Business Insight Issue 25 - 2016

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Summer Starts

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krysta fox director of freezone, dmcc success series interview

Commodities Fired up by the Fading Dollar Data Availability Key for New Talent

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Editor’s Foreword

S

ummer is here – Well nearly anyway, and the mad rush that this time of year brings is fully upon us.

Did you know that in the last three years, the DMCC has more than doubled in size, but they have only increased their staff in the freezone team by 10-12 percent because of their successful digital transformation? This is all down to two women, and this month, we had the exciting chance to speak to Krysta Fox, Director of Freezone at the DMCC - one half of this amazing success story - to find out more about her career story. In a very candid interview, Krysta explains how beneficial and rewarding working in the UAE has been for her. She doesn’t hold back in admitting the mistakes that she made early in her career and the lessons that she has learnt – all of which have propelled her to her position today.

Some of you may already know Ludmilla Yamalova, a regular writer for Business Insight and a regular on Dubai Eye, as well as being one of the judges for the DMCC Members Awards. This month, Ludmilla provides a helpful insight for all business leaders into the advice you should provide your employees, in her article, “The Legal Basics Every Employer Should Tell Their Employees – Work Rights” These aren’t the only points you should share with your employees. With the temperature and our summer season workloads increasing, it is no wonder that people are already being affected - notice the increase of people with short tempers anyone? This is just one small effect though. Many of us have travelling staff, which has to get from one side of Dubai to another as a daily part of their job. Others will have labourers who will spend the days outside in the searing heat. As employers, you have a liability to your staff to ensure that they are fully educated on how to keep themselves safe. In our articles, “Summer Starts Here,” we tell you the symptoms that you and your staff need to be aware of, and the emergency course of action that you may need to take. We take this even further in our article “Feeling the Heat,” where you can find out what you should be doing as an employer to mitigate any issues that you may face.

Publisher & CEO Liam Williams liam@flipflopmedia.ae Managing Director Harry Norman harry@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9062 Business Development Executive Paul Davis info@flipflopmedia.ae +971 04 369 9061 Editorial Editor Tanya Selley tanya@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9063 Staff Writer Rachel Stracey info@flipflopmedia.ae Design & Photography Head of Design Marlou Delaben design@flipflopmedia.ae Operation Steve Miller Operations@flipflopmedia.ae circulation & Production Circulation and Distribution Manager Antonio de Marco circulationdm@flipflopmedia.ae Database and Circulation Manager Aaliya Khan databaseandcm@flipflopmedia.ae

Enjoy!

Production Manager Juan Vasquez productionmanager@flipflopmedia.ae Digital webmaster@flipflopmedia.ae

Tanya Published by

Talk to me at tanya@flipflopmedia.ae and let me know what information you need to take your business forward — and I will try to help you in the next issue.

Registered at Fujairah Free Zone PO Box 26734 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 369 9063 Fax: +971 4 369 8989 www.flipflopmedia.ae printed by Printwell © Copyright 2016 FlipFlop Media All rights reserved While the publisher has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

The Future of Trade *The UK Bribery Act Reaches the Middle East *US Data and Oil Prices

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Contents Foresight

34

Page 16 – RBA did what BoJ and ECB Failed To Do Page 18 – How Paper Is Eroding The Bottom Line

Success Series Page 22 – Success Series Interview: Krysta Fox Director of Freezone, DMCC

Money Page 32 – Commodities Fired Up By Fading Dollar

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People Page 36 – Summer Starts Here

Legal Page 40 - Legal Basics You Should Tell Employees – Work Rights

DMCC

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Page 44 – Dubai’s Role As Major Precious Metals Hub Boosted By Emerging Markets Trade Page 45 - Global Dubai Tea Forum Explores the Future of the World’s Favourite Beverage

Marketing Page 46 – Under the Influence

Technology Page 50 - Why the Need for “Open Hybrid Cloud” Page 52 – Reinventing the Data Center for the Cloud

Business Incubator Page 54 – 30% Surge in Social Media Activity During Ramadan Page 56 – The Judges Page 58 – Data Availability Key For New Talent Page 60 - Why MOOCs And Executives Don’t Mix Page 62 - Feeling the Heat

Page 42 – Richcomm Global Services Joins Singapore Diamon Investment Exchange as Pioneer Dubai Member

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FORWARD THINKING & FRESH IDEAS

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& Compilation • CFO Services • Company Incorporation Services • Market Research and Business Plan • Credit and Working Capital Management • Enterprise Risk Management • Operational Improvement Services • Business Valuation • Audit & Assurance • Business process reviews • Business process re-engineering P.O. Box No: 26869, 108 & 109 - Al Diyafa Shopping Centre, Satwa, Dubai, U.A.E., Tel: +971 4 345 1522, Fax: +971 4 345 2512

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EXPERT PANEL

Jonathan Hall Founder and Managing Director Mulverhill Associates

Caroline Jones Director Infopod

John Brash Founder & Chief Executive Brash Brands

Yogesh Mehta Managing Director Petrochem

Hind Abdulrazak Creative Director Audax Investment

Sara Abdulrazak Managing Director Audax Investment

Dr. Tommy Weir Founder Emerging Markets Leadership Center

Jeffrey Rhodes Founder & Managing Consultant Rhodes Precious Metals Consultancy DMCC

Louis Lebbos/ Founding Partner Astro Labs

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Muhammed Mekki Founding Partner Astro Labs

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foresight

RBA Did What BoJ And ECB Failed To Do

By Hussein Sayed, Chief Market Strategist, FXTM

The Aussie fell sharply after Reserve Bank of Australia surprised markets by lowering cash rates 25 basis points to a new time low of 1.75% The AUD$ dropped by more than 100 pips after the unexpected announcement to trade below 0.76. Only one third of analysts expected the central bank to take action as RBNZ, ECB and BoJ stood pat in their latest monetary policy meetings. The decision of the central bank comes at a time when employment and consumer spending provided signs of improvement in latest set of data, however the motivation to ease further was mainly due to risks of low inflation levels, as explained by governor Glenn Stevens: “At its meeting today, the Board decided to lower the cash rate by 25 basis points to 1.75 per cent, effective 4 May 2016. This follows information showing inflationary pressures are lower than expected.”

The RBA’s preferred measure of inflation CPI dropped 0.2 percent QoQ, marking the first decline since the fourth quarter of 2008, and only increased 1.7 percent YoY, short of 2-3 percent inflation target. The central bank reiterated that although low interest rates have been supporting demand, an appreciating exchange rate could complicate this, indicating that they are still not confident with current levels of Aussie. Although the central bank provided little information on their next move, if inflation continued to undershoot we expect one more cut in the second half of the year which will limit the upside potential of the currency.

Also noteworthy is the Yen’s fresh 18 months’ high versus the dollar. “BoJ, you are being watched” is the message sent from U.S. treasury to Japanese authorities when it put Japan and four other countries on monitoring list due to their large account surpluses with the United States. Haruhiko Kuroda, the Governor of the BoJ, will find it difficult to temper the unappreciated Yen strength through direct intervention, especially with G7 summit being held in Japan. However with continued warning signals about the “onesided” moves and the impact on Japan’s economy we are likely to see action from both the fiscal and monetary side to avoid the economy from entering a new recession. USD/JPY tested a new 18 months’ low today to trade below 106. I continue to see levels close to 105 an attractive entry point for mid-term USD/JPY bulls with a potential to move back toward 110. l

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foresight

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How Paper Is Eroding The Bottom Line

Manual processes are wasting time and money. Here is what companies can do about it.

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success

Krysta Fox Success Series Interview:

Director of Freezone, DMCC Anyone who is anyone in the UAE knows Krysta Fox, the charming yet steely determined Director of Freezone of the DMCC who is making waves in Dubai by tripling the size of the freezone in three years The fact that Fox has risen to such a position in a Governmental organisation is a feat in itself yet not entirely unusual within the UAE. It is therefore no surprise that this is one of the main things Fox likes to speak about: “The UAE is very forward thinking when it comes to women. I have had wonderful opportunities since I have been here and I have never felt like I have been held back,” she said when we discussed the role of women in business. “I would steer clear of an organisation that doesn’t have women in leadership positions because that would indicate that there is something wrong and I’m not going to be promoted based on merit. Unless you want to be the one that breaks the glass ceiling, which sounds exhausting, I would say go to a company that will appreciate your talent. You will get the opportunities and you won’t be held back because you are a woman. Lets reward the companies that do look after women and give them our talent!”

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This is clearly how you feel about your role within the DMCC… I am so passionate about what I do. I feel so lucky to be doing this job. I know it’s a luxury that not everyone gets; to be excited every day to get out of bed and go to work. No matter what your situation you do get to choose if you put a smile on your face every morning - even if you’re not quite doing what

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you want at this point in time. That attitude alone will make a difference to your career. I believe there is an onus on each of us to have a positive attitude and to be an energizer.

So do you carry this into your role as a leader of the DMCC? Absolutely! This is extremely important for all leaders.

As a leader you cannot underestimate how much impact you have on how people feel. With just one word or look (or even the absence of one word or look), your team members’ might start questioning themselves. I also coach some of the female team members around me on this issue. I say: “Stop assuming you have done something wrong when the boss calls you in, because if history has shown you that most of those interactions are positive, then basically you are just inventing stress – don’t do it to yourself!”

Do you agree with the theory that women make good leaders because they have higher Emotional Intelligence (EI)?

I am reluctant to make too many sweeping statements, but EI is important. When I see there are gaps that need to be addressed, and if I see that this is someone that I have faith in and belief in, I will always seek to give them very honest feedback. I find that most people take the constructive

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success

Very few leaders are brave enough to be honest. That honest feedback opens your relationship up to a new level and will enable your staff to work with you in a way that is far more powerful feedback and work on it accordingly.

Not enough leaders are brave enough to be honest. That honest feedback opens your relationship up to a new level and will enable you to work with your team members in a way that is far more powerful.

The hardest thing of all is when you know you need to ask someone to leave the organisation, especially if they haven’t recognised the performance issue themselves.

I have always found this difficult; and never walked away saying to myself: “You did a really good job of a difficult situation.� I always beat myself up on those ones. I have never once doubted the decision, but I have always regretted the hurt that it causes a person. If anyone knows the perfect thing to say, please contact me!

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Tell us more about your position.

The Director of Free Zone role is very diverse. I cover all aspects of the free zone business and my direct reports include business development, operations, legal registrar, mediation, sales and leasing, compliance and customer excellence. Fundamentally, my role is all about getting strategy right, and working with my direct reports and colleagues to get key projects rolled out, improve customer service, grow the business and enhance the offering to our members. As a member of the DMCC Executive Committee, and several sub-committees I also have a wider responsibility to contribute to the organisation, which I take very seriously. There is also an aspect of representing the organisation, which includes speaking engagements, panels and writing articles.

I love to learn about the diversity of businesses that we have in the free zone and really enjoy meeting members.

