to the potential and power that educated, empowered, self-possessed women bring to the culture and economy of a nation, the matter of gender equality has risen to occupy center stage. On the legislation front, the Constitution guarantees legal equality to men and women, with women holding the same legal status, claim to titles, access to education, right to vote, right to equal pay, the right to practice professions, and the right to inherit property as men.

Laws have been updated too, to better suit the present climate and requirements of citizens. Earlier, the UAE Labour Law granted women 45 days of maternity leave, with no provisions for paternity leave. The new Dubai International Financial Centre Employment Law, which came into effect in June, changes the maternity leave to 65 working days, with the first half at full pay and second at half pay, and paternity leave of five days. On the personal front, a new domestic violence law came into effect in

business opportunities. Apart from the countless career options, the UAE is also internationally recognized as a safe haven for women to work.

All this points to a commitment - An ode to progress made, a benchmark set in the present, and a fervent hope to scale it immeasurably in the future.

Changing perceptions

March 2020 that included provisions enabling women to obtain restraining orders against abusers.

The edifice of empowerment Legal principles serve as the bedrock, but the true transformation of a society is affected through everyday practices, change in mindsets, and the courage of people to go against the tide, to reject the way things have always been done. Going past a time when few women would seek higher education, today in literacy, the numbers speak for themselves – 70% of university graduates in UAE are women, and their literacy rate stands at 95.8%.

In the professional sphere, women are coming to slowly occupy spaces and positions typically reserved for men.

35% of the women in the UAE are employed in the national workforce, and 20% of administrative posts are held by women. The Federal National Council, too, announced that women would represent half of its 40-member council.

Such strides were not made overnight. Instead, it was the thorough building of a safe and inclusive atmosphere in the country where women felt encouraged and welcomed into the workplace. Furthermore, women from other diverse communities also find excellent career and

That is not to say that all dreams of equality have been realized. Even today, only Emirati men can pass on citizenship to offspring, and birth certificates are not issued to Emirati mothers and international fathers, which leaves their children stateless. These children become adults with no access to basic rights and services throughout their lives.

In the past, a lack of progressive outlook from largely patriarchal influences of ministers and religious leaders created a perception that women were unfit for public spaces and leadership positions. Contemporary public discourse and critical feminist theory researcher Dabya al-Rafaei said, “Religious figures operated as powerful orators capable of shaping and maintaining public opinion in favor of conservative norms and policies that largely contributed to keeping Khaleeji [those from the Gulf region] women submissive and hidden from sight.” The emergence of the internet and the proliferation of social media began to challenge long-held beliefs, as the voices of women across the world mingled with those of Emirati women, making them louder and more undeniable. "With more women challenging discriminatory policies, highlighting their inferior status in society, or simply sharing snippets from their daily lives, it was no longer possible to monopolize the discourse around the place of women in the Gulf," al-Rafaei explained. As women become more visible, so do the injustices against them.

As we stand the cusp of this year’s Emirati Women’s Day, the theme stands out - Women: Ambitions & Inspiration for the Next 50 years. As has been in the past, when the Emirate and its women emerged together in the modern world, the next 50 years will delightfully reveal just how high the nation and its women with their fates linked to each other can fly.

The present-day world presents challenges that were unforeseen before – a hyper-connected world with fractured relations, inter-region conflict, ever-changing ideas of gender identity and hence liberation, all under the looming threat of environmental catastrophe. Inspiration for women will come from diverse ideas, as those that have been oppressed find the courage to speak out to a world finally listening to them. Women’s ambitions cannot be for women alone; they must aspire to take the world ahead with them. J 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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INTERVIEW

The Business of Play Creating a business from your own needs has sparked this mother of four to create an enterprise with a difference. Meet Alia Al Nabooda, founder of Fiafia play area and cafe who created a business of some distinction beyond just the bottom line. Qirat Attar discovers that it goes

Of all the generational business families, there’s something a little different about Alia Al Nabooda. The mother of four and the creator of Fiafia play area and cafe is an important reminder of the value of intuition in business. Born to a British mother and an Emirati father and growing up in the UAE surrounded by the aura of a successful and expansive business under the authority and able leadership of her father, whose empire ranged from the distributorship of luxury cars such as Porsche, VWs and Audi, construction, education, catering, hospitality, and the Dubai Printing Press, Alia got a glimpse of business life at a very young age.

She recalls sitting under the table while her father conducted meetings, the office being her playground. The home life saw ample dinner parties with Europeans, Arabs, and other potential business partners as guests.

Immersed in an overwhelming business culture, it is interesting to note that her playground as a child became her workplace as an adult.

Her stay-at-home mother supported her father every step of the way, handling the affairs of the home. The children were raised with British influences, minding their Ps and Qs, punctuality, immaculate tidiness, and politeness ingrained in their lives. "What’s the magic word?" was a question her mom often asked, she recalls with fondness. When not in UAE, England was a second home, and the family visited London every year during the summer or winter.

It was a different time, and antiquated ideas about women’s education 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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still held sway. Many women did not pursue higher education. Blessedly Alia’s father held no orthodox ideas. All children of the family were expected to go to university, including her elder sisters. “You have to get your education, whether you need it or not.”

She acknowledges that the UAE is a flagbearer on this front. Pursuing Bachelor's in Business with a specialization in Marketing from Dubai’s Zayed University, she later attained a Master's in International Business.

A young mother with a goal Alia’s defining trait is that nothing comes between her and her goals. What may seem like obstacles to another are just stepping-stones to her; that is the grit and determination she displays. She completed her Bachelor’s when pregnant with her first child at the age of 20, scheduling her classes so that she could take out time to nurse the baby at home and then attend classes.

She credits it also to having an incredible support system with her friends, husband, and family, whose encouragement helped her tide over the days when it all seemed impossible to do, and weariness threatened to make her quit.

After finishing her Master's, during which she gave birth to her second baby, she joined her father’s head office as a board member. “I learned

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a lot when working as there is a major difference between getting a degree and getting practical experience.” But this wasn’t enough, for she felt the inklings of wanting to expand herself more. It was her instinct for experimentation and creative expansion that led to her meeting David Tobias, who had an ad agency, as well as the idea for VoucherSkout. Partnering up with him in Acumen advertising agency, VoucherSkout took off.

David’s big idea, VoucherSkout, is a free app that customers can use to buy vouchers for discounts at their favorite restaurants, spas, salons, and other leisure haunts. In her brief stint there, VoucherSkout absolutely exploded in terms of market and business. Alia exited the firm in 2018 after reaching a saturation point, bogged down by feeling like it wasn’t her thing anymore, having added all the value she could to the business. Today, the company is still going strong, and Alia’s efforts, leadership, and the amount of work put in have a significant role in its trajectory today.

Fiafia - the joy of getting together After VoucherSkout, Alia took a break, looking for something she could believe in, one that would speak to her passion - that of child development and growth.

A huge proponent of kids leading healthy, bal-

She is also churning with ideas to expand vertically, tackling various age groups, such as Fiafia for teens anced, stress-free lives, “I’m a big fan of play,” she asserts, stating that she has always been a firm believer in the emphasis on children’s rights. As a mother, she’s always coming up with different toys and games for the kids, and her friends had often reiterated that any endeavor she started for children would hit the bull’s eye.

“When children play, that’s when they’re learning." As a mother of four, she has witnessed firsthand the immense benefits of frolic and play for children. They’re learning teamwork, coordination, sharing, social skills, communicating with friends and adults, interacting, all with limitless joy and happiness. “A teenager today has the same stress level as a 45-year-old worker, which is no good.” Determined to spark change with a gem of an idea, the concept of Fiafia was born, a place dedicated to play and fun for the kids.

Fiafia opened its doors in February 2019. It was born out of the desire of a frustrated mother who wanted an amazing fun space where her kids could go and have fun while she could watch them under her caring eye and relax, work, or meet up with friends. She wanted a place that was safe and clean and where her kids could socialize, engage in activities, play, and enjoy their time. Covid forced a swift hiatus in April 2019 for five months, but the enthusiasm did not waver; not Alia’s and certainly

not the parents’ who found it a wonderful place to kick back, relax, grab a bite or even get some work done as their kids played and learned in an engaging, social format. The result? Business took off, and they drew large crowds.

Alia passionately explains, “Fiafia means the joy of getting together with friends and family, so it is everything our place stands for.” Given the meaning is emblazoned on their walls, she’s evidently proud of it. Although in its nascent years, she already dreams of branching out, touching multiple sections across the Middle East, UAE, even envisioning a global presence. She is also churning with ideas to expand vertically, tackling various age groups, such as Fiafia for teens, a place to hang out and unwind for adolescents thirteen and above, as well as FiaFia daycare.

With a young child, a parent’s life sees a complete 180°. Swept up in the responsibilities of work, life, and their growing child, rest and recharge takes a backseat. Fiafia attempts to change that. Firstly, the cafe menu is not a limited, kids-centric affair.

Fiafia has all the makings of a luxurious cafe, with the menu wide and delicious. Apart from good coffee and a calming ambiance, adults can also enjoy card games to spark conversation or connect with other parents.

While they do so, interactive employees who were handpicked for the team by Alia herself don’t just monitor the kids but engage with them on more than a superficial level - interacting with them via play, dance, music, and games. With a service so good, there is nary a parent who is a one-time visitor. Despite a day-based model, regular parents are offered monthly or three-monthly memberships so that they can access the play area whenever they want, all instated around the Covid protocol. “I’ve met a lot of customers personally, and the overall vibe of the parents is that it is a place that the kids love to come to, that they love to come to.”

Alia is surrounded by a competent, dedicated team who believe in the concept of Fiafia. “When we opened in DIFC – Gate Avenue, the play structure was still being finalized, and people asked, ‘How are you going to entertain the kids?’ But my 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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team ensured that even if there is no play area, the kids still have fun. Despite just the cafe being open, the kids had a great time, and it was only possible because of my team.”

Exceeding limitations Apart from business ventures, Alia has an abiding spot on the board for Khalifa Juma Al Nabooda Group of companies. This diversified group manages stakes in companies spread over the automobile, real estate, hospitality and food services, civil and marine engineering, amongst others. With Alia heading the Dubai Printing Press and also a board member of the Overseas AST. Company (the civil and marine engineering arm), her brother as Managing Director, her younger brother leading

Most people would say numbers, profits, and loss, things like that.

For me, that will come in time if you have the right foundation. It is the potential of a great business, then comes running it correctly

real estate, and her sisters involved in the private office, this sprawling investment group is a tightly knit, well-run family affair with her dad still holding the reins as Chairman of Khalifa Juma Al Nabooda group of companies.

But there is something that sets her apart - Alia looks at business and investments differently. It’s never about the size of the enterprise but the spark of an idea. She acknowledges the difference in approach between her and her father. “For his companies, it’s a completely different concept, more traditional, all about numbers, track record, profit, and loss. On the other hand, if something catches my eye, I go, ‘Wow, that could be a really good business. I go with my gut,” she points out.

Take, for instance, her stance on advertising. “I think it’s one of the key factors. You can have an amazing product, but it won’t work if no one knows about you.” But Alia’s approach is unconventional.

