Gulf Business June 2021

p.28

Inside ATM: Is travel and tourism on the rebound?

p.64

Driving ahead: Lamborghini’s CEO on its electric future BD 2.10 KD 1.70 RO 2.10 SR 20 DHS 20

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gulfbusiness.com / J U N E 2 0 2 1

Bal Krishen Century Financial CEO and chairman

It’s all about the journey, not the destination.

Here’s why…

SPECIAL REPORT: THE FUTURE OF GCC WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Gulf Business

CONTENTS / JUNE 2021

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The Brief An insight into the news and trends shaping the region with perceptive commentary and analysis

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Doors wide open All the news and views from Arabian Travel Market in Dubai

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Special Report: Money matters

Exploring the future of wealth management in the GCC

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Cover Story: The man with a vision Exclusive interview: Century Financial’s Bal Krishen has had an exceptional journey to the top. What comes next?

June 2021

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Clinique Valmont, Glion, Lake Geneva Region, © NIco Schärer

My doctor prescribed Switzerland.

With its stunning scenery and high level of safety, Switzerland is a favourite with travellers.

But first-rate hospitals and clinics also make it a an exclusive health destination offering excellent medical expertise in luxurious surroundings. MySwitzerland.com/health

CONTENTS / JUNE 2021

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Lifestyle

Breitling: Ticking strong p.60

Lambo’s green vision p.64

Plating success p.68

“To be clear, I strongly believe in crypto, but it can’t drive a massive increase in fossil fuel use, especially coal” – Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla

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The SME Story Interviews with entrepreneurs and insights from experts on how the regional SME ecosystem is evolving

Group director Andrew Wingrove andrew.wingrove@motivate.ae Editor Aarti Nagraj aartin@motivate.ae aartinagraj Deputy editor Varun Godinho varun.godinho@motivate.ae varungodinho Contributor Zainab Mansoor editorial.freelancer@motivate.ae zzainabmansoor Senior art director Olga Petroff olga.petroff@motivate.ae Art director Ángel Monroy angel.monroy@motivate.ae theangelmonroy Photographers Joachim Guay

General manager – production S Sunil Kumar Assistant production manager Binu Purandaran Production supervisor Venita Pinto Chief commercial officer Anthony Milne anthony@motivate.ae Group sales manager Manish Chopra manish.chopra@motivate.ae Senior advertising manager Ravi Dutt ravi.dutt@motivate.ae Group marketing manager Dominic Clerici dominic.clerici@motivate.ae Group marketing manager Joelle Albeaino joelle.albeaino@motivate.ae

Cover: Ángel Monroy.

Vol. 26. Issue 1. June 2021 Printed by Emirates Printing Press, Dubai

Editor-in-chief Obaid Humaid Al Tayer Managing partner and group editor Ian Fairservice

Photo: Joachim Guay

Follow us on social media: Linkedin: Gulf Business; Facebook: GulfBusiness; Twitter: @GulfBusiness; Instagram: @GulfBusiness

HEAD OFFICE: Media One Tower, Dubai Media City, PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE, Tel: +971 4 427 3000, Fax: +971 4 428 2260, motivate@motivate.ae DUBAI MEDIA CITY: SD 2-94, 2nd Floor, Building 2, Dubai, UAE, Tel: +971 4 390 3550, Fax: +971 4 390 4845 ABU DHABI: PO Box 43072, UAE, Tel: +971 2 677 2005, Fax: +971 2 677 0124, motivate-adh@motivate.ae LONDON: Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ER, UK, motivateuk@motivate.ae

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June 2021

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21

Netflix 50.2%

Others 13.5%

Paramount+ 3.2% HBO Max 4.1%

Prime Video 12.2% Hulu 6.1% Disney+ 6% Apple TV+ 4.7% SOURCE: PARROT ANALYTICS (Q1 2021)

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/MUNANDME

Startups Investment Technology Economy Future

Netflix continues to dominate the online video streaming market globally

Food for thought “The fact that rice prices are stable is pretty good news for global food security.”

Here’s why... p. 8 gulfbusiness.com

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ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/MUNANDME

The Brief / Agriculture

A N A LY S I S

Valuable crop Rice is keeping the world’s food crisis from getting worse

A

s skyrocketing crop prices fuel fears about soaring food costs and hunger around the globe, one of the world’s most consumed staples is bucking the trend and warding off a broader food crisis at least for now.

Rice is the predominant source of nourishment each day for more than 3 billion people, and yet it hasn’t rallied anything like other agricultural commodities from corn to soy and meat. While prices are above levels a year earlier, they’ve declined in recent months in some of the top exporters including Vietnam, Thailand and India on improved

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June 2021

3 billion

People have rice as their predominant daily source of nourishment

supplies from new harvests.

One reason for the diverging trend is that rice is grown mainly for human consumption, whereas the surge in crop prices has been driven by booming demand for livestock feed. China’s insatiable appetite for hog feed has combined with poor crop weather to drain world grain and oilseed supplies, sending corn and soybeans to the highest level in more than eight years.

Wheat – mostly used to make food including bread, pasta, noodles, cereal bars and biscuits – has risen too as it’s increasingly fed to animals as a substitute for expensive corn and soy. Prices have jumped more than 40 per cent since August, compared with about 120 per cent for corn and over 70 per cent for soy. Stable rice prices could stop food inflation from becoming a more widespread problem. Global food prices are already at their highest since 2014, triggering warnings from the World Bank and United Nations about rising food insecurity and stirring memories of 2008 and 2011, when price spikes led to food riots in more than 30 nations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and contributed to political strife and uprisings in the Arab Spring.

This time, the impact of soaring crop prices on grocery shelves can already be seen in higher tortilla prices in Mexico and beef in Brazil. In the US, it’s more expensive bacon and other meat cuts due to higher feed costs. Asia is generally more insulated as wheat is usually less of a diet staple than rice.

“The fact that rice prices are stable is pretty good news for global food security,” said David Dawe, a Bangkok-based senior economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. “You’ve got a lot more poor people in Asia, where rice is a staple food.”

There’s little risk for now that rice will get caught up in the rally. Unlike corn, soy and even wheat which face tightening supplies because of dry weather in important growing regions, including in the US and Brazil, there’s no global shortage of rice.

The weather pattern known as La Niña that contributed to drought in the Americas has instead brought rains to much of Asia, where over 90 per cent of the world’s rice is produced and consumed.

India, the world’s biggest supplier, has harvested record amounts of rice for the past few years and has been shipping them at low prices. “Even if sales from Vietnam and Thailand dropped, rice prices won’t be going up much because there’s plenty of supply from India,” said Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

Production from Thailand, which was the No. 2 exporter before slipping in the ranking last year as a drought slashed output, will probably benefit from higher rainfall this year, according to Chookiat. gulfbusiness.com

The Brief / Startups A N A LY S I S

Rice prices could climb should there be “surprise demand,” but gains will be capped by large stockpiles in China as well as India’s ability to keep on exporting, he said.

In China, the government has built up massive inventories of wheat and rice that could feed its entire population of 1.4 billion people for a year.

It’s even urged animal feed mills to buy both the grains from state reserves to replace corn and soybean meal to curb the country’s dependence on foreign supplies.

However, food security isn’t just about staple food

crops and consuming sufficient calories. For the poor, it’s about having access to adequate amounts of protein, micronutrients and vitamins. This has been made difficult because of the spikes in corn and soy, which pushed up meat prices.

“The higher maize prices will put price pressure on pork and poultry and that will make it more difficult for poor families to afford that in their diet,” Dawe said. “They’ll be ok on the rice but they won’t be so good on the meat, and that can have an impact on the nutrition of young children.”

Bloomberg

A N A LY S I S

Planting the seeds

The UAE is undertaking key initiatives to accelerate food security, finds Zainab Mansoor

T

he Covid-19 pandemic and containment measures in its wake proved to be a stern test for global food supply chains, accelerating the need to mitigate long-standing food security concerns.

Countries across the GCC have been taking key steps towards diversifying food sources and stepping up technology initiatives to ease production, alleviate food waste and enable food supplies.

Amid broader regional projects, the UAE has taken considerable strides to bolster its food ecosystem.

Earlier this year, Dubai launched the first phase of Food Tech Valley, a new city that would serve as a global destination for startups and industry experts in the food ecosystem, hosting R&D facilities, an innovation centre, smart food logistics hub and areas for vertical farming. The recently-launched initiative aims to create an integrated modern city where over 300 varieties of crops will be

gulfbusiness.com

produced using modern farming techniques and which will bring together companies, investors and researchers to develop the latest aquaculture and hydroponics technologies.

“The Middle East is a region heavily reliant on food imports. The arid land and unforgiving weather across much of the region does not permit for large-scale agriculture. The pandemic exposed a weakness in the supply chain and over-reliance on imports. Hence, governments in the region are working hard to ensure food security for their citizens and residents. In keeping with the ecological challenges, sustainable agriculture will play a key part in feeding the citizens of the region,” says Arun Shroff, CEO of UAE’s Pikoo Foods. The startup launched the country’s first peabased milk derived by sustainable agricultural methods.

“Sustainable techniques such as hydroponic farming are being used

extensively to grow fruits and vegetables in the UAE. This will continue to be the trend in the foreseeable future.”

Besides the Food Tech Valley initiative – that aims to support the country’s National Food Security Strategy 2051 – the UAE undertook several other steps to explore ways of enhancing local production. It harvested around 1,700 kilograms of rice in the emirate of Sharjah in May last year in a pilot project with South Korea’s Rural Development Administration (RDA), while the Abu Dhabi Investment Office aims to spend about $41m with other companies to advance technologies for food production in dry conditions, according to Bloomberg. Furthermore, the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment inked an agreement with RDA earlier this year to boost joint efforts in smart farming research.

“The pandemic has accelerated the need for local agriculture. The UAE is at the forefront of these initiatives. They are also investing in food technologies that can help cultivate rice in the desert.

With constrained supply chains, and delayed shipments, a nation cannot wait for food to feed its citizens. Hence the focus is more on local agriculture now,” notes Shroff.

With promising projects underway, the UAE is set to leverage modern techniques, collaborations and initiatives to herald an innovation-based sustainable future.

June 2021

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The Brief / Investment

PHOTO: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Salvator Mundi is the most expensive art purchase in history

COMMENT

Chaddy Kirbaj Vice director, Swissquote Bank Dubai Representative Office

Making money with Monet Investors are now starting to recognise art as an attractive alternative asset class that offers a great option for diversification

A

rt is an unconventional choice for investors, in that it is not easily traded like more traditional asset classes such as equities, bonds, cash, commodities and so on. It is highly illiquid, as artworks cannot be bought and sold quickly on exchanges, and there are high costs involved with the purchase and sale of art, including appraisals, insurance, transport, storage and auction fees.

Why then are so many investors turning to the world of art as an alternative investment?

The value of art is a matter of perception, based on the work’s history and the prestige and desirability of the artist – there is no underlying asset as with stocks or commodities. As a result of this, art is a distinctive commodity that does not correlate closely

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with the behaviour of stocks and bonds markets, i.e., the value of art is not greatly affected by global economic conditions. As a result, investors are now starting to recognise art as an attractive alternative asset class that offers a great option for diversification and a hedge against volatile markets.

Wise investments in the right art will almost always reap rewards, despite the high costs involved, as demand is increasing for rare and sought-after artworks.

This has been compounded in recent years with the proliferation of ultra-high-networth individuals looking for an attractive and fashionable way to store their wealth.

There has also been a significant increase in activity by culturally-inclined sovereign wealth funds from Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar with very deep pockets and

an insatiable appetite for the great works – the most famous example being Saudi Arabia’s purchase of Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi for almost half a billion dollars, the most expensive art purchase in history.

So far, all of this relates to buying actual pieces of art as a physical asset, but as I’ve already mentioned, art is a highly illiquid asset, so it is not recommended for those looking for an easy exit strategy or fast cash.

In addition, buying expensive art is not just a case of picking a Monet up at an auction and banging a nail into your wall at home to hang it on. You need a suitable, atmosphere-controlled and secure space where it will be safe from environmental damage and robbery. And then there’s the matter of insurance. All of this represents a considerable outlay to anyone looking at starting an art collection.

However, what are your options if you do not have hundreds of millions of dollars available to sink into a collection of works by the masters? Well, the good news is that a number of art-based funds have been created to cater to investors looking to get involved in art. Art funds can make sense for non-HNWI investors because they offer pooled buying power, diversification and professional management. These funds employ specialists to handle the procurement, transportation, storage and, when the time is right, sale of high-value artworks on behalf of the fund’s investors.

The Fine Art Fund Group in London, established in 2001, is one of the older and larger funds, with more than $350m in assets under contract. Newer and smaller vehicles include the $18m, Malta-domiciled Fine Art Invest Fund and the $20m Tiroche DeLeon Collection, registered in Gibraltar.

A good indicator of how the market is performing is the Artprice 100 Index, designed as a portfolio of artworks representing the 100 most important artists on the market, based on auction sales of particular artists over the previous five years.

However, as the fund is a theoretical exercise, and not based on actual ownership of part or all of any artworks, there are no funds or ETFs based on this index.

Another option is to invest in the shares of the top auction houses themselves, with famous names such as Sotheby’s, Phillips and Christie’s offering an attractive alternative to investing in artwork. gulfbusiness.com

The Brief / Q&A INTERVIEW

Maurits Tichelman VP - Sales, Marketing, and Communications and GM - Global Markets and Partners, EMEA, Intel

Explainer: Is data the new oil in the GCC? Technology has now become a key driver of economic growth in the GCC, with data already defining the region’s future

I

s the term ‘data is the new oil’ still relevant?

Yes, data has practically become the ‘new oil’.

Data is playing a significant role as a crucial source of wealth for oil-rich nations and territories such as the GCC, which has historically been particularly dependent on oil as the main contributor to the GDP. We are witnessing a significant shift from oil to data in the region as governments embark on strategic initiatives to diversify towards more knowledgebased and tech-driven economies. Data is already playing a key role in this transformation. A concrete example of this process could be autonomous driving. Autonomous vehicles run on data in the same way that today’s cars run on gasoline. Therefore, undoubtedly, data will be the new oil.

149

zetabytes of generated data expected by 2024

and services efficiently, to optimising advanced technologies to help businesses and governments access natural resources that can benefit people.

Additionally, increased efficiency of labour has improved productivity and profitability.

While we are producing ample amounts of data in the region, are we currently maximising its benefits?

We are surrounded by data and it continues to grow exponentially. According to estimates, in 2021 alone, there will be 74 zetabytes of generated data and it is expected to reach 149 zetabytes by 2024. As

DATA IS ALREADY DEFINING THE REGION’S FUTURE, COMPLEMENTED

BY MEGA PROJECTS PLANNED WITH GREATER FOCUS ON SMART INFRASTRUCTURE In the GCC, oil has been crucial to economic growth.

Will technology/data be able to provide the same level of economic prosperity?

gulfbusiness.com

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/JORG GREUEL

Countries in the region are heavily investing in diversified industries such as technology, manufacturing, education, and healthcare, among others. As the Gulf states transform and diversify, the importance and impact of technology will take on an even greater role. Data is already defining the region’s future, complemented by mega projects planned with greater focus on smart infrastructure (smart cities), advanced telecoms services, and somewhat accelerated by the rapid rise of remote learning and working due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, technology has now become a key driver of economic growth, from providing goods June 2021

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The Brief / Alan’s Corner

a result, the need to understand and optimise data has become even more significant as every business uses data to some extent. However, there is a lack of knowledge and skills in utilising the data to its full potential. With the rise of digitalisation, companies and governments across the region and worldwide are investing in digital transformation, a positive indication that more organisations are now realising the importance of data.

The Covid crisis has highlighted the importance of technology – but will it retain its relevance post-pandemic across industries?

The pandemic has undeniably prompted companies to invest more in technology adoption across industries including healthcare, education, retail and real estate, among others. The use of innovation technology such as virtual medical/doctor consultation has helped people during lockdowns.

The Covid crisis has forced organisations and governments to adapt and prepare better to tackle future calamities with the aid of technology. Businesses have seen the advantages and have started deploying smart and intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to improve safety standards and increase productivity. Thus, it is clear that technology has become an absolute necessity rather than a mere option; its relevance has never been so crucial and without a doubt the use and benefits will play a bigger role post-pandemic across industries locally, regionally and internationally.

Alan’s Corner Alan O’Neill Change consultant and speaker

Budgets are not plans If budgets and targets indicate ‘what’ we are aiming for, then we also need to consider ‘how’ we will achieve those targets

T

What are the biggest challenges hindering tech adoption/data-driven growth in the region?

Although organisations are implementing advanced technologies, the vast majority still operate on outdated and traditional models, which prevent them from utilising the benefits of the latest available technologies.

Secondly, reluctance and resistance from employees in adopting technology poses challenges for companies. Lastly, a lack of skilled professionals is a key factor that has restricted organisations in the region from completing their digital transformation.

Looking ahead, GCC states are seeking to become global knowledge hubs. How can that journey be accelerated?

GCC governments are accelerating their digital transformation journeys with progressive strategies and initiatives. Smart Dubai, Dubai Data Strategy, Saudi Arabia’s The National Strategy for Digital Transformation and the Qatar Smart Program (TASMU) are examples of the regional commitment and ambition to explore all possibilities of technology and its impact on daily life and business.

These strategies, roadmaps and ambitions are the key drivers and accelerators of their technological transformation journey.

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FAR TOO MANY BIG AND SMALL COMPANIES THINK THAT BECAUSE THE ‘NUMBERS’ ARE AGREED, THE PLANNING JOB IS NOW COMPLETE

he purpose of an annual budgeting process is to be proactive and be in control of your own destiny. It focuses the entire leadership on the financial goals of the business and it makes them accountable. Without these targets, how can a business know if it’s doing a good job or not? They are the score of the game.

In this process, organisations usually use their previous year’s numbers as a baseline to set financial targets for the following fiscal year. These targets will usually show an increase on the previous year. But there is a better way.

The methodology used for setting targets is often a combination of a top-down and bottom-up approach. Top-down is where the organisation looks externally at what is going on in the marketplace and makes judgments on the implications of those external forces. Bottom-up is where the individual commercial teams set targets by customer segment, by product, by territory and so on. The bottom-up approach is typically based on a marginal uplift on last year’s numbers.

But it shouldn’t stop there. Far too many big and small organisations think that because the ‘numbers’ are agreed, the planning job is now complete.

Let’s be very clear here. Budgets and targets are not business plans. If budgets and targets indicate ‘what’ we are aiming for, then we also need to consider ‘how’ we will achieve those targets.

Effective planning Structured, detailed planning helps guide teams on the specifics of what it will take to ensure the budgets and targets are achieved. It should be a cross departmental team exercise to get commitment and buy-in. gulfbusiness.com

The Brief / Alan’s Corner

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/LUCIANO LOZANO

a. People. Think of headcount, pay-

Working recently with Dubai-based Gerab National Enterprises, I supported the senior team to develop its strategy using these structured steps: 1. Scan the external marketplace. We started with an appraisal of the external market. What’s happening in the macro economy and the industry?

Who are the main competitors and what are they doing differently that is relevant? How are customers changing? What are the new trends?

All of that feeds into what we call ‘Opportunities and Threats’ which should then be prioritised in terms of their impact on business. This exercise further helps to validate the financial budgets and targets.

2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each key business driver. The next things to consider are

the key pillars of the business in detail. For each pillar, identify your ‘strengths and weaknesses’. This inward navel-gazing has to be done in an honest and nondefensive way. The pillars would typically include: gulfbusiness.com

roll investment, recruitment, retention, allocation of duties, training, communications, welfare, morale and productivity. Also consider if any element of your culture and leadership needs attention. b. Product mix. Think of best and worst sellers, newness and innovation, product differentiation, price architecture, customers and trends. c. Place. Consider your route to market and where there might be opportunities to open new markets, new industry sectors, online channels, mergers or acquisitions. d. Brand communications. Develop a marketing and communications plan, around all relevant platforms – both via traditional channels (such as advertising and PR) and social media channels. Consider look and feel, tone of voice, frequency and cost/benefit analysis. e. Internal controls. Consider your own internal processes, controls, costs, margin management, IT systems, risks, etc.

3. Prioritise. From this list, agree on your priority projects for the year ahead. By negotiating with the relevant stakeholders, allocate an owner for each project. That will ensure good accountability, no ambiguity and that tasks don’t slip between two departments.

4. Agree measures. Set metrics for each initiative.

Sometimes this exercise may reveal projects that will take more than a year to deliver. Nevertheless, for all initiatives you should consider metrics for the next 12-month period.

Be careful of how you go about this planning process. It is really difficult to lead it on your own, as all senior people need to be contributing to the process. Facilitating such meetings is an entirely different and objective role to be played and it’s hard to be both a contributor and facilitator. Whoever you use should have great empathy, objectivity and expertise in strategic planning.

Finally, before you leave the planning room, consider governance. How will you monitor progress and hold individuals to account for delivering on what has been agreed?

Check back in here over the next few months and I’ll go into more detail for each of my 7-Steps to Profit.

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The Brief / Economy IT’S BOTH UNREALISTIC AND UNHELPFUL TO TREAT RESILIENCE AS A TRAIT THAT WILL ELIMINATE EARNINGS AND SHARE PRICE VOLATILITY

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/MALTE MUELLER

Covid-19 has clearly made resilience a necessity for companies in all sectors. And the turbulence looks set to continue as globalisation unwinds, inequality rises, new technological risks emerge, and the effects of climate change manifest themselves more regularly and severely. Yet the dynamics of resilience aren’t always well understood by senior executives and boards of directors. In our recent conversations with business leaders, we’ve come to recognise five stubborn myths that distort the discussion. Dispelling these myths is the first step on the road to resilience.

MYTH 1 – RESILIENCE ELIMINATES VOLATILITY

Tom De Waele Managing partner - Middle East Bain & Company

COMMENT

Dispelling five myths on business resilience The pandemic has made resilience a necessity for companies across all sectors

T

he Covid-19 pandemic, while horrific on a social and economic level, is just the latest in a long series of convulsions that expose the vulnerabilities or brittle characteristics of unprepared companies. Recent years have brought major shocks, including international trade wars, a plunge in oil prices and a financial crisis – each of which pulled the rug out from exposed companies. An increased march of government interventions has started to limit the options of technology giants.

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In current times, the likelihood and consequence of events cannot be forced into a tidy probability distribution. It’s both unrealistic and unhelpful to treat resilience as a trait that will eliminate earnings and share price volatility. Instead, we distinguish volatility predictable fluctuations in every business over time – from true risk exposure to a lasting adverse change in trajectory.

MYTH 2 – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BALANCE SHEET

Business leaders often tend to view resilience solely through a balance sheet lens, examining leverage and liquidity, but ignoring other potential sources of fragility.

Adopting a holistic view of resilience acknowledges the reality that external events typically affect companies through several of these dimensions simultaneously, compounding the extent of the shock. Accounting for all these dimensions allows executives to make smarter choices about where to invest scarce resources to boost resilience.

In many cases, resilience also stems from the overall simplicity and transparency of the business model. During the 2008 financial crisis, many banks were undone by the sheer complexity and opacity of the mortgage-backed securities they were so heavily exposed to, which made the proper assessment of risk nearly impossible.

MYTH 3 – PAST RESILIENCE GUARANTEES FUTURE RESILIENCE

Once the dust settles from the Covid-19 crisis, most firms will likely be better prepared to deal with the next pandemic, just as banks are better prepared for the next mortgage crisis. “Black swan” events, however, look different than the crises in recent memory.

Building true resilience demands asking what gulfbusiness.com

The Brief / Social COMMENT

Zaib Shadani Managing director, Shadani Consulting

could happen that would truly test the business, rather than anchoring on recent experience.

Although many potential shocks exist, the number of transmission channels through which these could really damage a particular business is much lower.

Each firm should understand its unique risk profile, based on its specific cost structure, customer segments, supply chain, route to market, and more.

MYTH 4 – RESILIENCE SHOULD BE HANDLED BY THE RISK FUNCTION

Too often, risk gets treated as an obligatory but unfortunate box-checking exercise, then relegated to a corner of the business. Accepting this limited scope, risk functions may fall into the trap of becoming overly tactical and blinkered in their identification of risks.

This approach falls short in a world of greater turbulence. The combinatorial nature of many risks demands that companies identify and mitigate risks for the entire business. A piecemeal buying down of specific risks in specific functions and business units will probably not achieve the resilience needed for the business as a whole (or at least not at an acceptable cost). Moreover, many future risks will emerge from the ecosystem of partners outside the firm, and traditional risk-management functions are ill-suited for this challenge.

Instead, firms will need to elevate and integrate risk into the rhythms and rituals of their most important decision-making processes at the C-suite and board levels. Rather than making decisions based mostly on the upside, and protecting against a few siloed areas of risk, business leaders at all levels should adopt an ownership mindset that fully accounts for how decisions will affect value creation across the business over the long term.

MYTH 5 – RESILIENCE DOESN’T REQUIRE DIFFICULT TRADE-OFFS

Can a firm shield itself against future shocks without compromising earnings today? True, firms will be able to identify no-regret moves that add to resilience without denting current profitability, such as improving supply chain visibility or introducing crisis readiness. And a holistic, firm-wide approach to resilience can often improve cost-effectiveness.

