Gulf Business Feb 2022

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TOWERING AMBITIONS AIX INVESTMENT GROUP IS MAKING ITS PRESENCE FELT ACROSS DUBAI’S INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE

SPECIAL REPORT: GCC’S TOURISM REVIVAL – CHARTING ITS TRAJECTORY

P.16 Eyes on you: Performance monitoring in a hybrid workplace

P.34 Retail rebound: How Covid has impacted the sector’s recovery

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Gulf Business

CONTENTS / FEBRUARY 2022

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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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Retail vs e-commerce How Covid spurred the global retail landscape

24 Leveraging opportunities Fadi Dabbagh of AIX Investment Group, explains why diversifying your investment into different asset classes minimises risk and optimises revenue

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A visual celebration of the UAE’s golden jubilee

DISCOVER 100 PHOTOG RAPHS OF THE UAE SHOT BY PEOPLE ACROSS THE COUNTRY

AVA I L A B L E AT A L L M A J O R R E TA I L E R S A N D O N B O O K S A R A B I A . C O M

www.motivatemedia.com

MOTIVATEBOOKS

MOTIVATE_BOOKS

MOTIVATEBOOKS

CONTENTS / FEBRUARY 2022

59 Lifestyle

Sustainable fashion: Tommy Hilfiger p.60

Celebrating time: David Galbraith p.68

Perfectly suited: Kachins Couture p.64

“Dubai provides the safest environment…to discuss ideas and exchange knowledge and insights that contribute to creating a better future for humanity” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai

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

Editor-in-chief Obaid Humaid Al Tayer Managing partner and group editor Ian Fairservice Group director Andrew Wingrove andrew.wingrove@motivate.ae Editor Neesha Salian neesha.salian@motivate.ae Deputy editor Varun Godinho varun.godinho@motivate.ae varungodinho Tech editor Divsha Bhat divsha.bhat@motivate.ae Contributor Zainab Mansoor editorial.freelancer@motivate.ae zzainabmansoor Senior art director Olga Petroff olga.petroff@motivate.ae Art director Freddie N. Colinares freddie@motivate.ae Photographer Mark Mathew

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 Sales executive Sonal Sawant sonal.sawant@motivate.ae Sales executive Sonam Sharma sonam.sharma@motivate.ae Group marketing manager Joelle AlBeaino joelle.albeaino@motivate.ae Group marketing manager Dominic Clerici dominic.clerici@motivate.ae

Cover: Freddie N. Colinares

Printed by Emirates Printing Press, Dubai

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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February 2022

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Exclusive paintings, sculptures, photography and timepieces from award-winning international artists.

Painting by Fatima Sherjan

Photograph by Yousif Alharmoodi

The Arabian Falcon Navigator Clock – Limited Edition by David Galbraith

The Brief Investment Climate action Banking Social Workplace

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THE UNEVEN COVID-19 VACCINE ROLLOUT Share of world population fully-vaccinated against Covid-19, by region*

55%

Europe

59%

North America

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60%

8%

Asia

50%

Africa

South America *Received all doses prescribed by the vaccination protocol.

As of December 6, 2021

56% Oceania Source: Our World in Data / Statista

Funding a sustainable future Insurance companies, pension funds, asset managers and banks have already embarked on this journey by defining their investment criteria p.9 gulfbusiness.com

February 2022

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The Brief / Alan’s Corner

Alan’s Corner Alan O’Neill Managing director of Kara, change consultant and speaker

New Year: Curtains up Start the year on a positive note; bring your team together to appreciate their past efforts and share the business targets for the year ahead

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he year 2022 reminds me of Catch-22, the novel written by Joseph Heller and later immortalised in the WWII film by the same name. It has now entered our lexicon to describe paradoxical situations. In that story, a bomber pilot tried to declare himself insane so as to get sent home. But the medics take the view that one needs to be sane to plot such a scheme. Another example of a paradox is ‘that in order to save money, sometimes you have to spend it’.

Despite the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of the last two years, the temptation for businesses is to continue to save money. I want to encourage you to spend just a little money in order to make some more.

Everyone is fed up with the pandemic. We want life to return to normal as soon as possible. We, as leaders, have to do our best to face into 2022, with as much positivity as we can muster. Therefore, why not take time to reboot your system. Pull out the plug and put it back in again.

What better way to do that than with a curtains up event early in the new year. This is an event where the leadership takes time to formally communicate to the wider organisation and show the team that they are in control of the future. This event will give you an opportunity to acknowledge the efforts and sacrifices made by everyone in the last year and to present the business plans for the year ahead.

HOW TO CONVENE A CURTAINS UP EVENT Use the ‘Ws’ to help you plan the event: who, what, where, when and why.

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/JRCASAS

1. Start by considering your audience. The level, the tone and the content of your message will vary across different groups of people. Tailor your message accordingly. If you are planning a physical event and can’t fit everyone into the same room at the same time, consider how the message from the main event will be cascaded. Those on the frontline are often left out of such events and that’s not okay. I do appreciate that the cascaded message may sometimes be edited, but think this through.

THIS IS AN EVENT WHERE THE LEADERSHIP TAKES TIME TO FORMALLY COMMUNICATE TO THE WIDER ORGANISATION AND SHOW THE TEAM THAT THEY ARE IN CONTROL OF THE FUTURE

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gulfbusiness.com

The Brief / Investment

Use the ‘Ws’ TO HELP YOU PLAN THE EVENT: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND WHY

2. Linked to audience selection, what do you want to say? What can you say to show authen-

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/ANILYANIK

tic appreciation for your team? This is your time to acknowledge their ongoing challenges. I would normally suggest that your presentation should be light on the past and heavy on future plans.

Well, not this time. In this exceptional year, spend a little longer on the past successes.

Also, you’ve heard me say before that ‘budgets are not plans’, they are merely a set of numbers that predict the eventual score of the game. Instead of just budgets, develop a set of high-level business goals (approximately five to seven) that ultimately will deliver on your ambition for 2022. For example, develop a new media campaign, or launch a new range, or partner with X to open a new market Y. 3. Who should present? Apart from the CEO, who

else should present? What other relevant speakers should be included? Take time to plan and rehearse these presentations so that they are inspirational and motivating.

4. Pick a venue or platform. With the high accept-

ance of virtual platforms, you might include everyone at the same event, using a hybrid of physical and virtual delivery. Try to keep it short, sharp and to the point. I have conducted some events in about two hours and others that go for the full day. Your overall objective, your content and the medium will determine this for you.

5. Introduce interactivity. If you have a facilita-

tor, you should include a Q&A segment in the mix.

You might also consider mini workshops for the audience so as to get their input into big issues.

One example might be: how can we improve our customers’ experience in this new hybrid world?

THE LAST WORD The benefit to the wider team of a curtains up event is that they will feel respected, included and focused. This will be money well spent and it will drive engagement for you.

Do give strong consideration to engaging an experienced facilitator to navigate the preparation and the day itself.

Returning briefly to the number 22. Titanium is as strong as steel but only half the weight. It’s atomic number is 22.

In your curtains up event, get a good balance between light and entertaining content, yet showing that the business is strong and tough facing into 2022. gulfbusiness.com

COMMENT

Andreas Buelow Partner, Financial Services with Arthur D. Little Middle East

Funding a sustainable future The main challenge: capital markets do not yet fully understand what the rule book for sustainable investing looks like

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nvironmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria have become an important theme for companies and indeed societies in contributing to safeguarding the planet we live on. Financial services cover all aspects of sustainability and address different needs, such as derisking sustainability projects through insurance and providing capital in various forms to sustainability projects and companies focused on sustainable and ethical business models.

In this context, sustainable finance attempts to consider the full cost of resource utilisation – along

4,000 BUSINESSES committed to aligning their business models to net zero by 2050 February 2022

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The Brief / Investment

THE UN PRINCIPLES FOR RESPONSIBLE BANKING NOW REPRESENT 40 PER CENT OF THE GLOBAL BANKING SYSTEM BY ASSETS AND WILL MOBILISE

$2.3 trillion ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/SORBETTO

OF SUSTAINABLE FINANCE

with fair and ethical practices – in the mechanism of allocating capital to companies and projects. Today, there is a convergence between the need to anchor the economic growth of our global economy in long-term sustainable foundations and the increasing capabilities of the financial sector to allocate capital in this manner.

The list of commitments by the financial sector is impressive: The UN Principles for Responsible Banking now represent 40 per cent of the global banking system by assets and will mobilise $2.3 trillion of sustainable finance The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero covers more than 400 financial institutions and includes the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (43 per cent of global banking assets), the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance ($10 trillion of assets under management) and the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (13 members) The UN Environmental Programme Finance Initiative includes 4,000 businesses committed to aligning their business models to net zero by 2050 and aligning with a target to lower global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius.

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A critically important function of financial services in the overall economic system is to ensure efficient allocation of capital to sustainable projects and companies through public and private capital markets. These markets are constituted on the one hand by capital pools (individuals and institutions) looking for ethical, sustainable investment opportunities, and on the other hand, by companies requiring long-term funding to transform their business and industrial models towards sustainability. Capital allocation, therefore, is based on the available information on risks and returns of companies and projects, considering all the cost and revenue items, hence, also those related to sustainability.

The key challenge for capital markets is that this transition has not been made before and therefore, this level of transparency does not yet exist. Hence, capital markets do not fully understand how to measure success or what the rule book for sustainable investing looks like. This challenge must be overcome so that capital markets discharge their function of allocating capital efficiently.

The good news is that capital markets are fast at learning about success factors through trial and error. For example, the automotive sector provides a view on how sustainability can take hold in public capital markets in a big way, with the valuations of Tesla and Rivian indicating substantial market expectations for value being created from sustainability. This value might be tied to electric vehicles and services tied to them, as well as electric charging station networks, emission certificates trading, and many other businesses.

At this point, it is unclear whether this value will be delivered. It is important, however, to let the market iterate its valuation of projects and companies with their ability to deliver on the valuation and then to update the market valuation accordingly upwards or downwards. This helps markets develop success measures and playbooks on understanding successful sustainable businesses and channeling funding accordingly.

Many of the large pools of capital, such as insurance companies, pension funds, asset managers and banks have already embarked on this journey by defining their investment criteria in a way that excludes polluting industries such as coal or oil and gas from their capital allocation process.

This is a fairly rough measure to begin with, but it will become more and more refined as investors learn about sustainability and the way it impacts business models.

As the primary sources of capital embark on this journey, there will be no turning back, and companies and projects will increasingly need to understand and fulfill the emerging criteria for ESG in order to maintain access to funding for growth and development. gulfbusiness.com

The Brief / Q&A INTERVIEW

Madhav Dhar co-founder and COO, ZâZEN Properties

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/JORDAN ADAMS

lights on motion sensors or timer switches, have a massive impact on the building’s monthly electricity bill.

What form of legislation on acceptable green standards is required?

Explainer: Is the UAE ready to mainstream nearly zero energy buildings?