“Marketing isn’t just advertising on a big billboard; I believe in word of mouth. When a happy customer leaves my venue, they are going to tell other people. And that’s valuable, that’s real, and that’s what shows true growth of the business.”

When asked about how she contemplates new ideas for business, she takes a pause. “What excites me?” she muses to herself. It is revealing of how instinctive and spontaneous her business approach is.

Ideas are everywhere, but one needs a keen eye to capture them. “I get excited by the smallest thing or activity I do. Traveling in Turkey, I was at a resort where tourists had the opportunity to hand-paint their own fedoras, and I was gazing at the hats wondering, what a wonderful idea! This will work great at Fiafia.” She routinely picks up little cues from her surroundings, intent on having her business grow or even find a surge of inspiration for her next big thing. That, combined with in-depth research and experimentation, or combining two or more concepts, helps her keep her approach innovative.

“I have lots of different ideas; there’s just not enough time to implement them!” she says wishfully.

An unconventional business mindset Her unconventional business mindset also means that success carries a different definition for her. “I know most people would say numbers, profits, and loss, things like that. For me, that will come in time if you have the right foundation. It is the potential of a great business, then comes running it correctly.”

“There are some companies with heart, but the numbers aren’t great. They may be weak in some areas, like marketing. That’s why I focus on the potential of the business. If a company like this is looking for an investor, I will take a chance on it.

If I see the potential, I will take the risk, then help them find their weak point and strengthen it, basically add value to it.”

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The attitude of the people involved, their story, and their passion determine the fate of the business. “I focus a lot on people. I am looking for that vibe in potential partners - passionate, determined, hardworking. I take a chance on people, and I don’t believe in failure.”

On home turf With four kids, one might think Alia is chock-full of parenting tips, but she defers. “There is no one right way to be a parent. Everybody has their own parenting style, and it is about what works for you.”

Her kids slept in her bed till the age of six and took their time with independence, but Alia doesn’t mind it. The experience of raising four kids at different stages in their growth (they are aged 17, 14, 10, and 8) and with varying personalities has been an eye-opening experience. “As a mother, it is about how you bring them up. You have to respect them as humans first. Just because they’re my kids doesn’t mean I own them because they are individuals in their own right. I just want to guide and support them. I have a very open relationship with them, just like a friend, and I hope they feel they can come to me with everything. I have a very relaxed parenting style. If they want to do something, and I don’t see a problem with it, I let them do it.”

She and her husband enjoy blessed communication, attuned to each other, and more often than not, are on the same page when it comes to their kids. “We’re partners, and we discuss everything.

If two parents have completely different parenting styles, there’s a lot of clashes. But thankfully, we don’t have that problem. And no matter what the matter is, we discuss amongst each other and with the kids as well.”

Parenting can get very controversial, sometimes.

Alia is well aware of the pressure on parents, courtesy of social media and celebrity parents. The archetype of the perfect mom, taking care of her kids impeccably, doting on them from dawn to dusk, can get severely daunting for any parent who is already anxious about doing right by her kids. Thankfully, Alia sees beyond the noise. “I don’t aspire to do that. I am a unique parent with a unique child, and every parent should do what they think is right to the best that they can.” Even in her own friend’s group, she observes varying parenting styles, and she understands and respects all of them.

She has taken the kids to work with her and exposed them to work. They come with her to interviews, business meetings, help her out with different roles, and give her ideas. She likes that they know what she’s doing and are eager to be involved, much like she was in her childhood.

Ditching the supermom role Alia doesn’t believe in the concept of a supermom,

Because they’re my kids doesn’t mean I own them because they are individuals in their own right. I just want to guide and support them one who handles everything with total ease, who needs no breaks or relaxation. Taking time off to recharge is crucial to her, making her a better, more present parent when she takes some time for herself.

“I love traveling. Before COVID, I traveled 4-5 times a year. This year alone, I have taken three trips.” She travels with her family and is exceptionally fond of taking all-girls trips with her sisters.

Both the experiences are very different, and she cherishes both and finds them equally enriching to her life. When she travels alone, she passes the baton to her husband, who takes care of the kids.

“I would say I’m very adventurous. In Finland, I went on husky rides and learned how to ski. I also learned cross country skiing, for she likes to try everything.” She describes a bizarre activity she participated in during a trip where you go in a sauna room, jump in the snow, then into a hot jacuzzi.

The shock of temperature is supposed to invigorate you! To most that would seem unthinkable, but to Alia everything novel is a siren call, and her enthusiasm never dampens.

As a big believer of a balanced life, she advises everyone to make time for themselves, work, and the family. Personally, she schedules a time for everything; if she has a time specially marked for kids or family, all the work or anything else waits during that hour. With a zest for life like this, business is just another in a series of great adventures.

With Fiafia receiving love from parents and kids alike, Alia is determined to take it from strength to strength. With her empathetic approach and hands-on style, whether it’s raising her kids or running her business, Alia Al Nabooda shows it really is possible for women to have it all. ✪ 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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INTERVIEW

Success in a Blink

An influencer, an entrepreneur, mother of two, and ambassador of hope, Mona Tajarbi handles her multiple roles with effortless grace. Misbaah Mansuri catches up with this mutli-faceted Emirati woman about her life, her journey, and her mission Eight years ago when Ras Al Khaimah-based influencer and entrepreneur Mona Tajarbi started her social media journey, she would speak to her followers spotting her camera elsewhere, without showing her face. Little did she know that she would scale heights of success, growing her following from a mere 99 followers to a whopping 484K following today that looks forward to her engaging content each day. “Back then, my followers only knew my voice; they didn’t know who I really was,” Mona smiles.

To simple beginnings and empowering choices It was particularly hard for Mona to carve her path when she started in 2016 because the Ras Al Khaimah influencer market didn’t have many female bloggers back then and was at a relatively nascent stage. “The industry was mostly dominated by male influencers but given my interest and passion towards the space, I was adamant to prove my mettle,” she says, a steely resolve quite apparent in her words.

At a time when most bloggers continued to endorse big, exorbitantly-priced brands, she decided to shine the spotlight on brands that were not only economical but were actually effective and could be used by less affluent people day-to-day.

“What’s the point of endorsing extravagant brands that peo-

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ple might not put to use in their everyday lives and even purchase? So I started with simple step-bystep blogs around beauty and travel that showed my followers how to use a particular makeup kit and ace a look or plan a particular trip. And these simple and useful blogs seemed to resonate well with people,” Mona reminisces.

Then soon dawned the realization that showing her face could veritably develop more trust for her following and help her establish a better connection with them. “I spoke to my family about the decision and they were very supportive about it. I soon took the plunge and became more famous in the social media arena, not just in Ras Al Khaimah but also outside it. I decided to explore a little, the world around me and even myself, and it was magical,” she remarks.

The blink moment It was during the onset of Covid that Mona’s passion towards starting her own beauty line was ignited.

“I was pregnant with my second child and stuck at home, I thought embarking on an entrepreneurial journey at this time would keep me occupied, and so I decided to work towards it,” she shares.

To be sure, bringing it to life amidst the Covid-led shutdowns was hard, but her determination to make it happen shone through it all. “I was searching for companies outside of the UAE to provide me with some goods, and unfortunately, all of them were in China. So there was lots and lots of brainstorming involved to ensure that it all comes together.”

Her thought was to start with something that people would buy, even while staying at home. Out of her penchant for simplicity and love for eyelash-

“What’s the point of endorsing extravagant brands that people might not put to use in their everyday lives and even purchase?

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INTERVIEW

es was born Blink, her beauty line that specializes in ravishing eyelashes that are easy and safe to use.

“I started with lashes because I do believe that the eyes have their own language. And even if you're not putting any makeup on, if you just put on normal lashes, it makes all the difference. So I started to design lashes, those that were quite easy to use. To my surprise I realized that it was taking off well, and the products sold out sooner than anticipated,” says a beaming Mona.

The influencer is of the opinion that for any business to succeed, it's not just about social media marketing but exploring avenues of traditional marketing as well to be able to reach a vast array of audiences. “One has to be everywhere. While there’s a segment of the audience that is social media savvy, there’s also a section that is not much into it and could be reached out better with traditional ways of marketing. So staying on top of both is equally important,” she advises.

Queen of hustle Aside from her influencer journey, managing her entrepreneurial venture, looking after her two girls, Mona also pulls off a full-time job with RAKEZ Authority (Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone) as its Inspections and Violations officer. “While I have my personal journey of entrepreneurship and blogging, I still enjoy and love my full-time job,” she professes.

At a time when influencers have managers to assist them, she aces the influencing space with-

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She believes that doing her own ground research before partnering with a brand is imperative for a partnership to succeed out having one. “My husband is helping me, my nephews, my nieces are helping me, my sisters are helping me, so I can manage all of it because of my family, without the need to involve strangers,” she says. Between all this, Mona ensures that the weekend is reserved for quality time with her two little daughters. “I take them for a staycation or plan some family outings to ensure that they get my time and attention as they require it more than anything else,” asserts the Supermom.

Not just for the gram Till today, Mona is all about authentic content and partnerships that are real and not just for the gram. She believes that doing her own ground research before partnering with a brand is imperative for a partnership to succeed. “I can never speak for a brand that I myself don’t believe in. Misguiding your followers is wrong on so many levels and hence I ensure that I do my share of research rather than blindly partnering with a brand, just for the money- something that most influencers in the space end up doing.”

To thrive in the dynamic, ever-growing influ-

I would like to be a good example for people who are thinking about starting a business

encer space, she notes that the trick to success lies in being active and updated, engaging people but also staying in touch with one's roots and customs. “You don't need to change your customs, you don't need to change your culture, you don't need to change your environment, you just need to change yourself in a very good way and radiate that through your feed,” she advises.

Mona is all praises for how the Emirate is booming into an influencer capital of the world given the government’s efforts towards it. “Our seniors in UAE have great economic plans towards the Emirate. I believe that the way they are attracting influencers, encouraging them, and giving them visas is certainly contributing to the region’s overall growth. In this respect, I will do as much as I can for my country,” says the influencer.

Shining on Given her contribution in the space, it comes as no surprise that Mona has bagged a slew of awards such as the ‘Best Social Media Network’ honored by Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalid Al Nahyan- Al Mobdeoon Foundation, the ‘Superpower Award as Best Blogger’ from Sana Sajan, Director at American Aesthetic Medical Centre, ‘She Award’ - Ladies in Business Magazine, to receiving the ‘Woman of Substance Award’ from St.Mother Teresa University.

If that’s not enough, Mona is the 'Ambassador of Hope' at The Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research, established to aid in the social, cultural, and economic development of Ras Al Khaimah. She is also the 'Ambassador of Awareness' at Smart Cells. This UK-based stem cell storage company approached her to spread awareness on the concept of saving a child’s stem cells to ensure they have treatment options in case of any later complications and creating awareness about it in the RAK region. "I made a conversation using my social media on the same, and they got an amazing response from the region. I was then given the 'Ambassador of Awareness' title. Similarly, as the 'Ambassador of Hope', I have created conversations on lending a helping hand to those going through financial crunches. They can reach out to me and can garner financial support to fulfill their dreams,” she expounds further.