However, gaining a meaningful edge on resilience will often entail investment and opportunity cost.

Here, business leaders will have to expand the dialogue with investors on balancing short-term and long-term value creation. For their part, many investors are trying to balance the desire for responsible stewardship of capital over the long term with the need to avoid allocating funds to systematic underperformers. gulfbusiness.com

Top mistakes brands make when using influencers There are several factors that need to be kept in mind to ensure a successful influencer marketing campaign

I

nfluencer marketing – a strategy that involves engaging ‘influencers’ in order to get your message out there and promote your product or service, is fast becoming common practice amongst brands and a staple across most marketing strategies. When executed correctly, influencer marketing has the ability to create impact and positively affect brand recall and customer conversion.

However, when executed incorrectly, it can be a disaster and a waste of time and money.

We manage influencer campaigns as part of our PR and social media services and have seen firsthand the pitfalls. Here are the top three mistakes brands make when working with influencers and how to correct them: June 2021

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The Brief / Social

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/INVINCIBLE BULLDOG

influencer and their followers. The key is authentic content that resonates with followers and not trying to force a brand endorsement into conversations and posts. Many companies have specific brand guidelines which can seem very advertorial when influencers are asked to incorporate them into their content.

The nature of social media dictates an informal and more relaxed tone, which can – at times – be at odds with ‘corporate speak’.

HOW TO FIX THIS MISTAKE:

Don’t micro-manage. Allow influencers to be content creators and use their own language to promote your brand. ‘Corporate speak’ works for press releases and articles, but social media is all about authentic content, shared from an individual’s own point of view, so as long as the influencer is aware of your brand values and corporate ideology, let them be creative and expressive in their own words, to promote your brand. If a brand has correctly vetted the influencer, then the values, tone and messaging should align – offering flexibility to an influencer will result in authentic content, that will be well received by the followers.

Mistake #1: Choosing the wrong influencers Partnering with the correct influencer should not be determined by the number of followers – while the size of the follower base may seem like the ideal selection criteria, it’s only a starting point. Selecting influencers to work with encompasses several factors, which can include shared visions, common interests, target audience demographics, expertise and most importantly, authentic content that resonates. Many brands fall into the trap of choosing influencers because they have a huge following – but that is in fact the worst way to go about it. A huge following doesn’t mean the followers are authentic, engaged or even your correct target audience.

HOW TO FIX THIS MISTAKE:

A good way to select an influencer to work with, is to define clear goals and have a specific selection criteria that they need to fulfil, to be a perfect ‘fit’ for the brand. Then ensure a deep dive into their past content, analytics, current partnerships and most importantly, screen them, just like you would a new employee. Once you know the parameters of your ideal influencer, you can set about selecting the ideal influencer to partner with.

Mistake #2: Promoting inauthentic and fake content The art of ‘influencing’ is all about making authentic connections with followers, and effective influencer marketing is about capitalising on real conversations and the relationship that exists between an 16

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Mistake #3: Not tracking influencer campaign performance

MANY BRANDS FALL INTO THE TRAP OF CHOOSING INFLUENCERS BECAUSE THEY HAVE A HUGE FOLLOWING – BUT THAT IS IN FACT THE WORST WAY TO GO ABOUT IT

Many brands are happy to have engaged a strong influencer at reasonable rates – however, the real work starts once the influencer’s posts are live. Are people engaging with the content, has your ‘call to action’ been effective, has there been some form of customer conversion? Most brands still regard impressions, reach or views as a benchmark, but the reality is that there is a plethora of additional metrics that need to be kept in mind, starting with the rate of engagement. For example, likes, reposts, shares, comments from a smaller follower base is more impactful than a silent and unengaged follower base of millions.

HOW TO FIX THIS MISTAKE:

Brands need to ensure that there is a clear criterion for success and that they have KPIs that not only measure performance, but also provide data to strengthen future campaigns. Decide on the right performance metrics for that particular campaign by establishing quantifiable metrics that align with your sales or marketing goals. Influencer marketing can take time, so it’s important to track a campaign from the minute it goes live. Strategic influencer marketing campaigns start with strengthening brand awareness and then move along the customer journey, ensuring conversion and ultimately, those followers become brand advocates. Every step along the way offers an opportunity to track and monitor campaign performance. gulfbusiness.com

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/DICKCRAFT

The Brief / Future

Rehan Khan Principal consultant for BT, educator and novelist

COMMENT

Mind space We must recognise that our minds are powerful originators for ideas

W

ith a gargantuan effort underway to distract us, whether this is an external force of antagonism such as social media companies, or whether it’s our own stray unstructured thoughts, we must recognise that our minds are powerful originators for ideas. However, the more we can get out of our heads, the more clearly we can think.

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, says: “Your head is not for holding ideas – it’s for having ideas…The first thing to do is to capture what’s got your attention, then decide if it’s actionable or not, and if it is, decide what the next action on it is, and do the action right then if you can.”

Allen is referring to the “Zeigarnik effect”, named gulfbusiness.com

“YOUR HEAD IS NOT FOR HOLDING IDEAS – IT’S FOR HAVING IDEAS”

after Bluma Zeigarnik, who, in the late 1920s, stated that incomplete or interrupted tasks weigh on our minds much more than completed tasks.

Whenever I think about a task or activity to perform, I write it down. As a result, I experience more clarity and less stress. Even if I notice the smallest item weighing on my mind, I externalise it (write it down) to create more attentional space for bigger and better things. The notes app I use (Evernote) syncs between all my devices. My to-do lists are simple: one for work and one for personal matters.

However, there are plenty of other possible apps or just a good old-fashioned notebook you can use. The point is: externalise what you are thinking, or else you will forget it.

In Getting Things Done, Allen also mentions a “waiting for” list: a list of everything you are waiting on, which – like a to-do list – you should review on a regular basis to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.

From my own experience, the most productive people are the ones who strike a balance between the two extremes, who understand the power of capturing and organising what they have to get done, but who also don’t sacrifice real work in favour of ‘looking’ efficient.

The reality for many knowledge workers is that they need to keep on demonstrating that they are productive members of the organisation, yet what constitutes productivity as a metric is often fuzzy and unclear. To overcome this issue, many knowledge workers resort to how productivity was measured during the Industrial Age, under the Efficiency Movement, founded by Frederick Taylor, who used to stand with a stopwatch in hand measuring the efficiency of worker movements – all the while calculating how to speed up the tasks they were undertaking.

Fast-forward to today’s knowledge worker and this manifests itself as a need to be visibly busy and undertaking such mind-and-soul-crushing behaviours as replying to emails immediately no matter what time of day, packing the diary with meetings, many of which are not required, chiming in on instant messaging conversations whether they have relevance or not, and firing off random ideas across the office as you walk through – all the while ensuring you are publicly seen to be busy and so, by default, valuable to the organisation.

Unfortunately, all of us can slip into this unproductive trap, where we give the impression of busyness, yet our work lacks depth, and we do not possess the mental discipline to undertake cognitively demanding work. When we feel ourselves sliding into this zone, which we all do to some extent, then it’s important to become aware of it, pick ourselves up, reset and head in the opposite direction.

June 2021

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The Brief / Infographics

Innovation overdrive

Market share Share of trademark applications by region

Asia 70.6%

Innovation sits at the core of an inclusive and sustainable future, driving growth and supporting societal goals. The Global Innovation Index 2020 report evaluates the innovation trends and performance of 131 economies around the world

IN 2019

Europe 15.4%

North America 5.7%

Oceania 1.3% Africa 1.7%

Top 10 global brands

Latin America and the Caribbean 5.3%

Seven of the 10 most valuable brands in the world are from the US IN USD (2020 DATA)

Apple

Amazon

Google

Microsoft

Samsung

(US)

Walmart

Facebook

(US)

ICBC

Verizon

(US)

(US)

(Korea)

(US)

(US)

(China)

(US)

(China)

263.4m

254.2m

191.2m

140.4m

102.6m

93.2m

81.5m

72.8m

68.9m

67.9m

WeChat

Top innovation hubs Top 10 countries in the Global Innovation Index 2020 with their scores Switzerland

66.08

Sweden

62.47

United States

60.56

United Kingdom

59.78

Netherlands

58.76

Denmark

57.53

Finland

57.02

Singapore

56.61

Germany

56.55

Korea 50

18

June 2021

56.11 55

60

65

70

gulfbusiness.com

Top 10 countries filing patents

1 IN 2020, ESTIMATE

These are the nations with the most international patent applications filed via WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty system 2 5

China 68,720 Germany 18,643

US 59,230

3 7

10

8

9

UK 5,912

Switzerland

Sweden

Netherlands

Japan 50,520

4,883

4,356

4,035

6 4

France 7,904

Korea 20,060

Breakdown by region

Northern Africa and Western Asia (Top 10)

These are the countries that lead in each region of the world, according to the Global Innovation Index

UAE

Northern America US

Europe

60.56

Canada

52.26

Mexico

0

59.78

33.60

South Africa

33.51 20

Kenya 40

60

0

Armenia

32.64

Georgia

31.78

Qatar

32.67

26.13 20

Kuwait 40

60

0

Korea

30.94

54.24

Central and Southern Asia India

28.97

Iran

28.40 20

56.11

Hong Kong

30.81

Morocco

56.61

Singapore

31.21

Saudi Arabia

34.35

Mauritius*

East Asia, South East Asia and Oceania

34.90

Tunisia

Sub-Saharan Africa

33.86

Costa Rica

66.08

62.47

Sweden

Latin America and the Caribbean

41.79

Turkey

Switzerland

UK

Chile

53.55

Israel

35.59 30.89

Kazakhstan 40

0

20

28.56 40

60

SOURCES: WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION (WIPO) GLOBAL INNOVATION INDEX 2020; BRAND FINANCE GLOBAL 500 2021 RANKING

gulfbusiness.com

June 2021

19

The Brief / Lightbox

A Palestinian man plays with his daughter in front of the Al-Shuruq building which was destroyed by an Israeli air strike on May 22, 2021, in Gaza City. The deadly conflict between Hamas and Israel killed at least 248 in Gaza – mostly civilians – and 12 in Israel 20

June 2021

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gulfbusiness.com

June 2021

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PHOTO: MAJDI FATHI/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

COVER STORY / BAL KRISHEN

L A DDE R TO THE S K I E S WORDS

BY AARTI NAGRAJ

gulfbusiness.com

It’s not just the view at the top that Bal Krishen, the CEO and chairman of UAE-based Century Financial enjoys, but also the journey of reaching there. In this exclusive interview, the enterprising executive reveals his stellar professional rise, where the investment market is headed, and what the future holds

PHOTOS: JOACHIM G U AY

June 2021

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COVER STORY / BAL KRISHEN

It is not often you meet people who have started from extremely humble beginnings to reach dizzying heights.

And yet as we walked into Bal Krishen’s elegant office, what was immediately clear was that the CEO and chairman of UAE-based financial services and investment firm Century Financial remains firmly grounded, despite his lofty achievements.

Arriving in the UAE in 1996, Krishen took the first job he could find – at a local hotel in Dubai

G

reeting us personally, Krishen was exceptionally hospitable and warm, and quick to start a friendly – and erudite – conversation. “I have always believed that ‘It is not about what life has offered you, but what have you done with that offering’,” he explains.

Krishen exemplifies that narrative.

Born in India as one of nine siblings in a modest family, he completed his basic education in a local school where his father was a teacher. “But I was more interested in acquiring practical knowledge. I started working at an early age by doing several odd jobs, which helped support my family and provided early learning experiences. My entrepreneurial instincts were shaped when I took a risk and started a small business venture in my native town. It paid off and encouraged me to explore better opportunities outside my hometown. When my father 24

June 2021

retired early, I decided to go to Dubai aspiring to find a good job that would provide a better livelihood for my family back home,” he says.

Arriving in the UAE in 1996, Krishen was determined not go back emptyhanded and took the first job he could find – at a local hotel in Dubai. “I learned the fundamentals of people management and the importance of customer service. I started as a bell boy and quickly worked my way up into an admin job at the hotel,” he elaborates.

The magic happened when a client at the hotel, a senior banker, noticed Krishen’s exceptional mathematical skills.

“The banker noticed my speed and consistency with numbers and encouraged me to consider a career in investments and finance. This interaction made me seriously consider a career in the financial investment industry.”

In 1999, he met Emirati entrepreneur

and the then chairman of Century Financial, Sulaiman Baqer Mohebi, who agreed to give the tenacious young man an opportunity in his company as an office assistant. “During my initial days in Century, I closely observed the work done by the customer service and sales teams. I soon got an opportunity to work as a junior dealer, where I assisted in the supervision of transactions across major global exchanges. I worked 12 to 15 hours every day because I wanted to learn more and better understand the business. I believe it was my passion and persistence that led me to further growth within Century. It started with the position of trader and financial analyst, and eventually, I went on to become head of Investment trading. From there started the leadership roles with associate director, director, and ultimately, the CEO and chairman of the company.”

His dramatic rise in the last 20 years at gulfbusiness.com

the company is a well-known journey, and yet is an inspirational one which reflects the attitude with which Century has – and continues to – evolve. “My greatest life lessons have not come from any achievements I have attained, but rather from the process of attaining that success.”

Parallel growth Krishen’s two-decade journey to the top has echoed the rise of the UAE’s growth as a regional economic hub – particularly in the financial and investment industry.

The country’s GDP has grown in the last 10 years, while it has also seen a steady increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. In fact, FDI inflows grew 44.2 per cent year-on-year in 2020 to reach Dhs73bn ($19.88bn) despite the Covid-19 crisis, a report by the Ministry of Economy last month stated. The cumulative value of foreign direct investments inflows (including equity inflows, reinvested earnings and gulfbusiness.com

other capital) amounted to $174bn, a yearon-year growth of 12.9 per cent.

“Despite the UN’s estimates that global foreign direct investment flows decreased by 42 per cent in 2020 over Covid-19, the UAE witnessed 44 per cent growth in FDI flows in 2020, compared to 2019, to reach Dhs73bn. Good crisis management is a guaranteed investment,” the UAE’s Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said on Twitter.

A major factor in the evolution of the UAE’s investment market has been its diversification into new and innovative avenues. “The growth of the UAE’s investment landscape has been synonymous with the global growth seen in new types of investment products. Currently, the market not only provides options to invest in stocks and bonds, but also other upcoming niche concepts like fractional real estate investment and fintech-based

products. Individual investors in this region are now warming up to new products in this space. They now see not just the immediate returns from the products, but also want to be a part of its growth journey. With financial market investments, patience has always paid out over the longer term,” stresses Krishen.

While the pandemic had an adverse impact on many industries, investors capitalised on the bearish markets to find new opportunities. Predictably, investments were skewed to sectors where faster growth was anticipated.

Post the outbreak of the pandemic, the regional investment sector has seen lower-sized offerings with options tailored for conservative wealth preservation purposes. One of the positive factors that has strongly countered the ill-effects of the pandemic is the UAE’s new investment law, which aims to give 100 per cent foreign ownership in some onshore business June 2021

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COVER STORY / BAL KRISHEN

products, Century Financial is planning to venture into real estate tokenisation/crowd-funding in the UAE – a booming segment within the proptech space.

Globally, the real estate sector is witnessing an increasing demand from new investors for greater access and from existing investors for improved liquidity, requiring a transformation of the investment landscape, consultancy KPMG said in a research paper last year.

“Tokenisation is a rapidly developing area in the financial industry which enables investment in the form of digital tokens backed by real world securities or assets.

Tokenisation facilitates digital fractional ownership with secure transaction records and swift settlement processes,” the report stated.

The key advantage that it will bring to the market is opening up investment opportunities for a new type of investor. “Fractionalising ownership shares to offer lower minimum investments and

sectors. The new changes relating to foreign investment rules are also expected to further boost FDI/FII contribution to the economy.

Where to invest?

While the pandemic has created many first-time investors in the region, it has also – understandably – introduced a strong element of caution in the way people invest their wealth. While portfolio diversification is key, certain asset classes are performing better than others in the current climate.

The equities and commodities space seems to be witnessing a bullish trend. With respect to equity markets, the amount of fiscal and monetary policy stimulus support available is of gargantuan proportions. The US monetary stimulus fiscal response in 2020 was among the largest in the world, and it was similar with European economies where the ECB council has passed over 1 trillion euros worth of emergency pandemic measures. Taken

“One of the major investment themes that is set to grow is portfolio diversification, and financial institutions are coming up with new products to meet the requirements” together, these measures have created a risk-on sentiment across the global markets,” says Krishen.

Regionally as well, there is a pick-up in industrial stocks, with Abu Dhabi Securities Market General Index (ADSMI) Industrials and Dubai Financial Market (DFM) Industrials up by 17 per cent and 5 per cent respectively on a year-to-date basis. In its annual report published in February, Dubai bank Emirates NBD said it was bullish on banking, telecom and logistics stocks in the UAE this year, driven by strong dividend yields and growth prospects.

Meanwhile, the rise in the commodities space is being further supported by a pick-up in the recovery cycle theme and rotation back to cyclical and value stocks, opines Krishen. “Certain other factors, including low H1 2020 inflation base effect and seasonal patterns are also 26

June 2021

favouring the current rise in commodities.” Gold prices have risen in recent weeks, with bullion now erasing its 2021 losses. “This is well supported by the ongoing drop in dollar prices,” he adds.

Importantly, investors are seeking to diversify more beyond the traditional banking products and explore niche products, while also looking at aspects such as sustainability.

“One of the major investment themes that is set to grow further is portfolio diversification, and financial institutions are coming up with new products to meet the contemporary requirements,” explains Krishen. “The entire emphasis has shifted to sound and proper investments with a focus on value and long-term growth. The advent of new and upcoming fintech technologies like blockchain has also caught investors’ eyes.”

In line with the demand for innovative

undertaking the fund-raising process in a digital marketplace has the potential to increase access to real estate investment by small and retail investors. The UAE, and especially Dubai, has an array of properties with promising appreciation and great rentals. The aspirations to invest in such types of real estate properties usually belonged to a bastion of big investors, [but through fractional ownership] will now interest small investors,” states Krishen.

“We believe that investment trends will move in the direction of maximising the profits while reducing the risk as much as possible, whether in the digital assets sphere – which is expected to continue its impressive growth, or in the derivatives market – which is expected to present a multitude of profit opportunities due to strong trading in a post-Covid world,” he adds. gulfbusiness.com

Expansion mode: On Analogous to his personal journey, Krishen is keen to relentlessly drive Century Financial to the next level. It recently set up two new divisions, Century Private Wealth and Century Bank Brokers.

“Century Private Wealth is a bespoke wealth and asset management company operating under the Category 3C licence regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, focusing on two primary business activities, asset management and wealth management. The asset management arm is currently in the final stages of launching our first hedge fund, aimed at serving professional clients with a unique investment strategy,” says Krishen.

“The private banking and wealth management wing of Century Private Wealth is more bespoke, allowing valued clients to opt for select services that are advisory, discretionary or execution-only.

Century Private Wealth hopes to make a mark by offering unbiased and independent advice to clients based on their risk profile and investment preferences.”

Meanwhile Century Bank Brokers includes a core team of banking veterans who offer a curated portfolio of retail and commercial banking solutions through partnership with banks, non-banking gulfbusiness.com

Above: Century’s offices house over 100 team members Opposite page: Century Financial is looking to expand its presence across the GCC region

finance companies and other financial institutions.

The company has also diversified operations with the launch of its Innovation Lab, which will provide and implement endto-end investment solutions to clients by using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and other technology tools.

“New initiatives covering e-commerce and delivery apps as well as apps for sports and entertainment are also being considered in the near future,” reveals Krishen.

Geographically, the company is also looking to diversify the company’s interests into Saudi Arabia and other GCC markets.

“Century is on an expansion mode and currently we are exploring the potential opportunities and meticulously studying new business segments as well as synergies with our existing business. This will not only provide an additional revenue

stream to the company, but also compliment the existing business. Verticals such as real estate crowdfunding, attractive sharia-based financial products, venturing into cryptocurrencies or entering into a niche asset class are areas of interest for us now.

“My vision for Century is to create a world-class organisation that is a congregation of customer-focused but technologically-driven companies in the financial and investment category. We are always open to exploring new areas of growth that go beyond the financial sector but promise to fill a potential ‘customer need’ gap.” He adds: “We genuinely think that if you can get two factors right – having a clear direction on what you are endeavouring to do and bringing in great people who can execute these ideas – you can build a world-class organisation.”

On a personal level, Krishen says his vision is to work towards the upliftment and development of the underprivileged sections of society, focusing on 3Es – education, employment and empowerment.

His mantra for those aspiring to be on a similar odyssey? “I believe that you just need the right attitude and the ability to take calculated risks to realise your dreams.”

June 2021

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June 2021

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PHOTO: GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

FEATURES / ATM

CHECKING — IN — The region’s biggest travel and tourism event, Arabian Travel Market, held a successful in-person and virtual edition last month in Dubai. And the big question predictably was – has the industry started to recover?

Are travellers stepping back on airplanes and ready to explore new destinations as the industry adapts to the Covid crisis?

Aarti Nagraj has more details

Visitors walk through the Saudi Arabian stand at the Arabian Travel market

gulfbusiness.com

June 2021

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FEATURES / ATM

It was a different experience attending the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) exhibition at Dubai World Centre this year.

The absence of snaking queues at the entrance, the lack of ceaseless chatter in the main hallways as masked-up attendees consciously avoided bumping against each other, the now-ubiquitous sanitiser dispenser at every booth, glass partitions separating tiny meeting tables – all reminders that we firmly remain in the midst of a global pandemic. And yet there were also plenty of recaps of past exhibitions – whether it was looking at a spectacular display of the mega projects emerging in Saudi Arabia, country pavilions with culturally adorned hosts showcasing local delicacies, or the new premium economy seats that Emirates displayed at its stall – all of which served as beacons of hope that we are slowly but surely recovering from the crisis.

The global travel and tourism sector suffered a loss of almost $4.5 trillion from 2019 to reach $4.7 trillion in 2020, with its contribution to GDP dropping by a staggering 49.1 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest data released by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). The sector contributed 5.5 per cent to global GDP in 2020 due to ongoing restrictions to 30

June 2021

mobility, down from 10.4 per cent in 2019.

Meanwhile, due to the impact of the Covid crisis, 62 million jobs were lost in the sector last year, with 272 million employed across the sector globally – down from 334 million in 2019. Domestic visitor spending decreased by 45 per cent, while international visitor spending declined by an unprecedented 69.4 per cent, the WTTC report said.

“In 2020, we faced a new period of extreme uncertainty with the Covid-19 pandemic impacting economies globally.

There is no doubt that it brought considerable challenges for the hospitality sector. However, thanks to the UAE government, the industry has already taken proactive steps to halt the spread of the virus,” explains Guy Hutchinson, president and CEO of Rotana group.

“Hotels in the Middle East have shown resilience throughout the pandemic, with performance at higher levels compared to other parts of the world,” hospitality data provider STR said in a report earlier this year. “Dubai was virtually the only tourist destination open for international leisure travel.”

Dubai welcomed over five million international visitors in 2020 and 1.26 million visitors in the first quarter of 2021, according to Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Tourism.

According to preliminary STR data for April, Dubai’s hotel industry reported its highest room rates in three months during the month, with average occupancy at 59.7 per cent, average daily rate (ADR) standing at Dhs576.33 and revenue per available room (RevPAR) reaching Dhs343.94.

“Hotels in the UAE were the world’s second busiest after China in 2020 due to government efforts to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus and encouraging domestic tourism, with several measures implemented to accelerate the sector’s recovery,” says Hutchinson.

“The UAE is preparing to further drive tourism efforts this year as a result of the safety protocols in place for the arrival of international tourists, alongside major events lined up for 2021. Aside from the initial set back, the tourism sector started opening up by the last quarter of 2020, with proactive measures and protocols in place to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and ensure business continuity.” gulfbusiness.com

Rotana currently operates 68 hotels in 24 cities across 14 countries, including 10,012 keys across 36 hotels in the UAE. The group’s pipeline consists of 40 upcoming projects including 10 that are slated for delivery in the next three years adding over 3,000 keys to the market.

“We will continue to strengthen our footprint in the UAE to meet the predicted growing demand for hotel rooms in the upscale segment in 2021. Our upcoming properties will help meet the pent-up demand anticipated during and beyond Expo 2020 this year and will help ramp up overall room capacity, which is crucial in achieving the city’s ambitious tourism vision,” adds Hutchinson.

CLIMBING NEW PEAKS One of the major announcements at ATM this year came from the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, with the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) revealing ambitious plans to develop over 20 sustainable tourism development initiatives across the emirate with an investment of Dhs500m, in partnership with RAK Hospitality Holding and RAK Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Adventure tourism is a core segment for the emirate, with some of the new attractions planned set to include a paragliding experience from the top of Jebel Jais, hot air balloon rides, the GCC’s first ‘Highlander’ hiking experience (in November), and a new bicycle pump track. The emirate is also planning to open an eco-based pop-up hotel concept, a mountain lodge, a mega-beachfront development and a flying arch, among others.