Learning about the things that are important to them is important to me.

It is so exciting and so interesting.

How has your career history helped your role now?

I have come from an accounting background and typically we are quite good at crossing over industries. I have a natural interest in learning about different types of businesses at the grass roots level.

My very first degree was in economics with a marketing major.

I joined BP as a marketing graduate.

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success

The world has completely changed and if you ignore digital transformation you will not survive

It was only some years later after I had completed several roles in sales, marketing and pricing, and finished my MBA, that I decided I wanted to be an accountant. It is an unusual direction to take, but I loved it and gained so many essential technical and leadership skills.

The change of direction was precipitated because I worked on a government relations project for BP. The government of Western Australia decided to legislate fuel pricing. I just found myself being the natural person to spearhead the project for BP. I drafted the response from BP on how that legislation should go forward and determined how it would work well for the government with a view to ensuring it was also right for the industry, citizens and the economy generally. I wrote a white paper that was published by the Australian Institute of Petroleum. Part of my responsibility included reporting to forensic accountants, which was challenging and fascinating. This experience got me thinking: “What next?”

At the time there was a shortage of accountants who really understood business and were good communicators.

It was a space that I felt was untapped.

There tended to be a standard career development route that most people in accounts took; Do an accounting degree, start as a bookkeeper, become an accounting office, finish the CPA qualification and eventually become a CFO. Many of these accountants had never run a big team, worked with government or negotiated deals.

They had never had to run a company.

Accountants can see business very differently and I think things have changed a lot now; the finance function is far more strategic. For me the practical experience was immensely valuable, because when you are sitting opposite the MD of a huge trucking company that started as a driver, you need to be able

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to talk the same language. When it is just the two of you negotiating a deal, you have to be pragmatic and a bit fearless.

Trying to deliver a theory doesn’t work.

Forget about it. Be practical. I think I absorbed these lessons and fortunately BP believed in me. They gave me the opportunity to lead BP’s International Financial Reporting Standards’ project in the region, following which I did my masters of accounting back-to-back with my MBA, and then completed my CPA. I finished my masters’ when I arrived in Dubai and straight away started the CPA. Since then I have held senior finance roles mainly in the oil and real estate fields.

My detail orientation served me well, but I always found myself driving the strategy process for the businesses I worked in, which is not the typical remit of the Director of Finance.

At some point, I realised that my desire was to run a business, and not a function. That’s when I joined DMCC. So this isn’t something that has come naturally to you?

My natural inclination is detail – dotting the i’s crossing the t’s, reconciling and making sure that things are the same font and that they all line up properly. I set very high standards of professionalism and quality for my team and myself.

I am definitely an idea generator. I thrive on the process of innovation. We are doing it every day in hundreds of small ways in DMCC. It’s about having a mindset and a culture of openness, and empowerment. Most of our great initiatives have been generated from discussions that were peripheral to the final idea, but we were willing to take a risk with new thinking. I’m also very lucky to have a great team that turn those ideas into reality.

Strategy and project delivery have become my true passions. Learning how to develop strategy well and to earn the reputation as someone who always delivers on their promises, this takes significant commitment and hard work. I don’t think it comes naturally to many people, but some have to work harder than others to embed that into their ‘way of being’. It was hard work for me.

Did you have a mentor or sponsor?

This is one of the things that I did really badly in the first part of my career. There was a long time when I felt like I was being overlooked. I was saying to myself: “I am smart and delivering good work, but I’m not getting the breaks and opportunities”. I think I had two key moments that changed that. The first one was a two-day course called ‘Career Resilience for Women’. The lady who ran it was

a successful businesswoman who was dealing with Parkinson’s, which she downplayed. It was clear to me that here was an unbelievably strong woman who had come to know important things that help make someone a success in the workplace. There were ten rules.

What she said at the beginning is that: “You can like these rules or hate them, but I’m not going to debate them.”

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success

There were two that struck a cord with me.

Don’t laugh or smile if you are talking about something serious. If you are telling your boss or a board that the results will be worse than last year, don’t smile. It can be a real female tendency to attempt to soften the blow by smiling, but it comes across that you don’t take yourself seriously. This was exactly what I did - I joked. I thought if I am funny then I will

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make people like me. Joking around too much doesn’t get you promoted actually!

The second thing was that she talked about the little person on your shoulder that says: “You can’t do this”… Stop that voice! By and large, men don’t have that. Men will go for a promotion if they think they are 50 percent capable of doing it. Women will go for the promotion if they think they are 95 percent capable.

Following the course, BP invited me on a self-advocacy programme. Basically, I got to talk to about 8 senior leaders about myself.

I later plucked up the courage and made an appointment to speak with our regional CFO. Legs shaking, and heart pounding I said to him something along the lines of: “I am really smart and capable, and I think this organisation is overlooking my talent”.

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What advice would you give to any entrepreneur who is starting out?

You never know how much you will have to fight for what you want. If you did know, you might not take on the challenge in the first place.

Keep fighting - It is worth it!

One of my bosses always used to say: “Fox, you’ve got to know your numbers.” He was right, know your numbers. Know the detail. The devil is in the detail. Be prepared. Crunch it. Don’t be unrealistic. A lot of entrepreneurs have a dream and there is a human tendency to reverse engineer until you create, in your assumptions, the vision that you see in your mind. As a finance person you want to get a certain return. Don’t be tempted to do this. Ask questions like: “Am I REALLY going to have that footfall past my shop every day?” Because if you are not, you are not going to sell as much as you forecast, so you can’t hire the people you want. The project has to be feasible before you start!

I felt like he really saw me for the first time in that meeting, despite the fact that I had talked to him many times before.

This experience made me realise for the first time that if I was going to achieve the career I wanted, I was going to have to get braver.

These were a revolution for me and as I have reached this point in my career, I now want help other women too.

Women and men are equally smart, but as women we doubt ourselves. It drives me crazy to be honest. For any women reading this article who are having unnecessary doubts about themselves, please shake it off – it’s holding you back!

You must have faced some very challenging times. Tell us about one and how you got over it?

Another turning point for me happened in one of my first roles in Dubai. There was a man there who was professionally harassing me. It transpires later that he was harassing many people. The organisation was pretty unsupportive and I chose to leave just before the end of my probation. I felt badly as I am not a quitter by nature.

As this was all happening, I was head hunted for the perfect role for me at the time, as the Director of Finance for a fuel company. I walked away from that experience without ever having once stood up for myself against the bully… Not once! It was great for me because hindsight is a wonderful thing. I suddenly realised that you get a one-time opportunity to stop a bully. The first time you are bullied, you have to fight back. You have to fight back even if you don’t feel all that affronted. You have to stand up for yourself and let it be known to them that: “You will not speak to me like that. How dare you question my integrity/professional experience? Who do you think you are?”

I got the chance to put it all into practice a few times in my new role. Interestingly I have not been bullied since. The first time you learn to stand up for yourself, you tend to adopt a certain underlying demeanour that is always there. I don’t have to be Mrs Tough all the time; I can be kind and gentle and fun, but I think most people know that I won’t be bullied.

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So it is all about the business plan?

The business plan is essential! You know that old saying, “fail to plan, and plan to fail!” My team and I document our plans very carefully, and we ‘check-in’ continuously.

I have spent time taking the business plans that I have developed and turning them into templates.

Some of those templates are now the ones that we are giving to member companies today, to help them to do their business plans.

You have taken the helm of the digital transformation of the DMCC. How did you come to love the digital side of business?

This is an area that I am passionate about digital transformation and automation. In most businesses I have worked in, too much was being run by excel spreadsheet. Imagine delivering billions of litres of fuel into remote regions and doing the accounting in excel spreadsheets? I had to fix that! I am a bit shocked at the number of companies that are run largely on excel spreadsheet.

DMCC’s digital transformation was led jointly by me and my incredible colleague Feryal Ahmadi (Executive Director, Corporate Services DMCC).

Together with our teams we achieved very significant change. That drive to improve continues and is now embedded in our culture at DMCC. I feel very fortunate that in my role here, a lot of what I am passionate about are also projects that make good sense for our member companies.

One of the projects that we are doing right now is delivering business apps for SMEs. Its not that I don’t like excel – I am an accountant, I love excel and know it inside out, but excel can’t reconcile for you. It can’t reach out to your customer base and provide you with a marketing programme. We are working with some very talented people. I am hugely excited about this!

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success

I feel very fortunate that in my role here, a lot of what I am passionate about are also projects that just make sense for our member companies.

One of the projects that we are doing right now is delivering business apps for SMEs. Its not that I don’t like excel – I am an accountant, I love excel know it inside out, but excel can’t reconcile for you. It can’t reach out to your customer base and provide you with a marketing programme. We are working with some very talented people for our members so we can do this

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success

In the early days I was a doer. I was in the detail and if I saw something was wrong, I had to fix it myself. Then over time, I have got smart, capable people on board in the right roles and challenged others to step up. This has enabled me to work ‘on’ the business and not ‘in’ the business

What would you say to business leaders who ignore the ‘digital revolution’?

I would say, ignore this at your peril!

The world has completely changed and if you ignore digital transformation you may not survive.

Going digital requires a clear strategy and ongoing commitment to stay true to that vision. The projects that have excited me the most have been the digital projects – the digital transformation projects in the DMCC. It has been a very hard graft let me tell you! We were working crazy hours to deliver on our promises, but the great thing about it that we have delivered something exceptional. It is never ending though.

We have 115 projects, big and small, in 2016 to continue to enhance what we do.

Out of these, 60 percent if not more are digitally enabled or entirely digital.

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Every time I see something manual I ask myself: “How can we automate this?” “How can we get this onto Salesforce?” Or, “How can we leverage our IT investment to its maximum?” I think I drive my team a bit crazy with my constant requests.

We present the roadmap to our members every year, and that keeps us inspired to deliver!

Have you seen a substantial decrease for the DMCC prospective in overriding cost by going digital?

We view it in terms of delivering a whole lot more value from the same number of people. In the last three years we have more than doubled the freezone in terms of the number of companies, but we have only added 10-12 percent more people to the freezone team. So we have been able to do things in a much

more efficient way. We have increased our valued added services by 5,000 percent and our member satisfaction has increased 35 percent in five years.

It is hard to deliver a successful digital transformation. You have to have vision.

Feryal and I debated a lot but were completely aligned the whole way. You have to have that alignment. You need to be willing to invest and to put your neck on the line. I can’t tell you how scary the 4th May 2014 was... It was our cut over day. We put our members through pain for a couple of weeks. Our call centre wait time went to 15 minutes at one stage. It is now 15 seconds. Those were tough days.

We had some wonderful people that we were working with – the leaders of Dubai Trade for example. Bearing in mind we had said to them: “Thank you for all these years of serving us with your platform, but we have decided to strike out on our own,” Yet in the first instance, when we realised that we needed support, they were there for us. They stepped in and sent their team members to us to help. I mean who does that? It is a sign of someone who really values their connections. These are the sort of characteristics that I admire enormously.