Green building strategies can be used to design and build healthy, comfortable, cost efficient and environmentally friendly living and working environments From design to construction, how can local developers deploy sustainability across the development value chain?

Sustainable or green practices must be embedded from the initial design of any development to be effective. This can be done through third-party specialists who help define key components for a successful strategy, from concept through the lifecycle of a project. Most planning authorities now have minimum green building guidelines in place, and these will become more stringent with the UAE’s pledge to achieve net-zero by 2050. And given the fact that urban cities contribute close to 40 per cent of carbon emissions, it will be essential for governments, planning authorities and developers to educate themselves and go that extra mile. Some key components to consider are: Water management: A major factor contributing to the carbon footprint of a home is the amount of energy expended to supply, treat and use its water. Water-oriented strategies significantly reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Through low-flow water fixtures, water-efficient gulfbusiness.com

landscaping and drip irrigation systems, a development can reduce its water consumption in dramatic quantities.

Waste management: Responsible waste management is key to creating an energyefficient environment. A construction waste management plan should be developed and incorporated into the tender requirements itself for the contractors to follow, to help efficiently manage the waste-to-landfill output. The building should also incorporate operational waste management strategies such as the installation of five waste bins on each floor to segregate waste such as paper, small cardboard, metal cans, plastic and glass among others.

Energy management: Everything down to the exterior walls, roof and glazing can be designed to be as efficient as possible, allowing for less heat transfer and therefore requiring less energy for cooling throughout the year. Similarly, efficient HVAC systems and thermostat controls should be considered in the design process. Even simple operational decisions such as using an efficient, low-wattage lighting system and having the exterior and common area

With the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan and the 2050 net-zero commitment by the UAE, the next few years will most likely see a drastic change in legislature, education and accountability within the real estate development lifecycle. Legislation on minimum acceptable green standards, new building codes, new sustainable building materials and even the use and disposal of construction waste, will be required in the immediate future. With more green financing initiatives, comes a bigger interest in sustainability enhancements from developers. New regulations will invite current developers to look into their operations and see how to improve their existing assets into becoming more green. Certifications such as the LEED Green Building will most likely become the minimum standard, and will help developers to focus on key components of a successful sustainability programme.

Is the procurement and cost of sustainable building materials a challenge?

The cost of sustainable materials can’t be considered on its own. The overall project feasibility must be considered. It is a fact that the more sustainable your project is, the more expensive it is likely to be. But, what it really boils down to is if spending that extra money is worthwhile for a developer. Will they be able to find the right balance between sustainability and design and then leverage being more sustainable into a higher price? That differs from market to market and between residential and commercial real estate, where it’s easier to charge more per square foot for the latter.

The procurement of sustainable materials is not complicated or expensive. As the requirement has increased so has the technology, the solutions and the number of vendors offering those solutions, bringing costs down. However, building green does come with a cost and having government-backed incentives to implement sustainable practices, will be essential to drive market-wide uptake and push towards that 2050 net-zero commitment.

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The Brief / Climate action A N A LY S I S

The real deal

How can you tell real climate solutions from false ones

FOUND THE SILVER BULLET?

Sadly, climate change won’t be solved by killing werewolves. That doesn’t stop many from declaring that, say, if only the world could adopt carbon taxes or fund the development of nuclear fusion, we’d stop warming the planet. Always be wary of someone claiming to have the one and only answer to such a multifaceted problem.

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/RALF HIEMISCH

IS IT TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

That old saying stands the test of time. It’s not to say that wacky ideas aren’t welcome. But they need to prove applicable outside a laboratory. Consider the story of Global Thermostat, a US-based startup that promised to build machines that could suck carbon dioxide from the air very cheaply, but has almost nothing to show after a decade.

IS IT JUST MARKETING?

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alse solutions to cutting planetwarming carbon emissions aren’t new. But the number of people hawking those answers, and the money being spent on them, has grown substantially in the last few years.

The world’s 10 largest economies now have a goal to reach net-zero emissions within decades. It’s a big business opportunity that’s prompted all kinds of people to finally pay attention to the climate problem. It’s no longer just cranks emailing about a perpetual-motion machine they invented in their garage. Journalists regularly get press releases talking up everything from how multinational corporations are solving the climate crisis by encouraging recycling to claiming their products are “sustainably sourced” when they aren’t.

Sometimes the greenwashing oozes from these solutions, but often it’s hidden through sophisticated tricks. As we start a new year, here are some quick ways to test whether a climate solution is worth paying attention to.

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Ideas often gain credibility when people you trust support them. That’s not always enough. Just look at the growing sums of money going toward ESG funds that support companies supposedly tackling environmental, social and governance issues.

The reality is that sustainable investing is really about sustaining bottom lines, not the planet.

SADLY, CLIMATE CHANGE WON’T BE SOLVED BY KILLING WEREWOLVES. THAT DOESN’T STOP MANY FROM DECLARING THAT, SAY, IF ONLY THE WORLD COULD ADOPT CARBON TAXES OR FUND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR FUSION, WE WOULD STOP WARMING THE PLANET SMELLS LIKE GREENWASHING?

Some solutions are framed as a bandage that’s needed before the real solution arrives. Carbon offsets fall into this category. Done properly, the credits may prove to be a way to erase a tiny sliver of global greenhouse gas emissions. That potential, however, is often stretched beyond plausibility to justify much more dangerous ongoing pollution.

HOW WILL GOVERNMENT POLICIES BE IMPLEMENTED?

Not all measures work as advertised.

Some backfire, and spectacularly so.

WHAT ARE THE KNOCK-ON EFFECTS?

The clamour for climate solutions is coming from many parts of society.

The sale of a company, for example, may help take some carbon emissions off one balance sheet, but inadvertently end up increasing overall emissions.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you an idea of how to weed out some bad solutions. As companies and governments come under more pressure to disclose their emissions, it’s slowly becoming easier to keep track how they’re doing.

Ultimately the question remains: are their emissions dropping as quickly as the science demands?

Bloomberg gulfbusiness.com

The Brief / Banking A N A LY S I S

$3.5bn

IN Q3 2021

PROFITS REPORTED BY SAUDI ARABIAN BANKS REACHED ONE OF THE HIGHEST QUARTERLY LEVELS

$3.2bn

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/FANATIC STUDIO

Q3 2020

Moving along GCC banks are paving the way for a promising year, reports Zainab Mansoor

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espite the economic uncertainty posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the GCC banking sector is on a path of recovery. Holistically, the region’s banks have had a promising past year. Total banking sector net profits reached $9.4bn in the third quarter of 2021 as compared to $8.3bn during Q2 2021, a report by Kamco Invest, which analysed financials reported by 60 listed banks in the GCC for the third quarter, revealed.

“Profits reported by Saudi Arabian banks reached one of the highest quarterly levels of $3.5bn as compared to $2.9bn in Q2 2021 and $3.2bn in Q3 2020. UAE and Qatari banks showed high single digit bottom-line growth of 7.7 per cent and 7.3 per cent, respectively,” the report suggested. “Total gross loans disbursed by listed GCC banks increased by $28.3bn q-o-q mainly led by higher lending in Saudi Arabia which increased lending by $13.9bn. gulfbusiness.com

$2.9bn Q2 2021

“Overall, in 2021 the outlook for GCC banks was stable, and moving forward the increase in activity levels will drive credit growth with positive effects on asset risks,” notes Asad Ahmed, managing director, Financial Services, Alvarez & Marsal. “There has been some financial consolidation in the region – the UAE and Saudi Arabia come to mind. This appears to have been driven by two factors: the first is common beneficial ownership where there is an intent to align, and the second is economic. In the latter, the underlying cause could be asset driven (quality and/or size) to improving operating efficiency, and resultantly ROE.” Meanwhile, the future of the regional banking space looking promising as well. An S&P Global Ratings report revealed that GCC banks are to benefit from regional economic recovery in 2022 on the back of higher oil prices, supportive government spending and normalising non-oil activity. The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio will rise in the next 12-24 months without exceeding 5 per cent, compared with 3.7 per cent at September 30, 2021.

“Amid a tight job market, accelerated inflation readings over the past few months, and increasingly hawkish forward guidance from the US Federal Reserve, we now expect three rate hikes in 2022.

This will prompt a similar reaction from GCC central banks given their currency pegs. Banks will benefit from such an increase assuming no material impact on asset quality,” the S&P report added.

Lower global liquidity is likely to have a limited impact on GCC banks thanks to their strong net external asset positions or limited net external debt positions, it suggested. Strong capitalisation and government support will continue to reinforce banks’ creditworthiness.

OVERALL, IN 2021 THE OUTLOOK FOR GCC BANKS WAS STABLE, AND MOVING FORWARD THE INCREASE IN ACTIVITY LEVELS WILL DRIVE CREDIT GROWTH WITH POSITIVE EFFECTS ON ASSET RISKS

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The Brief / Social

users is much higher. Hashtags should never be seen as an afterthought, but are an integral part of the content creation and captioning process. Sometimes, the most trending hashtags may not apply to your brand and that’s why it’s important to do some research and find the most relevant and popular hashtags in your category. A trick here is to keep an eye on the hashtags that your competitors are using and ensure that you incorporate them as well.

COMMENT

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Zaib Shadani Founder and managing director of PR and video production agency Shadani Consulting

Smart steps

Hacks to increase your followers on Instagram

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ne of the most common questions we get from brands is how to grow their follower base, followed by: ‘Can we buy some followers?’

It’s never a good idea to buy fake followers and while it can be time consuming to organically grow a brand’s follower base, there are some tips and tricks that can speed along the process.

For many brands, social media is equivalent to their ‘shop window’ where customers can peek inside and get a glimpse into all that the brand has to offer, so having a strong base of ‘real’ followers is critical to the long-term success of any brand. Instagram in particular, is a social media platform that ranks supreme when it comes to its potential as a marketing tool, especially amongst B2C brands, and here are five easy ways to get started on expanding your loyal customer base on the social media platform.

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THE RIGHT HASHTAGS CAN BE YOUR SECRET WEAPON

Creating engaging content and posting regularly is important, but a critical element is using the right hashtags so that people (non-followers) searching for specific terms can be directed to your photos.

As with all social media platforms, there are certain hashtags that get preference over others. In case of Instagram, if you use the topmost popular hashtags, the chances of getting discovered by new 14

February 2022

FIND YOUR PERFECT TIMING

As with everything in life, timing is key, and this applies across the board for any and all social media platforms. The timing of your post can contribute to its success or failure and there are various thirdparty tools, as well as the analytics function within Instagram itself, which will give you a detailed analysis of the best days of the week and times to post. Depending on the time zone that your followers are from and their personal preferences for being online, it’s important to post when your audience is the most engaged.

Zaib Shadani

03

HIGHJACK YOUR COMPETITION

Why reinvent the wheel, when you don’t have to?