When asked for her vision ahead, Mona remarks that she aims to see herself carving a niche as an influencer who spreads happiness and positivity.

“I would like to be a good example for people who are thinking about starting a business, but they cannot do it because people around them are not letting them do it. When I started my business, I was pregnant and dealing with many complications.

I have threaded through tough times and brought my dreams to life without financial support during certain phases too. You should bear in mind that something great comes out of that determination and hard work. So if you have the passion, believe in it and take the plunge,” she says with an air of influential finality. J 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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INTERVIEW

The People’s Person

People management is the most complex of skills, and it is one that Samiha Al Balooshi has perfected. Ayaat Attar tells us how this award-winning leader gets the best of those who work for her organisation

Celebrating a rich legacy spanning decades built by visionary leaders, the United Arab Emirates was pioneered by those who dared to dream. Extraordinary in every sense of the word, the cluster of the country has emerged as a world leader through the labor of love of both its local and expatriate population. Of the many who have contributed to the UAE’s global positioning is Samiha Al Balooshi, the Director of Human Resources at the prestigious Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, the most remarkable family resort in the Emirate of Dubai.

It starts with the family A delightful fusion of tradition blended with modernism, Samiha was brought up in a progressive, academic-oriented Emirati family, a background that prepared the little girl to dream big and conquer the world. The fast-paced household was run by her parents with a singular commitment to a prosperous future for Samiha and her siblings. As a child, she recalls being in awe of her mother, who pulled double shift roles within the private sector, toiling away from dawn to dusk. To Samiha, her mother is a superhero. Despite the demanding nature of his duty in the military, her father strived to stay ever-present in the lives of his children,

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inspiring values of discipline, integrity, and punctuality. A confluence of her parent’s strong traits, a young Samiha was growing up to be a nurturing and strong woman of the present times.

The instrumental part that she plays in the lives of her workforce today directly reflects the role she essayed in the close-knit family of five. “My brother was extremely playful, and my younger sister was calmer. So, as the eldest, I was the point of contact between my parents and us, ensuring everything sailed smoothly at school and home,” she recalls. Little did Samiha know that these inherent instincts of managing situations and diffusing conflicts would later come in handy in her professional life. She now extends the same nurturing spirit to the functioning at Jumeirah, forming a support system for over six hundred colleagues during the past few years.

Resource, reforms, and rewards Well established in her field of expertise, Samiha’s success did not happen overnight. A Bachelor in Business Administration graduate from the University of Dubai, she embarked on her professional journey while still in college, holding the post of Senior officer of Recruitment at the Commercial Bank of Dubai. After her six-year tenure at the bank, Samiha, a proud Emirati herself, joined the Jumeirah Group as part of its Emiratisation team to nurture local talent. Starting as an Assistant Recruitment Manager, she quickly moved up the corporate ladder to the position of Assistant HR Manager with the regional and corporate office.

The instrumental part that she plays in the lives of her workforce today directly reflects the role she essayed in the close-knit family of five

Young Samiha with her father 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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INTERVIEW

Jumeirah Zabeel Saray

Her previous managerial role before this one was the HR manager with Jumeirah and acting senior HR Business Partner at Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Under her wise leadership, the team launched a one of its kind reward system called ‘Kafoo’, which is the Arabic equivalent of the phrase ‘Well Done’ in addition to revamping and introducing different rewards schemes. Implemented before the advent of the pandemic in 2020, the initiative proved to be an early remedy for a dip in workplace motivation, as the awardee of a Kafoo card was liable for financial incentives on account of exemplary performance.

It is an achievement that stands as a continuing inspiration for Emirati women across the UAE, who are recently coming up to join high-profile professions

The phenomenal success of her reward program, amongst many other initiatives she implemented, caused Samiha to be chosen to preside over the department of Human Resources as Director at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray. It is an achievement that stands as a continuing inspiration for Emirati women across the UAE, who are recently coming up to join high-profile professions and contribute to society on a bigger scale than ever before.

At the new post, she implemented the HR Business Partner model that set her apart from any other HR in the past. The carefully crafted blueprint empowers employees who oversee a task from inception to execution by bringing them in close association with the HR Department via one point of contact. From attending their daily briefings to aiding their task-list, the implementation revamped the firm's functioning, enhancing seamlessness and clarity with intra-communication like never before.

Samiha has chartered a decade-long journey with the Jumeirah Group, and her tenure has witnessed her achieve numerous awards on internal and external fronts.

In September 2020, her career welcomed a significant milestone in the form of the ‘HR Rising Star of the Year’ Award by the prestigious CIPD Middle East. With over five internal appreciations and letters from various departments within the Group for her outstanding performance since she joined hands with the firm, Samiha continues rising for excellence.

Licensed to Lead From being a reserved introvert, Samiha Balooshi

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has blossomed into a leader who inspires confidence in her subordinates. Battling each day with grace, she believes her superpower is her sound educational foundation and the job she so proudly holds. She also attributes her success to her ever-supportive family and believes that it forms an essential aspect of a woman’s flight, aiding her growth as an individual and a citizen of this country.

Her management style is to lead by example, establishing herself as an approachable leader whom her team can always reach out to. Her greater aim is for the organization to communicate effectively across departments and hierarchy, so equality and harmonious relationships are established. “In my team’s success lies my success,” Samiha reaffirms.

A certified “yes” person, Samiha’s radiant smile and simple words of affirmation often go a long way to ease the issues that the workforce comes to her with.

sions, and in the over-arching process, shine, for themselves, and their country,” she adds.

She credits the leaders of the UAE in taking up the gender-equality narrative with delight and for striving for its progress each day. Samiha says that although the world started with the mindset that the female is only emotional and cannot be at a leadership level, women, along with the effort of the State, have successfully proven the presumption wrong. “Today, that belief is changed. In fact, I think some women are ten times better leaders than men,” she adds with confidence.

Deriving inspiration from His Highness, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, she finds herself in complete synergy with the vision for the people of the UAE. Having read his books and practiced his ideals in her personal life, she mentions one of her favorite quotes that she lives by – “The road to excellence has no limitation.”

Discovering her own person In pursuit of professional excellence, Samiha has risen to be an influential figure in Dubai’s profes-

The enthusiast has recently launched her own line of fragrance to join the dazzling entrepreneurial world

An extension of her innate personality, her leadership style incorporates core values of being supportive and straightforward with her team. Today, she has touched the lives of close to 2,000+ people that include the members of the organization and their families.

Learning from the greats As we approach International Emirati Women’s Day, Samiha doesn’t skip a beat to acknowledge the fact that these days, families in the UAE have a very different mindset from what it used to be.

“Collectively, society in UAE has adopted a forward-looking agenda to encourage daughters to pursue higher education, career paths, inert pas-

sional circuit but has in no way lost sight of her spiritual journey. At the beginning of 2020, as the world struggled with the undesirable aftereffects of the COVID-19 virus, she found herself in Jumeirah Mina A’Salam for three arduous months, volunteering for a relief team. She views circumstances like these as an opportunity to invigorate a deeper essence of humanity. Her philosophy in life has always circled around doing good and never dwelling over it. “It will come back in ways you never imagined,” she says, being amazed at life’s inexplicable design. She believes that one day she will be able to establish a non-profit organization that works towards helping the most needy people and pets.

On a lighter note, Samiha has multiple interests which include horse-riding, photography and has also picked up an affinity towards traveling.

She is famously known for her impeccable collection of perfumes, and the enthusiast has recently launched her own line of fragrance to join the dazzling entrepreneurial world.

All of thirty-one, Samiha’s appetite for excellence, knowledge, and service gets larger with each passing day. As she rushes back to a busy day with the energy of the young Emirati woman who set out of her home to make a mark for herself and touch the lives of those around her, she stands as an example to many, as a woman who belongs to the future. J 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Special Feature

A

n endlessly fascinating quirk of humans is to desire something that no one else owns. It’s apparent in the way people spend millions in auctions, create NFTs, or even prefer the chipped teacup over the others in their cutlery collection as if in defiance against mass-produced items. Back in 2017, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director and ‘Off ’White’ CEO Virgil Abloh designed custom sneakers for Nike.

Called ‘The Ten’, it was a reimagining of some of Nike’s iconic shoes, a childhood dream of Abloh.

Its success warranted a repeat of the campaign, with twenty and recently, in 2021, some fifty signature-style sneakers.

While the concept may seem glamorous or even elitist, we are all quite familiar with custom-made goods. Even in small towns, people wear clothes stitched for them, with the material, cut and size tailored to them. There are restaurants that tweak the menu or recipe for certain loyal patrons, going the extra mile for the love of customer service. But brand head honchos pooh-pooh the humility and ‘waste-not’ mentality of our everyday customizations and aim for luxury and individuality, to tell millions of people that there’s no one quite like them.

Irony or not, it’s an interesting proposition. As we steer deeper into curated experiences, be it targeted advertisements or data collection so astute

Put your stamp on it

The age of personalization is here to stay, and customization is king. Qiraat Attar explores this exploding movement to see what the benefits are to companies everywhere that they know your dog’s birthday, companies are wielding customization as an embargo from mass-produced in a bid to industrially influence your personal tastes.

The customer to creator crossover

Vans shoes have some epic bragging rights in this department - because their creator, Paul Van Doren, offered to make shoes with any fabric peo-

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ple brought to the shop, circa 1966! Their website says they were customizing goods “Since before that was a thing.”

In 1999, when Nike first offered their customization service via their website, they were still discomfitingly ahead of their time. But the years have moved to meet them. The ‘Just do it’ brand now offers ‘Nike by you’, formerly called NikeID, to craft Nike shoes as per your taste. The service

Customization takes you out of the consumer’s position and places you in that of a creator’s

! The Ten, ike Air PResto x Virgil Abloh # Virgil Abloh Nike The10 # Virgil Abloh working on the Nike The10 $ Vans Sneaker designs

can be accessed both online from their homepage and in physical branches (Nike By You Studios), situated in parts of Canada, France, England, Main Land Europe, China, and the USA. Hot on their heels, Adidas too offered ‘Mi Adidas’ starting 2000, serving custom designs to their patrons.

For Nike, it’s not all about fashion because they’re determined to increase direct-to-consumer marketing by intimately understanding their needs.

Nike Fit, added to their mobile app and stores in 2019, scans customers’ feet and determines the correct size. The service was rolled out to Europe in August, moving to other international markets soon after. Nike opened new stores, like its House

of Innovation in New York and Nike Live in Los Angeles, designed specifically for these markets and selling items visitors can’t find anywhere else.

Maker’s choice

Customization is an enticing process, whether done online or in-store. It takes you out of the consumer’s position and places you in that of a creator’s, and customers have fallen in love with their product long before it is ready for them.

Case in point, the Vans sneaker design website is a delightful affair. It’s a portal that takes you from the spectator stands of consumership to the frenzy of involved creation. On the Vans website, they call 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Special Feature it, “Creativity still in your hands.”

With vibrant, quirky designs such as Spongebob SquarePants and a variety of patently American cuts and styles, you feel a bit like a kid in the candy store. Not just that, they offer embossing of words you choose on the back of the shoe so that you are making a statement no matter which way you turn.