What do you believe is the key to success?

Get the right people. I know this is an obvious thing to say, but having the right people on board is absolutely critical. You can’t do it all yourself. If you have really smart dedicated people, they make the world of difference. My role has transformed so much in the three years I have been here. In the early days I was a doer.

I was in the detail and if I saw something was wrong, I had to fix it myself. Then over time, I have got smart, capable people on board in the right roles and challenged others to step up.

This has enabled me to work ‘on’ the business and not ‘in’ the business.

Being willing to reach out to people is also imperative to success. As an entrepreneur, you should have that advisory committee.

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success

You probably have a friend who’s skilled in marketing, skilled in banking etc. They have experience that you could fall back on. Ask them to dinner and say, “Can I get you all together to present my business plan to you?” Get them to give their perspective. They don’t have to have a stake in the business. You would be surprised about how people are happy to help and happy to provide advice.

You don’t have to take it, but you may get an insight into the way people do things that you can and want to take on board.

Honesty and ethics should never be compromised if you want to be truly successful.

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Best piece of advice you have ever been given?

I think if there is one piece, it is that you are the gatekeeper of the standard of work that you allow to be presented in your name. The level of standard that I always think of when I release something to my boss is: “Would one of the top consulting firms allow this standard of work to be given to a client?” If not, it doesn’t get released until it meets that standard.

you are the gatekeeper of the standard of work that you allow to be presented in your name

What is the one outstanding piece of advice you would give to an entrepreneur?

My husband and I ran a business for a number of years so I do have experience in being an entrepreneur, but I am more intrapreneurial myself. Going back to those years however I think the best advice is to network and ask people to help you. Don’t be afraid to reach out. Reach out in the right way though. The help you receive might surprise you.

I did this with one of the most famous ever entrepreneurs in Australia. I called him and I managed to get through! I tried to sell him oil and lubricants (my job at the time). This

guy is hugely famous in Austrailia and he talked to me! He wasn’t in the market for oil, but he actually connected me with other people who were. Nine times out of 10 you might not get through to someone like this, but I did and he was able to connect me to people that did go on to do deals as a result of that.

So yes, reach out! l

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MONEY

Commodities Fired Up By Fading Dollar

By Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy, Saxo Bank

Investors are flocking back as commodities march higher due to diminishing oversupply and a weaker dollar. Gold and Silver are the star performers.

Ole Hanson, Head of commodity strategy at saxo bank analyses why

he Bloomberg Commodity index has rallied by almost 18 percent since hitting a 17-year low back in January. The strong rally has attracted investors back into an asset class which for the best part of five years had been out of favour. Oversupply of key commodities especially oil has started to be reduced with the 19-month selloff forcing a reduction in output from high cost producers while attracting demand.

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Precious Metals For the year however, the precious metal sector remains the winner. Fading expectations of further US rate hikes amid weaker growth, a prolonged dollar selloff and negative bond yields have triggered an investor surge back into metals.

While gold attracted most of the demand during the first quarter, April belonged to silver.

Since early March the demand for silver through exchange-traded products had surged. It was not until early April however that the price finally broke its shackles to gold and surged higher. The past month has seen silver rally by

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16 percent and against gold the ratio has fallen from 80 back down below 72.

The Chinese Affect While some of the commodity rally seen in the few months have been due to changing and supportive fundamentals, we have also witnessed a great deal of disruption. During the past month, China’s commodity exchanges increasingly began resembling an onshore Macau. An army of private investors in China looking for somewhere to invest excess cash got more and more involved in highly volatile commodities from iron ore and steel to coal and cotton.

These contracts have been some of the most heavily traded in the world this past month with the traded volumes in steel on some days overtaking that of crude oil benchmarks such as WTI and Brent crude oil. Worried about a repeat and disruptive bubble similar to the one seen in Chinese stocks last year, saw Chinese regulators curb trading. Steel which up until the announcement had rallied by 27 percent dropped by 7 percent before surging higher Friday.

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MONEY

Gold has been range bound since February but now once again challenging resistance at US$1,285/oz Increased speculative demand in commodities which only have a finite amount of supply and demand raises the risk that prices can move too far away from levels supported by underlying fundamentals. Some examples of the recent craziness: • Dalian Iron ore futures volumes exceeded China’s annual import on several days • Shanghai steel futures one day eclipsed all the shares traded on China’s equity market • Cotton traded enough volumes in one day to produce 9 billion pairs of jeans • Average life of an Dalian Iron ore trade is 4 hours, compared with 40 on WTI crude Large speculative positioning is not only a Chinese phenomenon. We have seen a strong build up in speculative bets on crude oil, gold and silver to mention a few.

Fundamentals in our opinion continue to support precious metals. The record long however, currently building in oil futures, especially Brent crude, will increasingly pose a risk should the current positive outlook change.

Investors’ current love affair with precious metals was given an additional boost this week. The lack of action from the Federal Open Market Committee and the Bank of Japan helped drive both the dollar and bond yields lower.

The continued dovish stance from the FOMC was followed up by a weaker-than-expected GDP reading for the first quarter. The combination of these developments gave gold and silver enough momentum to revisit recent highs.

Platinum, another metal with a dual purpose like silver (investment and industry), found strong support at US$1,000/oz before rallying to reach US$1,065/oz, the highest level since last July. Just like silver, platinum have been outperforming gold and during the past few months its discount has contracted from 26 percent to 17 percent currently. However, it’s still well outside a five-year average discount of less than 2 percent.

While gold received most of the attention during the early parts of the year April belonged to silver. A surge in investor demand, both through futures and exchangetraded products, saw the price finally break its shackles to gold. The past month has seen silver rally by 16 percent and the gold/silver ratio has fallen from above 80 towards first key support at 70.

Gold As seen on the chart ‘The Price of Gold’, gold has now returned to the higher end of the range that has prevailed since February. During this time investor have been left frustrated, both from its ability to find support above US$1,210/oz which have forced latecomers to the rally to chase the market. Bulls meanwhile have also been frustrated by gold’s failure to keep up with surging silver and platinum.

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MONEY

The gold/silver ratio has seen a dramatic drop this April with support at 70 likely to curb further advances in the short term

Oil Source: SaxoTraderGO

The Price of Oil - Source: SaxoTraderGO

Brent crude is extending its rally after finding support above US$44.

It has now rallied by 20% since the failed Doha meeting on April 17

As we see the gold/silver ratio approach support at 70 we would once again favour gold over silver, both from the expectation that a continued rally in silver will be difficult without the support from gold but also as an insurance policy should the rally once again run out of steam. During a correction silver is likely to take a bigger hit than gold. Not least considering the speculative net-long positioning which has reach record levels.

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Strong investor demand, a weaker dollar, and expectations of lower production has propelled crude oil to a new high for 2016. While WTI crude has breached US$45/barrel, Brent crude has now moved within striking distance of US$50/b.

We see oil trade higher towards year-end but are increasingly concerned that the current rally is too much, too soon. The latest run up in price has increasingly being driven by speculative traders more than fundamentals. As we approach US$50/b, we will begin to read stories about high-cost producers coming back to life and this, combined with the overhang of more than one billion barrels in storage across the world, could delay the rebalancing process.

Apart from another weekly decline in US production the weekly inventory report provided little in terms of support. But as a testament of the current strength and momentum the oil price finished the day higher following an initial selloff.

Don’t fight the trend is the best advice one can currently give and we say to those looking for a downside reaction to use options at this stage.

Crude oil is now in a much better place but as the rally continues we will see increased worry that a prolonged rally could be self-defeating.

The rising speculative interest in oil also poses a threat to the health of the rally as it is leaving it exposed to a sharp turnaround should the focus or fundamental outlook change. The combined netlong of Brent crude and WTI crude futures have now reached 655 million barrels. The previous peak of 626 million barrels was seen in June 2014 just before the selloff began. l

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people

Summer starts here

For all those that have experienced the summer in Dubai previously, the searing heat will come as no shock. but how should you prepare your employees for the heat? In our article, we look at the basic advice you should give your employees egardless as to how long you have been in UAE, it is down to the company to educate their staff as to how they should behave in the summer, as this can mean the difference between life and death.

Heat related deaths are preventable, yet every year, people pass away because of extreme heat. Historically, from 1979-2003, excessive heat exposure caused 8,015 deaths in the United States. During this period, more people died from extreme heat than from hurricanes, lightening, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes combined. In 2001 alone, 300 US deaths were caused by excessive heat exposure.

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Too Hot to Handle Heat related illness in people occurs when their bodies are unable to properly cool themselves. The normal process is that when the body is hot it cools itself by sweating.

Sometimes however this doesn’t work and the person’s body temperature rapidly rises, which can lead to brain damage and/or damaged of other organs and/or a coma.

In humid conditions, the body’s sweat does not evaporate quick enough to act as a cooling agent, which means in the Middle East, we have to take this very seriously. Other extenuating factors include age, obesity, fever, dehydration, heart disease, mental illness, poor circulation, sunburn, and prescription drug and alcohol

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can and take advantage of air-conditioned or cool areas. Limit intense physical activity in high temperatures/ direct sun light.

So what are the effects of heat related illness? There are five types of heat related illness that you should be aware of: zz Heat exhaustion (HE) zz Heat Stroke (HS) zz Heat Cramps (HC) zz Sunburn (SB) zz Prickly heat (PH) Heat Exhaustion (HE) HE occurs when a person is exposed to high temperatures for several days and becomes dehydrated. The most common signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion include: zz Confusion zz Excessive thirst zz Weakness zz Dark-colored urine (a sign of dehydration) zz Dizziness zz Fainting zz Fatigue zz Headache zz Muscle cramps zz Nausea and vomiting zz Pale skin zz Profuse sweating zz Rapid heartbeat Whilst this is not as serious as Heat Stroke (HS), it should not be taken as any less of a concern. Without recognising that the symptoms and applying timely treatment, it can progress to HS, which can damage the brain and even cause death.

Heat stroke is a form of hyperthermia in which the body temperature is elevated dramatically. In sever cases it can cause permanent brain damage and even death use. Air-conditioning (AC) is the best protection you can have.

Everyone can succumb to heat if they do not take simple precautions.

As company owners, it is down to you to ensure that you have trained your staff adequately to ensure that they take the correct measures. By doing so, you ensure that you are taking all measures to keep productivity high and minimising the effects that heat related illness will have on your profits, as well as ensuring you are not taken to a Ministry of Labour Court in a costly court battle.

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Safe and Healthy Summer Each year the Government highlightes the risks of heat exposure, due to concern over the growing number of individuals who died as a result of not taking precautions during the hot months. Simply put you need ensure yourself and your workers are sensible in the heat; minimise the amount of heat you are all exposed to and stay out of the sun in the middle of the day. Whenever possible, work in the shade or in ac/cool areas, and ensure your staff take regular breaks. Stick to the shade as much as you

Treatment If you/your employees notice the symptoms, ensure the person concerned immediately gets out of the heat and takes a rest break in the shade or an a/c building.