One of the easiest ways to get more followers is to engage with the audience of your competitors. People who follow your competition are already aware of the product or service category that you operate in and have demonstrated an interest. They are a logical target audience to seek and engage with, in attempts to grow your own following. An easy way to get started is by initiating first contact. Start actively interacting with your competitors’ audiences by following them, liking their photos, commenting or simply dropping an gulfbusiness.com

The Brief / Social

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emoji. This will ensure that you are noticed by them and chances are, they will follow you back, or at the very least, be curious and check out your account.

04

EVERYONE LOVES A FREEBIE

Giveaways and competitions are a great way to get people to engage with your content. They encourage people to actively tag others and entice them to follow your Instagram account, in the hopes of winning a freebie. One of the most popular tactics on Instagram is through the tried and tested ‘giveaway’ campaign that asks audiences to tag a friend and follow your account. Moreover, the more traction and comments your giveaway post gets, the higher your engagement will be, leading it to be favoured

by Instagram’s algorithm as well. This combined with all the people that have been tagged by existing followings, and comments by their friends, creates great visibility for the brand and eyeballs from people who could be potential followers.

gulfbusiness.com

THE POWER OF USER GENERATED CONTENT (UGC)

GIVEAWAYS AND COMPETITIONS ARE A GREAT WAY TO GET PEOPLE TO ENGAGE WITH YOUR CONTENT

Accounts that are successful on Instagram are the ones that are authentic in their value proposition and what they stand for – and nothing is more authentic than sharing what your real customers, clients and followers have to say. The essence of promoting UGC is to allow authentic insight into what it’s like to use your product or service and show the diversity of people who are fans of the brand. Reposting your followers’ content, where you are tagged is not only a very cost effective strategy for content creation, but it also makes followers feel special and recognised by the brand. It strengthens the relationship with existing customers and encourages them to become unofficial advocates for the brand, who are more inclined to post about the brand and encourage engagement from their followers.

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The Brief / Workplace COMMENT

ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/LILANAKANI

Ralf Gegg Vice president - End User Computing, VMware EMEA

Key goals, not keystrokes How to strike the right balance while monitoring performance in the hybrid working era

H

ow many times did your fingers touch your keyboard today?

How many hours did you sit in front of your computer screen? How many emails did you send?

Which websites did you visit on your company computer or mobile? If you knew these numbers, do you think they would accurately represent your working day, what you achieved and how productive you were?

I am not sure, for example, how monitoring tools such as key logging software or video surveillance, would accurately reflect the value and output of a strategy session I had with my team last week.

This is the big debate currently raging among workers and their employees. How to measure performance and productivity now that people are working from ‘home and away’. It’s erupted for the simple fact that unlike the digital workplace tools that now enable employees literally to work from anywhere, how bosses manage teams in this distributed world have possibly not adapted as quickly. But with Global Workplace Analytics predicting that 70 per cent of the workforce will be working

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remotely at least five days a month by 2025 and the corresponding rise in ‘anywhere working’, we must rethink how we’re measuring people now.

We’ve already seen some memorable examples of what not to do. Amazon’s network of security cameras and hourly productivity goals for moving packages, which triggered headlines with words like ‘dystopian’, ‘violation’ and ‘spying’, is one.

UK bank Barclay’s use of software that allowed managers to measure the length of time employees were away from their desks and time taken to finish tasks is another. The bank is now facing a $1.1bn fine if found to have breached privacy laws.

Monitoring isn’t necessarily the issue here. Our recent research shows that 83 per cent of employees in the UAE recognise their organisation has had to develop new ways to measure productivity as part of the move to hybrid working, where employees can work both in the office and remotely.

The real issue is that surveillance is not the same as performance management or monitoring an employee’s contribution to the business. There’s a real lack of

transparency around the remote monitoring of work and why it’s happening at all, so much so that, according to our research, the trust established between boss and employee risks being compromised. In fact, 46 per cent of companies in the UAE have already implemented device monitoring, and 64 per cent of companies who are currently in the process of doing so, are already in fact seeing ‘drastically increased’ or ‘increased’ levels of employee turnover.

With many organisations shifting permanently to hybrid work models that don’t require knowledge workers to be office-based all the time, they need to find solutions – beyond presentism – that can meaningfully assess employee performance in a way that works for them and for the business. How can this be achieved?

Where do we draw the line between intrusive activity-based monitoring and meaningful performance-based measurement?

UNDERSTAND WHY YOU’RE MEASURING

Companies are citing everything from compliance and security to tracking indicators of bullying, discrimination and harassment as reasons to monitor employees. All valid reasons. But there are other, darker motivations that are making headlines, such as the examples I referred to earlier. In general, it feels that the world of management hasn’t moved forward, when time at the office desk simply gets replaced by time at the laptop.

Monitoring shouldn’t be about spying on staff, but about understanding how bosses can provide employees with the best tools and experiences and the flexibility of being able to work in the office and remotely. This is the on-ramp to greater productivity and employee happiness. And it’s not so bad for the bottom line either.

Surveillance and performance are two different things. They can work together, but it’s clear from our research that those companies using surveillance tools are seeing talent leave.

Measuring output will prove far more useful to employers and is likely to sit better with employees. In fact, three quarters of respondents from our research say that moving to a distributed working environment has meant that their gulfbusiness.com

The Brief / Workplace

performance – and not the traditional metrics such as time spent in the office – is being valued more by their employers.

This is reflected in the new, but growing shift away from service level agreements to experience level agreements in recognition that companies need to get better at measuring the overall user experience, not just at an IT level or from an HR perspective but through the lens of the whole business.

Using employee engagement measuring tools, backed with machine learning capabilities, organisations can now gauge how employees are feeling over time and not just on the day the employee questionnaire lands in their inbox (when they might have had a disagreement with a colleague or boss which plummets their happiness scores on that one day). This is a much more valuable pool of data, in conjunction with output, as an indicator of someone’s productivity and how to support or improve it than simply the number of emails they’ve sent.

LOOK AT SOLUTIONS THAT REPRESENT OUTPUT

Of course, the big question is how should this output be measured?

Let’s start with how it shouldn’t be done. Employee surveillance measures range from monitoring emails, web browsing and collaboration tools as well as video surveillance, attention tracking via webcams and keylogging software. It’s these types of methods that employees are increasingly objecting to and for which companies across Europe are landing themselves on the wrong side of regulators. The former CEO of IKEA in France was recently served with a suspended, two-year prison sentence for “excessive and unlawful staff surveillance and data collection”.

70%

OF THE WORKFORCE WILL BE WORKING REMOTELY AT LEAST FIVE DAYS A MONTH BY 2025 —Global Workplace Analytics prediction

gulfbusiness.com

“THAT CHALLENGE IS FINDING THAT CAREFUL BALANCE AND RECOGNISING THAT SURVEILLANCE AND PERFORMANCE ARE TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS. GET THE BALANCE RIGHT AND YOU WILL CREATE A CONNECTED, PRODUCTIVE WORKFORCE – WHEREVER THEY ARE” With a groundswell of anywhere working, monitoring productivity needs to adapt in the same way that the digital tools, which enable people to have applications and tools securely on any device of their choosing, continue to adapt. We should be looking to measure performance using performance-focused metrics, transparently with employees and above all, avoid replicating previous approaches which measured value by hours, instead focusing on what they bring to the business.

This will be particularly important when trying to attract Gen Z workers who want to be valued for their contribution and can’t understand why going to an office or being ‘monitored’ isn’t a thing of the past.

For example, regular catch-ups with managers to discuss workloads: how that person is managing that workload and where they might need help; assessing output against agreed objectives and deliverables helps both the employee and the manager celebrate achievements but also understand where and why certain objectives aren’t being met. Is there a need for training? Or an opportunity to improve process or technologies?

The meaningful monitoring of work, what it reveals and how that information is used needs to be a collaborative effort between employers and their staff. Only through collaboration will it deliver value.

WORK WITH EMPLOYEES, TRANSPARENTLY

If you keep employees in the dark about any new measurement or monitoring tools you put in place, then you can guarantee

that trust - which is fundamental to the success of a distributed workforce - will be eroded. Currently, a quarter of employees don’t know whether their organisation has implemented device monitoring systems to monitor their productivity.

Employers need to be open with employees about why they’re monitoring and how they’re doing it. Of course, it’s a legal requirement across much of the world, to stay in line with country or statewide privacy laws such as the general data protection regulation (GDPR), or employment law regulated through workers’ councils. There are cases where surveillance is vital for health and safety, but this must be on a job by job basis with full buy-in from the employee.

FIND A DELICATE BALANCE

The shift to more distributed workforces is the perfect opportunity for organisations to reconsider the nature of work and our traditional perceptions around what constitutes productivity and performance.

We know that just because someone is sitting at an office desk doesn’t mean they’re working productively. Equally, brainstorming with pen and paper is not an activity that can be monitored but that doesn’t make it any less valuable The digital workplace tools that we have today mean that we can leave these perceptions behind and be more flexible about where and how we work, and how that output is measured. It’s a new reality that we’re settling into, with employees finally feeling valued for their work and not for irrelevant metrics that simply quantify their working day, without any real link to the contribution they make to the business.

That challenge is finding that careful balance and recognising that surveillance and performance are two very different things. Get the balance right and you will create a connected, productive workforce – wherever they are.

This is your opportunity not to be just another cautionary tale of deceit and hidden agendas, but a positive example of a modern, performance-based approach in action that complements and supports employees to be their most productive selves.

February 2022

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ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES/ABRACADA

The Brief / Future

COMMENT

Rehan Khan Principal consultant for BT and a novelist

Environmental cues

The role our environment plays in creating a conducive context is critical to effectively achieving our goals

I

once worked for an executive who was a fitness freak. He was either running, kick-boxing, cycling up a mountain, or doing some other physical activity, which left me quite exhausted just hearing about it.

Being calorie-conscious, he was appalled at the bad eating habits of many of the staff members in the company. He could have told them that the highly processed junk food they ate was going to lead to serious health issues later in life, but he didn’t.

Instead, rather smartly, he introduced a daily supply of fresh fruit, vegetable sticks and other healthy snacks, which were prominently positioned around the office. The office’s catering staff were also instructed to replenish the items regularly. Additionally, he made sure there were fresh flower arrangements, adorning all parts of the office, to create a welcoming atmosphere.

Over time, the employees adjusted to the fresher environment; fruit and other

18

February 2022

healthy snacks were consumed regularly or given away at the end of the day to staff members to take home. Best of all, the odour of junk food no longer permeated the office. As a result, over a series of months, the eating and consumption habits of the staff changed – I think – for the better.

Our behaviour at work and in the home depend – to a great extent – on the triggers before us and the context we find ourselves in, leading to the formation of positive or negative practices.

If you want to practise the ukulele, but keep it in the guest room, or want to read a book, but keep the books in a storage box

70-80%

PERCENTAGE OF PATIENTS WHERE COGNITIVEBEHAVIOURAL THERAPY IS EFFECTIVE

in the garage, then it’s simply not going to happen. You are making it really hard for yourself. If your ukulele is right beside your bed, you’ll be more likely to strum it. If the books are on a shelf in your living room, you’ll be more likely to read them.