While tourism in Ras Al Khaimah dropped by almost 28 per cent in 2020, the emirate achieved the “highest RevPAR and ADR among all other markets in the UAE”, according to Raki Phillips, CEO of RAKTDA. “Our focus last year was on the domestic market given the restrictions in international travel; however, as borders begin to open up, we look forward to welcoming both domestic and international visitors to our emirate. With new flight routes between Ras Al Khaimah and Russia, Kazakhstan and Czech Republic, we are well positioned to welcome guests from these new destinations, as well as those from other key feeder markets,” he explains. gulfbusiness.com

Green leisure hub Some of the planned sustainable tourism projects

1

Saij Mountain Lodge A Mantis Collection resort housing 35 luxury lodges (above)

2

Balloon Base Featuring hot air balloon rides

3

Jais Swing A swing made of twin ropes will offer commanding views

4

Jais Wings Paragliding experiences from the top of Jebel Jais

5

‘Highlander’ hiking experience RAK will be the first GCC host of the programme in November

The emirate aims to attract 2.9 million visitors per year by 2025 and tourism is central to its economic diversification strategy.

“While it is still too early to say when we will see pre-pandemic levels of visitation, we remain optimistic towards the tourism industry’s ability to navigate

the dynamic situation posed by the pandemic,” he adds.

TAKING TO THE SKIES Circling back to one of the elements that reminded me of past ATMs, the new premium economy seats at Dubai airline Emirates’ stands had a steady supply of eager guests waiting to try them out. The only difference this time around was that the seats were sanitised after every use and the queue of people maintained their distance.

“With premium economy, the focus was more to do with many passengers on economy who want more legroom but can’t afford business class. It works well for anything beyond six hours until 17 hours – that’s when you get the full comfort and the benefit from the product,” explains Adnan Kazim, chief commercial officer at Emirates. “It gives you the separation, the comfort and the spacing that a passenger requires and [we believe that] demand will be there. We are quite confident that once we launch – hopefully officially next year – things will be in good shape by then.”

According to the most recent report from the International Air Travel Association (IATA), Middle Eastern airlines’ passenger demand fell 81.6 per cent in March compared to March 2019, although it was up over February. Capacity fell 67.2 per cent and load factor declined 32.3 percentage points to 41.3 per cent in March.

However, Emirates, which is currently operating to almost 120 destinations, is June 2021

31

FEATURES / ATM

Exhibitors from 62 countries and travel professionals from over 100 countries were represented at ATM

looking to increase capacity and its network as more countries reopen their borders. “The focus for us will be to bring the network back gradually to the level that we used to do – 143 destinations in the past – and to also bring the capacity back,” says Kazim. Emirates is currently at roughly 30-35 per cent of capacity mainly since it has stopped operating flights to the Indian subcontinent, South Africa and Nigeria, among others.

“Today we are quite limited in capacity deployment, but the capacity ramp-up will happen in phases as we see more opening of borders across the world. As we progress towards summer, we do see 32

June 2021

that things will shape up gradually with the vaccination drive increasing in many places in the world. We’re seeing a lot of traction happening between the US and UK. Many European destinations are also opening up already and want tourists to come in – like Greece. There is an indication that many other European gateways will open up in the future,” he states.

“With all these things happening, we’re quite optimistic that by summer we should gradually open up. That should ramp up our capacity hopefully to between 40 per cent to 50 per cent by summer and then gradually to 70 per cent by winter. All of this is subject to easing up of the protocols by

many countries.”

What all industry insiders agree upon is the need for a universal ‘vaccination passport’ type of document, which will support the industry to reopen in a safer environment and boost confidence among travellers. One example is the IATA Travel Pass, a mobile app to help passengers manage their travel in line with any government requirements for Covid-19 testing or vaccine information.

Airlines across the world have joined the initiative, with Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Gulf Air among the regional carriers participating in the trials currently underway. The trials aim gulfbusiness.com

FEATURES / ATM

to help enable travellers to manage Covid19 related documentation digitally and safely throughout the travel experience.

“As countries are opening up their borders for vaccinated travellers, digital passports are the logical next step to reinstate cross-border travels. This travel passport will help to streamline the verification process at the airport or border and allow passengers to verify, store and share with the authorities all test and vaccination certificates,” explains Rotana’s Hutchinson.

“During the pandemic, consumers have moved significantly toward online channels for most of their day-to-day transactions, and digitally-enabled travel is the way forward. These digital adaptations will empower passengers to take control of their journey while simultaneously creating a seamless experience.

The future of travel depends on the development of these technologies, which support the response to today’s crisis and lay the foundation for the growing industry of tomorrow.”

Adds RAKTDA’s Phillips: “We fully support the industry in its mission to develop unified solutions to support recovery as we co-create a viable tourism vision for ‘new normal’ and post pandemic travel – especially tools that give both the traveller and destination renewed confidence.”

destinations that are low-risk due to an efficient vaccination programme. As always in a crisis, innovation will be key.

And as always, the UAE is ahead of the rest. It does look like things are headed in the right direction.”

One major event that is bolstering confidence in the UAE is the upcoming mega event Expo 2020 Dubai, which opens its doors on October 1, 2021. The six-month long event, being hosted for the first time in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, is hoping to welcome millions of visitors during its six-month run.

“With Expo 2020 scheduled for October 2021, and the UAE’s 50th year celebrations, the industry will witness a rebound and hotel performance metrics

March last year – and so I think we have all learned to expect the unexpected.

God-willing there isn’t another pandemic any time soon, but businesses need to massively up their crisis preparedness.

“Diversification – branching out into other product categories, industries, or marketplaces – is essential. While this strategy does present some risks for a company, diversification is a safety net against downturns or calamities – like Covid-19 – or a way to grow your business,” he explains.

One of the biggest priorities for the hospitality industry will be to ensure health and safety without compromising the guest experience. For this, technology will be the key factor in making guest experiences more seamless, says Hutchinson.

“The pandemic has fundamentally affected consumer behaviour and the response to these changes and evolving needs is paramount to the ongoing recovery of our industry.

New habits and expectations have surfaced, spending patterns have changed and the embracing of digital and technology has accelerated to new heights. In the current situation, customers truly care about innovative features that deliver new types of incentives, such as more personalised, experiential-based loyalty programmes.

“Flexibility is another important aspect. Guests are looking for hotels to be flexible with check-in and check-out times, updated cancellation policies, free cancellations against local and international restrictions, and flexible upgrades that allow guests to have a better room from which to work and to have more space,” he states.

Organisations need to embrace new technology, concurs Hashwani. “The world is changing fast thanks to the rapid advancements in new technology.

Companies who signed up early for the next generation of tech – from fintech to e-commerce – have a big advantage when life throws a corporate curveball. Adapt or be irrelevant, it is that simple.”

From the looks of it, the regional travel and tourism industry is adapting, with the doors wide open.

“New habits and expectations have surfaced, spending patterns have changed and the embracing of digital and technology has accelerated to new heights”

WELCOMING THE WORLD The one strong message that ATM echoed is that the travel and tourism industry is now headed towards its recovery phase, with most players optimistic about the year ahead.

“Some have asked how the global tourism industry can appeal to tourists once again. Personally, I think people are so frustrated after the past 12 months that once they get the vaccine, they will want to resume travelling,” states Murtaza Hashwani, deputy chairman and CEO of hospitality provider Hashoo Group.

“To assuage any fears, airlines will need to have messaging stating that all staff are vaccinated, while strongly promoting the gulfbusiness.com

are expected to return to much healthier levels both in terms of rate and occupancy before the close of the year, which will drive tourism growth in 2022 as well.

The upcoming events are expected to boost tourism, which will have a positive impact on other sectors too, including retail and real estate activity. This is possible thanks to the thorough Covid-19 immunisation programme implemented in the UAE, which creates a safe environment for residents and tourists alike,” states Hutchinson.

Looking to the future, the pandemic has also changed traveller behaviour and expectations significantly, which in turn is forcing industry operators to adapt and change.

According to Hashwani, companies need to prepare for future global events – such as another pandemic. “No one was ready for the events that unfolded in

June 2021

33

FEATURES / TOURISM

AN ALPINE SOJOURN

Switzerland has been the bellwether and thermometer for the health of Central European tourism. It’s beginning to climb out of one of its most challenging years ever, with Switzerland Tourism CEO Martin Nydegger bullish about a strong recovery

By Varun Godinho

“R

oger, I’m a certain type of actor. I need edge, conflict, jeopardy. Switzerland is just too perfect,” quipped the 77-year-old method actor Robert De Niro in the latest No Drama campaign film by Switzerland Tourism. In it, Roger Federer, who was himself brought on as an ambassador for the Swiss body earlier this year, tries to recruit De Niro in what is perhaps one of the best tourism promotional films in recent memory. Don’t take our word for it. Within two weeks of the video releasing last month, it already crossed the 45 million mark – making it the most-watched Federer commercial ever on YouTube.

The film comes in the midst of an apocalyptic past year for the global tourism industry. In 2019, global travel and tourism reportedly added $8.9 trillion to the world’s GDP. In the first 10 months of 2020 alone, the worldwide tourism industry lost around $935bn in revenue. Among the top 10 countries that suffered the biggest tourism revenue losses due to Covid-19 were five European countries including Spain, France, Germany, Italy and the UK. “Ski resorts in Switzerland were open.

Swiss hotels were not closed for a single day. All the restaurants within the hotels were open, and mobility was always intact,” says Martin Nydegger, CEO of Switzerland Tourism, while explaining why the Alpine country’s tourism sector wasn’t

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June 2021

as adversely affected as some of its neighbours. “We did not have any peaks, or super-spreading conditions. We had a much more liberal opening regime compared to other countries.”

Switzerland Tourism is a 102-year-old body, but Nydegger is under no illusion of the onslaught of Covid-19 on Swiss tourism, one that he refers to as having had a “historic impact”. He says that although tourism contributes approximately 6 per cent to the country’s GDP, its standing in the overall branding and positioning of the country is probably far higher.

The Swiss tourism outfit has 33 offices in 22 markets – in some countries like China and Germany it has multiple offices – with 250 staff globally. They’re led

by Nydegger whose first job was a six-month training internship at The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai. He joined Switzerland Tourism in 2005 and ran its operations in the Benelux countries. He was subsequently deputed to the head office for eight years and was a member of the management board responsible for business development, before being appointed as CEO in 2018.

He refers to 2020 as a “pointless year” when it comes to benchmarking Switzerland’s tourism performance, and instead says that 2019 is the year against which it will measure its recovery. The Swiss Federal Statistical Office said that in 2019 foreign visitors accounted for 21.6 million overnight stays, while Swiss nationals registered 17.9 million overnights at hotels across the country.

The GCC hasn’t been the biggest feeder market for Swiss tourism, but neither is it an insignificant one.

As Matthias Albrecht, GCC director for Switzerland Tourism explains, Gulf tourists have typically been responsible for roughly one million overnights in Switzerland and generated about CHF420m turnover per year in the European country. From the GCC, the biggest source markets are UAE (35 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (35 per cent), with Kuwait and Qatar accounting for around 12 per cent each, and the remaining visitors coming from Bahrain and Oman.

But much of that tourist inflow into Switzerland dried up over the last year as a result of the pandemic.

“We did have a few tourists over the summer and that somehow softened the fall. Long-haul travellers from markets such as Asia and America were down starting from minus 90 [per cent], and up to minus 97 [per cent] from Asia,” reveals Nydegger. Chinese visitors are believed to be among the highest-spending foreign visitors to the country, spending on average CHF380 per person per day. In 2019, the income generated from Chinese visitors was estimated at around CHF701.4m.

A factor that kept the wheels of tourism churning, albeit somewhat sluggishly, was domestic tourism.

In 2019, each person resident in Switzerland reportedly undertook on average 2.9 trips with overnight stays, according to the Swiss Federal Statistics Office. gulfbusiness.com

travel more sustainable, and tackling shared pain points.

In the UAE, Switzerland partnered with other European agencies to promote the continent. “We recently had an event called Marhaba Europe in Dubai, where we partnered with France, Austria and Germany to promote Central Europe. We spread the message that Europe is open once again this summer,” says Albrecht.

Further amplifying its message within the region, Switzerland Tourism has set up a 4D experience at the Swiss Pavilion at Expo 2020 (incidentally the country was the first participant to sign up to the mega event) which will allow pavilion visitors to see, hear and experience Switzerland via different mediums and even feel the chill climes characteristic of the country while inside the pavilion.

“At the Expo, we want to focus on sustainability, we call it Swisstainable. We want to showcase how sustainable travel in Switzerland is – you can see the whole of Switzerland by train, bus and boat,” adds Albrecht. Expo 2020 Dubai is expected to draw approximately 25 million visitors – including around 70 per cent from outside the UAE. The Swisstainable concept feeds into what Nydegger says will be the new postCovid reality for tourism. “To just wish everything would go back to February 2020 is an illusion. We are living in a different world. We came up with Swisstainable because we believe that people will look at travelling in a more sensible way. Travellers will want to know that whatever buck they’re spending in the destination, is well invested. You buy local. You want to make sure that the people at the hotel you go to are fairly paid, fairly treated. You want to know that when they built this mountain railway at Jungfraujoch, not a single tree was cut. People want to know that the electricity that takes them up to the mountaintop is fully hydro energy. All these kinds of things seemed absolutely uninteresting before. People now want to know that their francs are spent in a smart, sustainable way, which makes them feel better.”

Nydegger expects tourism in Switzerland to reach around 80 per cent of its preCovid levels within the next 12 months. While he says that leisure tourism will pick up much quicker, it’s business tourism which will likely be the laggard. “[To reach] 100 per cent will take a long time. Why? Because business travel is slowing down the development of tourism. We can live with 80 per cent. We will have to make adjustments, but we can live with it.”

“At the Expo, we want to focus on sustainability, we call it Swisstainable, and we want to showcase how sustainable travel in Switzerland is” “Domestic tourism is key for a successful tourism destination like Switzerland. However, the market mix is key. If you have only domestic tourism, you will never really grow because domestic tourism is a stabilising factor. It’s not a growth factor,” cautions Nydegger with regards to tourism bodies unduly focusing on domestic tourism during this pandemic.

“Fifty-five per cent of our visitors are foreign tourists. What we think will be a healthy share for Switzerland would be 45 per cent domestic tourism, 35 per cent continental European tourism and 20 per cent international tourism – and that’s not so far away from the reality.”

For tourism worldwide to recover, it’s going to need a coordinated response. And while Nydegger says that international tourism bodies are generally competitive when marketing their destinations, there are synergies to be had as well. He points to the fact that the European Travel Commission, of which Switzerland is a member, has been engaged in cross-tourism board discussions on how to open Europe safely, making gulfbusiness.com

June 2021

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BRAND VIEW

Phi Trends: Turning to big tech in an inflationary scenario Tech growth stocks continue to offer opportunities for investors due to their strong future potential, states entrepreneur and investor Shailesh Dash, who shares his perspective in this monthly column

Apple

Alphabet

Facebook

Amazon

Microsoft

1,200

1,000

800

600

400

200

*Note: Data as of May 18, 2021

31/Dec/2019

30/Jun/2019

31/Dec/2018

30/Jun/2018

31/Dec/2017

30/Jun/2017

31/Dec/2016

30/Jun/2016

31/Dec/2015

30/Jun/2015

31/Dec/2014

0

30/Apr/2021

Performance of the Big Tech 5 Stocks (2015-2021)

policy, the more difficult it may get for them to control inflation and longer-term interest rates. The Fed is aware of this risk but the focus is on achieving maximum employment before considering options of tapering monetary policy.

Assessing the rationale of such concerns has now becomes direly important, especially as the factors driving inflation are unique to the current environment. Over the past few years, growth stocks have emerged as undisputed winners, largely skewed towards tech-based companies. However, for predominantly growth investors, an unexpected surge in inflation poses higher risks. Despite inflation being largely beneficial for stock markets, investors must make provisions for higher volatility, especially as economies attempt a post-pandemic recovery. It may be wise for investors to consider diversifying their portfolios with a modest inclination towards value stocks, and other assets that act as defenses against inflationary forces – such as precious metals (gold, silver) and real estate. Allocating a portion towards defensive stocks can further act as a safe haven to reduce the overall risk. However, pulling out entirely from tech and other growth stocks is bound to harm overall portfolio returns and potentially even kill growth strategies. Tech-enaSOURCE: YAHOO FINANCE bled firms are poised 31/Dec/2020

Many other major economies have also been witnessing similar risks, and concerns over the impact of an unforeseen surge in inflation on equity markets have led to steep declines across major global equity indices.

Investors are spot-on in questioning the rising risk of inflation in the coming months or quarters, but there are mixed views on its impact on the broader capital markets, especially growth stocks. Economists and market participants believe that the inflationary pressure could be transitory and the slack in global economies could reduce the pricing power from companies going forward. Although businesses are taking the current opportunity to raise prices amid pent-up demand and weak competition, these factors are likely to diminish over a period of time. However, there are concerns around this narrative, that the longer the Fed delays tightening its monetary

30/Jun/2020

I

n recent weeks, the inflation risk has become a new apprehension among equity investors, and understandably so.

With the increasingly volatile global economic landscape, investing dynamics have been shifting at an unnerving pace, with little left to predictability. Rising prices have raised concerns around the risk of inflation running higher than target levels, driving rates higher and prompting central bank intervention. Over the past year, governments across the world have announced stimulus packages and economic relief measures to combat the prolonged economic lull induced by Covid-19. The result has been a build-up of savings among consumers, and a consequent rise in the prices of goods and commodities as economies reopen. In the US, for instance, inflation hit 2.6 per cent in the 12 months preceding March 2021, breaching the 2 per cent Fed target.

Shailesh Dash

for big gains in the near future, which will likely be driven by technologies such as AI, IoT, big data analytics and 5G. In order to ensure the best investment strategy and equity portfolio mix, it thus makes sense to go back to basics, and analyse key fundamentals while picking stocks.

The big four tech companies – Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon – present a stellar example that models the importance of fundamentals in beating market volatility. The 2020 growth story for tech stocks was a phenomenal one, with smaller tech businesses within IT, video conferencing and other online platforms witnessing staggering returns and sharp price surges.

However, large tech companies could be the unconventional safeguard key to availing historic long-term returns and to hedging one’s portfolio from inflation and similar risks.

The sheer size of these companies, backed

There is large potential within businesses that cater to forwardlooking demand, which once again reaffirms the interest boom in tech companies

by strong fundamentals, have been largely responsible for sustaining their growth amid such tumultuous times. For instance, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google witnessed their stocks jump 82 per cent, 76 per cent, 33 per cent and 31 per cent respectively in 2020.

This reiterates the case for investing in large tech companies with strong fundamentals.

Continuing the momentum into 2021, the big four tech firms gave March-end profit reports that surpassed investors’ expectations. Each of these tech firms witnessed stock surges between 7.5 per cent and 16.5 per cent in April, outperforming the S&P 500’s 5.2 per cent rise by a decent margin, despite inflationary concerns. Technology stocks have already price-corrected from earlier bull-runs, and the current price declines are more likely to present an attractive buying opportunity as opposed to selling in appropriate proportions.

It holds true that the current environment is unprecedented, and a great degree of unpredictability still prevails. In short, investors must brace themselves for higher uncertainty in markets, leading to increased volatility. Regardless, the year 2020 has clearly depicted that investors must remain focused on their investment goals and invest into companies that are expected to continue the growth trajectory. Going forward, any pullback in markets due to inflation fears should be used as an opportunity for investors to load up quality companies with dominant market positioning and the ability to record superior growth. There is large potential within businesses that cater to forward-looking demand, which once again reaffirms the interest boom in tech companies.

Every stock and investment brings its own unique risk-reward packages, and investors should focus on companies with a favourable risk-reward matrix. In a stock market that is running out of positive catalysts, selecting companies with strong fundamentals can push portfolio returns to newer heights. The best portfolio hedge in such unchartered territory thus remains taking calculated risks, while also participating in the historic and unprecedented tech growth story, along the path to global economic recovery.

Disclaimer: This column is purely for academic and educational purposes. Nothing mentioned here should be taken as solicitation to trade or a recommendation of a specific trade. The author has direct exposure in some of the recommended stocks

FEATURES / TECHNOLOGY

Ensuring efficient

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ANDRIY ONUFRIYENKO

SYSTEMS

Advances in UPS design can address data centre cooling challenges, says Jake Guo, Data Centre Solutions manager at Huawei ME

H

eat dissipation for high power density is an industry-wide challenge necessitating innovative technologies to disperse heat more effectively in data centres.

Advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software is increasingly deployed to carry out simulations to predict the air speed and temperature field of UPS components, boards, and systems to deliver an optimal heat dissipation solution.

This creates an ideal model for module layout, air channel design, fan selection, guiding printed circuit board (PCB) and structure design. Furthermore, such a simulation platform is also efficient and generates optimal results because it does not include processes necessary for traditional thermal design, such as manual estimation, verification, modification, and re-verification.

Such a multi-physical-field simulation platform can deliver a precision level that is 30 per cent higher than traditional models.

Temperature increase simulation for rectifiers and inverters is conducted in three fields: electromagnetic (electromagnetic compatibility and signal integrity), temperature (air volume, air speed, and temperature rise), and stress field (electrical and mechanical). Powerful computing based on the simulation achieves

gulfbusiness.com

the optimal layout of auxiliary systems and modules under various constraints. In addition, high-precision mockup and simulation facilitate a refined heat dissipation design. At the same time, internal modeling of components (chips and semiconductors) supports precise thermal flow density design for internal crystal elements of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs).

Based on the simulation results, engineers then create advanced design and layout of systems and components that maximise heat dissipation capability.

Advances in the data centre cooling design have resulted in a U-shaped symmetric architecture. The U-shaped symmetric architecture features small air resistance and fast heat dissipation. In addition, extended

Extensive temperature sampling and data computing are now leveraged in the industry to control heat dissipation at all possible points

ventilation channels have made it possible to achieve wide-range heat dissipation. Furthermore, closely coupled cooling eliminates hotspot concentrations.

Due to the enhanced heat dissipation design, such systems can function at 40 degree celsius for extended periods without derating.

While innovative components further improve the heat dissipation capability, corrugations on the heat sink enhance the convective heat transfer coefficient, improving heat dissipation by as much as 10 per cent. Inductors with vertical windings significantly improve winding heat dissipation further. In addition, proper matching between fans and air channels as well as a refined air volume control together considerably improve the heat dissipation efficiency of fans.

Extensive temperature sampling and data computing are now leveraged in the industry to control heat dissipation at all possible points. All components are tested under all working conditions. In addition, the IGBTs, inductors, diodes, and bus capacitors support a large temperature margin.

Such power supply and distribution systems leave more space for data centre cabinets, enabling customers to increase revenue.

Advances in UPS systems highlight how technical innovation in data centre cooling can deliver better customer experience while promoting business success.

June 2021

39

FEATURES / ENERGY

RACING FOR HYDROGEN How gas giants are vying to stay relevant as the industry moves towards sustainable goals

T

he global gas industry is in an existential race: either find a way to be part of the next generation of energy or risk getting supplanted by alternatives.

BP, Sinopec, Equinor ASA and Royal Dutch Shell are among the producers looking to hydrogen to help secure demand that otherwise may falter as decarbonisation speeds up. They want to utilise existing pipelines, storage tankers and fuel supply to make blue hydrogen, a process that uses natural gas but captures the carbon emissions and stores them.

The straightest route to net-zero emissions uses hydrogen produced by renewable electricity – known in the industry as green hydrogen – but the blue variety is expected to be cheaper until at least 2030 as wind and solar power ramp up. Gas companies aiming to lower emissions now and avoid obsolescence next decade are planning to pour billions of dollars into building their blue businesses. At least 15 projects are scheduled to go online through 2027 in the UK, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and New Zealand.

“Green is the destination, but we’ll get there on a blue highway,” said Al Cook, executive vice president for development and production at Stavanger, Norwaybased Equinor. “At some point, green hydrogen might well be lower cost than blue, but that will likely not be for at least a decade.”

Clean hydrogen could meet a quarter of the world’s energy needs by 2050, with annual sales reaching EUR630bn ($770bn). Production of blue needs to be scaled up quickly because projects that don’t come online by 2030 risk becoming uncompetitive, according to BloombergNEF. Right now, hydrogen is expensive to make without expelling greenhouse gases, is difficult to store and is so highly combustible that NASA uses it to propel rockets into space.

Still, demand is expected to increase six-fold by 2050 as the transportation, steel and chemicals industries move to reduce pollution, the International Energy Agency said in its road map for net-zero emissions published May 18.

Natural gas is used in almost all hydrogen production today. That earns the disdain of ESG investors, environmental groups and governments trying to slow

At the moment, though, some companies will take whatever colour hydrogen they can get

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June 2021

climate change because the most common method, called steam-methane reforming, also produces large amounts of carbon dioxide, which are dumped in the air.

The quickest way to remedy that is by capturing the carbon and storing it underground or reusing it.

The process has been around for decades, and it’s usually deployed in natural gas plants, fertiliser manufacturing and ethanol production facilities.

Gas currently is cheaper than renewable electricity, giving blue hydrogen an advantage even with the added costs of carbon capture and storage.

Bolting on carbon capture means blue hydrogen projects can be rolled out at scale from day one, said Paul Bogers, vice president for hydrogen at Shell. The Netherlands-based company is involved in several projects, including the UK’s Acorn Project and Net Zero Teesside, both scheduled to go online in 2025.