Other treatments include: zz Drinking plenty of fluid (avoid caffeine and alcohol) zz Remove any tight or unnecessary clothing zz Dowse them in water zz Apply other cooling measures such as fans/ice towels After 30 minutes, if you fail to notice an improvement, contact a doctor for further advice to ensure that it does not progress to HS. All managers need to be aware that a worker who has suffered from HE is likely to be sensitive to high temperatures the following 7 days and this should be taken into account to avoid a relapse.

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zz zz

Drink clear juice or a sports beverage Do not return to strenuous activity for a few hours after the cramps subside to ensure they do not develop HE or HS

Seek medical attention if cramps do not subside in 1 hour

Cooling the victim is a critical step in the treatment of heat stroke. Always notify emergency services immediately Heat Stroke (HS) HS is a form of hyperthermia, an abnormally elevated body temperature with accompanying physical symptoms including changes in the nervous system function. Often referred to as heatstroke or sunstroke, the term stroke is used as it refers to a decreased oxygen flow to an area of the brain. Severe hyperthermia is defined as a body temperature of 104 F (40 C) or higher.

HS is a medical emergency that is often fatal if not properly and promptly treated. All staff and managers should be trained to treat HS. As an example, Emirates Airlines build in extensive training for all staff during the onboarding process.

zz rapid pulse zz difficulty breathing zz strange behavior zz hallucinations zz confusion zz agitation zz disorientation zz seizure, and/or coma zz Treatment If you notice any of these symptoms, guide the person concerned ideally to an AC building and immediately call an ambulance. Remove as much clothing as possible and try to call them down by pouring water over them whilst you wait for the medics.

Symptoms HS symptoms can sometimes mimic those of heart attack. It is not unusual that they have previously displayed symptoms of HE previously. Also, HS symptoms may occur suddenly and develop rapidly. Signs and symptoms include: zz nausea zz vomiting zz fatigue zz weakness zz headache zz muscle cramps/aches zz dizziness zz high body temperature zz the absence of sweating, with hot red or flushed dry skin

Heat Cramps (HC) Do you or members of your staff sweat a lot during strenuous activity? If so, you are at risk of heat cramps as sweating depletes the body’s salt and moisture, which in turn causes your muscles to cramp. HC are often a symptom of HE and therefore HS.

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Symptoms HC are muscle pains or spasms, usually in the abdomen, arms, or legs; that may occur in association with strenuous activity. If medical attention is not necessary, take these steps: Treatment z z Stop: all activity, and sit quietly in a cool place

Sunburn Sunburn should be avoided because it damages the skin and can cause cancer, which may be fatal later in life. Also, serious sunburn may cause your staff to take time off of work, so advising them to use sunscreen at all times, and supplying it to those who work outdoors, may save you money in the future through negating the affects of loss productivity.

Although the discomfort is usually minor and healing tends to occur in about a week, medical attention may be necessary if it is severe, but generally the symptoms are that the skin becomes red, painful, and abnormally warm after sun exposure.

Treatment You may wish to consult a medical practitioner if your sunburn is accompanied by: zz Fever zz Fluid-filled blisters zz Severe pain zz Avoid repeated sun exposure zz Apply cold compresses or immerse the sunburned area in cool water zz Apply moisturising lotion to affected areas; do not use salve, butter, or ointment zz Do not break blisters Prickly Heat Heat rash is a skin irritation caused by excessive sweating during hot, humid weather and is the least concerning heat related medical condition. It looks like a red cluster of pimples or small blisters and tends to occur on the neck and upper chest, in the groin, under the breasts, and in elbow creases. Whilst this may not seem like much, it is uncomfortable, leading employees to have a drop in production, as their minds are on their how they feel as opposed to the task in hand.

Treatment The most effective treatment is to retire to an ac building. Keep the affected area dry. Dusting powder may increase comfort.

Medical treatment is not normally required. l

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LEGAL

Legal Basics You Should Tell Employees – Work Rights

By: Ludmila Yamalova, Managing Partner, HPL Yamalova & Plewka

Educating employees about the legalities of working and living in the UAE is in the interest of every employer, just as much as it is in the interest of employees. For employers, the costs of unproductive or, even worse, destructive or simply missing employees are not to be underestimated hose costs are not just limited to the number of days of absence from work. The time and resources required for the company to resolve employee related issues could be significant, sometime setting companies back for months. Furthermore, under the UAE’s employment law, having to terminate an employee and then replace him, involves costs that go far beyond just an employee’s salary. Those costs include visa costs, insurance costs, travel costs, attestation costs and finally, but not least, end of service benefits.

As such, companies would greatly benefit by conducting employee training, setting out legal framework of employee rights and limitations, at the outset and with periodic

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refreshers. This would both educate the employees and help the company detect and address potential issues early on.

The UAE, just like any other country, has its own specific laws and practice regarding rights and limitations of those who come here to live and work. Violation of those norms can bear significant repercussions, ranging from monetary fines, to imprisonment, deportation or a combination of penalties. Yet, many people make a mistake, taking it for granted that, the rules in this country are similar to those of their home countries. Actions are often taken and statements are made relying on false assumptions or lack of information, sometimes leading to grave consequences.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse, however.

Because of these differences, which

An employee can be subject to criminal liability for certain acts that relate to his employment

affect both employers and employees, there are core legal principles that every employer should educate their employees on. Some relate to the business context of employment, while others to personal matters, yet also affecting the employment relationship (which we will talk about next month).

Both are equally important.

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LEGAL

Working Hours The working hours in the UAE are 48 hours in a week. The work week is six days, from Saturday through Thursday. Managers and certain positions of responsibility could be exempt from this limitation.

Employment Context In the context of employment, certain legal issues tend to arise more often and carry more serious consequences. Some of the violations could lead to criminal liability, in addition to a civil one, resulting in imprisonment and deportation. Companies would be better served to educate their employees about the issues at the outset.

There are certain grounds of dismissal that would entitle a company to dismiss an employee without notice and without the payment of the end of services benefits

Employment Visa Limitation As a general rule, employees must know that under the UAE employment law, they are only allowed to work for a company that sponsors their visa.

Therefore, technically speaking, it is illegal for employees to work for anyone other than their direct employer. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but all of them require written consent of the sponsoring party and a number of other legal nuances.

Penalties for working for a company other than the sponsoring employer can, and often do, result in a monetary fine, and depending on the circumstances, imprisonment, and ultimately deportation. This is governed by the UAE immigration law and applies equally across the country.

to provide the company with a minimum of one-month notice or whatever is contractually agreed on. Some contracts provide for a notice period of six months. This rule applies after an employee has served probation period, which can last a maxim of six months. If an employee leaves without giving proper notice, he may forfeit his end of service benefits.

Notice Period/Probation Period Should an employee wish to terminate his employment with the company, he is required

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Sick Leave/Holidays An employee is not entitled to any paid sick leave during the probation period. After probation, no wage will be paid for sick leave if the illness is the direct result of the employee’s misconduct. An employee who fails to report back to work after exhausting all sick leaves can be terminated.

Employees are not eligible to take any vacation until the end of their probation period. Until they have served a year with the company, their vacation days are also limited.

Grounds for Dismissal There are certain grounds of dismissal that would entitle a company to dismiss an employee without notice and without the payment of the end of services benefits. Some of those reasons are as follows, when an employee: 1. Assumes a false identity or submits forged documents 2. Commits a fault resulting in substantial loss to the employer 3. Disobeys instructions on the safety of workplace 4. Defaults on his basic duties under the contract and fails to redress such default despite a written warning 5. Is convicted by a competent court of a crime against honor, honesty or public morals 6. Reveals confidential information of his employer 7. Is found drunk or under influence during working hours 8. Assaults his workmates during working hours Employee Criminal Liability An employee can be subject to criminal liability for certain acts that relate to his employment. These violations arise under a series of laws, including employment, intellectual property, cyber, media and penal.

For example, forging documents or misrepresenting credentials is punished under the penal law, carrying sever criminal sanctions.

Making public comments that may be considered disparaging or offensive in nature could also lead to criminal liability.

Truth is not always a defense.

Breach of company’s trust is also a crime under the penal code.

So is employee’s disclosure of company confidential information.

Misappropriating company’s funds, secrets or intellectual property is considered theft and criminal in nature, either under the penal code, intellectual property law or cyber law. l

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dMCC

RICHCOMM GLOBAL SERVICES JOINS SINGAPORE DIAMOND INVESTMENT EXCHANGE AS PIONEER DUBAI MEMBER Strategic partnership will unlock new opportunities in diamonds as an asset class for accredited investors and an electronic trading venue for industry participants in Dubai and the UAE

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DMCC

n 26th April 2016 The Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange (“SDiX”), the world’s first and only commodity exchange trading in physically settled diamonds, announced that Richcomm Global Services (“Richcomm”), the Dubai based international commodity services company and leading independent broker and clearing member of the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX), has been approved as a Pioneer Member of the SDiX to offer clients the opportunity to invest in diamonds as an asset class.

Established in 2007, Richcomm is well embedded in the global commodities market.

Richcomm will provide accredited HNW and

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institutional investors across UAE and diamond market participants in Dubai access to the USD$25 billion wholesale diamond primary market trade, by allowing them to trade in immobilized single stones and fungible ‘baskets’ of investment-grade diamonds on the SDiX platform.

Richcomm has a proven track record of managing risk and operations in commodity markets, acting as a clearing and brokerage, advisor and consultant across the commodity spectrum, and will bring their deep experience to diamond industry participants using SDiX. SDiX offers a platform to trade diamonds electronically on a price/ time priority in a continuous market, and buyers can place indicative price bids by diamond category. All stones traded on SDiX are GIA-graded and buyers of single stones can examine certifications directly through the platform.

This first Dubai based pioneer buy-side member joining the SDiX platform highlights the rapidly growing demand from global investors for alternative, uncorrelated assets to diversify their portfolios.

Alain Vandenborre, Chairman and Founder of the Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange, commented: “As the global hub for trading precious metals and stones, Dubai presents an obvious pool of investors looking to invest diamonds as an asset class for the

first time, and we have seen significant interest from this market. With their extensive network and deep experience of commodities markets, Richcomm is an ideal member for us in Dubai.”

Paresh Kotecha, CEO of Richcomm Global Services, added: “Dubai is a leading trading center for polished diamonds, and the SDiX platform now offers investors access to a platform to trade diamonds as an asset class using the sophisticated exchange technology, and transparent price discovery mechanism that they enjoy when trading other commodities.”

The Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange has been established to provide the only transparent price discovery mechanism for the global diamond trade, giving banks, financial firms and investors a benchmark price to value diamonds as an asset. The exchange is supported by a fully integrated ecosystem, including a depository that enables the physical settlement of diamonds, and a global network of partners focused on grading, vaulting, settlement and logistics. Trading on the exchange is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2016.

SDiX is backed by leading global investors including Vertex Venture Holdings, one of the longest operating venture capital firms in Asia and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. l

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Dubai’s Role As Major Precious Metals Hub Boosted

By Emerging Markets Trade MCC, one of the world’s leading commodity hubs for trade and enterprise, announced today the 5th edition of the Dubai Precious Metals Conference (DPMC), in association with Foretell Business Solutions.

Under the theme ‘Linking Markets’ DPMC addressed Dubai’s role in stabilising and building value to the precious metals industry. Panel discussions also focussed on how to support India’s new policy framework; integrating new and existing producers into the global supply chain through responsible sourcing practices and outlook on prices.

“The geographic pattern of world trade flows is shifting as South-South trade continues to grow. We have already seen the flavour of this in the precious metals industry with the increase in emerging market flows between Africa, the Middle East and Asia”, said Gautam Sashittal, Chief Executive Officer, DMCC. He added: “As global trade accelerates, the mechanics of gold trading are evolving substantially with trends clearly moving from OTC onto regulated Exchanges.

Our DGCX spot gold contract is a strong example of this bringing

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further dynamism to the industry”.

The conference drew 450 delegates from over 34 countries including DMCC’s Executive Chairman, Ahmed Bin Sulayem and keynote speakers Honourable Mr Abubakar Bawa Bwari, Minister of State Mines & Steel Development, Nigeria; and Dr. Diego Parrilla, co-author of ‘The Energy World is Flat’ who said in his speech: “A perfect storm for gold is brewing as central banks have reached the point of no return and continue to push and test the limits of

monetary policy, credit markets, and fiat currencies, which could result in gold prices above $3,000/oz within 3 years”.

A panel dedicated to the topic of ‘The Future of Trade’ furthermore unravelled recent research suggesting that adoption of digital technologies to trade can revolutionise logistics, supply chains and distribution channels, and add billions of dollars worth of new export-import business to world trade.

For more details on the agenda and speakers, please visit: http://www.dpmc.ae. l

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Global Dubai Tea Forum Explores the Future of the World’s Favourite Beverage DMCC to launch signature high-end ‘Shay Dubai’ Tea brand MCC gathered the world’s tea industry in the UAE in April for the 6th Global Dubai Tea Forum.

Hosted by the DMCC Tea Centre, the conference was attended by over 370 delegates, representing over 30 tea producing and consuming countries. Panel experts and delegates covered a diverse range of topics from the effect of climate changes to production and consumer trends, through to what the future holds for the tea trade with a focus on digitalisation.

During his welcome address Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman, DMCC, announced DMCC’s plans to launch its very own signature high-end tea brand ‘Shay Dubai’ this year.

Commenting on how the tea trade can further excel Mr. Bin Sulayem gave delegates three key points to consider: “First, Digitalisation - the application of new internet based technologies to your businesses. This will help you exploit the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of the future.

Second, Diversification - into new products and markets in the tea industry. This is the

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essence of commerce in every sphere, but especially in a consumer product like tea. And finally, Delivery - Dubai is at the centre of the tea-trading world, uniquely positioned between the growers to its east and the big markets to its west. It has shown how important it is to implement and act upon strategies for long term growth.

In short, to deliver results.”

A panel session dedicated to the topic of ‘The Future of Trade’ furthermore unravelled recent research suggesting that adoption of digital technologies to trade can revolutionise logistics, supply chains and distribution channels, and add billions of dollars worth of new exportimport business to world trade.

Sanjeev Dutta, Director of the DMCC Tea Centre and DMCC Tradeflow, said: “Events like the Global Dubai Tea Forum connect the industry throughout the entire supply chain to ensure we collaborate to deliver the products, services and

infrastructure industry participants need to succeed as well as identifying new opportunities.

“Global trade is vital to the future growth and development of the DMCC Tea Centre which is why cultivating best practices, introducing digital innovation that will increase efficiency is high on the agenda this year as we gear up for growth and delivery of our expansion plans.”

The DMCC Tea Centre recently initiated a two-year expansion programme with new facilities spanning a total area of 24,000 square metres. In 2015, the DMCC Tea Centre handled 41 Million kilos of tea through its centre in Dubai with a growth rate of 208 percent over the past three years. It currently processes teas from 13 different countries including Kenya, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Vietnam, Japan, Uganda, and China.

Visit www.globaldubaiteaforum.ae for more information. l

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Mike Al Naji is a social media consultant that’s worked with the largest brands in the region to engineer their online strategy. Being a key contact point with clients and friend to most ‘influencers’, Mike has established and maintained highly effective advocacy programs and amplified brands through influencer outreach programs.

Get in touch with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mikealnaji mikealnaji @mikealnaji mikealnaji mikealnaji

Under the Influence

By Mike R. Al Naji

With the world shifting towards digital media, 70% of brands investing more budgets online than offline in 2016 and new platforms such as Snapchat capturing the attention span of consumers, as a brand you have got to find the next big thing to survive. So what’s this next big thing I speak of? Being part of the ‘in-crowd’ with Digital Influencers! aving Influencer Marketing, as part of your digital strategy in 2016 is a must and will be one of the most beneficial decisions you make for your business in 2016 if you are able to optimise your influencer marketing strategy.

Before taking a leap forward, let’s take one step back and understand why brands are headed towards influencer marketing.

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What is Influencer Marketing?

Studies done by Tornoson have shown that 51 percent of marketeers have seen better quality customers acquired through influencer marketing versus any other form of marketing, while 38 percent of them found it the same. The best part of this is that only 11 percent of them saw it to be worse, which is arguably due to lack of experience in executing their influencer marketing strategy. My clients always ask me “Why should we go with influencer marketing and why do you highly recommend it? It’s simple - Influencer Marketing delivers. Not only does it deliver, and when it does, it is instant.

Influencer Marketing generates an average of AED 20 for every 3.5 AED you invest in it.

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Where To Start?

Long story short, it’s a proven model for success in the digital age but let’s talk how you can optimise your influencer marketing strategy and the amount of budget you need.

Here are the three questions you need to answer to get on the right track: 1.

2.

3.

To help give you a range usually any swag, gifts or monetary compensation will range from AED 250 AED 50,000 in exchange for one post depending on the tier of the influencer you are looking to work with and where they are from. Think of questions like, where do they work? Where do they spend their free time? Are they married? Do they have kids? What are other brands do they use on a daily basis? These are just some of many details I get into when mapping influencers for any of my clients because I know that a different person will influence each customer in a different way. The deeper you go the better and the better you map, the better the results you’ll achieve from your influencer outreach program.

Who Do My Customers Really Trust?

INFLUENCE is all about trust, so ignore the numbers! Yes, the numbers (followers) matter to a certain extent, but it’s all about the trust. Influencer Marketing is best described when you relate it to word of mouth marketing - the only difference is that it’s the word-ofmouth of the 21st century. You won’t see a business impact if the customer doesn’t trust the influencer and trust your brands relationship with that influencer. Working from a clear idea of exactly who you’re trying to influence, take the extra step to find key opinion and thought

Who am I trying to influence?

Who do my customers really trust?

How can I work together with influencers to build a mutually valuable relationship?

Who Am I Trying To influence?

Often my clients think they have a solid answer for this, they tell me our customers, prospects and the industry we are in. This isn’t really enough. You need to ‘dig-deep’ to effectively answer this question - there’s a more meaningful answer to this. A deeper answer to this comprises of well-developed and handcrafted customer personas usually engineered by marketeers who specialise in influencer marketing. They will create customer personas, including their behaviour and map them out with the fullest details you never thought possible. Who are your customers exactly? Think about what they do

Katy Perry – A social influencer

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marketing

Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – Two influencers who also star in advertising campaigns

leaders who your audience already looks to as sources of meaningful information. Chances are, there are people on social media who are already engaged as thought and opinion leaders for your audience. These are the real influencers—people with whom partnerships can drive real impact.

There are so many tools out there and so many marketeers and agencies (surprisingly even PR agencies) thinking or promising you that they are able to identify the right influencers that work with your brand. Truth is, forming a partnership with influencers requires more than mapping, which I have mentioned in my first point. A powerful method is to create an influencer persona; similar to the personas I would assume you have created for your customers. The tools only them will work as a method to find real people-influencers that fit that persona for your brand. Influencer personas should be based on an actual human, not a character you

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have created in your head though from various brainstorming and mapping sessions with your marketing team. Let me bring this closer to life for you. Meet “EMKWAN.” EMKWAN is an influencer in various subjects of expertise (which is quite a rare thing to find). His opinion drives change in his network. In this case, EMKWAN is an influencer who is passionate about tech, cars, watches and luxury lifestyle. He’s highly engaged with his audience on social media and the simple question for you, as a brand would be ‘Would EMKWAN like what we’re doing?’ and let that answer guide your behaviour.

‘EMKWAN’ is an example of a persona that smart marketeers might use to define the type of influencer important to the target audience of your customers and brand. With some focused effort, most brands will be able to create three to five influencer personas to target for partnerships of different types. Your personas

A different person will influence each customer in a different way. The deeper you go when Mapping the better and the better you map, the better the results you will achieve from your influencer outreach program

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things that you pay for as part of your marketing plan, you pay for offline ads to achieve the same objective, you pay for digital ads such as pre-roll, social media advertising etc. as well so why should this be any different if that’s their preferred method of doing business? Also, by marketing this way, you are also increasing the impact. Surely this translates to a better investment since the results they achieve are more impactful not to mention AUTHENTIC (if you’re doing it right, which I hope you are)?

Other forms of “value” could be free swag ranging from free products (usually for the low-tier influencers) all the way to plane tickets to an island getaway in Hawaii (for the highertier influencers that achieve better results) or it could be something as simple as a content swap. You share their content to your networks, and they share yours with theirs. Think outside the box and be creative, but always keep in mind that mutual value will be the key driver of longterm influencer relationships.

Kim Kardashian – One of the biggest influencers of our time

Influencer Marketing is best described when you relate it to word of mouth marketing - the only difference is that it’s the word-of-mouth of the 21st century might (and probably should) depict everyone from well-connected customers to complementary brands.

Influencer personas allow us as marketeers to define what an influencer is and what an influencer isn’t They allow us to know what someone like ‘EMKWAN’ is able to work on and with what brands and vice versa. Without a well-developed persona set it becomes very easy to slip into defining influence by vanity metrics like follower count or Klout score, numbers which can indicate reach but may or may not be important to your goals.

How Can I Work Together With Influencers To Build A Mutually Valuable Relationship?