I try to read for at least 20 minutes before falling asleep. I find reading in bed is the trigger for my body to know that it is going to be time to sleep very soon. Obviously, I make sure I’ve already completed everything I need to do with my smartphone prior to reading.

We can train ourselves to respond to the triggers in the environment around us, which will lead to certain practices. In a study with insomniacs, scientists gave the participants a clear set of instructions that were designed to strengthen the association between the bedroom and sleep, and to re-establish a consistent sleep–wake schedule. They instructed the insomniacs to go to bed only when sleepy, get out of bed when unable to sleep, use the bedroom for sleep only (no reading, watching TV, etc.), wake up at the same time every morning and also, to not take a nap.

The participants in the study soon began to associate the bedroom with sleep, and for many, it became easier to fall asleep when they went into the bedroom. Of course, other practices were also introduced alongside these instructions, and these related to spending only sleeping time in bed, reducing somatic tension, changing misconceptions about insomnia and good health practices. The researchers reported: “The evidence supporting this behavioural approach shows that cognitive-behavioural therapy is effective for 70 per cent to 80 per cent of patients and that it can significantly reduce several measures of insomnia, including sleep-onset latency and wake-after-sleep onset. Aside from the clinically measurable changes, this therapy system enables many patients to regain a feeling of control over their sleep, thereby reducing the emotional distress that sleep disturbances cause.”

In the same manner, setting up the right environment, whether we are working in the office or at home, can provide the positive triggers that are critical to being effective at work and retaining a sense of well-being. gulfbusiness.com

BRAND VIEW

Helping leaders prevail Abdulaziz Al-Roomi, author, thought leader and executive coach, tells us what defines a good leader, why employees are the ‘heart rate’ of an organisation and how the Prevail model helps you thrive

while feeling fulfilled along the journey. For me, this builds and maintains exceptional leaders, who are true to themselves and others.

How do you foresee the future of human resources and talent management?

How would you define an effective leader?

Leadership is about moving towards a specific direction or action. For me, leadership is about action, because while many may know the way or show the way, they may not necessarily be the first to walk the way. Being an effective leader is not about being knowledgeable, but rather being active and effective, and taking decisions even with little or no information.

This, for me, is the basic idea of leadership.

Take us through the key milestones of your leadership journey.

My journey has seen me transition through many roles: IT trainer, HR supervisor, leadership specialist, executive coach and now, a thought leader in talent, HR and leadership development. I’ve been in strategic HR roles, coached hundreds of senior leaders over thousands of hours of training in industries such as food and beverages, retail, logistics, banking, oil and gas, and petrochemicals.

I followed my passion, learned the best and from the best in the field of leadership development. I’ve stayed on the path and enjoyed every moment of my journey.

How can the Prevail model, namesake to the book’s title, help create exceptional leaders?

I’ve been trained and certified, with top global certifications in training, coaching and HR, from a Dale Carnegie global trainer and a certified Marshall Goldsmith executive coach, and continue to practice the lessons I’ve learned through my daily work. I’ve also helped others apply it with a simple comprehensive model that combines the most well-known and effective theories and practices in the Prevail model, starting with self-leadership and then, mastering the art of influence.

It’s also about leading a team of warriors,

“Managing people has become more complex, and requires a more refined management style and mindset. It involves fostering trust, mentoring and having a clear understanding of productivity versus being occupied and busy”

For me, HR has never meant ‘human resources’, as people are not resources. We are resourceful and creative, with unlimited potential and deliverables. And while resources are limited and depreciate over time, humans become more valuable with time.

This is what most companies have come to realise during the pandemic. Managing people has become more complex, and requires a more refined management style and mindset. It involves fostering trust, mentoring and having a clear understanding of productivity versus being occupied and busy, particularly with people adopting the remote working model. For me, HR is the ‘heart rate’ of the organisation.

Talent management is the new mindset that companies are adapting to in order to attract, develop and retain its people. Before it referred to high performers, but today, it applies to every individual within the firm.

Any tips to offer aspiring managers and leaders?

Self-awareness is the starting point.

Knowing yourself – what you want in life, what you want to achieve, your strengths and passion – gives you clarity, helping you to maximise your joy, health, wealth and achievements. It’s also important to help yourself so you can be of help to others.

Remember, even with the highest, biggest and most impressive titles, you are still human and will need help at some point.

Always be genuine, sincere and authentic to be able to build trust and earn respect. Titles and people will come and go, but your legacy will live forever.

Finally, forgive yourself every once in a while, particularly when you falter. We all make mistakes.

The Brief / Infographics

Measuring safety

71%

Peace, respect for human rights and rule of law are imperative for sustainable development and thriving societies

RESULTS FOR THE 2021 PERCEPTIONS OF LAW AND ORDER ARE BASED ON NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE, PROBABILITY-BASED SAMPLES AMONG THE ADULT POPULATIONS, AGED 15 AND OLDER, IN 51 COUNTRIES AND AREAS SURVEYED BETWEEN APRIL AND AUGUST 2021

94

ADULTS WORLDWIDE HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THEIR LOCALPOLICE (2020)

93 92 91

Countries/ areas with the HIGHEST law and order index scores

Norway United Arab Emirates China

Portugal

Switzerland

Austria

Finland

Slovenia

Iceland

62

62

61

59

59

58

57

57

REPUBLIC OF CONGO

ZAMBIA

SOUTH AFRICA

NIGERIA

PERU

CAMEROON

UGANDA

GUINEA

53

53 VENEZUELA

62

GABON

62

MALI

Countries/ areas with the LOWEST law and order index scores

Taiwan, Province of China

NAMIBIA

Tajikistan

ALL DATA ARE NORMALISED TO A SCALE OF 0 TO 100, WITH 100 THE BEST SCORE

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February 2022

gulfbusiness.com

Regional overview Communities in the Sub-Saharan Africa region continue to face security concerns over the years, while residents in East Asia and Western Europe feel most secure

COLOUR LEGEND

2017

East Asia

87

Western Europe

85

86

US and Canada

83

85

Southeast Asia

83

85 85 86

Eastern Europe

81 81

Middle East and North Africa

92 92

87

87

85 82 81

Latin America and the Caribbean

74

76

66

65

60

83

77 77

66

63

81 81

Commonwealth of Independent States

50

2020

81 79 80

62

90

2019

80 81

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

2018

67 67

68

70

80

90

Confidence in local police (%)

Taking a stroll...

The results vary significantly by region - from a low of 49 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean to 82 per cent in Western Europe and Northern America

Countries/areas where people feel the SAFEST and the LEAST SAFE walking alone

100

PERCENTAGE FEELING SAFE

100

Western Europe Northern America Southeast Asia South Asia East Asia Middle East and North Africa Eastern Europe Sub-Saharan Africa Commonwealth of Independent States Latin America and the Caribbean

2019

2020

CHANGE

83 80 81 73 71 71 71 60 53 49

82 82 78 77 73 72 66 56 56 49

-1 2 -3 4 2 1 -5 -4 3 0

IN THE SECOND FULL YEAR OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, THE WORLD IS STILL A LONG WAY FROM ACHIEVING THE GOAL OF PEACEFUL, JUST AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETIES. BUT FOR THE WORLD TO KEEP MOVING FORWARD, IT WILL NEED TO DO SO FROM A FOUNDATION OF PEACE, STABILITY, RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE AND THE RULE OF LAW” The United Nations’ most recent progress report on its Sustainable Development Goals for 2030

80

60

40

20

0

United Arab Emirates Norway China Slovenia Taiwan Finland Tajikistan Croatia Austria Switzerland Brazil Dominican Republic Uganda Cameroon Mexico Chile Guinea Namibia Peru South Africa Gabon Venezuela

REGION

SOURCE: GALLUP’S GLOBAL LAW AND ORDER REPORT 2021

gulfbusiness.com

February 2022

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The Brief / Lightbox

Indian army soldiers march through Rajpath, New Delhi’s ceremonial boulevard, during the 73rd Republic Day parade on January 26. India has bounced back strongly from the pandemic and was among the world’s fastest-growing economies in 2021 22

February 2022

gulfbusiness.com

gulfbusiness.com

February 2022

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PHOTO: T. NARAYAN/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

COVER STORY / AIX INVESTMENT GROUP

FOCUSED ON OPPORTUNITIES THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS EFFECTIVELY BROADENED THE INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE, EXPLAINS AIX INVESTMENT GROUP’S BOARD ADVISOR FADI DABBAGH

WORDS: ZAINAB MANSOOR

24

February 2022

|

P H OTO S : M A R K M AT H E W

gulfbusiness.com

We cater to the requirements of the investor because while some are riskaverse, others wish to take calculated risks where the returns are higher”

gulfbusiness.com

February 2022

25

We are witnessing recently that the market is gaining momentum again, with a noticeable price per square foot increase in most of the areas in Dubai. More so, there are always interesting offers in the market, and the advantage with AIX is that our financial advisors can guide you to make the right choice, be it investing in real estate or choosing a related investment product”

t is now common knowledge that the Covid-19 pandemic has proven to be a test – of either survival or resilience – for most individuals and industries across the globe.

While the global health crisis did pose an existential question for many businesses worldwide, the investment landscape remained fairly upbeat, with the straining economic climate encouraging people to preserve and grow their wealth.

“The pandemic has led to an increase in risk appetite, because some people had to get out of their comfort zone and start looking at alternative ways to generate passive income. Some people lost their job, whereas some were on docked salaries. So, there was a serious concern of people starting to spend from their savings without any future returns. This [situation] has turned to our advantage,” says Fadi Dabbagh, board advisor at Dubai-based AIX Investment Group.

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February 2022

“We have especially noticed a very high increase in first-time investors – people that never invested before have actually started doing so now. This trend has expanded a lot since the onset of Covid.”

Numbers back the optimism: the UAE’s financial wealth grew by a compound annual growth rate of 3 per cent from 2015 to reach $600bn in 2020, 69 per cent of which was investable wealth, according to a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report. The UAE, where 51 per cent of the country’s wealth is owned by people whose net worth is more than $5m, represented 26 per cent of the GCC’s financial wealth in 2020, which itself is projected to reach $2.7 trillion in 2025, up from $2.2 trillion in 2020.

DRIVEN TO DIVERSIFY

While the pandemic did push people out of their comfort zones, it also encouraged investors to further gulfbusiness.com

COVER STORY / AIX INVESTMENT GROUP

It’s all relative: high risk, high return. So, the portfolio depends on the profile of the client and what they are looking to achieve. But mainly, the majority of investors – both institutional and individual – are risk-averse.”

The EY report corroborated the broader sentiment, suggesting that as a group, wealth clients are risk averse, with just a third of clients preferring investments with high or very high levels of risk.