Big brands go to all this trouble for one reason: to nudge customers into making the brand a beloved possession by weaving their story into what they wear. Before profits, bottom lines, and visibility, it’s perhaps the highest form of endorsement for the brand that people want to go the extra mile to make it an extension of their personality.

Brands are also striving for emotional attachment.

They are attempting to repackage the relentless consumerism of our times. Until a few years back, shopping was a more engaging experience involving going to stores, parading streets such as Madison Avenue or Sarojini Road, getting into the look and feel of clothes, texture, and designs.

While online shopping is convenient, especially during the pandemic, the barriers between the customer and product and overwhelming options actually leave customers dissatisfied. What was sorely required was getting customers to play with the experience again and roping them in the customization process achieves that.

Aiming for timeless

Louis Vuitton has always offered personalization services such as hot-stamping or hand-painting.

Taking this one step further, with ‘My LV Heritage’, Louis Vuitton now also proposes a way to personalize a monogram or Damier bag and really make it one’s own.

Fashion purists aren’t thrilled by calls for customization, often viewing it as pandering to the public. But wares aren’t sold from palace stoops, they’re sold from marketplaces. Even if Louis Vuitton’s ‘Make It Yours’ campaign was subtly touted as defacement by some high-brow fashion moguls, the move perhaps helped the brand gain popularity with younger people. Plus, it is hardly a total embargo from its legacy - those stuck on the old school charm can pick stamps replicating the trunk tags from Louis Vuitton’s bygone era. It doesn’t need to be said that for a brand to become timeless, it needs to stay in business first.

The launch of NikeID turned it around for the premier shoewear brand, generating over 22% of the company’s total revenues since. Several other brands swear that when direct-to-consumer sales

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# My LV heritage Collection # Nutella Make Me Yours campaign

are waning or competition is getting the best of you, customization can help you strike a chord with your loyal base. By leveraging on personalization, Nike was able to hike up the price to $170 per pair and successfully transformed its revenue focus. And it said direct-to-consumer revenue ended the year 2019, representing roughly 30% of total Nike brand sales, up from 28% in the prior year.

Customization is an innocuous and market justified way to get your customers to pay more.

Overall, it has been observed that customers are willing to pay almost 20% more for customized goods. Additionally, exercises in uniqueness such as Nike Fit help the retailer better manage inventory and cut down on returns, even enticing shoppers to buy more shoes. Before Nike Fit launched, Nike suffered product returns due to sizing issues, and over 500,000 calls made each year to their customer service were related to sizing.

Customized shoes are slightly more expensive, but companies save a pretty penny because customized shoes, once sold, don’t return.

We can hypothesize that top brands want to have the best of both worlds - global recognition, which affords them top ambassadors and billions in revenue, and personal touches with their customers like a neighborhood store that knows your life story - your favorite color or your Alma Mater. When mass production took hold in the 1920s, people were enthralled by the speed at which things were manufactured and the perfect, faultless sameness of things. But as the wheel of time goes, things that seem outdated circle back as special and custom-made. Handicrafts and rare goods have seen the same comeback. Once again, people want to own something that no one can claim to.

Epic fails

Nutella’s ‘Make Me Yours’ campaign tried to engage with their client base, or so they thought when they asked users to submit their idea for a label, upload a receipt and receive a personal gooey chocolate jar. Despite a significant percentage of people enjoying the idea, social media was a disaster, as people uploaded comical, sarcastic, even defamatory content for the labels. The error here was offering too much power to the consumer and poor understanding of their client base. InsideOut public relations director Nicole Reaney said, “Nutel-

!

Gigi Hadid sporting her ‘hadidas’ jacket $ Coke with personalised labels

show that when customization is offered for luxury products, consumers try to balance out these luxury brand dimensions with their own personal style. Consumers put less value on luxury products that offer a significant amount of design freedom because too much customization reduces the brand identity and its inherent value. A higher level of design freedom might jeopardize the brand for fashion-conscious consumers who value prestige and self-expression over brand identity.

The magic elixir is a simple lesson - when brands are known for their name alone, logo prominency is paramount. Customers can indulge themselves so long as the logo is not displaced. However, for either high class, fashion-conscious individuals who feel a kinship with the brand, they may value the inherent design of the product itself. They may view too much freedom of customization as undesirable.

An explosion of self-branding

Consumers put less value on luxury products that offer a significant amount of design freedom because too much customization reduces the brand identity and its inherent value la is a brand that is marketed to families. In this particular campaign, families were not engaged.

Instead, it targeted people in their teens and 20s who decided to have fun. The key lessons are to align your campaign to your target market and test it with a few people in that market to see if there is any chance of it backfiring.” The other plan, of course, is always to have an ‘Abort’ button, i.e., to pull the plug when a campaign falters.

Too much of a good thing could actually hurt the brand’s integrity in the long run. If a brand offers too many modifications to the customer, the final product may look like too much of a departure from the brand’s look and feel and be perceived as a decrease in quality, thereby reducing customer interest. If the logo does not seem prominently placed, then owning the product itself may not seem worthwhile.

Consumers appreciate luxury brands like Chanel or Gucci because of their exclusivity, almost a rarity, crafted by expert designers. The experiments

Customizations in business are like mythical sirens, taking on the form you choose. Intentionally, they are a subtle (and sometimes unsubtle) attempt for the customer to find themselves in the product. Sometimes, it is quite literally finding like the 2011 Coca Cola campaign ‘Share a Coke’ where they printed the most popular names or relations on labels so that you buy a Coke with your name or someone you associate with (Mom, Dad, BFF) written on it. Coke stated that the campaign started with the intent of ‘creating a more personal relationship with consumers and inspiring shared moments of happiness.’

Celeb culture too, has played its part. Celebrities fascinate us, not just for their talent or stellar good looks, but because their job affords them many cool perks - not the least of which is personalized wearables. Paparazzi and social media give us glimpses into things they get specially made.

Gigi Hadid, model extraordinaire, has been coined ‘Queen of customization’ for owning oodles of stuff with her name or initials on it, right from her ‘H’ monogrammed bomber jacket from Departure or her cheeky ‘hadidas’ jacket from the sportswear brand. People who look up to her and other celebs are always looking for ways to emulate them, and brands swoop in to fulfill this desire.

Collaborative customization will only see a rise, for we are but simple beings who long to be unique.

The message of all customization campaigns is clear - this here is just for you. The Nutella jar is just for you. These sneakers are just for you. When something is only for you, you’ve been singled out, special, somehow different from the rest. What you’re wearing or eating isn’t mass-produced drivel; it’s significant. And given the human psyche, if there is one thing we all have in common, ironically, is that we want to feel like one in a million. J 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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The

UPSTART SELL

PRO TALK

Serial entrepreneur, Speaker and Author

David Tee

Without selling, businesses can’t and won’t survive. As a critical aspect of any business, this is why the selling should never stop

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W

ith over 35 years of experience in technology development, entrepreneurship, and international consulting, I have founded and worked in Cambridge IT startups, consulted for Silicon Valley-based advisory firms, and supported the development of innovation-focused incubation services across the world. In this series that I plan to write for ASPIRE, I will consider some of the things I have learned over 35 years in and around startups and share some advice for new CEOs. This month, we look at Sales which is probably, or should I say the most important aspect of any business.

The role of CEO / founder in a startup is probably one of the most diverse jobs it is possible to have. You do everything from buying

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the printer paper to paying the bills to develop the strategy. But the diversity is also the reward as you see your whole business grow and appreciate what went into that success.

Sales: Act up / Ham it up Selling is acting. Whenever you are in front of an investor, a customer, an employee, you must be selling. Each audience needs a different script, but as CEO, it is your job to continuously sell the company, its future potential, and its products and services to whoever you meet.

Just think about Elon Musk or Richard Bran-

son; they are always selling their latest business idea. Ham it up, be bold, confident, and do it without notes; when did you last see Branson or Musk with a PowerPoint? No one says this is easy, but it is the ultimate role of the CEO. Develop your elevator pitches for each group. Be able to answer these questions: What do you do? What problem do you solve? How are you different? Why now? Why should I care? Have a 30-second version, a two-minute version and for investor pitches, follow Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule, and develop the 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point text version.

Sales: Follow up Follow-up is one of the hardest things to do, and most people are generally terrible at it. As a CEO, you will have many, many meetings with potential investors, customers, partners, and employees. Each meeting will generate a list of actions that will need following up.

It would be best if you found a good way to manage this, or you will end up disappointing many people. The old adage of ‘under promise and over deliver’ should be in your mind when agreeing to do anything. Weigh up how the decision to take on a particular action will impact the business, your time, the time of others in the team, etc. Only if the return on investment of time makes sense should you agree. Follow-up of sales meetings is crucial, and you need to equip your sales team with the right tools. These tools will differ depending on whether you are selling $100 widgets or $1m services. And it would help if you found salespeople who are obsessed with follow-up. Without it, opportunities will just slip through the cracks.

Sales: Shut up In my first and only sales training course, I remember two things: “people buy people first”, and “selling isn’t telling; selling is asking questions.” The first quote relates to how you make an impression on potential customers.

Be polite. Be dressed appropriately for your audience. Be on time (if in the UK or US, especially). If selling internationally, be prepared for local customs and be culturally aware. The second quote relates to the sales process. Yes, do your pitch when asked. But then shut up, stop ‘telling’ them things, and have a conversation. Ask the key questions that allow you to tailor your response and fit your product or service to your customer’s specific needs. And when the time comes to ask for the business, ask. And then be quiet, let them respond in their own time. Don’t be pushy.

The role of CEO / founder in a startup is probably one of the most diverse jobs it is possible to have. You do everything from buying the printer paper to paying the bills to develop the strategy

Sales: Speak up Whatever business you are in, there will probably be a conference, congress, or key exhibition where the whole industry meets to buy, sell and do deals. Make sure you get into the program as a speaker - keynote ideally - but on a panel or even parallel session. Find something interesting or controversial to say about how the market is developing. Become a ‘thought leader’. Don’t, and I can’t stress this enough, don’t just pitch your product or service unless you are specifically asked to do this. By presenting something provocative, you will find yourself in conversation with many people and have the opportunity to make your sale at that point.

With 63 more ‘Ups’ (Crack up, Free up, Light up, Make up, etc.) in my book Upstart Ninja: So, you want to be a startup CEO? and at https://upstart.ninja. Hopefully, each ‘up’ will give you a simple takeaway about an aspect of CEO life that is worth remembering. Of course, no one CEO experience is exactly the same as another, but it’s incredibly rewarding seeing your ideas become a reality. As you grow, all the tasks you had when you started still need to be done, but you’ll slowly be able to pass them off to your team, leaving you more time for the strategic work allowing you to expand, hire more people, and grow further. J DAVID CAN BE REACHED AT davidphtee@gmail.com 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Business Growth Coach

Phil Bedford

PRO TALK

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Never

WALKALONE

As an entrepreneur one can face many challenges as you go from idea to profit, and creating the right network from the word go is key to how fast or how well you get on

W

ith the storms and upset of 2020 more than ever before, people seem to be “giving it a go” and starting their own business.