I am amazed by the amount of brands that only have conversations centered around ‘What can influencers do for my brand’ and how they approach influencer marketing to seem as a privilege for the influencer to work and be associated with a certain brand. Those types of brands are missing the most important part of the

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chapter in this marketing method; Influencers MUST obtain VALUE from partnering with your brand. Without a mutual exchange of value, you will struggle to create truly beneficial long-term partnerships and you will have a tough time engaging influencers in your activations.

“Value” doesn’t necessarily mean financial compensation (although the market is shifting for that and most times it will mean that).

Value simply means that the perceived benefit of the partnership is equally important to both parties; both sides are receiving similar value from the exchange. For brands with strong name recognition, that might be the value (the social reach and validation that comes with being associated with your brand). For others, it’s a monetary compensation and that’s completely fine. Some of the brands I have discussed this with tell me that they don’t pay influencers but what they do not see is the bigger picture. An influencer posts about your brand and by posting this requires time to create content that leads to impressions online, customer retention, new customers and sales. All the things I have just mentioned are

Budget I purposely left the most dreadful question for last – that is, ‘How much budget do I really need to invest in an influencer marketing strategy for my brand?’ There’s no right and wrong answer to that but to be able to answer it you will need to know what do I want to achieve from my influencer-marketing plan?

Answering this question will help you identify the budget you need, keeping in mind that influencer marketing although sometimes operated on a campaign by campaign basis, should not be a one time thing. You either do it or you don’t. To help give you a range though usually any swag, gifts or monetary compensation will range from AED 250 - AED 50,000 in exchange for one post depending on the tier of the influencer you are looking to work with.

If I could leave you with one sentence about your influencer marketing strategy and building relationships with influencers it would be: Be genuine, show that you care and PERSONALISE everything you do with them to become an essential part of their life that they cannot part with. l

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#ThankUShkMohd

Crowd sourced by DMCC employees in honour of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai via social media platform Yammer

technology

Why the need for “Open Hybrid Cloud” By: Alessandro Perilli, GM Open Hybrid Cloud, Red Hat

Before getting into the detail of why enterprises in the Middle East need an open hybrid cloud, let’s take a look at the building blocks

n open hybrid cloud consists of five core pillars: The first pillar is the capability to empower IT organisations with the right tools to address the demand of the line of business in the cloud era. The second pillar is the capability to embrace and support the IT diversity in an enterprise environment, irrespective of the selected IT strategy for cloud computing. The third pillar is the capability to adapt to your IT maturity level, providing more sophisticated cloud capabilities only when the IT company is ready to deploy them. The fourth pillar is the capability to extend easily, supporting a broad set of hardware and enterprise management tools, thanks to a modular architecture and a rich ecosystem of partners. The fifth and final pillar is a strong foundation on open source technologies, which provide the innovation necessary to transform your IT. Today our technology-driven lives are supported and augmented by cloud services such as messaging, content and collaboration systems, file storage and productivity tools. We consume cloud services wherever we’re located be that in the home or on the road. And we consume them on daily basis, because they “just work”.

Corporate users are first and foremost individuals.

When individuals consume public cloud services outside the corporate boundaries and they just work, that experience leads to a completely new class of expectations.

As individuals at home, corporate users experience cloud-based IT that just works and they expect the same frictionless, instantaneous, cost-effective interaction with corporate IT. Why should corporate IT be less efficient than personal IT?

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Public V Corporate Cloud Public cloud infrastructures are designed from scratch to be frictionless, agile and costeffective. These are the pillars of their core business and anything that gets in the way, like compliance to security regulation, is sacrificed or taken care of at a later maturity stage.

Corporate IT, however, is built on layers of legacy software and hardware systems, stacked up through decades, designed in a different eras, after different technology paradigms. In addition to the technical challenges there are security policies and regulations to consider.

And then political and cultural issues that influence the IT strategy in ways that become obvious only years after decisions are made.

Corporate IT struggles to compete with public cloud service providers and has a long way to go before it will just work, but line of business managers cannot wait. Why stick with a less efficient service when there are a plethora of better alternatives around? So the line of business simply spends its budget outside the corporate environment. The risk, ultimately, is that corporate IT becomes less and less relevant and corporate data gets more and more at risk.

Why a hybrid cloud?

The IT business realises that increasing IT agility is the only way to address the demand of the line of business. Public cloud computing is great in specific scenarios but the industry is not mature enough yet to address all the needs an enterprise has to host mission critical applications.

Every group within an IT organization thinks about how to speed up the application lifecycle from a different angle and each one could have confidence in a different

technology. Prototyping, testing, and provisioning in production line of business applications can be done through traditional virtualisation, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing, or Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud computing.

The application development team may feel closer to the PaaS approach while the infrastructure and operation team could have a preference for traditional virtualisation or IaaS. There is not the “right” tool. Most likely, the IT organisation will have to leverage some or all of the above in combination selecting the most efficient tool for each situation, hence the hybrid cloud.

Each of these technologies has advantages and disadvantages, and in all likelihood the IT department will host different components of the same line of business application on different platforms.

For example, as the company starts its cloud computing journey, the web frontend will be served by a scaleout IaaS or PaaS cloud platform, while the backend database and the middleware will likely remain hosted on the virtualisation platform which supports better scale up architectures. Over time, scale up middleware will be replaced by scale out middleware and transitioned from the virtualisation platform to the IaaS platform, some application components will be moved to PaaS, while others will be hosted on a public cloud platform.

Of course, offering multiple cloud platforms is not enough.

Without a unifying management layer, IT Departments would end up building multiple management silos, recreating the same policies and automation steps for each platform.

That unifying cloud management platform is what keeps the different portions of the same application together, no matter if they are hosted on a scale up or scale out platform, on a maintaining consistency from provisioning to retirement.

Ultimately, being “hybrid” really means embracing and supporting IT diversity while maintaining consistency.

A hybrid cloud should support the

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organisations’ IT strategy, no matter if it evolves towards an IaaS or a PaaS approach, or if it just focuses on premises deployment rather than consuming a mix of private and public cloud services.

Why an open cloud?

Public cloud took off because it just works, and it just works because cloud providers innovated and continue to innovate the whole IT stack, from the infrastructure to the application. And they could innovate because of the possibilities offered by open source technologies.

Open source is not just about code transparency. More than anything, open source is about open collaboration. In mid-2014 the most brilliant minds in our era get together and work together to solve world-class problems that didn’t even exist a decade ago, and their platform of choice to innovate is open source.

Because of its open collaboration model, open source moved from being a mere replacement for proprietary technologies to being the platform of

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Open source is not just about code transparency.

More than anything, open source is about open collaboration. In mid-2014 the most brilliant minds in our era get together and work together to solve world-class problems that didn’t even exist a decade ago, and their platform of choice to innovate is open source.

choice for innovation. Think about web scale companies like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Netflix, Yahoo, and hundreds more. In those IT environments, serving hundreds of millions of concurrent users, billions in some cases, the choice between open source and proprietary software is not even discussed. The former is the default option, the latter requires building a business case.

Compared to the aforementioned companies, however, traditional enterprise organisations cannot consume raw innovation built on open source

technologies.

Large corporations need things like multi-year support lifecycle, certified integration with third party vendors, training programmes, intellectual property indemnification, security incident responsiveness, and more.

Enterprises in the Middle East need the innovation coming out of open source software and its open collaboration model to remain competitive in their industry and against public cloud providers. At the same time, those enterprises need a reliable business partner to help that innovation fit their infrastructure and culture. l

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Reinventing the Data Center for the Cloud

By Samer Itani, Solutions Architect – UAE at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

We live in a mobile-first, cloud-centric world and it is changing how we work and live. It is creating unprecedented innovation and productivity he cloud-mobile era is also transforming the data center. For decades, monolithic applications ran on servers. With the advent of the web, applications were broken into three tiers—the front end, the data tier and the business logic. As applications needed to serve more users and more data, IT built a better mousetrap—faster servers, bigger storage and faster networks.

The build-a-bigger-mousetrap strategy works for corporate data centers that serve tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of users. But cloud services serve millions of users—and maybe even billions.

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Disaggregation Of Compute It’s time to reinvent the data center for the cloud. An emerging concept is the disaggregation of compute, which will enable cloud services at scale.

In this model, applications and server components are broken down so they can be distributed across the data center or even multiple data centers. As processing is distributed, pools of data center resources can be used instantaneously as workloads change.

The application is also disaggregated, with the creation of microservices. This way, when thousands of people use the same cloud application, such as Salesforce, each person’s activity, whether it is approving a new hire or opening a purchase order, kicks off its own workflow.

These application microservices spin up and down to meet demand.

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Building Networks for Cloud Scale Cloud services are dynamic and elastic—and the cloud network must keep pace.

In the past, applications were hardcoded to the network. When a business unit needed a new application or more capacity, IT had to make the changes manually, configuring virtual LANs and security policies using the command-line interface of the routers or switches. In the best-case scenario, changes would take hours—but days, weeks and even months are the norm.

The cloud does not operate on human time. Cloud services spin up and down in microseconds. With advances in software-defined networking, network functions virtualisation, and orchestration tools, the data center network is being automated to provide connectivity in real time.

An Opportunity For Career Growth It’s an exciting time to be a network architect. We are at the very beginning of network automation and cloud data centers. New technologies are being invented and there’s a lot to learn.

Network architects’ skills are evolving beyond mastery of the command line interface, and as the walls between the networking, server, and storage domains break down, network architects have an opportunity to take on a broader role in IT. It’s also an opportunity to embrace DevOps, where IT becomes more collaborative, highly iterative, and faster paced. l

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30% Surge in Social Media Activity During Ramadan The Online Project report that there is a 30 percent increase in social media activity during Ramadan following their study of consumers behaviour trends in eight Middle Eastern countries during the Holy Month

urprisingly, the results show that residents of the Middle East use social media platforms 30 percent more during the Holy month. It also found that they engage with social media communities much later in the day and that engagement with brands is hugely multiplied during Ramadan providing businesses with the ideal window to communicate with customers.

TOP observed Facebook and Twitter activity in nine different countries across the region including: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, KSA and the UAE to provide a general overview of social media trends in the region looking specifically at levels of engagement, sentiment and perception and the timings of their interaction.

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Marketing Traditionally, Ramadan is a big month for consumer spending and Middle Eastern companies boost their spending on traditional ‘off-line’ campaigns by 20 percent during the holy month. For example, the four largest telecoms companies spend around $200 million dollars during the month. It is from this that marketing companies and departments are now getting wise so brands can ensure that alongside traditional marketing campaigns, social media is fully utilised so it can reach a wider audience – one that is actually more open to engagement than at any other time during the year.

“Having discovered that social media consumption and user habits significantly change during the Holy

month, we set out to study the outlying variable of this change to isolate the driving forces,” explained Zafer Younis, CEO of The Online Project said. “We monitored thousands of tweets and Facebook posts in nine countries to study the user behavior.

Instead of looking at their social media platforms first thing in the morning when they wake or get into work, our results show that during Ramadan, people are most active on Twitter early evening at approximately 7pm, just before they break their fast.