ENGAGING TRENDS

gulfbusiness.com

NUMBERS BACK THE OPTIMISM: 3%

GR CA

$600bn

diversify, a practice Dabbagh endorses. “What we usually recommend is diversifying the investment into different asset classes for the simple reason that it minimises risk and optimises revenue.”

According to an EY report, following a difficult year in 2020, clients narrowed their financial goals – they are increasingly focused on meeting their personal goals, diversifying their investments, protecting their wealth and maintaining financial security.

Meanwhile, diversification remains a key element of future wealth services, with investors expecting to make much greater use of alternative investments. One in three clients (32 per cent) invests in alternatives, but this is projected to reach 48 per cent by 2024, stated the report.

However, Dabbagh adds that the client’s requirements take precedence. “We cater to the requirements of the investor because while some are risk-averse, others wish to take calculated risks where the returns are higher.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has been a notable catalyst, other factors have also played a huge role in shaping the current investment landscape. One key element is purpose-led investments, with an increasing number of clients having sustainability goals.

Furthermore, the EY report revealed that climate change and carbon emissions are a concern for 42 per cent of clients globally, while specific to the Middle East region, that number scales up to 48.

“Impact investing – investments made to generate specific social or environmental impact alongside financial returns – is expected to grow an eye-catching 15 per cent by 2024, reaching an average adoption level of 35 per cent. Adoption rates among some groups will be even higher, exceeding 50 per cent among ultrawealthy investors, millennials and Asia-Pacific clients,” the report added.

“The trend is more towards sustainability, which is a fact because everybody understands what’s going on,” explains Dabbagh. “Clients, however, still don’t realise the importance of it. So again, it is a part of the education process – offering a proper analysis of the pros and the cons [of investing sustainably] and sharing a better understanding of what sustainability means, at all levels.”

However, some conventional investment options continue to remain steady, having stood the test of time, real estate being one. In 2021, Dubai recorded the highest value of real estate sales transactions in 12 years, with Dhs151.07bn worth of properties sold last year, according to real estate company Property Finder.

“Real estate has and will always remain a long-term solid investment. We are witnessing recently that the market is gaining momentum again, with a noticeable price per square foot increase in most of the areas in Dubai. More so, there are always interesting offers in the market, and the advantage with AIX is that our financial advisors can guide you to make the right choice, be it investing in real estate or choosing a related investment product,” says Dabbagh.

2015

2020

The UAE’s financial wealth

GOING DIGITAL

Another topic broadly deliberated is the use and longevity of digital assets – be it bitcoin, alternative coins or NFTs, among others. Bitcoin’s price increased 57.6 per cent in 2021, while Ethereum’s and Dogecoin’s prices February 2022

27

So, the next step will be digitalisation – there will be a digital currency, and probably paper will vanish.

“Digital will be the new way of dealing with currencies in the future. A few central banks have either finalised or are at the stage of finalising the creation of their own digital currency. That said, it is not an easy task to do.

However, eventually, all will follow suit within the next decade, or even earlier than that.”

IS IT FOR EVERYONE?

hiked 404.21 per cent and 2,899.12 per cent respectively, according to BitPay, a crypto payments processor.

Dabbagh adds, “Digital is here to stay, and it has proven that throughout the pandemic period. Yes, it’s a volatile currency when it comes to trading, yet it is solid. Some of the biggest banks and exchanges have aligned with this fact and started adopting it.”

Digital adoption is not coming at an individual or organisational level alone but at a state level too. Central banks are also reviewing the issuance of digital forms of money, a seemingly organic step from the issuance of physical cash.

“Central banks have begun to engage in research on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and, in some instances, also their development. According to a survey from late 2020, 86 per cent of global central banks are conducting research on CBDCs, and as of July 2021, 56 central banks have publicly communicated their research or development efforts,” BIS’ (Bank for International Settlements) Working Papers No. 976 revealed.

Dabbagh stated: “If you review historically, initially it was all about trading, then cash currency was invented.

One in three clients (32%) invests in alternatives, but this is projected to reach 48% by 2024

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February 2022

If financial stability carried gravitas prior to the pandemic, the health crisis has vaulted it as a top priority, with multitudes of people impacted from depressed bottom lines, job losses or salary cuts looking to generate additional income. More so, there has been an upward tick in the trend of not just preserving wealth, but growing it too.

“It is very simple; the wealthy are becoming wealthier simply because they are investing their money. However, one also needs to know how and where to invest. But yes, more and more people are realising its importance” Dabbagh says, adding that investors also have different priorities, as some are seeking retirement plans, while others are looking to generate passive income.

“What needs to be done is to choose the right [investment] product, and the right company, of course, to manage the funds. Which is why it is also very important to ascertain why one wants to invest. At AIX, we go through an entire process of trying to understand the objective of the investment, which reflects on our commitment to offer a right course of action. And that is essential,” he says.

Dabbagh adds: “Our philosophy is built on several components: data-driven analytics, proprietary algorithms and our experience in traversing difficult financial markets, which assist us in offering returns to our investors.”

AIX Investment Group, which was set up in Europe 14 years ago, has generated annual returns - depending on the product of choice and the risk appetite of the investor – averaging 29 per cent and can go considerably higher with a long term mindset investment.

But does the lack of financial knowledge impede the act of investing? Dabbagh feels that irrespective of the client’s underlying knowledge or experience, the investment

AIX Investment Group, has generated annual returns - depending on the product of choice and the risk appetite of the investor – averaging 29%

gulfbusiness.com

COVER STORY / AIX INVESTMENT GROUP

51%

UAE’s wealth owned by people whose net worth is more than $5m projected to reach:

$2.7 trillion

GCC’s financial wealth

2020

$2.2 trillion 2025

Our philosophy is built on several components: data-driven analytics, proprietary algorithms and our experience in traversing difficult financial markets, which assist us in offering returns to our investors” landscape remains a level playing field for all. “There are different categories of investors – there are those who know what they’re doing. They’ve invested before and all they seek is the right product and the right company. Then there are those who have absolutely no idea, but are seeking passive income. But our approach remains the same, irrelevant of whether the client has the experience or not.”

He adds: “At AIX investment Group, we make sure that we offer a detailed explanation of all the right components and choose products that are best suited to the client’s requirements and objective at any given time. When it comes to investment, trust is the number one factor, the second being reward/return. And this is something we focus on a fair deal, ensuring that the client truly understands our background, history and operating model before we go into discussing gulfbusiness.com

investment opportunities. When clients feel comfortable and safe in the knowledge that the company knows what it is doing and with our proven track record, they proceed with the investment.

“Sometimes, clients initiate with a smaller budget and when they see it working out for them, they bring in more money. Statistically, 68 per cent of our investors have made additional investments with us.”

With a workforce of over 60 employees and collaboration agreements with various organisations across the globe, AIX Investment Group has plans to expand further. “We are in the process of expanding our licencing portfolio and developing new products.

New funds will also be created soon,” says Dabbagh.

WHAT’S NEXT?

From trading to digitalisation, the investment landscape has come a long way and continues to evolve at a considerable pace. But is there a perfect recipe for success?

For AIX Investment Group, success is all about empowering investors to make the right call. “Our job at AIX is educating the clients and giving them the right advice based on the current circumstances and their specific need at that point of time. And it is working. It’s a winning formula,” emphasises Dabbagh.

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Otis is ready to move future cities through digitalisation and a commitment to ESG Nader Antar, head of Strategy and chief transformation officer, Otis EMEA, and president, Otis North and Central Europe, Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, shares how the company has embraced digitalisation while consistently supporting infrastructure development and delivering on its ESG commitments What are some of the key trends impacting the elevator industry?

Urbanisation and digitalisation are two key developments impacting the construction industry both globally and in the Gulf region. As over half of the world’s population currently lives in cities, urbanisation is rapidly increasing.

According to the World Bank, this figure should reach 70 per cent by 2050. To accommodate this growing urban population, buildings are getting taller,

with skyrise housing and commercial development reshaping the landscape of cities. According to the Centre for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the number of buildings over 200 metres has quadrupled since 2000, making vertical transportation the backbone of any building.

Otis has been strongly supporting this trend over the past decades.

Our high-rise elevators have enabled architects and construction companies

to design and erect cutting-edge projects that transform a run-of-themill approach to development.

Our world is also becoming increasingly digitalised. IDC, a technology consulting firm, predicts that there will be more than 42 billion connected devices by 2025. This hyper-connectivity is bringing new levels of intelligence to the places where we live, work and commute so the need for more advanced, digital, integrated and connected vertical mobility solutions is increasing. In other words, modern elevators must be ‘smart’ or connected.

We have been embracing digitalisation for several years now – we integrate elevators as a vital part of the building ecosystem, leveraging new technologies such as the internet of things and artificial intelligence. They have helped us in the

BRAND VIEW

deployment of data-based solutions both in new equipment and service.

Such innovations rely on proactive data analytics for predictive maintenance and our smart dispatching systems manage varying traffic patterns, making the rides safer, quicker and more comfortable for the passengers.

What are the factors driving the company’s growth in the region?

Otis has been present in the GCC for more than 45 years, supporting local governments’ vision for urban mobility.

Sustainable urbanisation is now reflected in every national vision. For instance, the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 states that the emirate

42 billion+

CONNECTED DEVICES BY 2025

as predicted by IDC, a technology consulting firm

will go on leveraging its strategic position and relying on the construction and engineering industries as key enablers of economic success. Major investment in construction is also on the list of vital economy-driving pillars in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, Kuwait’s National Development Plan until 2035 and the Qatar National Vision 2030.

Vertical transportation along with infrastructure and real estate development will play a vital role in making these visions a reality. From residential buildings and infrastructure facilities to mass transit, our local teams use a needs-based approach working closely with our clients to ensure they have the most suitable and efficient elevators, escalators and moving walks for their specific needs in each project, as it has been done in Terminal 2 of Kuwait International Airport.

We also provide tailored aftersales service packages throughout the lifetime of their units through the recently launched Signature Service,

currently available in the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. We’ll also roll out this costefficient predictive maintenance solution in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain soon.

How is Otis delivering on its environmental, social and governance commitments?

For us, business performance and corporate social responsibility go hand in hand, so we are setting our vision and mission in motion, focusing on what matters most for our passengers, customers and society. In line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we have set particular targets that strengthen our ESG commitments in health and safety, governance and accountability, environment and impact, and people and communities. Following that, in 2021, we became a signatory to the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.

We are very proud that Otis UAE is taking part in the second edition of Made to Move Communities, the company’s global corporate CSR programme.

It focuses on making mobility more inclusive, eliminating barriers to mobility and supporting STEM education.

Our team in the UAE is working with GEMS Wellington Academy – Silicon Oasis, in Dubai, to engage young minds to create new, innovative mobility solutions that address the problems of the aging population in their local community. This way, we are eager to prepare the next generation for the rapidly evolving global workplace, which is estimated to have as many as 50 million unfilled STEM jobs by 2030.