Whether they have always wanted to start their own business and are doing it with purpose or lost their job which provided the nudge they needed, it’s exciting and, at times, also a worrying experience.

We all like to believe we will be the Unicorn.

The one (almost mythical) company that hits it big overnight because of our amazing idea, skill set, personality, or passion. But the reality is the statistics are against us from the beginning, and most Unicorns are indeed a fable or became an overnight success due to the five years of hard work nobody saw while no one knew they existed.

But how about if we had a map to do the

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right things rather than the wrong things?

The reason Indiana Jones was so successful as a treasure hunter was because he always had a map and he knew his stuff! He knew where the traps were and skillfully avoided them to get the treasure, where so many had failed in the past.

THE COMMON FACTOR After working with hundreds of small business owners, I decided to research business failure and expected to see hundreds of reasons for it.

I was surprised to discover that it was the same seven reasons showing up time and time again.

It prompted me to write the Se7en Deadly Start-Up Sins to share my discoveries. Rather than re-write the book here because there isn’t space, I am sharing the one common factor that most people were missing.

The biggest of my tips would be to surround yourself with the right people in the same way I did when starting my business which is now in its 14th year and which was self-funded or bootstrapped! While there was my own share of mistakes, I was saved from the severity of many or, at times, even wholly avoided them because I was able to tap into my close network of friends, colleagues, and business owner contacts who were able to share their experiences. We have to be humble enough not to believe we know it all, listen, and learn.

We were given two ears and one mouth and should use them proportionately.

When we can surround ourselves with the right people, we can do what we have always done as human beings - learning. Learn from more experienced people. People who have been there and done that. Succeeded in this and failed at that. We learn from our parents, our teachers, our friends, and we can learn from other business owners. Unfortunately, we often ignore much of this sage advice, but hopefully not this time.

THE TWO ENTREPRENEURIAL TYPES Overall, I have met two kinds of people who start their own businesses: Someone who is born into an entrepreneurial family and has been surrounded by the skills and often has finance available to them and on the other hand people who are the first person to start a business in their family.

Their experience is often more product/skillbased, and they come from doing a job. They often self-finance or bootstrap.

If both can learn to utilize their networks effectively, then the journey can be easier. For the second type of person starting a business, they often have to build this network because it doesn’t come naturally in the form of the Entrepreneurial family. Their contacts are their best friends, an ex-colleague at work, and family. There is a considerable gap in the kind of contacts needed to advise them on how to run a business or help them to do it.

There will be people reading this who have no intention of building a support and information network, preferring to do it themselves through hard work or hustling. Some are just not into people and like to go at it alone, and that’s ok. Both types of people can be successful, the networker or “team builder” and the individual “go it alone.”

I put it to you that the individual probably has to work a lot harder and spend more money to grow their business if doing it alone.

Whereas the team player or “networker” is able

to access information, best practices, referrals, and grow their business through their contacts.

A famous African saying sings out: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

PICK UP THE KEYS If I had to leave you with two key tips to help you build this resource, it would be the below.

Without these two key points building your trusted, highly connected network become next to impossible: 1. You give back what you put out there. If you want other people to help, you need to find ways to help them, or even better, help them first. It’s the same concept as if I buy you a cup of coffee you want to buy me one back. Reciprocity is ingrained in most people. For many people, it can be a substantial driver. If you find people don’t want to help you, then this is a good time to consider if you need them in your network.

Imagine that you are building your dream team for your business support people who will lift you and not pull you back.

2. Credibility is everything. Do what you say you will do both in your business delivery, service, and quality and in your personal behavior. Return phone calls and email. Be on time for meetings and treat people with respect. Our staff will often behave in the same way we do, and so poor behavior is often exponentially copied to the detriment of the business.

These days make sure your social media profiles and behavior back up what you are promising in all of your marketIf you want other people ing. People will to help, you need to find help and build ways to help them, or even relationships with people they know, better, help them first like, and trust.

Looking back at my life, and I challenge you, the reader, to do that same, look at the most of the best opportunities that have happened to you. The majority will be linked to help from a person or a contact. You can continue to apply this lifelong learning to your future business. You never know where the next trap will come from or when the treasure is just around the corner.

No one was ever successful alone. ✪ PHIL CAN BE REACHED AT philb@asentiv.com 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Director and Photographer

Alan Bell

PRO TALK

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Put on Your

BEST FACE

A picture paints a thousand words… and what does yours say to the world. Here’s why it’s super important to have a headshot that reflects your best professional self

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here can be little doubt that we are meeting more online using video conferencing applications than face to face these days. However, as business owners and entrepreneurs, our profiles and images are still online and available for all to see.

Whether that’s on LinkedIn, the About Us page of our business websites, various social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram.

As a simple example, if you are attending meetings on Zoom, does your profile image show on the waiting room screen? And for that matter, what is your Zoom background?

Are you using a backdrop to advertise your personal brand and business, or are you missing the opportunity?

As a full-time professional photographer, I confess to being somewhat biased when answering the question about whether good profile images matter, particularly as I capture

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personalities for a living. As you’d expect, my answer is a resounding YES!

Here’s the evidence However, do not go by only what I say. Let me give you some independent evidence to support my position: First evidence: a finding from a paper published in Psychological Science says that in 40 milliseconds, we draw conclusions about people based on a photo. Given that a profile photo is a single, static image, it could be that we draw the wrong conclusion, and these might change once we meet in person (or online). However, that initial impression is vital for the viewer to feel that the person in the photo is approachable. They should be confident to move from your photo to looking at your bio, for example.

As our eyes are naturally drawn towards

images, a profile photo is often the first thing that people see, and therefore its importance shouldn’t be underestimated.

Second evidence: LinkedIn says that members with a photo receive far more engagement: with 21 times more profile views and nine times more connection requests. The evidence suggests that a person is up to 36 times more likely to receive messages too.

I was part of a recent online networking event for business owners and entrepreneurs in which the host conducted a quick poll: 1. How many of those on the call had already (or would immediately once the call finished) go online to check out the other attendees? The answer was 74%.

2. Which of the social media platforms would they check? 82% said LinkedIn was their preference.

3. If the person didn’t have a profile picture on LinkedIn, would they continue to their bio? 62% responded that they wouldn’t.

It is also worth noting the growing trend for virtual recruitment processes. For years many corporations have used research from 3rd parties or their own departments to check out the profiles of candidates for high-profile roles.

This trend has been growing for less senior positions where online profiles of prospective candidates are being used as part of the shortlisting process. This leads us into a broader topic of what online content you have posted, which we will save for another time.

Third evidence: various studies show that over a short period of time, 80 per cent of people will remember what they saw, compared to 20 percent of what they heard and only 10 percent of what they read. As visual learners, we can remember images more easily than we can remember text.

On that basis, it helps if your profile image is memorable for all the right reasons! Believe me, I have seen quite a few images out there that are memorable for the wrong reason.

Factors to consider So, if you’re going to update your profile picture, what factors should you consider?

Once again, there is plenty of research on the topic, and I’ve picked out some of the best practices below. However, my advice would be to consider what site(s) you will be using your image on and who is your target audience? If your primary purpose is LinkedIn, then your audience is more likely to be business-related,

This trend has been growing for less senior positions where online profiles of prospective candidates are being used as part of the shortlisting process

and as such, in the majority of instances, a corporate profile image is going to be better than one of you standing on a beach. However, if your audience is on Facebook, then you might have an image that is more lifestyle-oriented. The choice is entirely yours, but if you’ve gone to a professional photographer for guidance, then they should be able to discuss about you, your brand, your audience and tailor the shoot accordingly.

A good corporate profile image is likely to have the following characteristics: 1. A slight smile with teeth showing. The smile should also reach the eyes.

2. Smartly dressed (e.g., a dark-colored suit, white shirt, or blouse if no jacket is worn).

3. Lighting that is flattering but shows facial features without having too much contrast.

4. Head-and-shoulders, or head-to-waist photo.

5. Asymmetrical composition – facing camera but with shoulders turned at an angle.

6. Unobstructed eyes (glasses should not show studio lights reflected, for example).

7. Color or black and white is also possible as long as not too ‘contrasty’.

8. A plain/simple background is preferred so that the background doesn’t detract from your face.

Professional photographers are just that; professional. We have spent years studying and practicing how to take images that speak to a target audience. A great profile image will reflect your personality. In a digital world, it is a chance to remind people that there is a living, breathing human being behind your online persona. J ALAN BELL CAN BE REACHED AT alan@pixelroses.com 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

47

COMMUNITY SERVICE

The Humanitarian Hotelier From environment to humankind, Roxana Jaffer touches lives, spreading smiles and doing greater good, one initiative at a time. ASPIRE catches up with this hotelier who has set her eyes on making a real difference to the world around her

A

s a prominent humanitarian in the hospitality industry, Roxana Jaffer plays multiple roles from CEO, thought-leader, author, strategist, change agent to public speaker, and motivator.

Yet what drives her the most each day is her contribution to the environment and the world. Her professional commitment as CEO of Holiday Inn Al-Barsha and how she has ensured the hotel embraces social responsibility and sustainability at its core is remarkable.

Well-thought initiatives Roxana moved to the UAE in 2006 with her husband after living and working in the UK for years. She was planning to lead a retired life but soon got bored, yearning to do more. Taking up a new

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challenge as a hotelier with Sovereign Hotels, she not just succeeded in building up the company but also scaling it to greater heights, embedding soulful initiatives at the heart of the brand.

Roxana observes that Dubai in a very short span of time has undoubtedly proved itself by acclimatizing to sustainable measures. With the belief that every human being has a role to play in society, she decided to empower her staff and colleagues at work to become socially responsible. Beginning humbly and

moving gradually with well-thoughtout initiatives, Roxana paved the way by collaborating with various organizations working towards social causes.

“A truly sustainable company makes a difference and successfully incorporates in its DNA the principles of economic prosperity, social justice, and environmental protection. Simply, our sustainability remit is to help improve quality of human life, through responsible business practices,” Roxana asserts.

The words of the founding father of UAE remind her of the globe's depleting resources as she quotes UAE’s much-admired visionary Late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan: “Our land and in the sea, our forefathers lived and survived in this environment. They were able to do so because they recognized the need to conserve it, to take it only what they needed to live and to preserve it for succeeding generations.”

Over the years, Roxana has also worked towards designating a day during the Holy Month of Ramadan to bring underprivileged children from special schools to break their fast for an evening at the hotel's surroundings.

Over time, the property has hosted chil-

She was also honored to be a Task Force Member for UN – Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) to bring awareness on gender equality in the UAE

dren from Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special needs; Adopt-acamp, Special Needs Future Development Center; Eduscan Schools, etc., to name a few in their bid to brighten their days and spread happiness. “It was just great to see them enjoy our hospitality, and they felt proud to be accepted in mainstream society, which felt heartening,” smiles Roxana.

Illuminating lives, spreading smiles For over a decade, Roxana and her team have collaborated with various local and international community organizations bringing awareness to stakeholders by participating in their initiatives.

A partnership with United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP), the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, was really the turning point for Roxana as she accomplished the achievement of being accepted by UNWFP to be a partner and run initiatives that would help to engender funds to feed the hungry in the world.