“Industry by industry, you’ll see that the mix of where blue and green can be applied, and where it’s affordable, will be different,” he said. “It’s not as simple as saying: ‘Well, here’s the crossover, so from that point you only invest in one’.”

Swapping gas for hydrogen is one way energy companies could advance their efforts to meet increasingly strict mandates for lowering emissions.

Shell previously pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent within a decade, but a court in The Hague ordered the company on May 26 to slash them by 45 per cent in the same time period.

China is the world’s largest producer of hydrogen, mostly by using fossil fuels. Spurred by the nation’s target for carbon neutrality by 2060, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, or Sinopec, said it plans to have a 1 million-ton carbon capture project by 2025.

China also will cooperate with Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, on blue-hydrogen projects.

The urgency for gas companies stems from the near-universal backing for green hydrogen, made from water and renewable electricity. The cost of green hydrogen is expected to fall 80 per cent by 2030 and be cheaper than blue in all 28 markets analysed

by BNEF as renewable energy and the electrolyzers using it to make hydrogen both come down in price.

Iberdrola, Europe’s biggest utility, is focusing on renewable power and green hydrogen, bolstered by Spain’s commitment to spend EUR35bn of EU stimulus on energy transition. American industrial giant gulfbusiness.com

PHOTO: GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Eiffel Tower was illuminated during a few minutes with electricity produced from certified renewable hydrogen in Paris, on May 25, 2021

Cummins said May 24 it will partner with Iberdrola to build a factory in central Spain for making electrolyzers.

“In the short term, there are opportunities in which you can apply blue, but in the midterm – five to 10 years – it’s going to be a stranded asset,” said Diego Diaz Pilas, head of new ventures at Iberdrola.

The European Commission wants to see as much as 470bn euros of investment in the green hydrogen industry, with the goal of making 10 million tons by 2030 to help reach net-zero by 2050.

Natural gas pipelines could be converted to carry hydrogen, with Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany leading the way, EC gas official Bartlomiej Gurba said at a January conference.

“We are ready to grant subsidies for green hydrogen,” Germany’s deputy economy minister, Elisabeth Winkelmeier Becker, said in an interview. “Other hydrogen will certainly continue to be used, but its production will not be subsidised.” gulfbusiness.com

At the moment, though, some companies will take whatever colour hydrogen they can get. CF Industries Holdings is one of the world’s biggest producers of ammonia used in fertilisers and chemical manufacturing.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company uses gray hydrogen, made from natural gas but releasing greenhouse gases. It now buys permits to cover emissions from UK production plants in Ince and Billingham, but it’s preparing to implement carbon capture as permit prices keep rising, CEO Tony Will said in an interview.

Such transitions are important for getting the The amount the clean hydrogen market off the ground, said Daryl European Commission Wilson, executive director of the Hydrogen Council. wants invested in The industry group’s members include gas giants, green hydrogen automakers and Microsoft.

“The marginal cost of converting gray hydrogen into blue hydrogen is much lower than jumping to green hydrogen directly,” Wilson said. “As long as blue hydrogen is useful from an economic point of view, there is no reason for it to go away.”

Bloomberg

€470bn

June 2021

41

BRAND VIEW

A one-stop-shop for e-commerce Dubai CommerCity can create an e-commerce solution based on the varying needs of each one of its clients, says its COO, deVere Forster

D

ubai CommerCity recently announced the launch of new facilities as part of its first phase – can you elaborate on what’s available?

Dubai CommerCity is a major freezone development project spanning across 2.1m sqft. The city is an ideal opportunity for international and global brands and e-commerce players to better service their end customers. Designed with a modern and innovative approach, Dubai CommerCity is split into three clusters with the aim to strategically achieve environmental and investment sustainability.

The business cluster consists of 12 buildings, out of which we have delivered one office building with a total leasable area of 215,278 sqft.

The logistics cluster consists of flexible-sized warehouses and fulfilment units equipped with the latest technologies to meet the needs of logistics providers and customers. The cluster is designed with rooftop PVC solar panels for generating clean energy. We have delivered a total leasable area of 146, 313 sqft, including 20 dedicated units (79,000 sqft) and 67,306 sqft of the multi-client warehouse space.

Finally, the social cluster is in the heart of Dubai CommerCity, which is also open to the public. The area covers a diverse food court, shops, restaurants, multi-purpose exhibition halls and quality amenities – all within walking distance, and can be used by pureplay e-commerce clients as a pickup-point for click-and-collect orders and a drop-of-point for customer returns. Out of a total area of 32,033 sqft, we have delivered 15,607 sqft so far.

Can you also take us through the next stages of development?

The next plans for expansion will be

delivered by the end of 2022. This milestone will include dedicated logistics units (warehouses and fulfillment centre as well as additional multi-client facilities) in addition to two office buildings.

At present, what are the main challenges to setting up/operating an e-commerce venture in the region?

There are several factors to consider when developing a regional e-commerce presence.

If you are just starting out, it is always best to work with providers who understand market-specific challenges, can fill-in for legal and technical aspects, and can provide extensive commercial and logistics infrastructure.

While selecting a base for your business in the region, you must consider ease of doing business – how advanced are the regulations and how friendly are the government policies? And when we are talking about e-commerce, we need to consider the mobile internet speed, internet penetration rates and tax environment. Recently, the UAE was ranked 13 out of 99 countries for ease of starting an online business, which is one of the important considerations when choosing a regional base.

Another aspect is catering to local payment preferences. Your business may accept credit card payments, but the population in a specific country may have a different preferred payment method. For example, COD is an important payment method in this region. The ability to offer what buyers consider as a safe and acceptable payment method in a specific geography is important to ensure reduced cart abandonment.

Yet another challenge is dealing with product returns and refunds. Up to 30 per cent of e-commerce orders go through an exchange/return process. If the experience

is not smooth for the customer, they might never return to your webstore.

Other important factors to consider are streamlining localisation efforts, the importance of social commerce in the given market, catering for cultural sensitivities and ensuring omnichannel customer experience, among others.

What are the main solutions you offer to support e-commerce businesses to be successful?

The value proposition you get from Dubai CommerCity comes in the shape of a specialist freezone for e-commerce together with a complete end-to-end e-commerce ecosystem. This means we can create an e-commerce solution based on the varying needs of each one of our clients. We help businesses across the following areas: • Pre-and post-setup support including fast and automated registration and licensing • Pre-integrated and pre-configured e-commerce platforms • Last-mile delivery solutions with prenegotiated rates from the regions’ leading 3PLs • Streamlined direct-to-consumer customs support and processes for product movement between the freezone, mainland and cross-border • Access to on-site ecosystem service providers such as payment gateways, contact centres, talent recruitment, e-commerce platform developers, performance marketing, translation, and content production, among others With Dubai CommerCity as a one-stop-shop, you can simply cut out the middleman and choose to select our full suite of services, or just activate the ones your business requires on a ‘Pay as you Go’ model.

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/ROC CANALS

S P E C I A L R E P O RT

WEALTH MANAGEMENT: A NEW DAWN

SPECIAL REPORT

The numbers game

BY ZAINAB MANSOOR

T

he concept of wealth has evolved significantly – from clothes and metals to fiat and digital currencies, wealth has not only changed hands but forms as well.

As wealth evolved, so did the art of managing it. Hence wealth management too has gone through layers of disruption to morph into its current advisory form, which broadly incorporates financial planning, portfolio management and financial services, primarily to increase a client’s asset base. What remains relatively unscathed is the value of wealth itself – that of being an economic enabler, necessitating a deeper understanding of who owns it, how it is spent and the trends that govern it.

Since differing asset classes have diverse yields, which can be imputed to their risk and return parameters and the prevalent economic conditions at the time, and since no asset class

44

has been found to outperform its peers perennially, it is noteworthy to weigh them according to the dynamic investment climate. Which is why mapping out a diverse investment portfolio is only judicious.

Furthermore, as the digital and financial landscape further evolves and as priorities of well-heeled individuals shift, will wealth retain its current form or is it expected to be redefined in years to come?

By 2040, wealth won’t just grow, it will be redefined, fueled by a more knowledgeable and empowered client base, rapid digitisation, and far greater choice of providers and services, according to a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report.

Furthermore, the pool of wealthy clients will change in the next 20 years – they will be more educated and economically empowered; more wealth will be in more hands globally; wealth in growth markets will increase faster than in mature markets; and women will grow their wealth faster than men, the report read.

“The wealth management landscape is undeniably evolving and more rapidly so, following the impact the Covid-19 pandemic is having on the industry. Challenging times can be a catalyst for future innovation and growth. The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in the industry and forced it to react and adapt quickly,” notes Ludovic Pernot, head of Private Banking Middle East at Liechtensteinische Landesbank AG (LLB).

“Work has changed, supported by an ecosystem of virtual resources and technologies, which will continue to evolve and will help the industry become more dynamic and more efficient to deliver better value to clients. While focusing more on a holistic approach, personalised advice will remain the most critical and valuable trend, supported by an array of technological solutions, to benefit from greatly in the long run.”

Commodities GOLD: SAFE STAMPED?

From stowing the physical metal in the form of coins, bars or jewellery, piling into ETFs or investing in gold mining stocks, investment in gold comes in many forms. Last year proved to be monumental for the bullion, with the asset vaulting into a record territory of above $2,000 an ounce.

However, gold’s performance this year has been relatively modest. In January 2021, ABN AMRO revised its gold outlook, with its new year-end 2021 forecast stationed at $1,700 per ounce from its previous estimate of $2,000 per ounce.

Christopher Mellor, head of EMEA ETF Equity and Commodity Product Management at Invesco, opines that it is always difficult to assess the valuation case for gold as, like all commodities, the price will be determined by the dynamics of supply and demand.

“Supply for gold is constrained, with mining increasing the total amount of gold above ground by around 1.5 per cent per annum. With only a finite supply of unmined gold, this source of supply is likely to shrink over the longer-term. On the demand side, jewellery making, central bank purchases and

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/CARGO

SPECIAL REPORT

technology fabrication are fairly consistent sources of demand but the key swing factor in gold demand is investment. In 2020, $12.5bn of inflows into gold ETPs globally helped to drive the price of gold to a record high. Outflows totalling $2.2bn from ETPs in Q1 this year have helped to dampen gold prices somewhat, but we are seeing a return to gold ETP purchases in April with $0.6bn added in the month,” says Mellor.

The highest price for gold this year was during the first week of January when it reached $1,950, adds Pernot.

“Gold prices have been consolidating since August 2020.

Technically, around March 8th it was at the lower edge of a ‘flag’ formation and fell below the 200-day moving average.

However, the current price should reflect the rise in interest rates, the moderate strengthening of the US dollar and a

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cyclical turn in the economy. Thus, the question of the interest rate development going forward remains,” he adds.

“We think that the potential for rising interest rates – especially in the US is limited, which is positive for gold. In addition, the continuously increasing debt burden – worldwide – poses risks that should not be underestimated, which is also positive for gold. Hence, we are still constructive on gold; for us, the long-term trends in fiscal spending are the most relevant drivers of price appreciation for gold going forward.”

OIL: SUSTAINED REVIVAL

Oil has witnessed a promising rebound in 2021 after having been put through a wringer last year, with lockdowns and grounding of commercial fleets crippling demand. As

SPECIAL REPORT countries gradually reopen on the back of aggressive vaccination campaigns, fuel demand is making fresh headway into promising territory.

“Global oil consumption is now forecast to rise by 5.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2021, 270,000 bpd lower than in our previous report. The forecast for H2 2021 is left roughly unchanged, however, based on expectations that vaccination campaigns continue to expand and the pandemic largely comes under control,” the International Energy Agency said in its oil market report for May. After nearly a year of robust supply restraint from OPEC+, bloated world oil inventories that built up during last year’s Covid-19 demand shock have returned to more normal levels, the agency added.

Meanwhile the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that brent prices will average $61 per barrel during the second half of 2021 and in 2022.

From an investment perspective, opportunities within the industry have expanded locally as state-owned company ADNOC launched the trading of flagship crude oil, Murban, as a futures contract on the ICE Futures Abu Dhabi commodities exchange in March this year, making its crude grade more available to a wider set of market participants worldwide.

Equities

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/ANDRIY ONUFRIYENKO

MUST-HAVES?

Regional equity markets rebounded well this year, keen to battle out the impact of the pandemic, which led to sedentary business activities. In April, the Saudi stock exchange Tadawul announced its decision to transform into a holding company, ahead of its plans for an IPO this year. Meanwhile, despite headwinds, Boursa Kuwait reported profits of KD28m for the 2020 fiscal year, a stellar increase of over 190 per cent compared to 2019.

“Following a promising start in Q1 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a steep decline in IPO activity in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), particularly in Q2 2020 and into Q3 2020. IPO activity in the region rebounded in Q4 2020 with eight IPOs taking place and this momentum has continued into Q1 2021 with a further four IPOs across sectors and geographies, with offerings in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman,” an EY report read.

Madhur Kakkar, senior executive officer, Century Private Wealth notes that the regional equity markets landscape has changed considerably this year compared with 2020.

“Regional equity markets massively underperformed both developed and emerging markets in 2020. Their woes were exacerbated by declining oil prices (down 21 per cent) and geopolitical tensions, in addition to the shock from the Covid19 pandemic.

Liquidity had been another concern for regional markets.

However, come 2021, the scenario seems to have changed, predominantly attributable to rising oil prices, cheaper relative valuations and better handling of the pandemic within the region. Both MSCI UAE index and Saudi Tadawul index

“Global oil consumption is now forecast to rise by 5.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2021, 270,000 bpd lower than in our previous report”

are up a whopping 20 per cent so far this year (prices as of May 17, 2021) compared with a meagre 2 per cent rise in the MSCI EM Index. The UAE has one of the highest vaccination penetration rates in the world and that has led to a successful reopening of the economy. Moreover, rising yields provided a boost to the banking sector and rising oil prices benefitted the petrochemicals space, both heavyweights in the regional equity markets,” he states.

Meanwhile, the EY report suggests that in the MENA region, there are many reasons for optimism in the quarters ahead. “A strong IPO pipeline in key MENA markets across sectors and government initiatives to deepen the capital markets, particularly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, should help to bring more IPOs to market in the region,” it read.

Fixed income LOCKED-IN RETURNS

The region’s fixed income market has fared well in recent times. The GCC primary eurobond issuance in FY 2020 stood at a record $111bn; and corporate treasurers from the region are now having regular dialogues with their stakeholders (international investors and syndicating desks) to offer the best value propositions through prudent asset liability management exercises, a report by lender First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) revealed.

Locally, Nasdaq Dubai hosted multiple corporate and sovereign bonds during Q1 2021, including the $1.25bn bond by DAE Funding, the $750m bond by Emirates NBD and the $1.25bn bond by the Sharjah government, according to PwC Middle East.

Going ahead, the GCC fixed income market paints a positive picture. “GCC Eurobond issuance could exceed the $100bn mark once again in 2021, as sovereigns need to finance their sizable budget deficits and some $42bn of bonds are due this year for redemption. A similar amount of bonds are due to mature in 2022,” the FAB report added.

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BRAND VIEW

Broader picture Joshua Jahani, managing director of investment bank Jahani and Associates (J&A), provides an overview of the current wealth management landscape and evolving trends

How promising is the demand for digital wealth management solutions in the GCC region?

From a B2B perspective, we expect to see strong growth among digital wealth solutions. Technologies like blockchain are finding a home in GCC countries and developing immensely powerful use cases to influence the capital market ecosystem here. From a B2C perspective, we do not see significant traction with digital wealth management solutions. The B2C products generally take stronger hold in economies with more dispersed wealth like Europe and the US.

In terms of M&A, is further consolidation expected in the GCC region?

We are waiting to see consolidation of certain logistics and delivery companies in the GCC. There are several smaller regional players, each establishing a foothold in their native markets. We think there is strong value for a roll-up strategy for companies like this, which saw a boost during the pandemic, as we move to a post-Covid world.

How will the concept of wealth evolve in times to come?

We see a shifting of wealth in the region to be defined solely in terms of cash flow to becoming defined through a combination of cash flow and assets under management (AUM). The idea that growth can be more valuable than cash flow has been seen in technology stocks like Amazon and the rise of venture investing. Traditionally, cash flow was all that mattered to the investors in the GCC. Due to the growth of venture investing, more are seeing the value of growth as defined through AUM. It should be noted, however, that cash flow will always be king.

A growth strategy should only be combined with sound cash flow investing, it cannot replace it.

How are regional equity markets expected to perform in the upcoming months?

Generally, equity markets are up across the

Joshua Jahani, managing director of investment firm Jahani and Associates

“The idea that growth can be more valuable than cash flow has been seen in technology stocks like Amazon and the rise of venture investing”

world as of early May. The UAE’s index funds are up more than 20 per cent compared to the start of the year. We anticipate continued growth as vaccines roll out and the pandemic’s impact subsides.

Besides M&A, what other services do you offer to regional clients?

We specialise in M&A, capital placement, joint ventures and global trade. We trade coffee as a principal and work with a variety of other clients to trade everything from oil field sensors, to digital billboards, to medical equipment. Our goal is to improve the commercial capacity and financial position of our holding company and family office clients.

SPECIAL REPORT Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) VALUING DIVERSITY

Those that value diversity within their investment portfolios may lean towards exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – a basket of securities traded on an exchange. Given that their strengths lie in their diversity, ETFs are a disruptive force that have added value to the global investment landscape.

“ETFs have become increasingly popular with investors, largely thanks to ease of access, greater variety, and cost efficiency. We expect this trend to continue in the region with more investors including ETFs as a way of diversifying their portfolios. They are also a preferred point of entry for many first-time investors, and with the general interest in investing having risen through the pandemic, we can expect to see more new investors accessing ETFs,” says Basit Saiyed, regional head of Wealth and Liabilities, Wealth and Personal Banking, Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, HSBC. Investors can capture a set of stocks (stock ETFs), invest in currencies (currency ETFs), or pile funds across fixedincome securities (bond ETFs), among other options. Regionally, exchange-traded funds appear to be gaining strength.

Alessio Cirillo, EMEA sales director, Invesco explains: “In the Gulf region, the ETF market continues to gain strength as investors across different channels increase the adoption of ETFs within their portfolio, whether that be for a tactical position to take advantage of short-term rallies, forming part of their liquidity sleeve, or as a more strategic long term ‘buy and hold’ play.

“Many Middle East investors are using ETFs to implement investment themes where they see areas of growth. ESG [Environmental, social and corporate governance] has been one such theme as clients turn their attention to renewable energy alternatives like solar or clean energy. Middle East clients continue to hunt for yield and are seeing the benefits of accessing fixed income through the ETF structure, and this continues to be an area of growth. Investors are beginning to recognise the benefits of building a core portfolio using ETFs, which is accelerating the adoption of some of the lowest cost core beta products. ETFs tracking the most popular international indices such as S&P500 and Nasdaq are winners in this space.”

Real Estate PRUDENT PROSPECT

For the average investor looking to begin building his wealth, real estate is always considered a sound investment option.

Apart from offering rental yields, real estate investments also carry the added advantage of capital gains. Property investments can be made via direct asset purchases, trusts and investment platforms.

“Despite the impact Covid-19 had on certain segments of the real estate market, the current low interest rate environment as well as the gradual economic recovery is favourable to this asset class. In this respect, the sector has been an integral part of our clients’ asset allocation, which enhances their

“ESG [Environmental, social and corporate governance] has been one such theme as clients turn their attention to renewable energy alternatives like solar or clean energy”

portfolios’ risk-returns and provides overall diversification,” opines LLB’s Pernot.

“In the long term, real estate has generated high returns while being less volatile than other asset classes in addition to being used as a reliable hedge against inflation.”

Dubai’s real estate has been performing well, despite regional and global economies laid low by the outbreak. In April 2021, the emirate recorded 4,832 transactions worth Dhs10.97bn, the highest value of monthly property transactions in four years. A month earlier, in March, Dubai recorded the highest number of secondary/ready properties transacted in a single month since June 2015, according to Property Finder.

“Real estate has had the benefit of being less correlated with other asset classes such as equities. In addition, as banks are willing to lend against physical real estate, investors have had access to leveraged market returns which can result in a return on physical real estate being quite attractive,” explains Dr Owen Young, regional head of Wealth Management, Africa, Middle East and Europe at Standard Chartered Bank.

“Long term asset class returns analysis in some markets has shown that while equities have outperformed real estate on an unleveraged basis over the long term, once the typical leverage on a real estate investment is included, then the real estate investment can outperform the unleveraged equity investment. The challenge with the traditional real estate investment is that it is illiquid and the investor is exposed to single asset risks. Also, the typical investor can only invest in a small number of real estate investments.

“The alternative is to gain exposure to real estate via market investment vehicles that pool funds across many investors and invest in many different properties. These vehicles allow the client to have far greater liquidity and the asset manager is responsible for managing the properties,” he adds.

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BRAND VIEW

ETFs: The local appeal Amid rising interest, the future of exchange-traded funds within the region looks promising, opines Sherif M Salem, CIO – Public Markets at Chimera Capital What are the key benefits of investing in locally listed ETFs? In the past, investing in UAE stock markets meant buying stocks, but now you can buy an index. Exchange traded funds provide investors with a liquid and cost-effective investment tool that offers a balanced and diversified exposure to UAE-listed stocks through a single trade. And it can be traded on the stock market, just like a stock. But an ETF can also be traded in the primary market, and if there isn’t ample demand or supply, an authorised participant (AP) can create or redeem units to satisfy investor’s orders.

Additionally, like stocks, investors can track the price of the ETF through its INAV (indicative net asset value) on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and Dubai Financial Market (DFM) during the trading day, and the ETF’s holdings are published daily on the Chimera website. It is a highly regulated product and provides investors with an investment tool to access the market quickly and efficiently.

Can you tell us about the Chimera S&P UAE UCITS ETF you launched earlier this year?

It is an index listed on the ADX and DFM. The Chimera S&P UAE UCITS ETF was launched in February 2021 and replicates the S&P UAE BMI Liquid 30/35 Index. The index is made up of the largest and most liquid stocks listed on the ADX and DFM, giving investors a broad exposure across all sectors of the UAE markets. The ETF has two share classes; the CHAEIN ETF is an income distributing share class listed on ADX, and the CHAE ETF is an accumulating share class listed on DFM. As of the end of

share class listed on DFM. The ETF launched with AUM of Dhs2m, grew to Dhs50m within six months, and as at the end of April, had reached Dhs83.2m.

The ETF has had a return of 37.4 per cent with a tracking error of 0.7 per cent, net of fees, as of the end of April.

How is the region’s alternative investment space expected to perform in the imminent future?

Sherif M Salem, CIO – Public Markets at Chimera Capital April, the ETF had Dhs40.2m in AUM and has gained 4.4 per cent since launch, with a tracking error of 0.1 per cent net of fees.

What products and services does Chimera offer to regional clients?

Chimera Capital currently offers its clients easy access to the UAE stock markets through the four ETFs that are listed and traded on the ADX and DFM. In addition to the recently launched CHAEIN and CHAE ETFs, the Chimera S&P UAE Shariah ETF, which was launched in July 2020, tracks the S&P UAE Shariah 35/20 Index, an index consisting of the most liquid Sharia compliant stocks listed on the UAE markets. It has two share classes; the CHAESH is an accumulating share class listed on ADX, and the CHAESHIN is an income distributing

“Within the alternative investment space, and specifically within the ETF industry in which we are currently focused, we expect the industry to continue growing”

Within the alternative investment space, and specifically within the ETF industry in which we are currently focused, we expect the industry to continue growing. Moreover, we are optimistic about the UAE equity markets and confident that investors will gradually become more comfortable with new and innovative products to access the markets. We have already witnessed increased appetite from HNWI as well as local and GCC institutional investors for the Chimera ETFs, and local retail investors are also slowly beginning to get involved.

What are your long-term plans in the region?

While globally the ETF industry has grown to over $8 trillion in AUM, the ETF market in the Middle East is in a very nascent stage. ETFs listed in MENA equity markets are approximately $325m, and there are MENA focused ETFs listed on US and UK markets with AUMs of close to $1.2bn. The number of ETFs based on MENA assets is also extremely small with only a few locally listed ETFs. There are currently 10 ETFs listed on the MENA markets; four are listed in the UAE (all are Chimera ETFs), three in Saudi Arabia, two in Qatar and one in Egypt, making Chimera the largest issuer of ETFs in the region. Our long-term plans are to focus on our four ETFs while continuously exploring opportunities to expand our offerings to contribute to the ETF industry’s overall development in the region.

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/ANDRIY ONUFRIYENKO

SPECIAL REPORT

Cryptocurrencies DIGITAL CASH

As digitalisation drives pick up pace and investors scour for new avenues to park funds, alternative investments are gaining momentum. Cryptocurrencies rallied this year buoyed by institutions embracing digital money and rising investor interest. Electric car manufacturer Tesla disclosed an investment of $1.5bn in bitcoin earlier this year (although Tesla chief Elon Musk last month announced that the car manufacturer would stop vehicle purchases using the cryptocurrency, citing its environmental impact).

Meanwhile, US-headquartered Square acquired $50m in bitcoin last year, which it doubled with an investment of $170m in February 2021.