“For us, business performance and corporate social responsibility go hand in hand, so we are setting our vision and mission in motion, focusing on what matters most for our passengers, customers and society. In line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we have set particular targets that strengthen our ESG commitments in health and safety, governance and accountability, environment and impact and people and communities”

NATIVE MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE ON EMIRATES Attractions Activities Dining Health & Wellness Study in the UAE Entertainment Properties in the UAE The ‘Enjoy Dubai & UAE’ channels on Emirates’ awardwinning 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

FEATURES / CONSUMER AWARENESS

Javed Iqbal, area director, BAT Middle East, South Asia and North Africa

A PURPOSEFUL CHANGE BAT’S NEW CATEGORY R&D INVESTMENT IS DRIVING ITS PURPOSE TO REDUCE THE HEALTH IMPACT OF ITS BUSINESS

ith over 60 years in 2030. To make this happen, significant the Middle East, Britinvestment in R&D is taking place, as we ish American Tobacco have invested an additional GBP426m on (BAT) has witnessed our reduced-risk portfolio*† of vapour, the vibrancy and dynatobacco heating and modern oral prodmism of this region ucts in 2020. that has helped it to become the thriving For Tobacco Harm Reduction to be hub of economic activity that it is today. effective, facts must lead the converBAT has similarly gone through a sation. At BAT, we are committed to transformative period. Like every great making adult consumers aware of the transformation, success depends on science around the reduced-risk potenhaving a solid foundation, and BAT’s tial of these products so that they can foundation is clear in our corporate purreach informed decisions. At the same pose to build a better tomorrow. time, we are also clear that combustible As we strive to fulfil our purpose, cigarettes pose serious health risks and we have committed to reducing the the only way to avoid these risks is not to health impact of our business by prostart smoking or to quit. viding adult consumers with a wide The concept of Tobacco Harm Reducrange of alternative, less risky prodtion has been endorsed by many public ucts*†. Underpinning our purpose is the health leaders around the globe. In the concept of Tobacco Harm Reduction, Middle East, awareness of the growwhich aims to reduce the harm associing body of evidence that demonstrates ated with smoking, and encourage those who would otherwise continue to smoke to switch completely to scientifically substantiated, AS A GLOBAL COMPANY, WE reduced-risk alternatives*†.

ARE COMMITTED TO GROWING While our business has hisOUR CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS torically centred on combustible cigarettes, we understand that THE ECONOMIC AND TALENT the world is changing and, with DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE it, consumer preferences and the REGION. ALONGSIDE OUR expectations of society and our OFFICE IN THE UAE, WHICH stakeholders. In line with our SUPPORTS OUR MIDDLE EAST, vision, we have set ambitious SOUTH ASIA AND NORTH targets for ourselves. Today, we AFRICA OPERATIONS, WE have around 150 million conHAVE ESTABLISHED TWO NEW sumers all over the world – our ENTITIES IN SAUDI ARABIA ambition is to have 50 million TO FORM THE HUB OF OUR of our consumers using our MIDDLE EAST OPERATIONS” non-combustible products by

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its effectiveness has led to various regulatory reforms. This is positive as regulatory settings and excise structures need to be proportionate to the risk associated with these alternate nicotinedelivery products. The enforcement of such regulations is equally important to ensure product safety and quality. We look forward to continuing to work with policymakers in the region to explore the potential of Tobacco Harm Reduction.

As a global company, we are committed to growing our contribution towards the economic and talent development within the region. Alongside our office in the UAE, which supports our Middle East, South Asia and North Africa operations, we have established two new entities in Saudi Arabia to form the hub of our Middle East operations – BAT Saudia and BAT Arabia. We have also launched our global vapour brand, Vuse, in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. Its successful launch has given us confidence that many adult nicotine consumers in the Middle East are seeking less risky alternatives*†.

We remain optimistic about the growing awareness of Tobacco Harm Reduction as a public health policy. By working with governments and public health stakeholders, we believe that a better tomorrow in the Middle East is on the horizon – for 2022 and beyond. * Based on the weight of evidence and assuming a complete switch from cigarette smoking. These products are not risk free and are addictive. † Our products as sold in the US, including Vuse, Velo, Grizzly, Kodiak, and Camel Snus, are subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation and no reduced-risk claims will be made as to these products without FDA clearance.

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KEEPING DOORS O P E N 34

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FEATURES / RETAIL

HOW GLOBAL RETAIL’S BATTLE WITH THE COVID PANDEMIC ACTUALLY SAVED STORES

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hen Covid-19 erupted 23 months ago and upended retailers around the world, it looked like just another chapter in the sad story of an industry’s decline.

The reality of the pandemic era, however, hasn’t played out that way.

Yes, there was a shakeout with thousands of stores, and some chains, closing for good. A wave of retail workers lost their jobs, some permanently, and an unknown number got sick. But Covid’s shock to the system also brought overdue changes that will fortify the sector for years to come, including big investments in technology, the creation of new methods to connect with consumers and speeding online delivery.

For all the human misery the coronavirus has brought, it’s not hard to make the case that the pandemic will ultimately strengthen the global retailers who made it through. It’s a startling turnaround from the doom-and-gloom predictions for the industry in mid-2020.

“The idea that stores are dead has been proven to be a fallacy,” said Michael Baker, an analyst for D.A. Davidson who has covered US retailers for more than two decades. “A lot of retailers are coming out of this stronger than going into it.”

The pandemic pushed shoppers across the globe to adapt quickly, which forced retailers to do the same. Stuck in their homes in those first few months and then wary about visiting stores when they reopened, consumers flush with cash from government stimulus programmes — along with savings from not traveling or eating out — embraced e-commerce like never before. That’s why the outlook appeared so dour early on for retailers who depended on foot traffic to brick-and-mortar locations.

Retail vs e-commerce

Since Amazon ignited the online shopping era more than two decades ago, the big question has been how do legacy retailers survive? The industry’s answer eventually became “omnichannel,’’ a fuzzy buzzword about intertwining stores and the internet. Retailers had been investing on that front — think of innovations like online ordering with in-store pickup — but sporadically.

The pandemic created the existential threat many needed to fully embrace that vision. They responded by shaking up their business models in unprecedented ways, everything from how they handled customer service to the ways they fulfilled orders (cue groceries ordered online being delivered to the back of an SUV in a Walmart parking lot just a few hours later).

“It completely changed the way we shop,” said Greg Buzek, president of researcher IHL Group. And now retailers are deploying technology at a ‘once-ina-generation’ rate, with huge increases gulfbusiness.com

in the use of warehouse robotics and inventory-management tools like electronic shelf tags, he said.

In China, one of the world’s most sophisticated retail markets, stores quickly pushed deeper into e-commerce.

More embraced the use of chat groups to complete orders and keep in touch with customers who no longer wanted to visit in person, according to consultant Kearney. Retailers of all sorts increased sales via live online video streaming.

In Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic, a food-delivery service helped retailers set up contact-free pickup, kicking off a boom in that kind of fulfillment.

Marks & Spencer, the British department-store chain which has been trying to turn itself around for more than a decade, used the pandemic to speed up its transformation by shutting poor-performing stores and investing in digital offerings, including online grocery. The chain has lifted its profit forecast twice last year — the first upgrades this millennium — as its stock

surged more than 60 per cent. With stores shuttered in the US, retailers adopted new ways to serve customers.

Livestream selling spread from China and became a bona fide revenue source thanks to inexpensive and easy-to-use software. Chains also pushed more of the traditional in-store experience to the web. Signet Jewelers, owner of the Jared brand and other chains, added video calls with an associate from its locations that eased the resistance to making a big purchase online.

And retailers also figured out ways to push more e-commerce into their locations. That included making it easy for in-store employees to help online customers by chatting and sharing pictures and video via mobile app.

How Covid shifted consumer behaviour

Shopping patterns also dramatically shifted in places where e-commerce was in the early stages of development.

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Retailers in markets spanning Mexico to Russia were pushed to speed delivery and build more secure payment systems.

In just one example, the Mexico division of US retailer Home Depot now lets customers buy items online and pay for them at a store, including with cash, which is still the dominant way to pay for goods there.

Of course, the success of many of these advancements will hinge on how well these new consumer behaviours stick post-Covid. Retailers are betting that services, like picking up online orders at a store, will become a bigger portion of their sales. The pandemic also gummed up supply chains and caused labour shortages that pushed wages higher. It remains to be seen how long these hurdles last.

The Covid era will also be remembered for all the retailers who didn’t make it and the employees who got infected by the virus. Pier 1 Imports in the US and Britain’s Arcadia Group, owner of Topshop, were among the chains who shut down their locations. And many others without as much money to invest as big players haven’t be able to undertake meaningful pivots. They still look vulnerable, especially as pandemicera stimulus programmes are petering out and the emergence of the omicron variant is causing a surge in Covid cases in several parts of the world.

Retail sales on the rebound

But for the big players who got things right, 2021 saw a remarkable rebound.

In the US, chains with more than 50 stores are expected to have added more than 4,000 locations last year — led by discount chains Dollar General and Dollar Tree. That would mark the first net increase since 2017, according to IHL

THE S&P RETAIL SELECT INDUSTRY INDEX, HAS SURGED

32%

LAST YEAR

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February 2022

FOOT TRAFFIC IS BEING AIDED BY STORES FULFILLING ONLINE ORDERS FOR PICKUP. BEST BUY IS AMONG THE CHAINS WHO BUILT CURBSIDE PICKUP SYSTEMS ON THE FLY DURING THE PANDEMIC SO CUSTOMERS WOULDN’T HAVE TO ENTER STORES. TARGET’S SHOPPING APP NOW ALLOWS DRIVE-UP CUSTOMERS TO CHOOSE EXACTLY WHERE BAGS ARE PLACED IN THEIR CAR

Group. Total closings among this group in 2021 are estimated to have been 3,500, a quarter of the 2020 total.

The comeback is a big reason why the SPDR S&P Retail exchange-traded fund, which tracks the S&P Retail Select Industry Index, has surged 32 per cent last year, easily topping the broader S&P 500 Index’s advance. Retail stocks in other parts of the world haven’t fared as well, though.

Even with Covid variants hammering some parts of the country, overall visits to US stores last year are only 0.8 per cent below the same period in 2019, according to Placer.ai, which uses anonymous mobile phone data to estimate foot traffic. Many of the biggest chains spanning various categories are drawing more shoppers than before the pandemic. These include Target, Lowe’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Ulta Beauty and Bath & Body Works. Visits to Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, are just 2 per cent below 2019 levels so far last year, Placer.ai data show.

Foot traffic is being aided by stores fulfilling online orders for pickup. Best Buy is among the chains who built curbside pickup systems on the fly during the pandemic so customers wouldn’t have to enter

IN CHINA E-COMMERCE IS ABOUT

30%

OF TOTAL RETAIL SALES

stores. Target’s shopping app now allows drive-up customers to choose exactly where bags are placed in their car.