“This gave a direction and meaning to the Initiative for Social Responsibility: Holiday Inn Loves You Campaign” (HILUC) that I gave birth to,” she reveals.

The campaign was initiated eleven years ago with a mandate to support compassionate causes, plan initiatives to raise funds for building a civil society, and uphold global partnerships that help global disasters.

Furthermore, in supporting United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs Goal #2)– ‘End Hunger, Achieve Food Security’ Roxana and her team have impacted over 497,941 hungry souls. She was also honored to be a Task Force Member for UN – Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) to bring awareness on gender equality in the UAE.

Radiating resilience and love Roxana faced a few road bumps on the journey, but her motivation to sustain the drives never stopped. “The biggest challenge was the year 2020 and the pandemic to combat COVID 2019. Lots of our programs were halted and our annual targets did not actualize. ‘Embrace Ramadan’, an annually held initiative for the month, came to a halt. That's when

we pledged that for every Iftar taken at our restaurant, we would donate a dollar to the hungry. Our ‘Bridge for A Cause’ and ‘Bazaar’ that raised awareness and funds for the hungry too were at a standstill,” she shares.

Roxana and her staff were not thwarted and found innovative methods to look after the people and environment during the pandemic. “While glass partitions at checking in desks, social distancing, contactless menus in restaurants, and safety posters became the norm, we thought of new avenues to give care to our guests and staff. For guests, I sanctioned dedicated areas for

steaming with special steam machines and wellness tea (a special recipe to thwart the virus) being served in our all-day dining,” says Roxana.

Despite the shortcomings of the year, the team also managed to achieve a 34% Reduction in Water usage, 27% Reduction in Electricity Usage and 24% Reduction in Carbon Footprint. Holiday Inn Al-Barsha has won the coveted ARABIA CSR AWARD for 5 Years in a row for its sustainability drives. As the force behind the initiatives, Roxana herself is a recipient of many awards: ‘Global Inspiration Leadership Award 2015, for Outstanding Leadership’, ‘Best Best Woman in Hospitality Award, UAE 2015’, United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) recognition for ‘Putting Sustainability Goals into Action’, Femina World HRD Congress 2018 ‘World Women Super Achiever Awards’, Berkeley Middle East Investors Club 2019 ‘Most Influential Women Leader Award’, to name a few.

She is also the founder of an NGO “Advent in Building Human Capital” operating in 3 countries – India, Pakistan, and UAE. A specially formulated educational program: “English for Hospitality Professionals”, it allows growth and employment to discerning youth with an 80% year on year success rate.

There is no stopping Roxana who wishes to continue touching lives, radiating love and humility while at it. “I hope and continue to keep to our sustainability mission as long as I can. My aspiration would be that my colleagues and stakeholders continue the work of being socially responsible with greater zeal in bringing awareness of social responsibility to all stakeholders and upholding one of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) sayings - 'Preserve the earth because it is your mother',” she expresses. J 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Beyond Business / tr avel

Business without borders

David Tee is a man who wears many hats - entrepreneur, author, speaker, tech whiz and traveller. His diverse career and interests have seen him visit many countries and he tells ASPIRE about the growth and joy that comes when you travel the world for work

L

ife is not as fast-paced for David Tee as it used to be, a software engineer who has traveled over 30 countries across all continents, incubating businesses and gathering experiences.

It all started in the eighties when he worked for a UK government program installing computers in schools during his gap year before university. When the team geared up for an exhibit in Singapore, David’s software was selected for demonstration, but they couldn’t pay him. So, he bargained an unconventional payment - to take him along on the trip.

From here on, business ensured that travel stayed a part of his life. After university, he worked in product development for a software company, courtesy of which he visited Turkey to demonstrate the software along with his sales team.

Presently residing in Izmir, Turkey, he recalls the trips he took. “I came here, then two other trips, one to Egypt and one to Portugal. The UK government was selling these computers to other governments, so the then Minister of IT recommended

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roadshows to boost sales. I was part of the background team, conducting demos and making sure it was all in order.”

When he started his own UK-based software company, he was kept away from international travel briefly, only going as far as Canada a few times during his stint there. After five years, a return to his old firm allowed him to get closely acquainted with the land of maple trees in a bid to explore business opportunities.

His six months there was an eye-opening experience - watching kids go to school in ski goggles, scarves, and mittens, where even buying a newspaper from the street was impossible without several layers protecting one from the freezing subzero temperatures of -25 degrees. “My nose hairs froze,” he recalls laughing aloud.

“You should go there if only to experience how bizarre that feels.”

In the Valley and beyond

When he started working for a South London consultancy, advising companies on the impact of technology on their business, work had him shuttling in and out of Silicon Valley, wherein lay

the heart of the enterprise. He made an intellectual home in Menlo Park, which remains to date the haunt of the most sought-after venture capitalists in the country, playing frisbee on the Stanford grounds with their esteemed alumni in his spare time.

The consultancy was affiliated with the Stanford Research Institute, the R&D juggernaut with a reputation for groundbreaking technology after the Second World War, as well as to commercialize technology and introduce it to the market. They were the recipients of the first email message on the internet (or its erstwhile 1971 equivalent), from UCLA to Stanford, the first two nodes on the same network. The message was “Hello World”, and it crashed after only the first three letters, but they got through. These fascinating experiences have enlivened David’s business travels.

Post 1998, David experimented across domains - starting with a small ecommerce startup to advising a health data company called IMS Health in Philadelphia on their business decisions, fully capitalizing on what he calls ‘his Amer-

that landed him a full-time gig in Jordan, where he and his wife settled into their new dwellings.

Jordan was surreal - more westernized than he expected, progressive, tasked with the weighty burden of being a buffer amidst more tumultuous lands - Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia. Despite its apparent lack of innate resources (often relying on their friendly ties with the West for support), the Jordanian royalty was keen to encourage incubators to help

Jordan was surreal - more westernized than he expected, progressive, tasked with the weighty burden of being a buffer amidst more tumultuous lands - Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia ican boom’. Post that, he rode the ‘.com wave’ by moving the incubator set-up online, helping newly-formed startups get a proper launch. But the .com crash was as unforgiving as it was unexpected.

David and his firm converted their endeavors into a recruitment service, which helped large corporations hire most of their English-speaking staff using their service. He left after three years, with the company eventually running out of

steam due to the advent of apps, and hence had to be shut down.

Rewriting his luck in Jordan

A chance bid in London with no guarantee of success brought him to Jordan. At the time, David was in Bangalore setting up an English language coaching center when he got a call saying, “The bid is selected; we start tomorrow!” Realizing his stroke of luck

startups to proliferate under the vision of risk-takers and entrepreneurs. New businesses were viewed as ‘saviors’ of a tanking economy, so the government often took it upon itself to fund the early stages, bringing in angel investors with inherited wealth or venture capitalists once they saw potential.

An ambassador to distant lands

When you’ve traveled for work with as much zeal as David, the etiquette of a ‘business traveler’ is second nature at this point. The humility of a visiting guest will make your stay pleasant in most countries, as well as an acknowledgment of their culture. For instance, 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Beyond Business / tr avel

ture reserves. If you are looking to travel and acquaint yourself with nature, the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve apparently has more tree species in a single hectare than all of North America. Also, the Singapore Botanical Gardens is older than Singapore itself! Its frequented attraction, the National Orchid Garden, has over 200 hybrids in the garden named after popular figures such as Nelson Mandela, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Jackie Chan.

It’s not all history and nature either.

Vibrant eateries, iconic wall murals, and delightful boutiques await curious exploration along the Art Deco-style buildings of Tiong Bahru, guaranteed to inspire artists and collectors.

FOODIE HOTSPOTS IN SINGAPORE: It’s hardly

a secret that the place is a smorgasbord of seafood, especially its famed chili crabs. But " Char Kway Teow

Singapore: Navigating the ‘little red dot’

NATURE: Singapore is one of the world’s greenest cities, acclaimed for the rich biodiversity in its na-

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# Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

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that’s not a staple for most Singaporeans. Instead, Singapore has a proud and thriving hawker culture, selling affordable, delicious dishes in little permanent cafes across the city, as well as near offices and in government-built housing estates. Instead, chicken rice, char kway teow (stir-fried flat rice noodles), bak chor mee (minced pork noodles), and wanton mee are popular amongst locals. These dishes are available across eateries in town, so there’s little chance tourists will miss gorging on these on their trip.

CULTURE AND POLICY: Singapore has retained its Asian roots while embracing other cultures, now boasting of a blended culture with Eurasian, Malay, South Asian, and East Asian influences, earning itself the title of ‘Gateway to Asia’.

It takes pride in its racial harmony, with respect for diverse religious and personal beliefs heavily emphasized by the government. Racial Harmony Day is observed annually on 21st July to emphasize the importance of imparting racial harmony knowledge to the youths.

Concepts of democracy, peace, progress, justice, and equality are upheld through vision and action.

The people are hardworking and resourceful and have much to take pride in. Widely known for its negligible crime rate, it is amusing to note that officials Image: woonheng.com

exchanging business cards is a formal ritual in Japan, and merely shoving it in your pocket without proper interest is considered a grave disrespect.

Despite that being 25 years ago, David doubts that traditional Japan has changed much.

Must one keep an eye out for business when traveling for pleasure? “If you’re going for pleasure, don’t worry about business. Same is the other way around,” David advises sagely. Whether he’s immersing himself in a museum of Korean history or sampling South Korean cuisine sitting cross-legged on the floor, David is all about being in the moment. When he travels, he leaves his idiosyncrasies behind, adopting the twang and intonations of the place he’s visiting even when speaking English, trying to be as clear and understandable as possible. “As a traveler, don’t go storming in and expect people to conform to you. Adapt to their culture and how they’ve done things so far.”

David remembers the kindness of people he’s met and their stories, more than the faraway lands or the business liaisons - such as the techie in Turkey he met at 22 who invited him home, offering him a warm meal and a comforting experience. Experiences with people from diverse backgrounds have made him open-minded. “Too many politicians rely on people’s misguided pride in their tribe. Travel breaks down these boundaries. That’s why I say, every eighteen-year-old should perhaps travel before they do anything else.”

The most bustling metropolis in Southeast Asia, Singapore, has also featured in David’s travels and won his heart with its natural beauty, cosmopolitan culture, and phenomenal economic growth. Singapore, according to him, is a place that one can easily make a home.

Read on to explore all that Singapore has to offer.

the 4th largest global exporter of hightech goods, as well as the producer of 5 of the world’s top 10 drugs.

The consistent high GDP per capita has ensured that Singapore becomes one of the wealthiest nations in the world.

EXPATS IN SINGAPORE: Moving to Singapore is a dream come true for many, but one should be aware of both sides of the coin. On the plus side, the agreeable weather, quality education, and top-notch healthcare (regardless of insurance) make it an expatriate haven, but if you are not prepared for the frequent rains, strict regulations (fines on littering are exorbitant), and the steep cost of living such as rent, schooling, and initial healthcare payments, you might be in for a rude shock.