“The price rally in cryptocurrencies since 2020 has triggered an increase in interest including institutional investors and corporates’ interest in cryptocurrency. However, institutional participation is still quite limited. Central banks’ unprecedented money printing and governments’ fiscal response to the Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled worries about currency devaluation and inflationary spikes. These developments have reinvigorated bullish narratives around digital

currencies, driving increased interest,” explains Young at Standard Chartered Bank.

“In the meantime, central banks across the globe continue to investigate the merits of digital currencies and the use of blockchain for monetary policy use. Investors with a high-risk appetite might be interested in building exposure to this area of markets, either as a hedge or as a speculative investment.”

Despite economic volatility, bitcoin witnessed a record surge this year, hitting a high of close to $65,000. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market reportedly topped $2 trillion in value in April, according to data from cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko.

But are regional investors keen on cryptocurrencies as a potential asset? Pernot responds: “As cryptocurrencies, mainly bitcoin, have soared and taken centrestage in every market discussion, the riskier investors have shown some interest, but more so as a short-term speculative trade, due to the lack of depth and regulation around it. This ‘asset class’ is gaining traction from regional investors but is a long way from being mainstream and being officially classified as an asset class.

Investors currently view it as a speculative tool that cannot be valued and which is extremely volatile.”

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ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/TEAM OKTOPUS

SPECIAL REPORT

Reshifting the focus

BY ZAINAB MANSOOR

L

ooking to the future, as regional and global markets convene around environmental and social issues, businesses become more dynamic, and investors have new priorities, the wealth management industry is also evolving to cater to changing needs.

Disruption has also been prompted by a shift in mindsets and priorities; besides heightened demand for personalised solutions, wealth managers and clients are also increasingly drawn to the intelligence of automated solutions for a higher value proposition. These trends, among others, are potentially paving the way for a new era within the industry.

Wealth management will likely move from resilience in 2020 to reshaping in 2021 to lay the foundation for reinvention up to 2025, Accenture said in a note.

Meanwhile, an Accenture – Orbium Wealth Management

C-Level survey revealed six key industry megatrends – the emergence of new technologies; ecological and environment concerns; trend towards hyper-personalisation; shift from support to value generation enabled through technology; paradox of personal data; and rise of platform ecosystems – that could progressively impact the industry.

Basit Saiyed, regional head of Wealth and Liabilities, Wealth and Personal Banking, Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, HSBC builds on it: “Three main trends will be digital wealth solutions, ESG investing, and evolving regulation. As customers continue to become more experienced and comfortable undertaking certain transactions digitally, especially the mass affluent segment, digital wealth solutions – or wealthtech – will be a key area of development.

“ESG has become increasingly important for investors to consider in their decision making, helped by the growing evidence that it can drive outperformance while contributing positively to society. Investment strategies incorporating ESG are growing fast and now account for over a quarter of professionally managed assets globally, while integrating ESG into mainstream financial analysis is also gaining relevance. The adoption of ESG investing is set to grow at an accelerating rate over the coming years, driven by asset owners, risk mitigation and return objectives.”

Drawn to a higher calling, and keen to do ‘good’ by their money, investors are channeling their finances towards greater causes. As environmental and social concerns grip world economies and markets, sustainable investing is seen edging away from the periphery and into the mainstream.

Wealth managers are heeding the call. Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) – an investor initiative in partnership with UNEP Finance Initiative and UN Global Compact – was launched in 2006 to understand the investment implications of environmental, social and governance factors, encouraging investors to use responsible investment to boost returns. The collective AUM (assets under management) represented by PRI signatories increased to $103.4 trillion as of March 31, 2020.

The global trends of investing with purpose and aligning spending habits with values have been reflected regionally as well, encouraging service providers to align their offerings.

“In 2020 we saw a six-fold increase over the previous year in sustainable and transition finance activity in the region, including a number of innovative deals, and that growth hasn’t gone unnoticed by investors,” says HSBC’s Saiyed. “In fact, last year we announced the formation of a dedicated sustainable and transition finance team in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT), to help both corporate and individual clients’ transition to more sustainable investments. We also have plans to add more green funds to our product shelf and also look into potential opportunities for ESG in the retail space.”

Dr Owen Young, regional head of Wealth Management, Africa, Middle East and Europe, Standard Chartered Bank adds: “We see an interest in ESG solutions – the demand for ESG is being fuelled by increased investor awareness and

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ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/SYUZANNA GUSEYNOVA

SPECIAL REPORT

interest, government support in many markets as well as wealth changing hands to the next generation of more socially conscious investors. Industry research tells us that the new generation, or the millennials, are twice as likely to invest in companies or funds with ESG outcomes, and over 80 per cent cite investing with a focus on ESG impact as central to their investment decision making.”

Clients are now investing for purpose and looking beyond return on investment; a quarter of millennial clients see sustainable investment propositions as the most important factor when selecting a new wealth manager, an EY report suggests.

“For clients, purpose underpins the reasons why they invest – including their desire to do-good and to create a meaningful personal legacy. Worldwide, 78 per cent of wealth clients now have goals related to sustainability in their lives, while 62 per cent of clients, regardless of age or gender, have goals related to generating a legacy. Each of these two aspects – sustainability and legacy – are important when considering a client’s overall purpose and how it is changing,” the 2021 EY Global Wealth Research report states.

“A quarter of millennial clients see sustainable investment propositions as the most important factor when selecting a new wealth manager” Digital connect Following a broader digitalisation sweep across financial and other key sectors, the scales within the wealth management spectrum also seem to be tipping towards technology solutions. The rise of robo-advisors is a potential testament to the

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ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/MALTE MUELLER

SPECIAL REPORT

growing appeal of digital wealth management solutions, which are now vying for a spot amid traditional practices.

“Digital wealth management tools are the future in an era of technological advancement and digital solutions being experienced in all walks of life. Digital wealth management solutions, like robo-advisors, enable leveraging technology, thereby enhancing scalability and reach to serve a larger customer base and improving overall customer experience,” notes Madhur Kakkar, senior executive officer at Century Private Wealth.

“The pandemic has accelerated broader technological adaption, but changes are required in the behaviours of both clients and advisors to be able to put greater emphasis on digital solutions. While digital transformation has led to evident disruption in the banking sector, wealth management business has been a slow mover.”

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Piyush Dubey, partner at Kearney Middle East and Africa - Financial Services Practice, builds on it: “Clear waves of change are expected in the GCC wealth management sector.

Invested and investable assets are shifting towards younger generations of customers, acclimatised to control, flexibility, and transparency. Customer loyalty and stickiness will decline. Even older generations are becoming more exposed to technology solutions that commoditise product offerings and put control back into the hands of the consumer. These waves of change are driven by wealthtech firms which are defined as entities that either directly provide digital or robo-advisory and investment platforms or enable traditional wealth managers to provide such platforms.”

While the balance may tip towards digital-led models or advisor-led engagement depending on the demographics and preferences of the investors, a hybrid mode of play is expected to rise and prove sustainable in years to come, drawing on the benefits of personalised interventions and digital solutions.

“The GCC as a region is probably more conservative by nature, and the ultra HNW segment has preferred to stick with face-to-face advisory.

Even though the region is receptive to change, ultra-wealthy individuals and families in the region are not essentially motivated by the low fees associated with technological solutions.

A hybrid model, however, may be more suitable in times to come, wherein innovation leads to more effective solutions, but advice is delivered to the client through the human touch of a relationship manager. It is like technology is being employed in the background and clients get attracted to the variations on more traditional products and services,” adds Kakkar.

As businesses change hands with a new generation of owners arriving at the helm, a substantial amount of wealth will also see movement. As clients continue to seek purpose and new models emerge amidst growing awareness and digital disruption, the wealth management space may be at the cusp of a new dawn.

SPECIAL REPORT

Tracking the wealthy

521,653

UHNWIs GLOBALLY

How the fortunes of UHNWIs are adapting, their top concerns and what they are likely to do next

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Ongoing disruption by Covid-19 80% Domestic government policy 49% Tax issues 42% Geopolitics (trade wars, etc) 35% Wealth transfer to the next generation 28% Brexit 10% Impact of rising wealth inequality 8% Civil unrest 6% Armed conflict 3%

Where do they live?

North America and Europe account for the biggest share

North America 190,085

80

20

Biggest concerns

Europe 151,665

The main wealth creation and preservation worries* for UHNWIs in 2021 30

70

Asia 116,697

Africa 3,270

40

60

*Respondents were asked to nominate their three main concerns and opportunities Middle East 29,880

Latin America 14,504 Russia & CIS 10,289

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Australasia 5,263

Need for expertise

Conscious investment

Some of the main financial goals that clients discuss, manage and delegate to their wealth managers

The share of clients who indicated they have sustainability goals

Ensure adequate income/ financial security

51%

Protect wealth (from inflation, investment loss etc.)

49%

North America

78% 68%

Asia-Pacific

Diversify total wealth across different asset classes

89%

42% Europe

Save to meet goals (home, retirement, education, etc.)

Ensure safe transition of wealth to heirs

Global

38% 23%

Middle East Latin America

80% 76% 91%

SOURCE: KNIGHT FRANK’S THE WEALTH REPORT; 2021 EY GLOBAL WEALTH RESEARCH REPORT

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SPECIAL REPORT

“WE KNOW THAT CLIMATE RISK IS INVESTMENT RISK. BUT WE ALSO BELIEVE THE CLIMATE TRANSITION PRESENTS A HISTORIC INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY” L A R RY F I N K , C E O O F B L AC K RO C K

JUN

Lifestyle

21

Continental plates

The Maine Mayfair will transport the New England brasserie concept from Dubai to a homestead in London’s Hanover Square that dates back to 1720 p68

“We have an order bank of more than nine months of production” – Stephan Winkelmann, president and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini

gulfbusiness.com

Bang & Olufsen Beolab 28 B&O’s 1,250-watt wireless tower speakers have a wide frequency range of 27Hz to 23Khz, and are a stylish accessory for your living room too June 2021

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Lifestyle / Horology

Shattering the status quo Georges Kern, CEO of Breitling, is swimming against the tide and gaining market share for the Swiss luxury watchmaker.

Here’s what he’s doing right

BY VARUN GODINHO

I

n October 2019, a few months before the Covid-19 pandemic would strike with all its vicious fury, Breitling CEO Georges Kern was in Dubai for the Breitling Summit. At the event, he showed the new Aviator 8 Mosquito, spoke about the brand’s ‘modern retro’ concept, and even introduced to the audience the Swiss watchmaker’s youngest ever ambassador – 19-year-old Luke Bannister, a seven-time world drone champion. Later that afternoon, when I asked him what were the biggest threats to Breitling in 2020, he replied, “The only threats are those beyond our control – like Brexit, the situation in Hong Kong and trade wars.”

Those were the biggest pain points on the horizon back then. 2020 though proved to have ominous plans of its own.

When we spoke again last month, Kern didn’t deny that Covid-19 has had an impact on the business, but he said a strategy that was put in place pre-Covid helped buffer it.

“Before Covid, Breitling already engaged in inclusive luxury – in the way we interacted with the customer in a very relaxed manner; casual luxury – where luxury becomes more casual and you can see it in our boutiques; and sustainable luxury – look at what we have been doing with packaging and straps. These three values helped us a lot during Covid and will help us post Covid too,” says Kern.

His optimism is not misplaced. In an annual report published in March by Morgan Stanley and LuxeConsult, Breitling stayed very much in the reckoning among Swiss watch brands that powered through 2020 without falling apart.

The report states that the entire Swiss watch industry is estimated to have shrunk

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June 2021

by one third in 2020, with figures from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry stating that exports dropped 21.8 per cent during the same period. Still, Breitling climbed from 13th position in terms of overall retail sales in 2019, to 11th place in 2020.

The report estimates Breitling’s turnover in 2020 to be CHF479m, occupying 2.4 per cent of the global Swiss retail market share. It adds that the brand sold an estimated 147,900 pieces, at an implied average retail price of CHF5,254 a piece. “We make roughly 160,000-170,000 watches a year,” confirms Kern. “We’ve gained market share last year. In the Middle East, we are part of the top five brands in turnover.”

Breitling’s reach within the Middle East has been extensive. Its timepieces aren’t difficult to spot on wrists here, and brand recognition is already high. In 2019, for example, Breitling announced a new limited-edition Avenger model in partnership

with UAE aerobatics demonstration team Fursan Al Emarat. Earlier this year, it also became the official timekeeper for the UAE Tour 2021. “We are doing extremely well in the UAE. We have also just started to open new boutiques in Saudi Arabia – in Al Khobar, Jeddah and Riyadh. In Kuwait, we moved our boutique to a new location, and we have great partners in Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.”

Explaining the fact that its retail share increased in 2020 over 2019, Kern says that one of the reasons was that Breitling did not disproportionately focus on the tourist business either in the Middle East or its other markets. “We don’t want to be dependent on the tourist business, it’s a cherry on the cake. Our fundamental business is local, with local residents.”

The one market that Breitling still needs to break through though is China. “We are a little late in China,” admits Kern. “We started the China business four years ago when I joined the company, and we need to catch up and quadruple our turnover to reach the levels of our fair share of the business.

“The problem with China is very simple – it’s distribution. You don’t have an established retail network like we have in the UAE, for instance, with Seddiqi running stores for us in Dubai,” notes Kern. “[In China] there are difficulties in opening boutiques, negotiating and finding malls.” Despite the challenges, Kern says that plans are drawn up for Breitling to open between 20-30 boutiques in China this year alone.

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ovid-19 notwithstanding, Breitling didn’t let the drip-feed of its novelties dry up in 2020. Last year, when most boutiques and retail points globally were forced shut in April, it still went ahead and launched a full-fledged Chronomat collection that included 12 references; a Breitling Superocean Heritage ’57 capsule collection with four references; and a Navitimer Automatic 35 that came in five different case and dial combinations, paired with both bracelets and leather straps.

But before the brand could be accused of being tone-deaf to the fallout of the pandemic, in May last year, it launched a Superocean Heritage ’57 Limited Edition II, proceeds of which were donated to support frontline healthcare workers. Breitling committed to donating $500,000 to countries that were battling the pandemic. gulfbusiness.com

Georges Kern, CEO of Breitling Opposite page: The Premier B15 Duograph 42 features an all-new in-house manualwinding Breitling Manufacture Calibre 15

Horology / Travel

Lifestyle / Horology

Before 2020 could draw to a close, it also released the Endurance Pro, a robust sportswatch with a Calibre 82 SuperQuartz movement.

This year too, Breitling hasn’t stepped off the pedal. Its latest releases comprise the stunning Super Chronomat collection, among whose several references include a UTC model and Four-Year Calendar model that features a moonphase. “Many clients know Breitling in the last 20 years as a brand with loud pilot’s watches. But it is much more than that. We looked into the history of the brand, in particular the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 80s. We wanted to bridge the Breitling lovers of [then] with the Breitling lovers of the recent past.”

That aim is best embodied by the new Premier Heritage Collection which includes the Premier B09 Chronograph, one of which has an unusual-for-Breitling pistachio green dial; a Premier B25 Datora which is a reincarnation of the brand’s triple calendar chronograph from the 40s; and the Premier B15 Duograph 42 that tellingly features an all-new in-house manualwinding Breitling Manufacture Calibre 15 COSC-certified spilt-seconds chronograph movement. And 2021 held another surprise with a very limited 25-piece Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillon 42 Bentley Limited Edition to mark the nearly two-decade partnership between the car manufacturer and the watchmaker. Given the number of watches released this year alone, it’s worth remembering here that we aren’t even halfway through the calendar year.

“The most important thing is that retailers don’t sell these watches on grey market platforms and [we] control the prices so that the value of the brand remains stable” 62

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The Premier B09 Chronograph features a pistachio green dial

Evidently, there’s no dearth of novelties for Breitling enthusiasts. But this much choice can also lead to considerable confusion among customers. Therefore, in March, it introduced the BreitlingSelect subscription programme, which allows customers, for a monthly fee, to try up to three different Breitling pieces over the course of a year before deciding on a watch they’d want to buy. Initially made available only to customers in the US, the pool of watches include the Superocean, Navitimer and Premier pieces.

“We are not addressing people who want a discount,” says Kern about the programme. He says that it’s actually more expensive than buying a watch upfront as there’s a monthly rental fee as well as a subscription fee, in addition to the actual price of buying one of them at the end of the 12 months. “We have a pool of watches that all participants in that programme are using.

So the watches in that pool become preowned products, and customers can then buy it at a price advantage.”

To manage its global inventory, Breitling has roughly 10 factory outlets around the world in the US, Europe, and Asia, where it sells watches at an approximately 30 per cent discount. “We always try to help our retailers in taking back stock and refreshing their stock [so that they] always have the newest Breitling collection. The most important thing is that retailers don’t sell

these watches on grey market platforms and [we] control the prices so that the value of the brand remains stable.”

Another measure that Breitling has taken to challenge the grey market, is an announcement it made in October last year that all new watches are being offered with blockchain-backed digital passport technology that can trace the entire lifecycle of a watch and which will include all its purchasing, servicing and resale history stored on an immutable platform.

An objective barometer of a watchmaker’s ability to rank above its global competitors are independent industry awards, and more specifically the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG). At the 2020 edition, five of its watches were nominated across categories, and two of them – the Superocean Automatic 48 Boutique Edition and Superocean Heritage ’57 Limited Edition II – won in the Diver’s and Petite Aiguille categories respectively.

“Being nominated is a great sign of recognition toward the work of our colleagues, but ultimately the real recognition only comes from the customer when you sell watches.”

Kern remains tight-lipped on plans for the remainder of 2021, but judging by precedent, it’s going to be eventful at the very least. “Every two or three months there will major news on Breitling sponsors, new ambassadors, new flagship boutiques and of course new products. It’s like watching a Netflix series – there’s always a striking new episode.” A fittingly millennial reference for a brand that’s increasingly gaining ground among that very same audience. gulfbusiness.com

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Painting by Almudena Angoso

Lifestyle / Auto

I

t’s difficult to explain away the dream run that Lamborghini finds itself on at the moment as something of a fluke or an event hinged on a whimsical phenomenon such as “pent-up demand”. From January-March 2021, the Italian carmaker recorded its best-ever quarter in terms of sales with 2,422 units delivered worldwide.

That figure was up 25 per cent compared to Q1 2020, when the world hadn’t yet fully grappled with the economic disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was also 22 per cent higher over Q1 2019, when Covid-19 was nowhere on the horizon.

Lamborghini ended 2020 as its most profitable year ever, and the second-best year on record in terms of both turnover and number of cars delivered. It ended the fiscal year 2020 with a turnover of EUR1.61bn, only 11 per cent down over the previous year, and delivered 7,430 cars (second only to the 8,205 units it delivered in 2019) – all of this despite a three-month shutdown of its production lines as a result of the pandemic last year. Lamborghini is keeping up the momentum. “We have an order bank of more than nine months of production, which is very healthy for a company like ours,” Stephan Winkelmann, president and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini, told Gulf Business during a pitstop in Dubai last month.

“The Middle East, including Oman, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and Bahrain, is our sixth largest market in terms of size. Of these, the biggest market today is the UAE, but the market with the biggest potential is Saudi Arabia.”

It takes nerves of steel then for a carmaker to signal that, right within the middle of a dream run, it is altering course and choosing to go down a risky, somewhat uncertain, path that may or may not lead to the same giddy heights of success it finds itself at the moment.

A charging bull Stephan Winkelmann, president and CEO of Lamborghini, has laid out an ambitious roadmap for all the cars within its fleet to be hybrid models by 2024, followed by an all-new full-electric Lambo before the end of the decade. And before you ask, the V12 combustion engine will continue to breathe

BY VARUN GODINHO

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inkelmann visited Dubai the day after the company dropped a bombshell when it announced a long-term strategy of choosing to go down the path of hybridisation and electrification. But, wisely enough, the brand hasn’t hastily consigned its rip-roaring combustion engines to death row. In fact, as the CEO clearly indicates, V12s are very much part of its future roadmap. However, every one of those ferocious V12s will be accompanied by a hybrid motor.

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Lifestyle / Auto

“We have divided the next few years into two chapters. The first one, over 2021 and 2022, is where we are celebrating our internal combustion engines,” explains Winkelmann. As part of that plan, two new variants within the V12 line-up will be rolled out this year.

“By the year 2023 and 2024, we will have the complete lineup – Aventador, Huracán and Urus – hybridised. By the end of 2024, we will have therefore at least halved [our] CO2 emissions.”

The goal here for Lamborghini isn’t ensuring that it gets onto the electrification bandwagon for the sake of it – the big prize is to reduce its product CO2 emissions by 50 per cent by the start of 2025.

Arch-rival Ferrari has said that it would have its first full-electric car by 2025, Aston Martin is reportedly planning on manufacturing an electric sports car and SUV starting 2025, and Bentley has said that by 2030 it will no longer manufacture combustion engines and will only produce full-electric cars. That won’t be the case at Lamborghini though.

Maintaining a stated goal of CO2 emission reduction allows the brand’s combustion engines to be part of its future strategy, especially by way of advancements in synthetic fuels. “I hope that in the next decade, there will be enough development, distribution, and a clear reduction of CO2 emissions by synthetic fuels, so that we can [still] have internal combustion engines in our supersports cars of the 2030s,” he says while confirming that there are no plans for a six-cylinder variant at the moment.

Apart from offering its entire existing fleet as hybrid versions by 2024, Winkelmann said that the brand will also introduce a fourth new model which will be fully electric in the second half of this decade. “The idea is to have a 2+2, fourseater full-electric car. For now, I’m not able to talk about range or horsepower [of the electric model],” he says while adding that teams have just started convening at the Sant’Agata Bolognese HQ to discuss the specificities of that model.

When asked whether he is concerned that Lamborghini might be late to the market with its electric and hybrid fleet, Winkelmann says that Lamborghini isn’t seeking a first-mover advantage in this area, and would rather take a measured and cautious approach to get its battery technology right. gulfbusiness.com

Lamborghini has committed EUR1.5bn towards its electrification project

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o execute this electric vision, over EUR1.5bn has been pledged towards the project. “This is the biggest investment that the Lamborghini brand has ever seen,” says Winkelmann. The largest chunk of that investment will go into R&D and the development of the electric car. The next largest amount will be geared towards purchasing and spent on suppliers, and a portion will also be spent locally to adapt the production plant. He adds that there is enough place to expand the plant at the existing Sant’Agata Bolognese facility itself.

Winkelmann says that the engine, battery and chassis developed for the hybrid models of the Huracán and Aventador will be exclusive to Lamborghini. The Urus has a shared platform with the other brands from the Volkswagen Group.

Winkelmann, we imagine, was top of mind for Lamborghini’s parent, the allpowerful VW group, when it came to executing this new path of electrification.

When he first joined as CEO of Lamborghini in 2005, there were only two models – the Murciélago and the Gallardo. Under his

“By the end of 2024, we will have at least halved [our] CO2 emissions”

reign, the brand retired those two models and introduced two new ones – the Aventador and Huracán, which continue to remain in production today. But his biggest success, and one that wasn’t easy to convince his employers – or fans of Lamborghini, for that matter – was the Urus SUV which went into production in 2018.

“We had a lot of people telling me at the time: ‘Do you think this is the right thing for the brand?’ I always said that the brand is not only a supersports car company.” His stand back then to press on with the Urus is now vindicated when you consider that in Q1 2021, 1,382 units of the Urus were delivered worldwide – more than the Huracán and Aventador combined.

He increased sales by 300 per cent between 2005 and 2016 (when he left Lamborghini for another role in the VW group). He was the president of VW-owned hypercar manufacturer, Bugatti, when in December 2020 he was tapped to lead Lamborghini once again, while still retaining his position at Bugatti. Winkelmann says that Lamborghini and Bugatti, both of which he now presides over, will develop largely independently of each other.

“The brands are very different. The brands have similarities in terms of the use of carbon fibre monocoque, but apart from that I don’t see big synergies in terms of future plans.”

VW’s decision to bring back Winkelmann to the Lamborghini fold, and giving him a Eur1.5bn spending allowance, is a big bet for Lamborghini that is currently believed to be worth around Eur10bn. But betting on Winkelmann is hardly a gamble.

June 2021

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A golfing spectacle Golfing legend Nick Tarratt has been appointed as the tournament director for the Emirates Amateur Golf League, ahead of the EAGL Mini-Series which will be held at the Fire course at Jumeirah Golf Estates this month

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he world’s first franchise-based amateur golf league, the Emirates Amateur Golf League (EAGL), will commence this November in the UAE. Officially sanctioned by the Emirates Golf Federation (EGF) and backed by the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) as well as the Dubai Sports Council, the tournament boasts European Tour pro Shiv Kapur as its ambassador. More recently, in another high-profile appointment, Nick Tarratt was appointed as Tournament director as well.

Tarratt was the former director of the European Tour’s Middle East division, and his involvement in golf administration goes back several decades to the early 1980s when he started his career at The Belfry for the PGA. He was a key member of the 1985 Ryder Cup organising committee at the fabled Warwickshire resort and worked as an official referee during Europe’s historic 16½ tame.

“We are delighted that Nick can join us with immediate effect for this exciting golf project,” said EAGL founder and CEO Sudesh Aggarwal. “He has unique experience of organising golf events around the world, especially in Dubai…we are all excited by the commitment, passion and experience he will bring to our group.”