On top of all this, physical stores are still where the overwhelming majority of goods are purchased. While in China e-commerce is about 30 per cent of total retail sales, the rate in giant markets like Japan, Mexico and India are less than half that.

Even brands born online are continually showing the value of physical locations by turning to them to boost growth after e-commerce gains stall. In the US, Warby Parker, an eyewear company who helped jumpstart the boom in digital-native brands, is increasingly betting its future on brick-and-mortar.

Stores can also increase profitability in a myriad of ways, including reducing returns — a big hit to e-commerce margins.

“The biggest changes going forward will be the relationship the consumer has with the store,” said Deborah Weinswig, a veteran retail analyst and founder of Coresight Research. “I’ve never seen the opportunity ahead for retail as big as it is now.”

Bloomberg gulfbusiness.com

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FEATURES / AUTO

GRAPHITE GAINS GROUND ELECTRIC VEHICLE BATTERY MAKERS ARE CHOOSING GRAPHITE OVER HIGHER-VALUE AND HARDER-TO-GET METALS LIKE LITHIUM AND COBALT, SAYS BLOOMBERG COLUMNIST ANJANI TRIVEDI

O

ne of the most abundant and essential ingredients in electric vehicle batteries is beginning to experience demand pressures, showing how supply chain troubles are getting deeper and the value chain even more expensive.

Tesla last month signed a deal with Australian mining company Syrah Resources to procure materials from the firm’s Louisiana operations, with the raw inputs coming from Mozambique.

Meanwhile, South Korean firm POSCO, the largest natural graphite anode maker globally, bought a 15 per cent stake in China’s Inner Mongolia Sinuo New Material Technology Co. Hong Kong-listed Graphex Group recently set up a US subsidiary and is looking to build a plant there. It also inked an agreement with German firm Desatec for processing and selling graphite materials and established a local manufacturing arm. Other, smaller firms are only now building facilities in North America.

This flurry of early — and prescient — moves by some manufacturers to get their hands on materials as basic as graphite make it clear: this is no longer just about higher-value and harderto-get metals like lithium and cobalt.

Supply shortages are coming for the entire EV battery supply chain, just as firms like Tesla are selling record

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numbers of green vehicles. From lithium compounds and spodumene (a lithium compound, used to procure the metal) to PVDF (a synthetic compound)— all raw components for batteries — prices over the last year have risen by as much as threefold. Now, graphite is beginning to see the surge too.

A form of carbon, graphite is indispensable for making the anode, or the negative terminal, in powerpacks and is also used in steelmaking and the nuclear industry. Almost 90 per cent of production is concentrated in China, meaning yet another key part of the battery is made in the country that’s already experiencing disruptions due to outbreaks of omicron in key industrial regions like Tianjin. Most new graphite electrode capacity is also produced in the world’s second largest economy, according to BloombergNEF data, followed by Japan, India and the US. Until now, much of the focus in next-generation batteries has been on the cathode material side of things — nickel manganese cobalt, lithium iron phosphate and so on. Few have focused on the anode chemistry mix, with graphite expected to remain the dominant material until at least 2035, according to BloombergNEF. With demand for batteries continuing to rise on the back of electric vehicle

excitement, capacity in this part of the supply chain will need to increase as well.

Most of it will be for passenger cars.

The material occurs naturally but is also produced synthetically. It isn’t easily replaceable, though, which places further pressure on costs. Over the past year, prices for synthetically built graphite have increased between 6 per cent (for the high-end variety) to around 40 per cent (mid-range).

That’s even as producers in China have been able to bring down the cost of graphitisation — a key process that accounts for around half the cost of an anode — by as much as 15 per cent to 20 per cent. A quarter of the price is raw materials. If manufacturers aren’t able to keep prices down while they try to expand capacity, battery costs will only keep rising. That will make it tougher to build out supply chains — even globally.

At this point, stakeholders in the electric vehicle market that have been slow to catch up, including automakers and battery manufacturers, can’t just begin to lay claim to future supply — they may get left behind. They’ll have to think years ahead and start investing way down the value chain, not just in fancy tech gadgets and batteries as a whole.

In the past, investing in, and planning for, core materials like graphite seemed unnecessary — the availability was taken for granted. Now, with the shortages and supply chain snarls here to stay, it just seems like a realistic and prudent business strategy. gulfbusiness.com

BRAND VIEW

Surviving the cyberthreat landscape When it comes to cybersecurity, resolutions alone will not keep us safe. We know that digital transformation is accelerating. Businesses need a cybersecurity survival guide to help them manage the change without leaving themselves open to threats Prevent endpoint tampering Thefts happen. But if a device is stolen, you can’t afford to assume that a threat actor is not involved. To ensure that sensitive data can’t be easily accessed, implement disk encryption. Also, use embedded hard disks like solid-state drives (or SSDs). Additionally, you can also procure devices that use proprietary screws, which ensures thieves cannot readily take them apart.

M

ost of us now operate in multicloud environments, with remote work emerging as a given. This expands the attack surface. With no one expecting a let up in cyberattacks in 2022, businesses need a cybersecurity survival guide to meet the challenges posed by today’s threat actors amid a surge in digital transformation.

Protect privileged identities We must stop attackers exploiting inadequate controls to hijack accounts and move laterally within our environments. We must enforce unique credentials and rotate passwords frequently. We must be vigilant of dormant VPN accounts, implementing alerts to flag their use.

In addition, we can implement justin-time issuance of credentials for third parties such as contractors or consultants. And we can zero in on session activity that involves privileged identities, while also implementing multifactor authentication and embedding passwords in any non-human component that requires access.

Secure remote access Traffic should be encrypted, and connections brokered through a single access pathway. And every remote connection should be outbound to reduce the options for login and segregate

Secure and empower your service desk Sessions should use strong encryption, and security teams should ensure that support tools work through firewalls without virtual private network (or VPN) tunneling (which can compromise perimeter security).

Support customers must be segmented via singletenant environments, so data is never co-mingled.

remote access from internet-based threats. We should enforce network zoning to account for cloud environments and again implement least-privilege controls and just-in-time provisioning. And robust John Hathaway, bring your own device (or regional vice president, BYOD) management can iMEA, BeyondTrust keep devices secure if we shift from mobile device management Perform remote worker to enterprise mobility management. penetration testing This is a challenge and may involve Apply endpoint privilege management jurisdictional friction. An employee As modern attacks tend to involve more will likely consider their home environment lateral movement than in days gone off limits, so pen-test teams need to tread by, we should restrict software and carefully. But other probes that do not system privileges to a minimum. Again, require direct access to private or thirdwe must use least privilege across the party assets can still run, such as evaluation environment. We should also assign of employees’ reactions to phishing, vishing specific Unix and Linux commands that or smishing attacks, or the vulnerability IT administrators can execute without testing of company-owned hardware using sudo or root. that is being used remotely.

Apply hardening and vulnerability Forewarned is forearmed management There are strong indicators of lucrative Hardening the IT environment means business opportunities ahead across removing unnecessary software, all industries in the region, but only if applications and privileges, closing we innovate. As that requires digital unused ports and routinely patching transformation, this cybersecurity survival endpoints. Part of the hardening process guide will help enterprises manage is the protection of basic input/output the change without leaving themselves system (or BIOS) by ensuring passwords open to costly lessons. are strong and unique.

FEATURES / TECHNOLOGY

LEADING WITH

INNOVATION Cloud computing has gained traction across all sectors since the start of the pandemic. According to industry analysts, migration and cloud spend will continue to rise.

Players such as Oracle have stepped up at a crucial time and demonstrated their commitment to the region through huge investments and opening of cloud regions WORDS: DIVSHA BHAT

loud computing is proliferating in the Middle East with many organisations moving their processes and data to the cloud. The region is undergoing economic transformations; more countries are implementing smart city initiatives and updating their national visions while improving their digital economies. Gartner estimates that end-user expenditure on public cloud services in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will reach $5.7bn in 2022.

UNLOCKING OPPORTUNITIES Meanwhile, major cloud players, like Oracle, have also demonstrated their 40

February 2022

commitment to the region with massive investments to enable organisations of all sizes to achieve strategic objectives through digital transformation.

The cloud provider has launched its cloud regions in Jeddah and Dubai in 2020, Abu Dhabi in 2021, besides also announcing NEOM as the location of its second cloud region in Saudi Arabia, taking the total count of its cloud regions to four in the Middle East. Oracle aims to launch 44 cloud regions globally by the end of the year.

Based in Johannesburg, Oracle also recently launched its first cloud region in Africa in January.

Oracle’s cloud regions in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (or OCI), allowing

customers to easily migrate current workloads and data platforms or develop new cloud-native applications that benefit from improved performance, reduced costs, and built-in security features. Customers can now access the complete portfolio of Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications and Oracle Autonomous Database, allowing them to choose the architecture that best meets their business needs.

WHAT THE ABU DHABI CLOUD REGION MEANS FOR BUSINESSES The Abu Dhabi cloud region aims to provide customers with more robust business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities. At the Abu Dhabi cloud region launch event on January 19, the company highlighted supporting the UAE’s Fourth Industrial Revolution Strategy, which focuses on advancing the national economy by driving innovation with the latest technologies.

“The rapid adoption of cloud-based technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things and machine learning is vital for building a thriving digital economy and is a key priority for the UAE. With the Dubai and Abu Dhabi regions, we have the required gulfbusiness.com

FEATURES / TECHNOLOGY

The rapid adoption of cloud-based technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things and machine learning is vital for building a thriving digital economy and is a key priority for the UAE. With the Dubai and Abu Dhabi regions, we have the required cloud infrastructure for organisations across public and private sectors, including SMBs, to accelerate their digital transformation” cloud infrastructure for organisations across public and private sectors, including SMBs, to accelerate their digital transformation,” said Richard Smith, executive vice president, Technology, EMEA, Oracle.

Jyoti Lalchandani, group VP and regional managing director - META, IDC says: “Public cloud services adoption is accelerating at CAGR of 28 per cent year on year between 2020 and 2025 in the UAE and IDC projects that the growth momentum will continue. Cloud’s role in enabling innovation is underscored by the priority organisations have given to cloud in their digital transformation initiatives. Cloud-based technologies have helped organisations whether the Covid19 crisis and cloud is now helping them build a resilient organisation that can withstand uncertainties”

anytime access, open ended scalability, infrastructure flexibility, rapid deployment and shorter time to market. One of the most sought-after benefits, not surprisingly, is cost reduction.

These significant cost savings are channelled back into the local economy, thus making an important contribution to national digital economy.

Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, said: “Oracle’s decision to open a second cloud region in the UAE is a clear reflection of our nation’s embrace of digital transformation, advanced technologies and applications of the fourth industrial revolution, which have become central to our economic and investment strategy for the next 50 years. We are committed to developing an innovative- and knowledge-based economy that encourages the development and deployment of the technologies of the future, and attracting human, financial and technological capital to the nation is central to these ambitions.”

EDGE OVER COMPETITORS Oracle’s strategy is to meet customers where they are, enabling them to keep data and services where they need them.