“Therefore if brands wish to take advantage of this spike in audience, they should also consider posts that include content tailored to specific audiences that is entertaining or value-adding.”

Following analysis of the figures, TOP has put together their top five tips for making the most of communicating with consumers during Ramadan: 1. Recognise that Ramadan is a unique time in the Arab world both online and off: therefore, lessons you have learnt about your communities during the year may not apply during the holy month so adapt your campaign to recommended timings to make the most of the advertising budget you have spent.

2. Align your publishing times with your audience: This will help maximise engagement.

3. Optimise your content mix: User interests’ shift during the Holy month so adapt your content accordingly to stay relevant and build stronger relationships with your audience.

4. Increase your advertising support budgets during Ramadan: The Holy month enjoys higher organic engagement rates so your budget can push your content further in Ramadan.

5. Implement integrated marketing campaigns: Interlace social media usage increase in-line with TV, radio, and print consumption to deliver higher multiplier effects in Ramadan.

During Ramadan, people are most active on Twitter early evening at approximately 7pm, just before they break their fast.

Therefore if brands wish to take advantage of this spike in audience, they should also consider posts that include content tailored to specific audiences that is entertaining or value-adding. l

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CSR – The Global Clean Up Initiative

In our ongoing reviews of corporate Social Responsibility programmes, this month we look at the Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, who are inviting guests and colleagues to participate in a special to make clean up the environment he project, which is part of their global ‘Stay for Good Greening Communities Together initiative’, aims to raise awareness and make a positive impact on the environment and surrounding communities. With each hotel and resort participating to roll out clean-up programmes in there surrounding areas.

Now in its third year, this annual activity is one of several CSR initiatives under Banyan Tree’s group-wide ‘Stay for Good’ programme, supporting its commitment to the environment and communities through sustainable guest experiences and activities.

Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts has always believed that sustainability should be at the heart of a responsible business; ‘doing good and doing well’ is one of the Group’s key objectives.

Every guest that stays at a Banyan Tree, Angsana or Cassia

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property is already doing good by association, whilst the Stay for Good Greening Communities Together programme invites guests and associates to dedicate a portion of their time and energy towards the health of the planet.

During the month of June, hotels and resorts in the Banyan Tree Group portfolio will work with guests and associates to clear localised rubbish; run environmental clean-ups; and execute educational programmes highlighting the benefits of maintaining a rubbish-free community, with collected items recycled wherever possible. From Mauritius, China and Bali; to the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and the Maldives; each property across the world will endeavor to clear their beaches, rivers, wetlands, hiking paths and streets; providing a clean environment for local inhabitants; and ensuring the local wildlife continues to thrive uninhibited. l

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The Judges

In the lead up to the awards, many people are asking – Who are the judges? Read on to find out more about them all‌

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Muhammed Mekki, Founding Parnter, Astrolabs Muhammed Mekki is a Founding Partner of AstroLabs, a Google-partnered startup hub and training academy for tech entrepreneurs scaling up in the Middle East. In 2011, Muhammed co-founded Dubai-based Namshi, now one of the largest e-commerce companies in the MENA region. He is a former McKinsey & Co. consultant with clients across the GCC. Muhammed studied economics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and received his MBA from Stanford University.

Ludmilla Yamalova, Founder and Managing Partner, HPL Yamalova & Plewka Ludmila Yamalova, is a US qualified attorney, Juris Doctor. She is admitted to practice before the State Bar of California, USA and Dubai International Financial Court (DIFC), and is a registered legal consultant with the Dubai Ruler’s Court. With sixteen years of legal experience, practicing in the US and the UAE, she is the Founding and Managing Partner of her own law practice in Dubai, where she provides general corporate advisory and all forms of dispute resolution services. Her in-depth experience enables her to advocate business-minded solutions.

Ludmila is a regular commentator to international and local media, and is a regular contributor on legal matters on Dubai Eye, FM 103.8, including weekly Business Breakfast show and bi-weekly Drive Live show, as well as presenting workshops on legal issues for businesses and government agencies. She was a part-time professor of Urban Planning Law at Al Hosn University in Abu Dhabi for 2.5 years.

Prior to moving to the UAE, Ludmila was Associate General Counsel for a US$2 billion dollar NASDAQ traded company in California. She began her legal career practicing with DLA Piper in San Francisco and focusing on intellectual property litigation and bankruptcy. Ludmila received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas at Austin, US. She also holds a Master’s Degree in European Law from Université Paris X Nanterre, France. Prior to her graduate studies, Ludmila obtained an undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Political Philosophy from Reed College, Portland, Oregon.

Adel Kalantar, Director of Registration and Licensing Department, Dubai Maritime City Authority Holding a BSc. Computer science (major) and Statistic (minor) from Al Ain university in UAE, and with more than 24 years of experience, Adel started his career in Dubai Municipality for 1 and half years, and in mid of 1992 moved to Department of Economic Development (DED) where he held several positions. A team member of Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), in 2000 he shifted to Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority (DAFZA) to setup and develop the IT department, and in 2004 in addition to his duties he was voluntarily managing Dubai Silicon Oasis IT department for 6 months, before being promoted to manage IT, Purchase, Security and administration in in 2006.

In 2008 due to his high performance, Adel moved to Dubai Maritime City (DMC) as Director Business support services, then in 2009 as Director of Registration and Licensing where he is responsible of all maritime registration activities in Dubai.

Tanya Selley, Editor, Business Insight Magazine – FlipFlop Media Tanya Selley is the Editor of Business Insight Magazine, a magazine partnered with the DMCC providing advice for entrepreneurs on all aspects of business. For the last three years, Tanya has grown the magazine to one of the largest business titles in the region with a print run of 30,000 copies and a distribution base throughout Dubai and beyond. Tanya has driven the magazine to the front both editorially and commercially managing all key accounts.

Prior to this, Tanya was a financial advisor at 4 of the largest consultancies in the UK. Heading up a team, she would advise major corporate companies on their employee benefits and company insurance policies, as well as providing individual advice. Tanya wrote many articles for trade publications during this time.

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Jeffrey Rhodes, CEO ZeeGold DMCC Jeffrey began his career in financial markets in 1971 working for the Bowater Corporation where his responsibilities included the hedging of Foreign Exchange at a time when the world was changing from the Bretton Woods system of fixed to floating exchange rates. He joined Samuel Montagu, then a leading City merchant bank and a member of the London Gold and Silver fixings in 1973, and subsequently spent over 40 years in the international precious metals market working with major bullion banks and financial institutions. After leaving Montagu in 1988, Jeffrey held senior precious metals management positions with Credit Suisse (1988-1995), Standard Bank (1995-2007), where set up and ran their Dubai branch, and in 2007 he was the founding CEO of INTL FCStone Dubai.

In December 2013 Jeffrey established Rhodes Precious Metals Consultancy DMCC to provide management and consultancy services to existing companies already active in the global precious metals industry and to aspiring new entries to the world of gold, silver and the platinum group of metals. In August 2015 RPMC signed an exclusive CEO management agreement with ZEE GOLD DMCC, a new venture based in the Dubai Multi Commodity Centre focussed on physical precious metals with a regional presence and global footprint. ZEE GOLD is wholly owned by Shirpur Gold Refinery Limited, India’s largest gold refinery, and is an Essel Group (of India) enterprise, which is best known for its ZEE TV media business.

Widely recognised as a leading figure in the international bullion market Jeffrey has been prominent in the development of the DMCC, working closely with the Government of Dubai, and has been a member of Dubai’s Gold Advisory Group since its inception in 2003. He has a regular weekly slot on Dubai’s leading morning business radio show, Dubai 103.80, talking about precious metals, and participates regularly as a speaker at major precious metals conferences around the world. Jeffrey is a past chairman of the Public Affairs Committee of the London Bullion Market Association and was the founding editor of its popular trade magazine The Alchemist.

Yogesh Mehta, Managing Director, Petrochem Driven by passion and a need to succeed, Yogesh Mehta (Yogi) established Petrochem Middle East in 1995 with friend and business partner David Lubbock.

Petrochem Middle East has since grown from to become the largest independent petrochemical distributor in the Middle East, with a state-of-the-art storage terminal for bulk and drum chemicals.

A Harvard Business School Alumnus, Yogi’s success story has been widely documented, and in 2010 he was ranked seventh in the Arabian Business Indian Power List. He strongly believes that the organisation’s success has been the result of forecasting and anticipating market and customer needs. He is an enthusiast of “the people”, constantly asserting that his employees are the business’s greatest assets. His grasp on the dynamics of the chemical industry, and on building a strong reputation with buyers and sellers in the fraternity has raised the company to new heights.

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Data Availability Key For New Talent By: Gregg Petersen, Regional Director, Middle East and SAARC, Veeam Software

Technological innovation and the emergence of the millennial generation are closely entwined. Few superlatives can accurately sum up the sheer extent to which technology has fundamentally altered the way we live and work, both as consumers and businesses

hat we can say is that millennials (those born in the 1980s or 90s and ‘came of age’ in the new millennium according to Pew Research) have been exposed to modern technology for most of their lives and are accustomed to a mostly digital world. Their career aspirations, attitudes to work, and knowledge of tools, apps and services increasingly define 21st century workplace culture, and thus have a knock-on effect on how HR and recruitment departments engage with millennials currently in (or entering) the workforce.

It should be no surprise that the most successful companies in attracting talented millennials (like Google, Apple and Facebook) are technology innovators.

While they may not specifically be targeting a millennial workforce, their culture, technological reputation and management give them their pick of the best young talent. Fellow enterprises must learn that, regardless of their industry, nobody is exempt from needing to deploy the latest technology as the opportunity presented by millennials is too significant. By 2020, millennials will form 50 percent of the global workforce, according to PWC. The new age millennial workforce is the first generation to enter the workplace with a more comprehensive grasp of digital tools than any other. The way that we attract, engage and manage them must align to these skills.

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All Businesses Must Be Digital Today’s new technologies are creating new industries and replacing old business models. Every enterprise in the world, regardless of industry, should already be (or on the verge of) becoming a truly digital business.

Digital business blurs the lines between the digital and physical world, where the digital part of the business becomes a true, competitive advantage. While this will naturally benefit the enterprise’s end customers – who want to be able to do business, make purchases or anything else at any time, from any device and wherever they are – millennials also perceive that their digital expectations will translate to the workplace.

According to PWC, 41 percent of millennials would rather communicate electronically than face-to-face or over the telephone. It is also a generation that has specific expectations about how technology is used in the workplace. 59 percent said that an employer providing state-of-the art technology was important to them when considering a job, but that they habitually use workplace technology alongside their own. 78 percent suggested that accessing technology and devices that they are familiar with makes them more effective at work, indicating a clear need for considering a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy that is underpinned by flexibility. As such, using cloud-based services together with the company’s on-premises solutions, will be critical.