TRAVEL TRIVIA

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SINGAPORE: With the

country ranking the highest in the ‘ease of doing business, startups and fledgling businesses sprout up rampant in the country. As per reports, around 7% of the country’s population participates in entrepreneur" The national lanWith strong anti-corial activity, putting it guage of Singapore ruption laws, ease of among the top countries is Malay. You can get business has only seen in the world in terms of by speaking English, an increase. investing in businesses.

Chinese, and Tamil Singapore has seen In the last year alone, while here. more prosperity than its over 45,000 businesses " You will not find lagging neighbors due were registered in Sinchewing gum sold to its free open market gapore, which is about 1 anywhere across the economy. Despite limited per 100 people. island except for the natural and human reThe Start-Up Enpharmacy, which can sources, it has attained terprise Development be purchased with a steady GDP growth Scheme (SEEDS) was a prescription as for over the years (the govstarted by the government nicotine or dental gum. ernment estimates a to collaborate actively 4%-6% GDP growth in with angel investors and 2021) and is considered one of Asia’s four startups. While the scheme helps with economic tigers alongside Hong Kong, initial capital, once a business has proven South Korea, and Taiwan. The economy its viability and shown growth, it is then is heavily reliant on exports, particularly expected to look for outside investment to in information technology products, con- help expand the business further. If banks sumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, and seem unable or unwilling to lend money the financial services sector. Thanks to its to new businesses, then this clears a path robust manufacturing, companies like for venture capitalists and angel investors Shell, Merck, and Micron favor the coun- who are more than willing to step into the try for their manufacturing needs. This gap left by the traditional lenders, as is corporate benevolence has now made it becoming increasingly common. J " While the name Singapore means ‘Lion City’, named by the prince of Palembang, the irony is there have never been lions outside of captivity in the island nation.

had to put out a warning saying “low crime does not mean no crime,” so as not to have people lulled into a false sense of security.

Notoriously also called the ‘Fine City’, dwellers are heavily fined for rule violations - for everything from smoking in public, littering to even just chewing gum outside your home. Travelers are advised to read up on the many travel websites that talk of Singapore’s rules to avoid getting on the wrong side of the law.

BUSINESS AND OTHER ATTRIBUTES: As per the 2021 Index of Economic Freedom, Singapore’s economic freedom score is 89.7, the highest-ranking in the world, second time in a row. With a business-friendly regulatory environment and a low unemployment rate, Singapore is one of the world’s most prosperous nations. Additionally, with it ranking 12th in the World Justice Project’s 2020 Rule of Law Index, it has attained the status of being one of the world’s least corrupt countries.

2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Beyond Business / health

The Gut Cut

Bindu Gopal Rao talks about the importance of the often-ignored gut microbiota in boosting immunity, digestion, and keeping the body running in top form

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ating right and keeping fit is the first line of defense, not only to elevate wellness but also to prevent illness.

However, a lesser-discussed facet is the environment of our intestine, or gut, which houses the microbes that break down food, manufacture vitamins, and train our immune system. An assessment of our internal biome gives us our health report.

In a healthy human being, there is a symbiotic relationship between the gut microbes and the human host. There are 10 to 100 trillion microbes in the human intestine. That’s quite a population!

All of these tiny organisms make us who we are.

Fiber Fix: Consuming diverse plant-based meals

offers fibers called prebiotics, which feed the good bacteria in the gut. The fermenting of these fibers releases short-chain fatty acids, which reduce inflammation and beef up immune-supporting fighter T-cells. Fermented foods are full of live bacteria called probiotics, which strengthen the mucosal lining, prevent the growth of unfavorable pathogens, and prevent respiratory infections owing to the channel we now know as the ‘gut lung axis’.

It is suggested that healthy adults eat between 20 and 35 gm of dietary fiber each day. 50% of your fiber intake should come from cereals, 30-40% from vegetables, 15-16% from fruits, and the remaining 3% from other minor sources.

Mental Connect: A significant aspect of good

gut health is, believe it or not, tied to mental wellness. Expert opinions state that the gut is our ‘second brain’. A healthy gut can control appetite and weight, moderate metabolism, enhance the absorption of vital nutrients, help manage anxiety, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, and prevent several neurological disorders.

There is a definite connection between gut health and the brain, as evidenced by the increased risk of Parkinson's disease, autism, anxiety, and depression amongst those with gut dysbiosis (increase in bad bacteria over good bacteria). Even your hap-

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py hormones are produced in your gut and transported to the brain. The axis from your gut to your brain is a pivotal one, so if you have an inflamed gut, the transport of good hormones and necessary neurotransmitters from your gut to your brain breaks down like a barricaded highway.

Immune Fix:

Today, people worldwide are afflicted with infections and environmental pollu-

tion, compromising the body’s immune system. It would help if you had a vast diversity of good gut flora in your intestine to maintain good gut health.

After all, we are only ten percent human; the rest of us is all microbes.

Taking care of all the little buddies inside us is paramount to keep our body at its highest caliber.

So, keep junk foods, refined grains, excess sugar, and salt at bay. Eat more vegetables, fruits, fermented non-grain foods, and fats that increase the short-chain fatty acids production in the gut.

Another term you must know when talking about gut health is ‘dysbiosis’, which is the imbalance in

the gut’s microbe composition (overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria overwhelming the helpful ones) and the root cause of many human diseases. In the current period, a majority of patients in the gastric and surgical outpatient departments are suffering from ‘dysbiosis’. Dysbiosis has been associated with many conditions - from irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel diseases, colorectal cancer to obesity, other metabolic disorders, to even autism.

Good Gut: Our digestive system works 24x7 with a phased-out rhythm of breaking down and building up substances needed for our health and well-being.

Thus, the right quantity and quality of food at the right time is critical to support our digestive system.

The stomach works like a grinder. To churn the food taken in, there needs to be some space and fluid along with the food. So, there must only be 1/3rd food, 1/3rd liquid (water is the best), and 1/3rd empty space, which means always eat a few morsels less than a full stomach. Balanced nutrition is a mix of complex carbohydrates, adequate proteins, healthy fats, along with dietary fibers, vitamins, and minerals that bring life-sustaining quality to an individual. Dinner should be balanced with complex carbohydrates and light proteins and fats. This will help in easy digestion with minimal supportive bile needed.

Vitamin B12, which is synthesized by the gut flora, is most needed for optimal neuronal functioning and myelination. Vitally important to a healthy central nervous system functioning, Myelination is the process of formation of lipid-protein sheaths around axons of neurons that allow nerve cells to transmit information faster, aiding more complex brain processes.

Food as Medicine:

Vitamin B12, which is synthesized by the gut flora, is most needed for optimal neuronal functioning and myelination

Ayurveda speaks of ‘ritu sandhi’, which is the junction period of two ‘Ritus’ or seasons - the final days of the previous season changing to the initial days of the next one and is marked for a gradual shift from your habits and practices from the old season to the new one, essentially preparing your gut for seasonal changes.

Ayurveda believes you become the food you eat, and improper digestion is the root cause of all ailments. Ayurveda enlists 13 successive stages of digestion and metabolism that not only keeps a steady physical homeostasis (state of balance) but also supports the brain and other nervous system functions.

Gut health thus becomes the crux of all treatment plans in Ayurveda.

The food we consume plays a very important role in maintaining good gut health. It determines the bacterial composition in your gut. Everyone needs a healthy spread of organisms, and an important way of bringing these into our system is through food.

We must strive to make our inner body as rich and varied as the collection of our life’s experiences, and honor and practice the deeds that help us do so. ✪ 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Beyond Business / auto

A Hybrid for the Road

The latest addition to all-wheel SUVs, see how the Toyota RAV4 hybrid squares up

Design The Exterior • A perfect blend of sportiness and athletics • The headlight unit is very decent, all LED with DRLs, reducing issues with projections during night-time • The Wheel arch guards remind us of JEEP Grand Cherokee with no rounded edges and a boxy wheel arch Cabin style and Interiors • The interior is tidy with black or beige leather seats. The steering wheel is wrapped in leather and the soft material stitching on the dashboard lends the car a premium feel • The seating position is ergonomic and comfortable, a huge plus for the driver • Several practical features offered such as wireless charging, 2 big cupholders, ample space in the bin beneath the armrest with 2 fast charging USB ports • Backseat too offers plenty of space, indicative of the RAV4 being the bigger SUV in its class • Intelligently packaged! A 6-foot-tall person would still have a lot of headroom and leg space left. Can easily accommodate a 5th person sitting in the car because the traditional transmission tunnel (the big hump on the floor) doesn’t exist • 2 air vents in the rear, excellent for the hot climes of the UAE • The rear passengers have their own armrest with cupholders and reclinable seats, so one can either sit upright or settle back for a longer road trip

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Efficiency and Mechanics Engine • a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine paired to an electric motor with a continuously variable automatic transmission • A second electric motor powering the rear wheels • Standard all-wheel drive • Altogether, the hybrid powertrain makes 219 horsepower Strong acceleration • RAV4 Prime skipped to 90 mph in just 5.6 seconds • All the features grant the driver ample confidence when it comes to overtaking and weaving in and out of traffic Fuel economy/ hybrid characteristics • About 17 km/l in combined city/highway driving, which is an impressive real-world economy, more than making up for the slight price mark-up compared to the regular (non-hybrid) RAV4

Tech and Infotainment • The 8-inch infotainment system

is crisp and bright and it supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and Amazon Alexa • The integrated navigation is efficient • An analogue Instrument Cluster with a screen in the middle giving us a digital speedometer and other trip computer information with a power gauge. (The tachometer is not analogue) • A slew of technology excellent for motor enthusiasts, such as blind spot monitoring and a 360-degree parking camera

X-factor

• Spunky electrically assisted

acceleration, taut suspension and decent off-road capability make the RAV4 Hybrid a solid allaround driver

Flaws/ Misses

• If you love listening to music

and prefer good audio, going in for the RAV4 Cruiser (rather than the Hybrid) might seem advantageous, as it comes equipped with the JBL Speakers • The Instrument Cluster too has a bigger digital unit in the ‘Cruiser’ variant • Functionality foibles such as rubbery steering, numb braking and an engine that drones under high load do negate some of its top qualities

Safety

• Toyota adherence of driver-

assistance features makes the car the Top Safety Pick for 2020 • Standard automated emergency braking with pedestrian detection • Standard lane-departure warning with lane-keeping assist • Standard adaptive cruise control

Green features (environmental sustainability)

Nemesis

• Rav4 is a parallel hybrid, which

means it can run just on battery, or just on the internal combustion engine or use both in unison.

• The fuel savings offered due to efficiency are great for cutting down on emissions

Price point

(top car trim + if any options available for this)

• $37,330 or AED 1,37,120 is

(top competitor of the model we’re covering and why) • Ford Escape Hybrid and Honda

CR-V Hybrid are recent launches but they are pretty evenly matched with the RAV4 Hybrid J

the MSRP of the RAV4 Hybrid Limited trim

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Beyond Business / st yle

Summer Love

As business heats up, Ayaat Attar tells you how to stay cool while donning the perfect look that takes you effortlessly from workplace to funplace

T

he five-minute ‘zoom’ look seems to be a trend of the past, and fashion T enthusiasts have more reasons than the obvious to celebrate. As workspaces open up and it’s back to the ‘real’ office, we help you pick your summer look.