Tarratt will assist in all areas of planning as well as acting as the Rules official and senior auditor of Handicaps for the tournament. “It’s great to be able to join the EAGL team and get back into mainstream golf. There is huge potential for the EAGL vision longer term and I’m sure it will be well received, by players, sponsors and the golf industry in this pilot project,” said Tarratt.

The pilot project is without precedent and has hence left potential participants, players, team owners and sponsors pondering the shape and form of the main EAGL event in November.

It is for this reason that Aggarwal and Priyaa Kumria, the EAGL League administrator, have decided to hold a small-scale showcase event on June 20 called the EAGL Mini-Series.

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“Nick Tarratt has unique experience of organising golf events around the world, especially in Dubai…we are all excited by the commitment, passion and experience he will bring to our group” The one-day event will give eight four-man teams a taste of the ‘Tour pro experience’ the EAGL is promising later in the year. The event will be capped with a gala dinner and prize presentation, as well as a special UAE Golf Industry forum.

There will also be a live two-hour broadcast of the Mini-Series across EAGL’s social media channels.

The eight participating teams include Abu Dhabi Roars, Dubai Tigers, English Roses, MENA Golfers, Indian Lions, Emirates Players, Asian Jumbos and European Seves.

Players in each team will be from different handicap groups. They will play without any strokes allowance against players from competing teams from the same handicap group.

The teams which will face off against each other will be decided by a draw, in the presence of the captains.

Interestingly, Welsh Six Nations legend Mike Phillips has been named as one of the playing captains for this month’s Mini-Series which will be held on the Fire course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. Phillips will lead the European Seves.

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BRAND VIEW

Above: Eight teams will participate in the EAGL Mini-Series on June 20 in Dubai Opposite page: EAGL Tournament director Nick Tarratt

“Our vision is to give a new dimension to amateur golf in the UAE and create a tour that is at a different level to those in other countries,” said Aggarwal. “The franchise model has not been seen before in golf and we are excited to be able to showcase this new approach.

The series will create a business proposition that benefits corporates, investors and team owners in enhancing their marketing efforts through multiple event channels, and on- and off-course branding opportunities as well as providing a platform for a truly world-class networking experience.”

In a significant financial incentive for the participating teams in the Mini-Series this month, Aggarwal and his team will, as the franchiser, bear all the costs associated with the event. Team sponsors have been invited on a complimentary basis and will likely benefit substantially from the event.

EAGL says that the tangible financial

gulfbusiness.com

EAGL Mini-Series 2021 Team

Sponsors

Captains

Abu Dhabi Roars

Abu Dhabi Golf Club

Khalfan Al Kaabi

Dubai Tigers

Dubai Sports Council

Chris May

English Roses

Gulf News

Mark Rix

Mena Golfers

Worldwide Golf

Rick Bevan*

Indian Lions

Khaleej Times

Rajeev Khanna*

Emirates Players

Emirates Golf Federation

Ismail Sharif*, Khalid Yousuf**

Asian Jumbos

ARN

Robbie Greenfield

European Seves

GE& E

Mike Phillips *Denotes non-playing captain, **Denotes playing captain

benefits for each participating team in the Mini-Series is around Dhs130,800, all of which the franchiser will absorb.

With the Mini-Series being a staging ground for the main event, it will allow Aggarwal and his team to test the on-ground delivery mechanism of the event and also build brand awareness several months ahead of the main tournament.

“The EAGL will raise the bar and set distinctive high standards for amateur golf in a pro-style setting where the competitors will

be treated like tour professionals for the day with bespoke team shirts, names on lockers, branded golf carts, valet parking, media coverage, on-course branding and more,” confirmed Kumria.

“The league has been envisioned to take corporate golf to a new level and give those who take part a sense of what it feels like to play in a professional team event. This MiniSeries event will showcase many of the unique highlights the full series will feature later in the year,” she added.

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Lifestyle / Culinary

London calling A Dubai homegrown concept, The Maine, led by restaurateur Joey Ghazal is going international and taking its New England brasserie concept to London’s tony Mayfair district

BY VARUN GODINHO

“Y

ou can argue that it was 20 years in the making.

I started my career as a waiter in London 20 years ago, and it’s been something that’s been on my mind a very long time,” says Joey Ghazal, founder and managing partner of The Maine New England Brasserie Co., of the recently announced first international outpost of the brand that will open in London’s Mayfair this fall.

The Maine Mayfair, located at 20 Hanover Square, has picked what many would consider as being among the most fiercely competitive patches of real estate when it comes to fine dining. There’s Japanese restaurant Sexy Fish (Rita Ora sang at its launch party), the decadent Park Chinois (it’s hard to escape the 24-page wine list) and also Davies and Brook by chef Daniel Humm at Claridge’s (Humm’s Eleven Madison Park in New York City was voted the World’s Best Restaurant in 2017), all within a couple of hundred metres of each other.

But Ghazal isn’t unduly perturbed by the neighbourhood competition. Like with any great restaurant, location is everything – moreover in Mayfair. Luckily, The Maine’s landed a prime spot. “It’s a homestead in Hanover Square from 1720. It is the only surviving Grade II-listed Georgian building in the entire area, much of which was dug up for air raid shelters in the Second World War. “We won the location in stiff competition with many very seasoned local operators in London,” says Ghazal of the former 68

June 2021

Joey Ghazal, founder and managing partner of The Maine New England Brasserie Co. homestead of the Duke of Montrose. It is the first time that the building is being purposed as a dining destination.

20 Hanover Square is part of a 1.3 acre mixed-use development by Great Portland Estates and is a short walk from Berkley Square and the Elizabeth line Crossrail station. The Maine Mayfair is divided across three levels with five rooms, and will have a seating capacity of 350. “We have a 100-foot terrace that is connected to New Bond Street.

We have a drawing room, which will be sort of an aristocratic lounge. We have a large bar

and brasserie that will have a nightlife and entertainment component to it. Our goal is to create a destination that would surprise and delight people who visit many times and not have the same experience twice.”

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t’s been a journey for the Dubai homegrown concept to scale from a garage in JBR that opened in 2015, to where it is today. Ghazal, who was born in Montreal and later worked in Canada and the UK, eventually moved to permanently settle in Dubai in 2013. It’s a city where his gulfbusiness.com

Lifestyle / Culinary

family has been present since 1975, and one that he knew intimately. He says that at the time he moved here, Dubai had a very noisy and competitive restaurant landscape, but yet there was a gaping space within it. “There was no brand that was really operating at the affordable luxury middle category. There was no multi-unit, multi-location brasserie offering in the city. As a family, we used to vacation on the east coast of Maine in the US. My idea was to create kind of a brasserie with a New England inspiration to it as a homage to my childhood,” says Ghazal.

That concept led to the launch of The Maine Oyster Bar & Grill in JBR, followed by another The Maine Street Eatery in Studio City, a taco truck, and most recently the glitzy The Maine Land Brasserie on the ground floor of The Opus at Business Bay. “[We are] the only multi-unit licensed restaurant company in the city. We’ve become the champions for the affordable luxury brasserie market.”

He says that the Dubai operations have over 150 staff. “We have grown it from a garage restaurant to a company that’s now worth over Dhs100m. Over the years, we have invested over Dhs20m in all three restaurants,” explains Ghazal.

But the latest offering in London will significantly up the stakes for the company.

“The project in London costs more than the three restaurants here combined. And that one restaurant itself has 150 staff. It is also 11,000 square feet – take all of our restaurants in Dubai and they would not reach 11,000 square feet together.”

The decision to enter London amid the pandemic wasn’t one that was taken lightly.

Ghazal explains that the team did a yearlong study on London with focus groups and undertook extensive research into the various players in the market to answer two questions: ‘Does London need another restaurant?’ and ‘Does London need The Maine?’. “On both counts, the answer was yes. We’re fresher, more contemporary and have a lifestyle approach to the brasserie space. We are definitely more affordable luxury, aspirational and accessible than most of our peers.

“From the time we saw the location in [London] in October, to the time that we’re opening, is under a year. London has come out of a very aggressive lockdown over the past few months. We believe that it is ready for a new concept, and particularly now.

There is so much pent-up demand.” gulfbusiness.com

Beyond the negative economic impact on the hospitality sector, the Covid-19 pandemic has also led to positive structural changes within the restaurant company. He points to the example of an online training academy which the company now uses to onboard new staff. “The biggest challenge in any business is communicating your DNA to your people, and so we’ve digitised our training programme on something called the Maine Academy. We are able to do this through a software called Done

by Mark Dickinson,” says Ghazal, while adding that it allows business owners to see a dashboard that tracks and measures the development of each one of their employees and also decentralises responsibility and accountability from the hands of central management to the team. “We were able to not only retain all of our people [during the pandemic], but were actually able to open up the third restaurant with the staff that we had at the two [restaurants].”

As a restaurateur who has spent two decades in the industry, Ghazal is also keen to pay it forward. “I created my company, Fighterbrands, which is a concept, design and development company that helps young entrepreneurs and advises them through taking what’s in their mind from blueprint to bricks. It’s one of the very few businesses that is both left brain and right brain simultaneously. You have to be a

1720

The year the homestead in Hanover Square was built

“We have grown it from a garage restaurant to a company that’s now worth over Dhs100m” businessman negotiating leases, shareholders agreements, doing the financials, and at the same time you have to be creative and do the marketing, plate presentations and design the uniforms.”

As a result of the pandemic, Ghazal says that The Maine also started working more closely with local food producers. At the Dubai branches, 80 per cent of the vegetables on the menu are now sourced from among the approximately 4,000 farms in the UAE, and it is a model that will be carried on to London as well. “In London, we have the opportunity to work with local suppliers and local farms, we are able to play with ingredients that we are not able to play with here [in Dubai], and create much more of a local story over there,” says Ghazal.

A CSR project that Ghazal will soon be launching is the Dubai Oyster Project that will take discarded oyster shells from The Maine’s three restaurants in the emirate, and use them to regenerate coastal reef ecosystems. “We actually have over 50,000 discarded oyster shells from our restaurants per month. We’re working with the Emirates Wildlife Association to get these shells back into the water, because each shell gets regenerated into an oyster, and every oyster filters about five gallons of water a day.”

While The Maine Mayfair is on the immediate horizon for the Dubai-headquartered company, Ghazal says that plans are already afoot to expand even further.

“We’re working hard on a seaside version of The Maine, perhaps for Mykonos or the south of France. We’re also looking at places like Miami, Singapore – there’s a lot of cities that are looking for a concept like ours.

“The Maine as a concept has already proven itself in terms of its versatility and viability. We’re not very top-heavy, and we can make moves that other bigger companies can’t,” notes Ghazal. And at the moment, it is making the right moves.

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BRAND VIEW

Making 5G accessibility a reality Global technology brand OPPO has collaborated with chipsets maker MediaTek to create powerful and efficient 5G devices

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t’s hard to picture a time when we used different devices to phone a friend, surf the internet and take family photos. Smartphones today allow us to do all this and much more from one single device. What enabled this? Chipsets – tiny and exponentially powerful systems that can put the power of a computer in the palm of your hand – and the internet.

Chipsets have gone through several stages of evolution as smartphones have become more advanced and versatile. At the same time, users constantly demand smaller devices with greater functionality. Rapid advancements in technology and manufacturing have resulted in a SystemOn-Chip (SOC) – a complete processing system that integrates several components including CPU, memory, graphics processing unit (GPU), modem and more into a single chip. This ultimate level of integration saves space, cost and power consumption, enabling smartphone manufacturers to optimise the thickness, weight, battery life and price of their devices.

Global technology brand OPPO has collaborated with SoC developer MediaTek to power some of its popular smartphone models. According to industry reports, MediaTek was the number one smartphone

chip maker in 2020, shipping 351.8 million units to smartphone OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) across the world. The company captured 27.2 per cent of the global market, up from a 17.2 per cent market share in 2019. OPPO was MediaTek’s second largest affiliate in 2020, shipping 55.3 million devices with MediaTek chipsets in 2020, compared to 46.3 million in 2019.

In the company’s latest Reno5 series, the OPPO Reno5 Z 5G variant launched in March 2021 is powered by MediaTek’s newest Dimensity 800U chipset that fully integrates a 5G modem into the chip. Each chip from MediaTek’s Dimensity 5G family is built with technology for imaging, video, gaming, connectivity and efficiency. Dimensity 800U supports dual-mode 5G SIM, providing improved connection coverage, reliability, and fast speeds.

The Reno5 Z 5G enables fast download and upload speeds, efficient streaming of movies, and an immersive mobile gaming experience on the go – thanks to MediaTek’s 5G SoC chip inside.

From left: Ivan Wu, general manager of OPPO in the GCC and Rami Osman, director of Sales and Marketing - MEA at MediaTek

Delivering the superior performance and functionality of a strong 5G chipset, OPPO Reno5 Z 5G allows the younger generations to capture their everyday lives with photo and video content, balance their work efficiently, and enjoy an immersive experience of mobile gaming.

Ivan Wu, general manager of OPPO in the GCC, said: “As a brand, OPPO caters to young creators and young professionals who rely on their devices to express themselves and expect ultra-smooth connectivity from their smartphones. Since the commercialisation of 5G began in the Middle East in 2020, we have been committed to bringing 5G to more users across the region by launching several 5G smartphones, including mid-range category phones, thus putting 5G within reach of a wider pool of customers.

“MediaTek shares our vision of bringing 5G to more users across the UAE and our collaboration on the Reno5 Z 5G has gone a long way in furthering this cause. By bringing a premium connectivity experience to the mid-range category of smartphones, we have raised the bar for smartphones in this space and will continue to accelerate the rollout of 5G in the UAE and across the region.”

The MediaTek Dimensity 800U enables experiences that matter most to young users on their smartphones such as improved photography in any light, the highest definition video, smooth and lag-free gaming, superfast 5G connections and longer battery life.

Rami Osman, director of Sales and Marketing - MEA at MediaTek said: “For the young people who are more immersed in mobile technology than ever before, MediaTek Dimensity 800U balances immense CPU speed with efficiency-focused design to deliver an incredible 5G smartphone experience. Collaborating with OPPO is a natural fit for us because we are both committed to bringing leading 5G technology to more devices in the market, so that everyone can experience the power of 5G.” Offered with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, the Reno5 Z 5G is now available in the UAE, at a retail price of Dhs1,499.

Lifestyle / Culture

The music world’s next frontier Here’s why you should take note of the burgeoning independent Arab music scene

BY SPEK

A

n Arab music renaissance is underway. For the first time in modern history, content created by Arabs is being developed, produced and monetised for global audiences – with tools available to laypeople with creative ideas.

Since the advent of recorded music, the markets which flourished were those which worked to develop their infrastructure around intellectual property protection. As the music industry developed creatively, so too did the industry around it. The innovations of jazz, soul, rock ’n’ roll and hip hop were monetised around physical products: vinyl, CDs, tapes – and if not for the ability to monetise in the big Western markets, one can argue that the innovations of these musical genres would not have matured and developed globally in the ways that they since have.

In markets like the Middle East, monetising music has historically been a challenge, to say the least. Throughout the wider region, we found CD piracy was as high as 90 per cent of sales, so rights holders had very little incentive to invest in artist development. In more mature markets, you had indie bands who might’ve started by playing in small venues eventually becoming the next Coldplay, or hip hop artists building a following by selling CDs independently before eventually signing with a big label that would super-charge their fanbase and career. Many great artists started this way before the mainstream adopted them: Jay Z, R.E.M., U2 and Nirvana, are only a few of them. gulfbusiness.com

The MENA region didn’t have support for that kind of a platform; it made it difficult for genre artists to have a platform. If you wanted to make a living, you would probably have to start singing someone else’s songs.

Technology changed that. Over the past decade, recording high-quality productions at home became infinitely cheaper. Then, streaming made it possible for new artists to create music and build audiences using social media. Suddenly, genres that were never touched by regional labels were finding fans in markets the gatekeepers swore there was no audience for. Nowadays it isn’t

uncommon to find an Arabic language trap artist getting tens of millions of streams, all on their own, based on a fanbase in Egypt or Morocco.

I started my career as a rapper in Canada in the early Nineties. The prevailing wisdom at the time was that rap was a fad that would eventually recede as quickly as it appeared.

From my vantage point, Arab artists are currently fighting a like-minded struggle to gain recognition. There are parallels, and just as hip hop proved everyone wrong, so too shall the independent music scene we see currently sprouting out of the Arab world.

Over the next several years as the shift to streaming takes hold, we will see more local language artists increasing the quality of their musical output and building sustainable fanbases. This is becoming possible because they now have ways to monetise their original music, which wasn’t easy before. Once money filters to the local artist – so too will an independent label scene invest in the growth they see happening around them. It’s a sort of economic Darwinism, where the money being paid to artists leads to more investments, which in turn accelerates the evolution of the scene and thus the quality of overall creative output.

Artistic maturity can take time to evolve. It’s an amalgam of industry infrastructure, access to opportunity and the synthesis of a local scene. But we are already seeing this develop with the likes of Lebanon’s Mashrou’ Leila, Palestine’s Bashar Murad and Syrian/Lebanese trip hop outfit Bedouin Burger. The big streaming services are already clued in, which is evident by their focus on supporting Arabic music. They can see that an Arab renaissance in music is already underway.

With a little reflection, one can see how pop is evolving to include a global output of music in which Arabs will play a meaningful role.

The tech companies see the power of our connected populations.

They’re already there, they’re just waiting for the rest of us to catch up.

Spek is the founder and president of PopArabia

June 2021

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JUN

The SME Story

21

A dedicated hub for the regional startup and SME ecosystem

INTERVIEW

Moving pieces A dedicated e-commerce marketplace for preowned furniture that also handles end-to-end logistics brand offers easy access to affordable used furniture for consumers and retailers and [contributes to] the circular economy. Decosouq is currently bringing on board the UAE’s brand-new furniture market leaders to help them find a new home for the open-box, refurbished, returned and displayfurniture items.

Emir Tumen Founder, Decosouq What is the concept behind Decosouq?

Decosouq is the UAE’s first e-marketplace for buying and selling pre-loved furniture and home décor. We use technology and services to make the process of buying and selling a hassle-free experience for our sellers and buyers by taking care of quality, storage, packaging and assembly. Decosouq does not offer instant cash or hold inventory of furniture – once the item has been bought by the buyer, Decosouq offers door-todoor service by providing collection and delivery.

What is the USP of the business?

Consumers in the UAE love the convenience and simplicity of selling and buying furniture and home décor online with no hassle, no strange phone calls, and most importantly, without meeting any strangers. A professional delivery team handles the door-to-door delivery at no cost to the sellers.

Are there any recent innovations you’ve applied to the model?

What were you doing before you started this business?

I was a consultant at one of the top-tier global management consulting firms. I was impressed by how vertically-focused marketplaces were disrupting big players such as eBay while changing the way consumers and businesses think about the second-hand market. The furniture market is a great fit for such a model and an industry that is ripe for disruption.

Above: Decosouq stores the furniture for up to 90 days

What are the expansion plans you have in mind?

Could you give us a business overview of Decosouq’s operations?

The platform is supported by a team of 38 people all around the world – most are now being relocated to the UAE since the company is focusing on expanding rapidly in the GCC region. In the UAE, more than 10,000 retailers and consumers have started selling and buying on Decosouq. The 72

June 2021

We have a ‘make an offer’ model where you can send your offer to the seller using your credit card, and once the offer is accepted the furniture is yours. We bring it to your doorstep in less than three days. We also started our consignment services. You can use Decosouq to store your furniture for up to 90 days and we sell it on your behalf.

Emir Tumen, Decosouq founder

We want to become the number one furniture platform for everyone and every business in the UAE and the region when it comes to second-hand [furniture]. In 2022, we wish to further expand to other GCC countries and localise our model country-by-country, making Decosouq a regional leader in this category. gulfbusiness.com

The SME Story Rita McGrath and M Muneer McGrath is a professor at Columbia Business School and founder of Valize. Muneer is the co-founder of Medici Institute

COMMENT

How Dubai Next can be a gamechanger for the startup ecosystem Here’s how the platform can help champion innovation and reduce the failure rate among startups within the region

T

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/THISSATAN

he recent initiative by Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Next, is a government platform to drive entrepreneurship and innovation. The initiative has the scope to make the UAE an innovation hub.

An IBM Institute study found that 90 per cent of startups fail within the first five years of their inception. Almost all the reasons for the failures are broadly related to innovation and leadership: business models, planning, customer insights, lack of original ideas, focus, agility, tech capability, and leadership gaps. Nearly 80 per cent of investors said that startups lack unique business models, as the majority of them copy-paste successful models from elsewhere without unique local insights.

The Dubai Next platform should not subscribe to what most people think of startups – “Steve-Jobsarrives-on-a-clamshell-and-the-world-is-changedforever”. As the Valley entrepreneur and doyen of

gulfbusiness.com

ALMOST ALL THE REASONS FOR STARTUP FAILURES ARE BROADLY RELATED TO INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP

the lean startup movement, Steve Blank, puts it, a disciplined approach like the Discovery Driven Disruption (DDD) process can simply reverse the failure rate dramatically – and at much lower costs.

Dubai Next can help improve the success rate of its cohorts by embracing this lean startup methodology.

The core idea of DDD is that rather than creating an expensive, risky plan for an uncertain venture, break it into stages. At each stage, identify and test assumptions, ideally at the lowest possible cost and time. That will de-risk ventures. Instead of fearing failure, one can then change the question into “What is it worth to our organisation to learn something?” Whatever the outcome, if you agree that the answer will be worth the investment, failure simply doesn’t enter into the picture.

The framework is about driving growth in uncertain times. In this pandemic-disruptive era, coping with uncertainty will be even more daunting for startups. It is easy to freeze in the headlights or otherwise guarantee that the effects of the downturn will be far more serious and longer-lasting than they need to be.

At its core, it’s a planning and execution methodology that helps startups to stay focused on protecting and enhancing current projects while also securing footholds to future growth areas, all at low cost and with little risk. The inherent idea is that one needs a different mindset today.

Recognise that with uncertain business ideas one really can’t know the result a priori. Instead, the goal is to learn as much as possible for as little cost as possible, always being prepared to redirect activities as and when new information unfolds. Here, one invests smaller resources that are affordable to lose to generate the knowledge that is needed to commit more resources. It begins by specifying a performance outcome that would make the growth efforts worthwhile. Define success upfront, as well as the guidelines for what next after these goals. Thereafter, the rest of the discovery-driven tools are used to approach closer and closer to that goal, containing risk and downside exposure until the uncertainty is reduced to the point that one can confidently invest June 2021

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The SME Story

Scaling the peak to capture targeted growth, or shut down early and inexpensively if things don’t work out.

As the plan unfolds, the assumption-to-knowledge ratio gets reduced. When it is high, there is high uncertainty, and one should prioritise learning, inexpensively and fast, at the lowest possible cost. As the ratio shrinks, focus on hard outcomes.

Dubai Next can teach its cohorts the following and lead the lean startup movement: 1. Frame the challenge. Help frame a growth challenge at the founder level and define the growth frame for the startup. The outcome is a set of guidelines for types of initiatives to be pursued. As a result, everybody will be clear about what kinds of opportunities are legitimate and aligned to the business.

2. Create an opportunity portfolio. Analyse how resources are currently being allocated to the business and consider how these allocations would need to change, given the growth frame. Take a portfolioview of different types of growth opportunities. How much profit and cash flow growth is needed to come from the core business? How much to scale up? How much will go into low-cost, high-potential opportunities for future platforms? In today’s market, the typical portfolio of initiatives will contain a mix of short-term projects designed to enhance positive cash flows and low cash-drain.

3. Manage strategic projects. Start with identifying a ‘unit of business’ that will create the architecture of the business model. A unit of business is quite literally the unit of what you sell – what the customer pays for. You may find, as you progress on the discovery-driven plan, that the unit of business you started with doesn’t deliver the way you wanted, and so needs correction. You may also find that achieving your goals the way you originally thought is unrealistic. A rethink will be necessary to define the metrics of success, and to compare your metrics with those of potential competitors.

4. Connect plans to financials. Keep the plan coherent and connected to reality. Construct a reverse income statement and reverse balance sheet. Tie together the decisions made in the earlier steps and simulate future business, allowing for what-if speculations, and ensure that it is realistic.

5. Convert assumptions to knowledge. The identification, documentation and testing of assumptions will be done here. Develop operation specifications and assumptions checklists as well as the financial logic that underlies the business model. Show how operational activities and assumptions are intimately linked. Best practices will be deployed in redirecting projects, as many founders vaingloriously try to execute an increasingly unrealistic idea.

Have a disengagement plan to take on the challenge of shutting down unviable ideas.