While different cloud providers are

available, it is always-on, constantly available data that is central to branching the millennial digital divide.

Appeal According to Capita’s Workforce Horizons study, 94 percent of HR professionals believe that it is critical to engage with the very best talent even before a new position becomes available. Being open and transparent about the expectations of candidates is important, particularly through job specifications and recruitment pages – before a prospective employee is identified. In the modern era, technology is of sufficient importance that flexible working and BYOD policies need to be outlined from the outset.

The old adage of ‘candidates are also customers’ rings true here. Technology is a central component of forming this early reputation. According to Gartner research, the Internet of Things is set to soar by 30 percent this year, rising to 6.4 billion devices in use globally.

Due to this connectivity explosion, customers and employees alike expect to engage with an organisation irrespective of time and location.

For large, well-known enterprises, it is critical that the future workforce can engage positively before they are an employee – whether that means shopping through a mobile app or website, accessing resources, or applying for a role via a microsite.

Demand On Digital Millennials’ expectations are now more demanding than ever before, so what damage would a very public outage do to an enterprise’s chances of attracting talent? In the modern

41 percent of millennials would rather communicate electronically than face-to-face or over the telephone

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age, with so many critical services reliant on digital access, even the smallest hiccup in the IT backend can lead to a disproportionately negative business impact on both reputation and revenue. In the financial sector, this could mean customers not having access to mobile banking, or in retail, consumers not being able to purchase something on a website at key times. If a millennial experiences these problems as a customer, their view of that company as a prospective employer will be severely damaged.

How an organisation responds to unexpected downtime is also of critical importance. Enterprises must have a process in place for these rare occasions – a solution that leverages server virtualisation, modern storage and the cloud to provide fast, flexible and reliable recovery in no more than 15 minutes. It can take companies years of careful planning to build and secure an enduring reputation for being a modern business, as well as a great place to work. Therefore it is key to invest the time and effort in technologies that will give the company the ability to bounce back quickly.

9 to 5 – A Thing Of The Past The younger generation is in the driving seat when it comes to new working practices.

According Capita’s study, 92 percent of HR professionals believe flexibility will become the most important factor for employees in determining the suitability of a future

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employer. The views of millennials support this. According to research by PWC, only 29 percent of millennials expect to work ‘regular’ office hours by 2022.

This puts an increased strain on old legacy systems, and increase the need for constant technology availability. HR must be increasingly involved in ensuring that a prospective employer meets the technology demands of the next generation. Millennials want flexibility, and an HR department needs to be able to outline how their company is wellsuited to accommodating this working style.

Technology is already playing an increasingly critical role in enabling effective and flexible workplace practices, creating the environment in which employees based outside the traditional office setting can work collaboratively and effectively. Millennials expect a workplace technology ecosystem that includes social networking, instant messaging and video-on-demand, for example. Modern technologies that allow remote access mean that everyday applications, networks and storage can be accessed from anywhere, so employees need not sit in their office cubicle to get things done. The flexibility to work from anywhere results in not only a happier workforce, but a more productive one. These increasingly social tools align closely with the way the millennial has experienced them during their upbringing.

The anatomy of the millennial is radically different from previous generations, and

78 percent suggested that accessing technology and devices that they are familiar with makes them more effective at work, indicating a clear need for considering a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy that is underpinned by flexibility

technology is the key differentiator.

Business leaders, IT and HR departments need to work together to understand what makes this generation click. Clearly, the data-rich, alwayson enterprise is a recurring theme when we examine the technological preferences (and expectations) of the millennial generation. The enterprises that are in the best shape in terms of the composition of their technology setup (and corresponding policies for employees) not only have a competitive advantage commercially, but also appeal to the very heart of what drives millennials. HR must be increasingly involved in ensuring that a prospective employer meets the unique demands of the current and next generation. It all boils down to availability! l

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Paul Hunter is the Director of IMD’s Corporate Learning Network. He is also Vice-Chair of ELIG (European Learning Industry Group), and a steering committee member of EFMD’s CLIP (Corporate Learning Improvement Process).

Find out more about IMD’s online programs.

Paul Hunter is the Director of IMD’s Corporate Learning Network. He is also Vice-Chair of ELIG (European Learning Industry Group), and a steering committee member of EFMD’s CLIP (Corporate Learning Improvement Process).

Find out more about IMD’s online programs.

Why MOOCs And Executives Don’t Mix

By Paul Hunter

After the scurry of educational providers scrambling to be part of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) mania, the hype has all but dissipated primarily due to low traction rates and lackluster results

ndoubtedly MOOCs have their place for disciplined and curious individuals with an iron will, available time and a natural predisposition to persevere. However, for time-stretched executives juggling high-pressure professional objectives and increasingly scarce personal time, MOOCs have not provided the hoped for panacea.

Expecting executive learners to stay the (online) course based on a cobbled together jumble of videos, articles and chat rooms is farfetched. In such circumstances, expecting tangible results such as measurable business impact or observed behavioural change is delusional. For virtual learning to work, providers should follow—and executives should look for—these seven guidelines:

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Start at the end In the creation of any learning experience, being crystal clear on participants' learning objectives is the place to start. Bloom's taxonomy has long since suggested ways of sharpening

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objectives to avoid undesirable fluff such as "by the end of this program participants will be better strategic thinkers". If this is true in the classroom, it is of paramount importance online.

Switching on the studio lights or deploying the latest widget before learning objectives have been crisply defined ensures a mediocre mix of multimedia segments that simply will not lead to executive learning.

Treat executives like executives When measuring progress, deploying a range of quizzes or multiple-choice questionnaires may seem expedient. However, such a scholastic approach is not appreciated by executives and in many cases fails to provide meaningful data other than basic knowledge retention. The increasing trend toward the use of ever more powerful algorithms may debunk this current impasse, but clearly we are not yet there.

On the other hand, asking executives to test hypotheses, draw conclusions and submit evidence-based

results on how they have used a particular concept in their professional arena, not only provides a more effective learning experience, but also allows teaching facilities to engage in a constructive dialogue with participants where it really matters.

Change the channel Far too many educational providers think that online learning is simply a virtual version of what works in the classroom. Wrong. A copy-and-paste of PowerPoint slides with a few snippets of classroom footage is a recipe for disengaged executives, poor traction and massive dropout. The best online executive programs have a fresh learning design that is built around the virtual channel.

Respect the "holy trinity" of virtual learning Successful virtual programs weave together three distinct elements: design, covering learning objectives, evaluations and the overall learning journey; the production of video and written content and online interaction mechanisms; and delivery via a platform and chosen "delivery agents" such as online coaches.

Do any of these in isolation, and the program will fail. The most common error occurs when video production is outsourced with scant regard to the original pedagogical design.

Watch out for slick videos where learning objectives have been "lost in translation," leading to limited knowledge transfer and very little measurable impact.

Keep the content fresh and easy to digest Executives undertaking virtual programs expect and deserve fresh, cutting-edge content.

If the material is stale, even an Oscar-winning on-screen performance or the latest technology

A scholastic approach is not appreciated by executives and in many cases fails to provide meaningful data other than basic knowledge retention

www.businessinsight.ae

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won't save the day. Content must also be easily digestible; don't expect executives to watch a long classroom video featuring the backs of people's heads and a shaky camera. By the same token, serving up lengthy articles to be consumed in one sitting is likely to lead to a reflux reaction.

Continuously demonstrate impact If we want time-scarce executives to spend more time online, there had better be a compelling reason to do so. Any proposed learning activity that does not have a direct impact on the executives' business arena is a waste of their precious time. The best way to tap into a participant's intrinsic motivation is to ensure measurable results that both she and her colleagues can easily observe in the workplace.

Leverage qualified feedback as a catalyst for change In many online programs, for reasons of cost or poor design, the feedback participants receive is at best worthless and at worst erroneous. It ranges from unstructured comments from random participants with little or no relevant

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expertise, to enforced peer feedback as part of a point-scoring system to gain a virtual badge. Either way, such feedback can hardly be characterised as meaningful.

If education providers want to get serious about online learning, they need to get serious about feedback. Online facilitators, learning managers and program coaches are the true catalysts for change in the digital arena.

Whether that feedback comes in writing, through a Skype call or online video chat is immaterial. What counts is that the feedback is personalized, that it comes from someone who genuinely cares about the participant successfully completing her learning objectives, and that the coach is recognized as being able to provide insightful and provocative input. Targeted bull’s-eye questions that cause participants not only to reflect, but also to take action, are the best way to ensure that online learning leads to meaningful change.

MOOCs and executives are far from a marriage made in heaven. Yes, some steely individuals may be prepared to cut through reams of broadcast material to unearth their own learning nuggets. And maybe some

If we want time-scarce executives to spend more time online, there had better be a compelling reason to do so

professionals are willing to go "back to school" and be treated as participants rather than executives.

In most cases MOOCs will not provide the meaningful learning executives are looking for, and indeed have often already gained in face-to-face programs. Educational providers need to double their efforts to be executivecentric, implementing dedicated design, production and delivery techniques to create a learning experience that generates measurable impact. Anything less will not do. l

Issue 25 | 61

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Feeling the Heat

You may have noticed that this month, the heat has exploded.

As employers, this brings a responsibility to your staff to ensure that they stay safe

62 |

Issue 25

elow, we have listed the most basic of points that you should give your staff to ensure that they remain cool under pressure in the summer heat.

B

During Hot Weather To protect your employees health in high temperatures, train them to keep cool. This can be done as part of your induction process, and reminded to them annually.

You can avoid heat related medical conditions by taking 13 simple steps: zz Clothing: Should be lightweight and loose zz Sunscreen: Apply a sunscreen with a minimum of an SPF of 30 zz Drink extra fluids: To prevent dehydration, it’s generally recommended to drink at least

zz

zz zz zz zz zz

eight glasses of water, fruit juice, or vegetable juice per day. As heat-related illness can result from salt depletion, it may be advisable to substitute an electrolyte-rich sports drink for water Take precautions outdoors: During labour intense work, workers should consume another eight ounces of water every 20 minutes regardless as to how they feel Avoid: caffeine or alcohol Do not overexert yourself Use a Buddy System: each worker will have another to monitor them and react if necessary Avoid hot foods/heavy meals: they add heat to your body Limit sun exposure: especially during mid-day hours

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THE PHILLIPS GROUP SPECIALIZING IN LEADERSHIP SOLUTIONS The Phillips Group is a boutique executive search firm specializing in placements in the MENA Region. From assisting Fortune 500 companies acquire and retain top performing senior executives or to advising leading Chief Executive Officers on developing their human capital, The Phillips Group has experience acquiring leadership talent from all four corners of the world.

WE ARE THE EXECUTIVE SEARCH SPECIALISTS. Call us now for high touch bespoke service if you are looking to hire the best in your industry.

M: +971 50 940 7537 T: + 971 4 352 2849 shane@tpgleadership.com www.tpgleadership.com

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