So come work or play, you’re dressed like a million bucks! What are you going to be wearing today?

FOR A TYPICAL 9-TO-5 DAY

The coffee is brewing, the calendar is updated and the meeting room is booked. Here’s our suggestions for looks that perfectly compliment your mood at work! " WOMEN • Wear a floral shirt

with high waisted pant, wear the blooms on your skirt, or wear it as a blazer.

Either way it brings out your sunshine mood.

• Retro lovers could also go in for floral or polka-printed dresses with or without collars. Don’t forget to throw in a pair of black shades to shield you from the sun, a sling bag for essential documents and a red lip to add to the mystery!

# MEN • Approachable and breezy, floral prints are a great idea to make the first impression at that friendly business meeting. It’s like wearing a smile, before you even flash one!

• Team up a buttoneddown half-sleeved shirt with tiny vibrant flowers as prints against a mild background, with colored trousers of

soft tones. A blazer hung casually over your forearm would complete the look, which courtesy the weather, you may not get to wear for the entirety of the day

• Ladies and men, go for solid cotton face masks of neutral shades to TIP let your outfit do all the talking.

• Dressing no-no’s: Stay clear of contrasting hues, jarring flowers and overlarge prints, or you may distract your listeners from that important presentation you stayed up all night curating!

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AL-WHITEY

Light and pastel tones that reflect the heat during scorching summers is a usual choice. Let’s keep the hues aside for once and try going white as a dove, from head to toe. " WOMEN • Go ambitious with a white

# MEN • A three-piece white pant suit, paired with tapered white shoes.

Style your hair with a formholding gel, ala Don Draper.

• You can’t go wrong with a white round neck tee with straight white trousers for a chilled cool look at the office.

Keep your hair in artful windswept locks and throw on spotlessly white sneakers for an irresistible look!

top layered underneath a white jacket making sure your skin can breathe, while your outfit makes a statement. Add white wide bottom pants and a pair of white stilettoes to the mix.

• Don an hourglass-fit white dress and go out and accentuate your femininity.

• For a chiller look, throw on a loose white shirt over high waisted white bell bottoms.

Wear nude heels, keep your makeup light and natural, and carry a bag of the same tone to hold your essentials for a long day’s work.

It only takes one spill to ruin a precious TIP white outfit, so be careful with your coffee and other snacks!

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Beyond Business / st yle FOR A CASUAL WORKDAY

Casual workday? Make Chambray your choice of fabric. Denim’s cool cousin, it has a softer texture and feel and is a whole lot lighter to wear. Typically blue (and looks like denim) best thing about this look is that it’s a classic that will never go out of style – so you can repeat it over and over, and don it to your heart’s content.

And just in case you were toying with the idea, a denim mask to go with the look is a fantastic one.

" WOMEN • Sport a well-pressed chambray shirt with a pair of fitted trousers or a printed skirt for the days you are calling the shots at work.

• Play around with a bevy of footwear options ranging from flats to heels. You can also add chains as long as they don’t distract you on that job you love!

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# MEN • Men can finish the office look with tan loafers and beige pants • Add elements like a heavydial watch as a statement piece. Bulky handbags in bold shades of browns and a pair of tinted sunglasses will further enhance the vibe of the look.

FOR AFTERWORK RECREATION

You’re stepping out for brunch with your favorite bunch from work. Here are a few attires that are chic and stylish, while being the right amount of semiformal.

# WOMEN • To keep things playful for a perfect after-work hang, go for comfy jumpsuits. Match with strappy heels and vibrant jewelry like long danglers for earrings.

• A pair of roomy and comfortable mom jeans with a button down tucked-in shirt keeps things breezy. You can do away with jewelry for that ultra-minimalist vibe!

# MEN • Stripped shirt teamed with a dog tag pendant and a slight stubble, is undoubtedly the perfect summer-day-off look.

Wear it with panache and you’ll have copycats soon enough!

• Whether diamonds are a woman’s best friend may be debatable, but a man’s best pals have got to be chinos and canvas shoes! Style the look with a light-colored shirt, a pair of sunglasses or a hat, and you’re good to go. J

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Beyond Business / a spire+ An entrepreneur needs to know a lot. Way more than the business idea he or she is growing. Aspire brings you a range of knowledge each month that will keep you in the loop and have you effortlessly conversing with everyone, from your local grocery store owner to your investor to your bank manager. Success is not what you do, it is how you do it, and this is how…

WATCH it

Alain de Botton: Status Anxiety

The Botton Line

YouTube is your friend. And as you start moving ahead building your dreams, you’ll find your near and dear start to fall away.

The naysayers and detractors will often be the ones giving the worst advice or bringing negativity you don’t really need as you struggle from idea to profit.

Alain de Botton’s book Status Anxiety is a brilliant look at this phenomenon viewed through the lens of social networking and the positives and negatives it holds for us. But not all of us like to read…. So we recommend that you head over to YouTube and look for the documentary on Status Anxiety. We promise you’ll find it an excellent investment of your time and will equip you with the psychological tools you need to successfully wind your way through the online world that now rules our lives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1MqJPHxy6g

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READ it

Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt

Uncommon coincidences

What do birth control and crime rates have in common? Discover how all life and events are connected in unique, random and unfathomable ways.

And how unrelated events have a way of directing the course of our lives… Freakonomics, written more than three decades ago is a brilliant read, engagingly written to hook in even the lay reader.

It became an overnight bestseller and to this day is a must-read for anyone looking to make interesting and entertaining conversation - a skill no entrepreneur should be without.

Rosy is my relative by Gerald Durrell

Decompress with Rosy Want to get lost in laughter and love. Escape from the craziness of your personal entrepreneurial adventure. Pick up this book and dive into the adventures of Adrian Rookwhistle, someone who also took a chance and ended up finding all he dreamed of. Written by an author who spanned a conservation movement globally, ended up making an island famous and made many, many people laugh with his witty and descriptive writing… Rosy Is My Relative remains one of the finest pieces of writing in English - ever! If you don’t fall off your chair laughing, we’ll be most surprised.

EAT it

BE it Zoom Etiquettes Working from the comfort of our homes, things can get a little sloppy. So, the next time before you hit ‘Join Meeting’, besides the usual ‘dress the part’, ‘avoid cluttered and noisy background’, and ‘mute microphone when not speaking’ rules, this little zoom etiquette list might come in handy.

Art of Dum

DUM PUKTH CUISINE AT YOUR TABLE! In the mood for some traditional ‘Dum Pukht’ style cooked food delivered right to your home? The kind of food that takes hours of preparation letting the dishes breathe in their own aroma and juices to beautifully infuse the flavors from the various spices and herbs, making each dish a delight for the senses.

Not just food, it’s a journey across the royal kitchens of the Northwest Frontier Province; from Kashmir to Punjab, to Awadh, Nizam, and Rajputana, all of which define modern day Indian cuisine with melt-in-the-mouth kebabs, fragrant biryanis, luscious delicately spiced gravies, and indulgent sweet dishes.

Art of Dum recreates the charm of the traditional clay pots & tandoors that pay homage to the art of the legendary Khansamas, albeit in a different format, something that is rarely seen in the delivery kitchen format. Premium packaging promoting a zero-plastic policy with reusable premium quality glass jars, clay pots and steel cutlery, completes the luxurious in-home dining experience.

• Use video: A significant portion of a message is also nonverbal. It’s hardly a joy speaking to static pictures and worse, just names. Also, being completely in the picture indicates that you’re actively listening and engaged.

• Prepare materials in advance: Make sure you have all notes, PPTs and tabs where you need them to avoid switching between windows or searching for files.

• Direct your meeting: As host, let your group know the agenda for the meeting, set the ground rules and intervene when necessary to ensure smooth sailing.

• Do not eat or drink: One exception is water or coffee, especially if you’ve got a packed schedule.

However, do not gulp and it’s good to mute the microphone.

• Take deliberate pauses: Take a deliberate, slightly extended pause in between sentences to account for lags likely due to connection speeds to ease back and forth communication.

• No multitasking: An often-overlooked rule, it’s best to give your full attention to retain more from the meeting, and it will be a more valuable use of everyone’s time.

• Sort out troubleshooting: Network, connection, battery et al – you are your own IT team. Make sure everything’s running in ship shape! J 2 0 2 1 — A U G - S E P — ASPIRE

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Beyond Business / the l a st word

Make it so

There’s an unwritten rule in our job descriptions that we need to embrace - for success is not just about salaries and designations. There’s a different kind of win we should all be striving for…

M

any of us spend many of our waking hours in the workplace, where we strive to excel at our jobs, climb various ladders and try to be better than others to get promoted. Our offer letters and job descriptions mostly lay out the terms and conditions of our employment - from the cleaner to the CEO we must operate at our professional best. However, amidst the aspirations of our lives and careers there’s this unwritten rule that we tend to ignore. It took me a long time to realize this great truth and now I try to practice it regardless of whether I am at work or play.

I remember in the early stages of my career when a boss fired me for asking the tiniest raise after working a year of long days with no weekends and little resource. I felt it most keenly when a group of colleagues ganged up on me and no one spoke up for me. I experienced the bitterness of it when a business failed, and no one offered comfort. I understood it when those I had helped get ahead stabbed me in the back, and when seniors took credit for the work I did.

I crumbled under it when a junior snitched on me and got me into unprecedented trouble.

We’ve all been there, and this is the unwritten rule, the golden principle, of every job description. Make life a little easier for others around you!

Check your ego at the door, park your selfishness outside the building and walk in ready to help not just your organization, but also your colleagues. Praise a good idea even if it is not yours, own up to mistakes rather than passing the buck. Be the boss that recognizes effort as well as results and makes coffee for his or her subordinates. Be the woman that sticks up for another woman. Be the man that

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calls out office bullying and politics. Don’t forget to thank the door man and ask after his family. Take on extra work so the new dad can go home early. If you have taken favors, return them. Stop gossip in its tracks by letting rumours and information stay within you. Acknowledge publicly someone else’s contribution to your growth and success…

You don’t have to like everyone you work with, and they don’t have to like you. But you can be pleasant and gracious; it costs you nothing. Someday that junior you were nice to will be the CEO of a company that your child is looking to intern at. Someday your colleague may be in position to offer you investment in your startup. It’s a slow burn but it always plays to be nice.

The workplace offers us opportunities to practice personal grace. Yes, I grant you, it may not get you promotions or pay hikes in the short term. But you will reap benefits in other important ways.

The unwritten rule offers great scope for personal growth and in the dog-eat-dog world of corporate life, the universe offers you chance after chance to truly make the world a kinder place. And so, in the words of that ultimate organizational leader, Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise - I encourage you to make it so! J Sangeetha Shinde Tee is an author of four books, editor of 3 international magazines, an acclaimed healer, and reluctant entrepreneur.

Also an unconventional traveler, rebellious truth seeker, and inveterate animal rescuer, she is working on her fifth book - a collection of ghost stories from around the world. Find out more about her life, books, and work at www.sangeethashindetee.com

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