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June 2021

Investment into Egyptian startups in 2020 grew by 30 per cent year-on-year, above the 13 per cent average growth in venture investment in MENA 190m 175m Disclosed funding

Undisclosed

58m

146m

150m

35m

125m

IN US DOLLARS

100m

84m 75m

132m

50m

79m

26m 6m 2015

111m 25m

14m

10m

8m

16m

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

57

110

133

114

0

NUMBER OF DEALS

9

31

22% $1.7m

Of deals in MENA were registered in Egypt last year

The average ticket size in 2020 for Egyptian startups

Breakdown by industries Funding was focused on industries that benefited during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as e-commerce, healthcare, and delivery and logistics IN 2020

16%

E-commerce

13%

Fintech

30%

Healthcare

8%

Fintech

20%

Others

47%

Others

TOP INDUSTRIES

BY NUMBER OF DEALS

6%

Home services

TOP INDUSTRIES

BY FUNDING

10%

22%

Healthcare

8%

Delivery & logistics

Transport

10%

E-Commerce

10%

Home services

SOURCE: MAGNITT 2020 EGYPT VENTURE INVESTMENT REPORT

gulfbusiness.com

A S P I R AT I O N – T H E C O R E – I N S P I R AT I O N

UAE 5O YEARS

PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

If you’re an avid photographer and love the UAE, submit your photograph of the nation for the opportunity to be featured in an exclusive, coffee-table book celebrating the 50th National Day. Find out how to enter by visiting: booksarabia.com/competition Submissions close July 31 st 2021

NATIVE MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE ON EMIRATES - Attractions & Activities - Health & Wellness - Entertainment - Dining - Hotels & Resorts - Golfing - Study in the UAE The ‘Enjoy Dubai & UAE’ channels on Emirates’ award-winning ice platform provide affordable access to one of the largest, captivated and affluent audiences in the world, creating a unique opportunity to showcase your business.

FOR ENQUIRIES: +971 4 427 3000 | sales@motivate.ae

motivatemedia.com

CONTENTS 06 THE PILLARS

The main principles guiding Motivate Academy

10 MEET THE TRAINERS

The various experts that form Motivate Academy’s diverse and skilled team

29 MIKE PHILLIPS

The rugby player reveals his experience with our personal coaching programme

30 HOW TO BOOK

How to get started on your transformative journey with us

Cover: Ángel Monroy.

17 EXPERT TALK

Our trainers discuss management, culture, creativity and everything in between

Illustration: Getty Images/Malte Mueller

Editor-in-chief Obaid Humaid Al Tayer Managing partner and group editor Ian Fairservice Group director Andrew Wingrove andrew.wingrove@motivate.ae Editor Aarti Nagraj aartin@motivate.ae aartinagraj Deputy editor Varun Godinho varun.godinho@motivate.ae varungodinho Art director Ángel Monroy angel.monroy@motivate.ae theangelmonroy

General manager – production S Sunil Kumar Assistant production manager Binu Purandaran Production supervisor Venita Pinto Chief commercial officer Anthony Milne anthony@motivate.ae Group sales manager Manish Chopra manish.chopra@motivate.ae Senior advertising manager Ravi Dutt ravi.dutt@motivate.ae

HEAD OFFICE: Media One Tower, Dubai Media City, PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE, Tel: +971 4 427 3000, Fax: +971 4 428 2260, motivate@motivate.ae DUBAI MEDIA CITY: SD 2-94, 2nd Floor, Building 2, Dubai, UAE, Tel: +971 4 390 3550, Fax: +971 4 390 4845 ABU DHABI: PO Box 43072, UAE, Tel: +971 2 677 2005, Fax: +971 2 677 0124, motivate-adh@motivate.ae LONDON: Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ER, UK, motivateuk@motivate.ae

4

motivateacademy.ae

WELCOME

INNOVATE

WHY NOT?

At Motivate, we are taking a future-first approach

The simple question that led us to launch Motivate Academy

IAN FAIRSERVICE Managing partner and group editor, Motivate Media Group

MARK DICKINSON Head, Motivate Academy

T

here is no time like the present for launching a new venture. Yes, we are in the midst of a global pandemic, but at Motivate Media Group, we remain hyper-focused on the opportunities that have manifested during this period.

We observed the shift in the market’s needs for powerful and authentic learning for individuals, teams and organisations in the region – starting with us. Motivate is a dynamic organisation that is home to almost 200 people, and we recognised that it was critical for us to inspire our team, encourage them to explore new ways of doing things, and empower them to optimise every available opportunity.

With that in mind we launched new types of training programmes and experienced excellent results. Having recognised its impact, we launched Motivate Academy as a platform to cater to every business that is looking to future-proof its operations and ensure that its biggest asset – its talent – is groomed for success. Conducting traditional training is no longer an option, as it’s all been seen and done before. We discerned that a new approach would be required.

Hence we created Motivate Academy to serve as a bespoke learning academy, where every programme is custom-made. Clients share their hopes and aspirations, and outline the outcomes that they wish to see, and the Motivate Academy team bring that vision to fruition. The academy is already seeing rapid expansion and we are proud to welcome you to experience our newest addition to the Motivate Group.

motivateacademy.ae

T

he greatest question we can ever ask is, “Why?”. It always leads one on a journey of discovery. Some may argue that a better question is, “Why not?”.

It is the latter that led us to launch Motivate Academy during the pandemic. Everyone needs to learn, grow and be inspired, and as we looked around, we realised that the general feeling was one of being lost with a lack of direction and overarching gloom. That is when we decided to create an antidote, a solution and an anti-gloom experience that would encourage people within organisations to grow and rise to new levels of greatness, levels that perhaps they had lost hopes of attaining.

As we began to create our programmes, we discovered that much of the material out there had become old, stale or recycled, and that common intelligence had surpassed the existing material on the topics of leadership, effectiveness and team building.

We launched a fervid search to discover what people want and what they think adds value, and we followed up with the question, “Why”.

What we learned was surprising: • People not only want meaningful information, but want to have meaningful things to do. Basically, they want their work to have meaning.

• Attending short, fast sessions that fit into a morning before work was more interesting than being bored to death in never-ending seminars.

• Learning online through a digital platform had become highly effective and very acceptable.

• Learning experiences trump training courses.

We gathered this wisdom, and we created a platform called Motivate Academy, driven by the energy of the Motivate Media Group with all of the international expertise that presents itself through our organisation. With more than 40 years of being at the heart of the Middle East’s communication network, we could leverage the best of the best to achieve our objective.

We present this issue to encourage you to look at what you could be doing to grow and inspire your team and hope you come to the conclusion: “Yes, indeed, why not?”.

5

INSPIRATION “That moment of being in spirit”

W

hen people think of motivational speakers, they are generally referring to what we would call ‘inspiration’. You cannot, in our opinion, motivate anyone. You can only lead in such a way that those looking on will feel inspired and desire to follow.

Motivation is an internal force that comes to life when the environment is right.

Our inspirational programmes come with buckets of energy and are highly engaging, personally challenging and urge people to step out of their comfort zones and experience the possibility of a better future.

Inspiration programmes are great for teams that are seeking to re-focus, gather together and make a change as a unit (what most would call team building). We see the market as saturated with multiple standard programmes, which have their place. However where we see ourselves making an impact is in the custom-written and bespoke programmes that we deliver to audiences.

The Inspiration Process STEP 1 We meet with the executive leadership team and ascertain their desired direction for growth and the key topics that they would like to address.

STEP 2 We design the programme and produce an outline that is shared with the leadership team. This includes unique elements such as visit to the Smash Room, a mass meditation, a desert safari, a secret location campfire – the list is long. We agree on the plan, set up the dates for delivery, and address all of the logistics. Our programmes are turnkey.

STEP 3 The pre-session event with the leadership team. This is essential to ensure the alignment and understanding

of the programme’s objectives. It is always high energy and within the theme of the main event.

STEP 4 The main event. We deliver an outstanding event for the entire team. It can be for a handful of people or a huge corporation.

Every event is a massive success and creates a landmark moment in an organisation’s evolution.

STEP 5 The post-event leadership event. Once the main event is over, we once again meet with the leadership team for a post-event management discussion that provides the tools and assistance to ensure that the goals and objectives of the overall event are attained.

This is what we call bespoke, and we know it inspires. Just ask our customers!

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motivateacademy.ae

ASPIRATION “My greatness lies before me”

I

n order to grow, we need stimulation, we need insightful information and we need direction, but none of this is meaningful unless the individual aspires to achieve something beyond what they have become. Staying within our comfort zones is the most difficult of places from which to make a decision, for we are comfortable and become complacent. We have surrounded ourselves with the trophies, the accolades and the stories that validate us, and the surrounding team supports our achievements. Why should we move out of this cocoon?

Greatness.

The answer lies in our belief about ourselves. For those who see their greatest days in the past, they are done. They have attained what they set out to do and a minor increment in any direction is not going to disturb their equilibrium. For those who have a burning desire to attain more, a passion to grow, to do even greater things, the answer lies ahead.

Motivate Academy’s Aspiration programmes are for those who have acquired a wealth of experience and yet want to grow further. For these individuals, we create bespoke programmes. Confidentiality is essential and we work hard to ensure that the programmes that we deliver respect the environment of the learner. As a powerful and successful individual, your learning is our priority, and yet so is your image and position within your business community.

We focus on making growth ‘cool’ and yet aligned with success. We concentrate on working with C-suite team members to hone their skills, expand their circle of influence and help them develop keen foresight.

Up to 40 per cent of a leader’s time must be future focused, and 15 per cent must be invested in self-growth – that’s a veritable 55 per cent of their time. If you are reading this and wondering how that is possible, then you are probably the type of person that we would generally help.

Aspiration programmes are for those who have a passion to excel. There are no ‘off-the-shelf’ ready-made solutions. Every programme is made for the individual concerned and delivered by an appropriately suited trainer.

Typical Aspiration experiences commence with face to face discussions where the participant identifies their desired outcomes, establishes their learning objectives and maps a path to achieving them. Aspiration programmes commence with a 100-day plan, with activities every 10 days. This process stimulates the mind and creates a randomness to the timing (outside the regular weekly/monthly schedules), which in turn elevates the importance of the learning that takes place. Each activity is typically timed to last one hour and is conducted through a combination of live and online sessions.

It is learning at its finest, for those who have a constant yearning and thirst to go above and beyond.

motivateacademy.ae

7

THE CORE THE CLASSICS

As the name indicates, these are programmes that everyone needs. We call these ‘The Core’.

Sell Like A Rock Star

1 day

Train the Trainer

3 day certified

Effective Communication

2 day

Time Management Project Management

2 day 5-day Project Leadership certification

Leadership – The Passion to Lead

2-day active leadership program

Understanding and Embracing Diversity Effective Remote Working Powerful Speaking Skills

1 day 1/2 day 3 day

Professional Coaching Skills Introduction – Level 1

60 hours

Intermediate – Level 2

80 hours

Advanced – Level 3

80 hours

Conflict Resolution

3 day

Decision Making

1 day

Emotional Intelligence

3 day

Conversational Intelligence

1 day

Effective Meeting Management

1 day

Digital Transformation – How to build a winning strategy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for experts Customer Journey Mapping – CXO

2 days 1 day 3 days

The list is endless. We provide these programmes with the same dedication and style that we apply to our Aspiration and Inspiration programmes. For us, it is all about communicating at a high level with our learning community and accelerating the growth and development within their organisations.

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motivateacademy.ae

THE CORE R A PI D L E A R N I N G S E S S IO N S (R L S)

A

long with the classic programme, Motivate Academy also specialises in a new kind of learning called Rapid Learning Sessions (RLS), designed to create instant results on a number of topics.

Delivered with passion and enthusiasm, each session is condensed into a high-energy 42-minute learning experience and challenges your team to grow and work on a selected skill. Participants may attend online or live in-person.

Every session has measurable outcomes and we frequently create full days, half days or a series of learning sessions over a given period, comprised of a selection of these programmes: Brutal honesty: Telling it like it is - A masterclass Business writing skills The art of thinking 9-step sales meeting process Understanding money IT management and innovation Face to face influence: How to get what you want every single time What should I do online? How senior managers should optimise their presence online All the executive do’s and don’ts Social media for directors Authenticity: What it is, why it matters and how to be authentic Time optimisation: How to use your time properly Brilliant goals Powerful listening Empathy in a post-pandemic world Learning how we learn Successful negotiation Enhancing Optimal performance Advanced Marketing for experts

motivateacademy.ae

9

TRAINER PROFILES

MEET THE TRAINERS

Motivate Academy has a diverse group of trainers to offer you a bespoke programme tailored to your requirements 10

Charlotte Moore Charlotte Moore is an emotional intelligence coach, creator and facilitator of motivational programmes and also author of the book Being the Best Version of You, published in 2019. Passionate about personalising material for individuals, teams and organisations, she develops the culture of a business, leading to outputs of reduced turnover, high engagement and memorable experiences.

She is also a specialist in coaching individuals and teams to strengthen and balance EQ (emotional intelligence), which leads to greater emotional wellbeing.

Nadine Khoury Nadine Khoury is a leader in conversational intelligence. Having grown up during the civil war in Lebanon and witnessed the hatred created as a result of that – and its impact on the country’s productivity – she made it her mission to create more compassion, peace and harmony in this world.

Having been a corporate leader herself, and having faced many challenges, Khoury now works with corporate leaders who are struggling with disengaged teams.

She helps them become emotionally intelligent, self-aware leaders who are capable of exceeding business objectives while inspiring a happy, harmonious, high-performing team. Companies she has worked with include AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Abbvie, Merck and others in the Middle East.

motivateacademy.ae

MEET THE TRAINERS

Colin Lewis Colin Lewis is an author, coach, advisor and facilitator for C-suite executives.

He runs one-on-one engagements and team workshops and also spends over 100 hours a year teaching in the UK, Ireland, Spain and Dubai. His clients include Unilever, Samsung, Kingfisher (B+Q, Castorama), Britvic, TK Maxx, Bayer, Oracle, Europcar, Facebook and Experian.

Associates Wealth Management & Corporate Insurance Brokerage, and Safe Hands. Passionate about sales, Lodge helps professionals learn the real skills they need to take their career to the next level and generate new clients.

After almost three decades of experience with building startups into nine-figure organisations, he shares his expertise through leadership training, his e-learning platform – Make It Happen University, and his awardwinning The Spencer Lodge Podcast.

John Kairouz

Pegah Gol

Rita Feghaly A certified health coach, reiki healer and yoga instructor, Rita Feghaly passionately practices a holistic approach to health and wellness by looking at how all the areas of life are connected.

Working closely with her clients, she creates a personalised plan based on their goals and their ideal vision of health and lifestyle. In her words: “With my strategy, you will implement lasting changes that will upgrade your energy, balance and health.”

Climb with his third book set to be published in 2022. Hayes has featured in or presented three documentaries; is a team advisor to a Mars project; an ambassador for economic, social and environmental sustainability; and a patron of several charities.

Author of the Amazon best-selling book on job-hunting, The Formula, Pegah Gol is a certified career coach from London and a senior recruitment expert with over 16 years of experience in the business. Having worked with several recruitment and executive search firms, she has helped thousands of job seekers land their dream jobs and helped hiring managers find the right talent in the market. She is also a serial entrepreneur, a business advisor and a keynote speaker.

A human development consultant, neuro integrative coach, master trainer, mentor, motivational and technical speaker, entrepreneur and organisational development specialist.

His experience is built on having consulted, trained, and coached over 220 companies in 16 industries across three continents. The recipient of numerous awards, John Kairouz has extensively researched human behaviour within organisations and his passion to help accelerate human performance and enhance culture has made him a leader in the coaching, training, mentoring and speaking industry.

Sam Graham Adrian Hayes Spencer Lodge Spencer Lodge is the co-founder and chairman of The Blue Sky Thinking Group, now valued at over $100m and the parent company of three awardwinning brands: Beneple, Finsbury

motivateacademy.ae

An extreme adventurer, author, keynote speaker, sustainability campaigner as well as a leadership, team and executive consultant and coach, Adrian Hayes is a ‘change agent’. A former British Army Gurkha officer and former Middle East sales director for Airbus, he’s written two books: Footsteps of Thesiger and One Man’s

With 20 years of experience across the hospitality sector in London and Dubai, Sam Graham has managed restaurants, bars, nightclubs and hotels.

His approach to developing people is as raw as it is effective. His brutally honest programmes, as part of ‘Rapid Learning Sessions’, are direct, to the point, and very engaging. Having experienced the highs and lows in management, Graham’s knowledge assists clients looking to grow their teams.

11

MEET THE TRAINERS

Professor Mike Berry Mike Berry’s purpose is to educate and train marketers. Passionate about digital and integrated marketing and ROI, he has authored/co-authored four books on the topic. He has also taught undergraduate and postgraduate students. Having worked as a consultant with some of the world’s biggest brands as well as SMEs and startups, Berry draws on his experience to help professionals broaden their skills.

Laura Laugier With 20 plus years in the luxury hospitality industry, Laura Laugier has lived and worked across the world. These experiences enrich her interpretation of the cultural workspace and help shape her leadership style. A curious coach and a linguist at heart, she is fascinated by the link between the words we use and the behaviour that it results in. An advocate of collaboration, she believes that everything is worth doing if fuelled by passion and fun.

improvement of metabolic factors. An athlete who participated in two Olympic summer games, he later operated a premiere performance training centre in Lebanon, and travelled the world as a high-level athlete. His focus is developing strength and skills for those who want to develop and grow.

awards after turning around the ratings of the series. Richmond specialises in talent and large team management, format development, commercial spinoffs, live and pre-recorded content, TV presenting, competitions, website content and management as well as social media marketing.

Alec Yaverian

Alan O’Neill

Alec Yaverian is an expert and advisor in data mining and harnessing the power of data – both within companies and in cyberspace. He has 20 years of know-how in digital marketing, customer relation management, and data mining, and has provided services to over 500 businesses in sectors ranging from retail and F&B to major car dealers. An advocate of data driven enterprises, he stresses that ‘data will talk to you if you are willing to listen’. Data leads to insights and more efficient action, while also enabling organisations to connect with customers, understand their needs, analyse their feedback and target them with products and services.

A highly experienced change management consultant and keynote speaker, Alan O’Neill specialises in organisation culture and customer experience. He is an author and a columnist with Gulf Business and Ireland’s leading newspaper, Sunday Independent. For more than 30 years he has worked with companies around the world and supported iconic brands such as Dubai Duty Free, Harrods of London, Ikea, Intel, Moet et Chandon, Toyota and the UN.

Jacqui Crutchley

Siubhan Richmond

Jean-Claude Rabbath Jean-Claude Rabbath is a strength and conditioning coach, with an emphasis on the development of athletic abilities, prevention of sports injuries and the

12

A multi award-winning senior producer and highly effective manager, Siubhan Richmond has extensive experience in developing, producing and managing live and pre-recorded factual, cookery, daytime and lifestyle programmes.

As editor of ITV’s flagship daytime programme, This Morning, she achieved a National Television Award and two TV

A natural communicator, professional certified coach and speaker, Jacqui Crutchley’s career is helping others see and believe in their potential. She draws upon her own life experiences along with her formal training to present practical learning solutions. She believes that there are no coincidences; you either win or you learn – you never lose, and that powers her as she guides her ‘tribes’ through dynamic, lifealtering material. She helps replace limiting beliefs with positive beliefs that breed self-confidence, faith, and produce energy resulting in new paths.

motivateacademy.ae

I BEC

OME

WHAT

I THINK

AB

OUT

FEEDBACK

New approach Nadeem Khan, senior executive director at Century Financial, reveals the holistic impact of the Motivate Academy training programme on their senior leadership team

“The training programme helped us create a positive outlook amongst most of our key seniors”

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/LUIS ALVAREZ

I

n mid-2020, when the Covid-19 wave was at its peak in the UAE and work from home (WFH) was the norm, there was an air of uncertainty that affected the overall morale of most organisations. At that point, Century Financial decided to collaborate with Mark Dickinson of Motivate Academy to create a specially designed training programme for our key senior managers.

Mark and the team at Motivate Academy created a 100-day executive coaching programme for the various department heads of Century Financial. The programme focused on personal growth and leadership development for the senior managers, who were then tasked with driving their teams to enhance overall morale and productivity.

It was a remote one-on-one session over 100 days where detailed attention was given to the senior managers in helping them to develop their overall professional and personal development.

The training programme helped us create a positive outlook amongst most

of our key seniors. The results went beyond regular leadership and personality improvement. It helped them deal with – and work on – their physical and emotional issues to emerge winners in their outlook and actions. Some of the managers even focused on their physical well-being and lost significant weight, while some gained fresh perspectives on relationships and team building.

Overall, we were highly delighted with the outcomes of the training programme, and we thank Mark for the individual attention and focus he provided to each of our senior managers.

It was indeed a pleasure collaborating with Motivate Academy and Mark Dickinson.

FEEDBACK

Crucial to growth Orange Hospitality invests in distinguished team training programmes as it looks to expand its presence

O

range Hospitality is a boutique restaurant operator that owns and operates a growing portfolio of F&B concepts, including multi award-winning restaurants Il Borro Tuscan Bistro Dubai and Alici Dubai. Since its first opening in 2016, Orange Hospitality has managed to develop a strong and inimitable brand identity, giving them a distinct competitive advantage. In a market that is driven by changing consumer preferences, the

“The Orange team is able to access crucial training programmes from remote locations and ensure that standard operating procedures are followed by all team members” Orange team continues to break through the market and build strategic brands that are recognised globally.

Investing in its greatest asset, its team, Orange Hospitality is able to sustain its growing operations and strengthen its business. A crucial element to enable this is the adoption of cutting-edge training programmes for its people, including the online learning system Done!. While providing a simple, reliable and multi-lingual training platform, the team at Orange has invested in Done!’s knowledge learning

Orange Hospitality opened its first F&B concept in 2016

programmes in order to strengthen dayto-day operations.

Making use of modern technology, the learning platform provides the management team with the tools they need to succeed in achieving their niche and unique goals in the hospitality industry.

Strategically designed paperless learning allows Orange Hospitality to benefit from informational videos, digital evaluations and live feedback for the highest efficiency in knowledge transfer amongst their team.

Without compromising on quality, Orange Hospitality continues to provide award-wining cuisine and hospitality with new openings in exciting dining destinations across the globe. Headquartered in London with a celebrated presence in Dubai, the Orange team is able to access crucial training programmes from remote locations and ensure that standard operating procedures are followed by all team members. Orange Hospitality has plans to continue their global expansion and grow their distinguished team.

One of the most powerful and timely books of the year,

Sons of Abraham The successful journey of a Rabbi and an Imam in building their global friendship.

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ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/TOMOZINA

marketing might include: CRO, CRM, CLV, SEO, PPC, UX, CX, CMO, and most important of all – ROI. Not to mention: TLA (three letter acronyms – we admit, we made that one up). It is critical to question – do you use any of these terms? Does everyone in the meeting/ audience understand you perfectly?

I believe that as an educator, it’s my job to explain and facilitate learning. This means stripping away (demystifying) the fancy language, so that delegates leave the session with clarity and understanding and are ready to liaise confidently with (digital) marketing specialists (colleagues, partners or suppliers)

All in a word

THE ‘WEAPONISATION’ OF JARGON IS WIDESPREAD, BUT SHOULD BE AVOIDED

BY MIKE BERRY

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usinesspeople love their jargon. But why?

Jargon can be a good thing – it can act as a shorthand between colleagues who all understand perfectly the exact meaning of each abbreviation or acronym. It saves time and words and so improves communication and efficiency.

Bad jargon, on the other hand, is the sort used by certain parties to show off – and perhaps to signal to others that they are ‘experts’, so justifying their position / hourly rate!

The worst example of this phenomenon is when people hide behind jargon to conceal their own lack of expertise – this is truly an example of ‘the blind leading the blind’.

This ‘weaponisation’ of jargon is widespread but should be avoided.

My own discipline (digital) marketing and customer experience

(or should that be CX?) is a prime example; digital marketing has certainly been guilty of spawning its own group of ‘snake-oil salesmen’ at various points during its recent rapid growth. A good rule of thumb is “if anything looks too good to be true, it probably is”.

This includes hiring an SEO consultant who promises that you will be ranking number one in Google results for your top 10 keywords within a week (and for a surprising low fee) or commissioning a video ‘guaranteed’ to go ‘viral’ (one piece of jargon which probably won’t be used now for a few years). And it’s healthy to question the social media influencer (vlogger) as to exactly how many extra units of your product you might sell as a result of your proposed collaboration with them (or at least ask yourself).

Examples of jargon from (digital)

We should remember that good business should fundamentally be based on common sense and driven by experience, creativity and testing without being intimidated or disadvantaged by any jargon.

Above all, we should remember that good business should fundamentally be based on common sense and driven by experience, creativity and testing. This certainly applies to marketing. So if you do use jargon, make sure you define your terms clearly up-front – so that jargon is used as a valuable tool – not a weapon!

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What is emotional intelligence?

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IS A LEARNABLE SKILL THAT CAN BE GROWN AND STRENGTHENED AND THEREFORE IS WITHIN OUR INFLUENCE AND POWER

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/FANATIC STUDIO/GARY WATERS

BY CHARLOTTE MOORE

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motional intelligence is the ability to recognise, manage and evaluate your emotions and the emotions of those around you. If you thought emotional intelligence in business was potentially lip-service to tick the people box, then it’s time to think again. Organisations that emphasise emotional

intelligence have higher employee engagement and customer loyalty, leading to greater productivity and profitability.

Through education we are taught literacy. We leave school with this skill, knowing how to read and write. Computer literacy was also taught and gave us a strong foundation for technology,

now an essential part of everyday life. Yet where in the curriculum did we learn about our emotions and the emotions of others? How were we taught to use the insight, energy and knowledge of emotions to support us to live our best life? With emotional literacy missing from the syllabus for many, it was left to chance about whether this essential skill would develop within us. We have all been influenced in this regard by our family, friends, and mentors to various degrees. Examples of this show up in the way some of us can read a room well, where others completely miss the pulse. Some of us express how we feel effectively, while others let emotions fester, leading to unhealthy patterns and habits.

Being emotionally literate is to recognise, understand and appropriately express our emotions. If underdeveloped, this can hugely impact our mental health. The World Health Organization defines mental health as “a state of wellbeing in which the individual realises their own abilities, can cope with the stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and… make a contribution to society”.

Around the world, mental health disorders are on the rise, with an estimated 792 million people affected at present. A recent Lancet Commission report forecasts that mental health disorders will cost the global economy $16 trillion by 2030.

From panic attacks to eating disorders and depression, most of us have been affected at some level with emotions such as anxiety, anger and isolation leading us to

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Happiness at work... Is it luxury or a necessity?

HAPPINESS IS NOT ONLY ESSENTIAL ON A PERSONAL LEVEL. HERE’S WHY

BY NURCIN ERDOGAN

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n the last 19 years that I have been in business, in the majority of the companies that I worked at and for the majority of the people that I worked with, work sucked. I have met hundreds of smart, well-educated people, who were drained and overwhelmed by unreasonable demands, tired of office politics, cursing to get it over with and craving for the weekend.

The average person spends an estimated 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime. That’s 90,000 unhappy hours, when they become unproductive, unengaged and uncreative, with their full potential

wasted. This is only the tip of the iceberg for unhappiness at work.

According to the latest State of the Global Workforce report from Gallup, 85 per cent of employees worldwide claim that they are not fully engaged or have no passion towards what they are doing for a living. It also found that disengaged employees lead to between $450bn and $550bn in lost productivity every year – and that’s just in the US. I call this a very high price tag for thinking ‘happiness at work’ is a luxury or nice to have.

It’s a necessity, not only on a personal level but more so on a business level. Unhappiness is simply too costly for any business. It’s about time to look deeper into it, to understand what it really is and how to achieve it. Evidence from psychology, leadership and management studies, and even neuroscience supports that it is possible to find happiness at work, and that doing so is necessary.

What is happiness at work?

One of the typical mistakes that leaders make is to think ‘happiness’ or ‘culture’ means having to cuddle employees and not being demanding or competitive. It’s not. You might have a very ‘driven, striving for excellence and competitive’ culture where your people are happy.

The key is to find the right people for it and treat them the right way.

It’s also common that leaders think all employees shall be happy and the company shall have the best culture when they provide free coffee and yoga classes during lunch break. It turns out these are more a

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ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/HOLA ILLUSTRATIONS

feeling overwhelmed. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is still to be fully understood. Yet we can agree, that for many of us, the pandemic has further fuelled feelings of loneliness, anxiety and an overarching sense of fear for the future. In this landscape, the key is bringing it back to ourselves and our power within.

Emotional intelligence is a learnable skill that can be grown and strengthened and therefore is within our influence and power. In that there is real hope. Knowing how you feel and recognising that your feelings can be a mixture of emotions is the first step to building emotional intelligence. When you become more familiar with various emotions, you can then identify what daily patterns are working for you or working against you. Do you often shout when you don’t feel listened to? Do you cry because you have let things build up inside you? Do you get frustrated by the same situations?

When you are more aware of your feelings and habits, you can then make optimal choices with that information. I’m feeling this emotion, I’ve heard this message, what choices do I have? And with every choice we make, there are costs and benefits, and so we make optimal decisions that work best for us.

For some of us knowing how we feel is the easy part. The harder part can be developing our emotional intelligence, so we that we can behave differently and therefore see different results. If we don’t use this insight to make choices, we are left with the same outcome. We are aware, yet we don’t consciously choose to make a change.

If you would like to know more, we offer one-hour workshops online to support emotional health and wellbeing. Each training provides tips, tools, and insights to build emotional intelligence with practical tools to navigate daily life.

Participants leave feeling inspired, refreshed, and motivated.

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waste of money than real sources of happiness and motivation.

A professor from UC Berkley describes ‘happiness at work’ as “feeling an overall sense of enjoyment and belonging at work; being able to handle setbacks; connecting amicably with colleagues, coworkers, clients, and customers; and knowing that your work matters to yourself, your organisation, and beyond.”

Easier said than done. But it’s worth it. Here is why.

Why does it matter?

• Being happier at work is tied to better health and well-being, more creative and effective problem solving, more productivity and innovation, and faster career advancement.

• People who are happier at work are more authentic, more committed and driven to work, and more willing to contribute beyond their job descriptions; they also find more meaning in their work.

• In the face of adversity and setbacks, people in happier workplaces tend to see the bigger picture, making them less stressed; better at coping with and recovering from work strain; and also better at reconciling conflict.

• Socially, people who are happier at work are rated by others as more likable, more trustworthy, more deserving of respect and attention, and more effective leaders; at happier workplaces, people are also more helpful to each other and more supportive of one another during difficult times.

• Happier workplaces report less people turnover, lower health care costs, fewer mistakes and accidents, more efficiency, greater shareholder value, and quicker rebounds in the wake of adverse events or failures.

They also earn higher customer loyalty, commitment,

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1. You are a part of this group 2. This group is special and is a

and business growth via wordof-mouth endorsement.

match with who you truly are

How to make happiness work for your brand culture?

3. We have certain ways of doing

things here (this is where the uniqueness of every organisation is relevant) and I believe you can match these standards and be part of it

Regardless of the unique culture that your brand will have, your people need to have the following to be able to get the extraordinary results.

3. IMPACT

1. PURPOSE

This is where it all begins and it goes both ways. It’s crucial that individuals know their personal purpose and they make sure that they bring it to work. Personal purpose is a reflection of our core values, and we feel more purposeful at work when our everyday behaviours and decisions are aligned with those values. And on the other hand, the organisations need to be clear about their brand purpose and core values. Both these elements need to be aligned. I can not express how important this part is, and how dramatically it is missing in the execution of hiring.

In most of the cases, the misalignment in purpose and core values is the biggest source of underperformance and unhappiness.

The best way to assess the alignment in the hiring process is simple: Just ask for it. Start a conversation around each others’ purposes and be confident to vocalise yours. Turn the interview to an authentic first date, to mutually assess if this will work both ways.

The impact of being unhappy

85%

Of employees worldwide claim that they are not fully engaged or have no passion towards what they are doing for a living

4. PEOPLE

2. BELONGING

Once we know that we are at a place where the purpose is aligned, the second step is to belong in order to be happy. When employees belong to their organisation and their work, they have the confidence to bring their authentic selves to work. These are the teams who create the most innovative and extraordinary results.

The secret to create belonging is give the right cues by the leaders:

Another common mistake that leaders make is believing money and titles are the only motivators for employees. Yes, these may create happiness in the short term, but the hedonistic adaptation of the human brain will shortly kick in and the motivation coming from these will disappear. Science proves that in the long term, persistent motivation and happiness is intrinsic – that is, it comes from within. Together with “having a meaning”, “creating an impact” can be a lot more powerful than money or titles.

To reach this: • Enable employees to have a measurable impact within the organisation and make it clear to them and to their peers • Implement mechanisms that make employees feel valued for the impact that they created • Make sure that the feeling of progress and momentum are evergreen

$450bn -550bn The value of lost productivity annually in the US, due to disengaged employees

SOURCE: GALLUP’S STATE OF THE GLOBAL WORKFORCE REPORT

Last but not least, we need to remember that people are people.

Every single one of us are good old “social animals” in every context, and we crave for social connection to be happy. It’s critical to accomplish the first thee steps to flourish the healthy social connection.

Imagine a team of people whose purposes and core values are similar; they all have the same feeling of belonging to the organisation; and they are all confident about their impact - this is the perfect set up for them to connect to each other, and bring their full potential and best selves to work every day.

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ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/DENIS NOVIKOV

at hand – your unique advantages, situation and experience”.

Sullivan believes that “the purpose of generating your own confidence is to put your mind into a productive state; real confidence is a capability, and when you know how to build confidence for yourself, you can have it in endless supply”. Yet when life is uncertain, our confidence takes the biggest wallop.

As a marketer, educator and coach across Europe and the Gulf, I tell clients who are setting up a

Protect your confidence with your life YOUR CONFIDENCE IS THE FOUNDATION FOR THE SUCCESSES THAT YOU WILL NEED FOR SETTING UP A NEW BUSINESS OR CHANGING YOUR CAREER

BY COLIN LEWIS

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hen thinking about the future, the difference between a good day and a bad day is confidence. When we’re confident, we’re focused on the present rather than worried about the future, and that makes it much easier to see opportunities.

We turn inevitable setbacks into breakthroughs.

What is confidence? We tend to

think of it as a personality trait or an emotional response, but my experience is that it isn’t as passive or reactive as that. As my coach, Dan Sullivan, has taught me, “contrary to popular belief, the biggest obstacle to confidence is not unfavourable circumstances, but rather bad measurement: comparing yourself to others or against some perfect ideal instead of working with the actual material you have

Recognise what gives you confidence: it could be activities, actions like sending an application or any achievements new business, changing careers or learning a new skill that they have to build confidence every day. And to make this confidence happen, they have to keep it simple: target three or four ‘wins’ for the day.

Recognise what gives you confidence: it could be activities, actions like sending an application or any achievements – big or small. On a personal level, this might mean eating well or exercising – anything that feels like a win to you. Then repeat the same thing the next day. Yes, it seems trivial at first, but the purpose of this exercise is to set up the ‘game’ so you’re

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always winning. It’s a confidence system built for you, by you, so it’s part of your daily routine.

Your confidence is the foundation for the successes that you will need for setting up a new business or changing your career. Your confidence comes from making progress toward goals that are a bit bigger than your present capabilities. Confidence keeps you moving forward even in the midst of the crazy upheaval we are all having – and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. After a few days, you’ll notice that your mind is looking for wins to add to the list. The simple act of looking for the positive will change your mindset to focus on progress – not perfection.

And then, you might even get on a roll and want to keep your winning streak going.

Within the confidence ‘game’, there are some steps you need to go through – aside from the task of preserving your confidence. Again, my coach Dan Sullivan has taught me the 4Cs: commitment, courage, capability and confidence – in that order.

The first C is commitment: In order to achieve anything, you first need to commit to doing it. The second C stands for courage: Once you commit to your task, activity or goal, you will need to find the courage to actually do it. This is an ongoing daily challenge – courage is doing what you need to do.

The third C stands for capability: With courage, you’re doing the thing you’ve committed to and this will give you new skills and capabilities. And the more you do it, the better you become at it. This leads you to the final C, which is confidence: The better you are at something, the more your confidence grows.

Confidence might be what makes you get out of bed in the morning.

But we have to start with commitment in the first place – and then we have to protect it. Protect your confidence with your life.

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ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/CALVIN DEXTER

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What personal professional brand are we projecting?

RECRUITERS USE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS TO GAIN INSIGHT INTO JOBSEEKERS

BY LAURA LAUGIER

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n today’s world of video calls, I have become fascinated with the concept of personal branding. What others see, hear and feel about us matters, especially as many of us find ourselves transitioning for work or looking for alternative sources of income. This hold true regardless of our preferences for extraversion or introversion – whether you are comfortable being in a public or private space.

So, have you thought about this – what do you project in terms of your own personal brand?

Although some of us attend company orientation sessions and read policies on the grooming expected, we usually don’t take the matter further than that. What we like on LinkedIn, utter on Twitter and post on Instagram portrays volumes. I’ve been noticing that

both recruiters and jobseekers use these platforms to gain insight into personalities before the actual interviews. What we project goes beyond smart attire and beautifully coiffed hair, there’s also what comes from the inside out.

Another consideration is how do we project our personal brand in a way to stand out while remaining authentic to ourselves? A keynote speaker who teaches executive education, Dorie Clark, in an article titled ‘How to Promote Yourself without Looking Like a Jerk’ for the Harvard Business Review, advised the importance of “sending a clear and unmistakable message about who you are and what you’re capable of”.

Her advice stresses on starting with self-knowledge and simply taking action to ensure others recognise our full potential.

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Revealed: 7 steps to reclaim the best version of yourself RECLAIM IS A FLEXIBLE AND EFFECTIVE PROGRAMME THAT CAN BE TAILOR-MADE TO SUIT EACH INDIVIDUAL’S PREFERENCES

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ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/MARIA PONOMARIOVA

BY RITA FEGHALY

motivateacademy.ae

owadays, we live in a world of uncertainty where we attempt to either fit in or stand out, surrender or rebel, give up or keep going, control or let go. As a result, we end up lost between fight or flight and consume our time and energy trying to find an easy way out or a safe way in. In the process, we end up losing our “why”, our purpose and our true self. It’s like we’re constantly looking for the right formula or a magical road map that will take us directly to where we wish to reach.

However, you now have the opportunity to discover how to

reclaim the best version of yourself, where you will thrive in any given environment, at any point in time. You will learn ways to strengthen your inner defence, to shield your wellbeing and finally, to live a happy, healthy and successful life knowing that whatever comes along, you will have the right tools to face it.

Together we will set the programme according to your needs and your goals, so within a period of three to six months, you would have acquired the following: • RULE: How to take daily actions towards your specific goals, how to be able to manage your mission and your vision and how to rule your kingdom without fear.

• EXERCISE: How to create time for your weekly activities and how to make sure that your body is getting the adequate quantity and quality of exercise that you need.

• CELEBRATE: How to celebrate your slightest achievement with pride, how to praise yourself for any improvement you make in your life and how to cheer yourself up at any time.

• LOVE: How to love yourself unconditionally, how to give yourself the right time and the proper environment to unwind and reset, and how to love the moment and live it fully.

• ADD: How to know which new healthy habits to adapt and how to add innovative ways of processing your thoughts.

• INPUT: How to input the right nutrients your body needs to thrive in your meal plan, as

well as how to identify the right atmosphere that you can create around you wherever you are.

• MASTER: How to become the master of your own mind, which words to use to trigger the right feelings and emotions and how to manifest your dreams and desires.

As a result of my knowledge and your commitment, you will notice a drastic improvement in your career, in your relationships, in your wellbeing and in your overall health.

You will gain a different approach to life, since you will see it from a new perspective. You will learn how to manage your emotional state and how to unleash the warrior you have deep within you. Eventually, you will be flowing harmoniously with life instead of struggling to live. As a result, you will attract more positivity, love, wealth and success into your life.

RECLAIM is a flexible and effective programme that can be tailor-made to suit each individual according to his state of being and preferences. I use specific holistic ways to introduce you to new tools as well as to reinforce the ones that you already know. With me, you will experience how to allow the energy to flow in your home and office, how to declutter your space and your life. Moreover, you won’t be the only one who will benefit from this programme – your loved ones and community will also feel the positive impact since you will become a happier, more present, more active and definitely healthier person. So, RECLAIM the best version of yourself now!

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Quick fix or lasting change?

BY ADRIAN HAYES

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/JASMIN MERDAN

COMPANIES EMBARKING ON REGULAR PROGRAMMES OF LEADERSHIP AND CONSULTING SEE UNTOLD BENEFITS IN TERMS OF COHESION, SYNERGY AND GROWTH

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motivateacademy.ae

hat skills, training, coaching, development, motivation or inspiration do our directors, leaders, managers, supervisors and staff in governments, corporations, NGOs and other organisations in the GCC need to cope with the massive change in the workplace and society this decade? And how exactly do we go about it?

It’s a question that has limitless answers. So, let me discuss what I am personally most asked to deliver in keynote speeches, coaching and mentoring programmes across the region and the world – work that I have been presenting for over 15 years.

Taking speaking first, I fully acknowledge that the first reason I am asked to give a speech at any event is because of the many long camping trips and package holidays I have been on in mountains, deserts, jungles and seas across the world. The ‘motivational speaker’ industry is vast, and, in its most common incarnations, a company will usually want a speaker to liven up its two-or three-day annual offsite for their staff.

But I personally have a problem with the ‘motivational speaker’ title to start with. ‘Motivation’ (or

its close associate ‘inspiration’) is usually only one of the countless objectives a conference may require. Hence the first question I always ask is what exactly are you trying to achieve from a speech?

That’s also why I never personally use the term ‘motivational speaker’ – ‘keynote speaker’ is much more applicable.

My experience is that, for many years, companies have wanted far more than just motivation or inspiration from a keynote speech. And that highlights an often-unspoken issue. We can all be inspired by the man or woman who suffered 99 per cent burns, lost their arms and legs at birth, got lost in a jungle and survived for 100 days eating ants, climbed Mount Everest on one leg blindfolded and everything else thousands have achieved or suffered all over the world.

But while these stories are often highly inspiring, how do they relate to the attendee who has all his limbs, hasn’t suffered huge traumas

or hasn’t achieved so called ‘massive feats’ – and is simply trying to be the best possible version of themselves they can be? In reality, they don’t.

This is why I am almost always asked to speak on subjects vast and varied, in which summitting Everest or K2 may provide a bit of ‘wow factor’ to start with, but the real substance comes from all my hats in human development, business, the military, charity work, causes and campaigns and every other experience I have sourced.

There are subjects that I will always be asked for – issues such as teamwork, leading high performing teams, communication, overcoming challenges, leadership, maximising potential, performance and results, risk, change, resilience, trust, conflict resolution, sustainability, society or life itself. For universities, colleges and schools, I speak to young people about mission, goals or authenticity – and about the damages to our

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Is honesty always the best policy? Yes ONE OF THE MOST CHALLENGING PARTS OF MANAGEMENT IS GIVING YOUR TEAM CRITICAL FEEDBACK AND DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS

BY SAMUEL GRAHAM

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his article is about my management style regarding giving and receiving team feedback in my career of over 22 years working in restaurants, bars, nightclubs and hotels. The title is self-explanatory, and the words appear easy to absorb, but putting it into practice is more complicated than it seems.

One of the most challenging parts of management is giving your team critical feedback and dealing with your customers’ complaints. These particular topics require a great deal of care and attention, and one word out of place can trigger a chain of events that, on occasion, can be impossible to recover from.

Adopting a culture of brutal honesty will empower your teams to communicate better, more

efficiently and give all customerfacing team members greater confidence when dealing with difficult situations.

It starts with you. To give direct feedback to your team, you must first open yourself up to direct feedback. This means you must perform a brutally honest self-assessment, ask yourself the toughest of questions, like “what would my team say if I suddenly gave them free rein to criticise my performance”.

Remember, human nature dictates that when you criticise someone, they will look directly back at you and judge whether you have the right to do so. As a leader, you have the right, given the position you hold, but if the person on the receiving end doesn’t feel you maintain the correct standard, they

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/MUNANDME

brains from smartphones and social media.

On all these subjects, I try to bring in valued lessons from unique lived experiences and knowledge.

And I do question how some ‘motivational speakers’ – of which there is a choice of tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of people to choose from across the world – can speak with authority, credibility and authenticity on these important subjects.

But I always stress that a speech of between 20 mins to an hour at an event can never change the world, let alone a conference. What it will give is a few valuable takeaways to explore further within the organisation.

This brings me onto the longer programmes I am asked to deliver.

The subjects are usually similar, but the simple reality is that there is far more time to explore, coach and consult in depth with regular seminars or sessions spread over several months to a year or more.

This is where real change, benefit and growth can happen, yet many companies naively believe that the only initiative they need in the development of their staff is an annual ‘teambuilding day’ – which, while always well organised, will bring fun above anything else.

There is countless research proving that companies embarking on regular programmes of leadership, team and personal coaching, consulting and development – delivering the awareness, models, mantras, lessons, learnings, tools and techniques to leaders, managers and staff – will see untold benefits in terms of cohesion, synergy and growth. And, above all, results.

It all depends on what exactly one is trying to achieve. Which brings me to my final point, in that the objective or goal-setting in itself is one of the most undervalued and misunderstood yet critical values across the whole world in almost every facet of society.

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will lose respect for the company and your leadership.

I have adopted a ‘brutal honesty’ strategy from my time working in high-pressure environments for genuinely inspirational leaders, where there was no time to beat around the bush. If you had something to say, you were encouraged to say it, no-frills – simply say it. The leaders I worked for were strong enough to hear it and take it on board, which gave me the confidence to listen and accept

It takes courage to say what you’re thinking and encourage others to do the same their brutally honest feedback on my performance. Now don’t get me wrong. Not every conversation was a joy to be a part of. However, issues were dealt with quickly and efficiently and resulted in the highest respect between people because everyone knows they are honest.

A culture of brutal honesty takes a great deal of time, care and attention to master. It takes courage to say what you’re thinking and encourage others to do the same. It requires structure, timing and tact as you are looking to develop people, not offend them. It demands that you listen and understand your team, get to know them and discover what truly drives them.

Most importantly, a culture of brutal honesty will give you the ability to know when you’re the one who needs to listen.

The truth really does set you free.

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Conversational intelligence HERE’S HOW PLEASANT CONVERSATIONS CAN ENHANCE PRODUCTIVITY

BY NADINE KHOURY

“T

here is nothing like a good conversation.” How many times have you heard that statement? Or perhaps you have said it yourself on different occasions. But is that all that good conversations do? Do they just bring about a feeling of pleasure? Or could there be more to it?

As Dr Judith E Glaser, the creator of Conversational Intelligence always says: “To get to our next level of greatness depends on the quality of our culture, which depends on the quality of our relationships, which depends on the quality of our conversations.”

Everything happens via conversations.

Conversations are not merely an exchange of words and ideas. They impact our whole neurochemistry and performance. When we engage in conversations that bring about a sense of security, non-judgement, inclusivity, respect and trust, we not only feel good, but our body also starts producing a hormone known as oxytocin. High levels of oxytocin activate an important area in our brain (the prefrontal cortex), which is essential for problem solving, compassion, strategising, innovation and many other higher cognitive functions that we need in order to be able to operate at high-performance levels.

In addition to that, during pleasant conversations where our oxytocin levels are high, we tend to behave differently. We open up more easily, we are not scared to share opinions, we are open to experimenting with – and accepting – new ideas, and we are able to see the best in people and in situations. In other words, when our oxytocin levels are high, we are able to function at our best.

On the other hand, when conversations bring out fear and a sense of doubt and uncertainty, the hormone cortisol is produced.

High levels of cortisol activate our instinctive protection brain networks that set us up to be defensive and offensive in our behaviour. We thus resist new ideas and become very critical of everyone and everything. We go into judgement rather than understanding and operate out of survival mode rather than thriving mode.

Which one of these two cultures would you like to nurture in your organisation? Develop your organisation’s Conversational Intelligence to help establish a high-performing and engaging culture where people experience happiness, harmony, a sense of belonging and where they are able to give their best!

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EXPERT TALK

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INTERVIEW

PLAYING FOR KEEPS Motivate Academy sat down with world-renowned rugby player Mike Phillips to ask him about his experience with our personal coaching programme

Y

ou recently engaged in a 100-day coaching programme with Motivate Academy.

You have played in front of millions and are highly respected around the world for your achievements in sports. Why did you opt to be coached and what is the value of participating in a personal coaching programme?

It comes down to growth and wanting to make the best version of yourself. When you want to influence others in a personal way, you need the tools and some direction to come across in the right way. You need to know how to share your experiences with others and how to get your information across. If you are not clear, then people will not take you seriously. It [the programme] is fantastic in that way, helping in preparation and giving confidence to help others.

You are used to being in front of thousands, if not millions of people at one time. What makes it so different between rugby and getting up on stage to speak to people?

It is different – rugby is physical, action-based and is all about reading the game and seeing space. Communication is a massive part of high-end sports, especially in my position, where I’m conducting the plays.

For me, rugby was something I did at a young age, so I was really comfortable in front of 80,000 people, much more than in a team meeting. But it’s a different kind of attention on stage where everyone is listening to what you are saying. You have to know how to communicate in a different way.

How does working on life skills change what you do?

You want to come across in the right way and you want people to listen and take away two or three points from what has been said. People aren’t going to take it all, but if you can add value in one or two things, that’s massive. In a big game, one person can be the difference between winning and losing the World Cup. It’s about the small things, doing it often and it grows.

How was your experience of undertaking our coaching programme?

I felt a difference in my focus right away. I have noticed a lot of difference and a lot more positivity going on in my life at the minute – I have better relationships.

My direction has been huge. Of course, there’s loads of things in the pipeline and I am more confident that they will happen because there is focus there.

I am confident about the future.

motivateacademy.ae

Mike Phillips collected 94 caps playing for Wales

Is it worth getting coached?

I’m not saying yes for the sake of saying yes. It’s something that I have done, and so I know that it works; and I’ve seen it firsthand and it helps you grow and improve and so if you are willing to change and you have a positive mindset and you want to see positive things happen, you have to change your normality.

You have to do something new. Change your diet, go training, work harder – nothing is going to fall in your lap.

What would be your final thought?

Focus!

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HOW TO BOOK 1 2

Post-event feedback and follow up

Contact Motivate Academy

5

3

Deliver the programme

Meet and discuss the programme’s desired outcomes

Manish.chopra@motivate.ae +971 4 427 3443

4 Determine the number of participants, venue and logistics

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