“Our strategy is based on the idea that the cloud should be engineered to support every app, rather than forcing customers to re-engineer their applications to work with the cloud. To do this, we had to build a different cloud. As a result, unlike any other cloud vendor, we offer a complete range of SaaS and IaaS cloud service,” said the company in a statement.

According to Oracle, some key differentiators separate them from other cloud vendors: customers can choose OCI over AWS to easily implement security controls and automation to prevent misconfiguration errors and implement security best practices. In addition, they can consume cloud services in the public cloud or within their own data centre with Oracle Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer.

Meanwhile, choosing OCI over the Google Cloud Platform allows customers to lower risks with Oracle’s end-to-end SLAs covering services’ performance, availability and manageability.

STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE Oracle is also dedicated to sustainability and has vowed to use 100 per cent renewable energy to power all Oracle cloud regions worldwide by 2025.

Some of its cloud regions are already powered entirely by renewable energy, and all Oracle cloud regions utilise energy management and cooling technology to reduce their environmental effect.

The cloud provider has been staying a step ahead in the region. Leading organisations such as DP World, Abu Dhabi Customs, Qatar Airways, Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, Miral, Saudi Railways, Mashreq Bank, Damac, Saudi Arabia Tourism Development Fund, Saudi Railway Company, Saudi Arabia Mining Company (Ma’aden) have already chosen Oracle Cloud solutions to drive major transformation within their organisations.

HELPING DRIVE FDI IN THE UAE Growing number of organisations in the UAE have migrated some or all their onpremises IT infrastructure deployments to software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) cloud environments and are realising a range of benefits as a result. These include anywhere/ gulfbusiness.com

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BRAND VIEW

Engineering innovation In an exclusive interview, Maya Zakhour, director Channel Sales - MEA, Italy and Spain at NetApp, shares how they continue to transform in order to meet the needs of their partners and customers Digital transformation has taken a quantum leap during the pandemic.

So, how are you meeting the demands of your customers?

More than 70 per cent of companies accelerated their digital transformation plans by at least a year, with the cloud being a key driver. However, a sharp increase in adoption combined with everfaster release cycles raises concerns about efficiency, cost and security. We aim to advise customers on solutions using best-of-breed products with partners like Ingram Micro. As a preferred NetApp value added distributor, Ingram Micro enables business partners to operate more efficiently and successfully in the markets they serve.

At NetApp, our customers come first, and we continually transform ourselves better to meet the needs of our partners and customers. Enterprises must optimise their cloud costs and secure their cloud configurations.

Spot by NetApp revolutionises cloud infrastructure consumption where we harness advanced analytics and automation to deliver continuous optimisation. As a result, customers save up to 90 per cent of their cloud cost while maintaining the application’s SLA and SLO. We partner with all major cloud providers to ensure our partners and

customers have a choice. We’re also co-engineering innovative solutions and embedding them directly into the services of each cloud provider to make it easier than ever to work with us. Microsoft, Amazon and Google uniquely sell and support NetApp’s storage services.

Tell us about your Kubernetes data management platform - Astra Data Store.

In April 2020, we announced Astra

by NetApp with the mission to make stateful applications on Kubernetes as easy for customers to run and manage as stateless applications. Ever since, we have delivered on this mission with innovations such as Astra Control - the

industry’s first fully managed applicationaware Kubernetes data management service. Over the past seven months, we have introduced Astra Control Service in Google Cloud and Azure and extended support for hybrid cloud deployments with self-managed software for applications running Kubernetes on-premises. In addition, Astra Control allows customers to build backup, disaster recovery, cloning and migration workflows for Kubernetes applications using the same UI and API regardless of where they run.

NetApp is also known for its on-prem data management. What is new in your portfolio for organisations to run their business-critical applications on-prem?

NetApp has introduced the new AFF A900 and ONTAP enterprise edition for business-critical enterprise applications.

The AFF A900 offers organisations the data storage performance to accelerate their business-critical enterprise database and application needs, the security and reliability to keep customer data available and secure, and the simplicity and flexibility that agile organisations require.

The AFF A900 also delivers an enhanced user experience for managing organisations’ most essential enterprise databases like Oracle, SAP HANA, Microsoft SQL Server and virtualised applications.

With the ONTAP enterprise edition and the new anti-ransomware suite, organisations have built-in data protection and anti-ransomware solutions for preemption and post-attack recovery to prevent catastrophic data loss and economic costs.

The AFF A900 is available as a nondisruptive in-chassis upgrade to existing A700 customers, simplifying the refresh and eliminating disruptions to missioncritical operations with advanced reliability, availability, and serviceability (or RAS) capabilities. Additionally, ONTAP software automatically applies firmware updates to increase operational efficiency and simplify day-to-day activities for IT teams. And our Keystone’s support for the AFF A900 provides companies operational and financial flexibility to consume storage and data services in the model that best suits the needs of the business.

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

GCC: THE TOURISM AGENDA

SPECIAL REPORT

Unlimited ambition

BY ZAINAB MANSOOR

How the GCC is building its infrastructure and programmes to transform itself into a major tourist destination over the next few decades

eritage sites. Shopping havens. Sprawling hotels. Mountain resorts. Culinary smorgasbords.

The GCC has effectively – and with intent – altered the conversation around tourism. With luxe projects, desert landscapes and mega destinations either under development or already welcoming guests, the gravitas is slowly but surely shifting to the region, helping vault its profile among the top touristic destinations around the world.

“Gulf states are devoting increasing levels of attention to tourism in an ongoing effort to diversify their economies. In fact, GCC countries leverage multiple advantages to boost their tourism sector, including the region’s location, its connected infrastructure – developed after years of investment and underpinned by a strategic vision – the growing array of modern manmade attractions, such as the world’s tallest building, some of the world’s largest theme parks, a variety of international events and finally its exceptional Georges Assy natural and cultural assets such as heritage sites, intangible culture, one of the world’s largest deserts, a diverse range of coastal areas, diving spots, and island archipelagos, often with special geological and ecological features,” opines Georges Assy, partner, Public Sector at Kearney Middle East.

“Additionally, each GCC country has also leveraged a set of initiatives and levers to position itself as a ‘must-visit destination’. For example, Dubai used the combination of connectivity and top-notch infrastructure, local hospitality investments, multiple entertainment venues and internationally renowned events to put itself on the global tourism map.

Saudi Arabia capitalised on its natural, cultural and spiritual assets, its unique positioning on the Red Sea and new mega development to boost its tourism sector. Oman has been gaining recognition and popularity for its efforts to capitalise on its unique geography, coastline, and cultural heritage, and last but not least, Bahrain gained global recognition for achievements such as hosting the first Formula 1 Grand Prix in the Middle East.”

UAE For a country whose desert dunes served best as a movie backdrop, the UAE has come a long way in its economic transformation journey, positioning itself as an ideal tourism hotspot. Earmarking the sector as a priority point and offering a host of attractions, Dubai – synonymous to icons such as Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest tower) and The Dubai Mall (one of the world’s most visited malls) – announced its tourism strategy, aiming to make the city the most visited one across the world, targeting 25 million visitors annually by 2025.

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SPECIAL REPORT

“Gulf states are devoting increasing levels of attention to tourism in an ongoing effort to diversify their economies. In fact, GCC countries leverage multiple advantages to boost their tourism sector, including the region’s location”

45

SPECIAL REPORT Despite the Covid-19 pandemic hammering the world, Dubai welcomed 6.02 million overnight visitors from January to November 2021, with the highest number of international guests arriving from India, according to the Department of Economy and Tourism. Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UK and the US rounded off the top five source markets. The emirate is also hosting the largest event ever staged in the Arab world, Expo 2020 Dubai, which has clocked in close to 11 million visits just past its halfway mark. More recent additions to the emirate’s skyline include Ain Dubai, the world’s tallest observation wheel.

“The UAE has multiple projects planned to open in 2022, including but not limited to, the Pavilion at The Beach and the Museum of the Future. The UAE also aims to repurpose the Expo 2020 zone (after it closes in March) into a smart city focused on innovation and technology called District Nabeel Al Zarouni 2020,” adds Assy.

Simultaneously, Abu Dhabi is also carving out a growth course for itself, keen to increase the number of visitors. “The newly-launched Tourism Strategy 2030 will mean our focus in 2022 is on the growth of leisure, MICE events and sports tourism, with the overall aim of attracting 23 million tourists annually by 2030, more than double the number of 2019,” explains Nabeel Al Zarouni, Travel Trade and Market Development Regional Section Head - Domestic and Middle East Region, Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi).

“DCT Abu Dhabi is actively participating in international roadshows across the globe to raise awareness of Abu Dhabi

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as a leading leisure destination, while strongly supporting brands and businesses that wish to host MICE events in the city. For event planners, organisers and venues, the Abu Dhabi Convention and Exhibition Bureau (ADCEB), under DCT Abu Dhabi, has pioneered the ‘Advantage Abu Dhabi’ programme, increasing the overall value proposition of the destination by providing an array of support throughout the event-planning cycle, including financial aid.”

SPECIAL REPORT Abu Dhabi is home to a unique and diverse environmental offering, with desert landscapes, island ecosystems, abundant marine life and protected mangrove fields, adds Al Zarouni. While the city is developing its eco-tourism sector, Raki Phillips sustainability is essential to Abu Dhabi and preserving and enhancing its natural environments.

“DCT Abu Dhabi has developed several sustainable eco-tourism initiatives, including Al Reem Mangroves preservation project for the protection of valuable mangroves of Abu Dhabi; Jubail Mangrove Park, an educational, research and leisure destination; Jebel Hafit [which] provides a safe path for visitors, hikers and cyclists to enjoy views from the mountains, and the Sweihan Desert area – a haven for desert lovers and campers; exquisite marine protected areas; and The Hawksbill Turtle Conservation Programme.”

Ras Al Khaimah, meanwhile, also aims to attract 3 million visitors per year by 2030. “From cultural escapes to ecotourism and adrenaline-fuelled adventures to beach retreats, Ras Al Khaimah appeals to a wide range of interests,” notes Raki Phillips, CEO, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority. “[Its] attractions include the world’s first Bear Grylls Explorers Camp, the world’s first branded accommodation, as well as the highest restaurant in the UAE – 1484 by Puro. The emirate is also popular for its attractions such as the Jebel Jais Flight: The World’s Longest Zipline and Jais Sky Tour with many more attractions to open in 2022, such as Jais Sledder, the region’s longest toboggan ride that runs a length of 1,840 meters.”

Phillips notes that they have been working closely with EarthCheck, global environmental experts, to co-create and implement sustainable practices that address key sustainability and climate change issues facing the tourism industry.

“Our initiatives include increased recycling, reduced food wastages, decreased waste and energy consumption, green procurement and cleanups at our tourist hotspots.

“From cultural escapes to eco-tourism and adrenaline-fuelled adventures to beach retreats, Ras Al Khaimah appeals to a wide range of interests”

We’ve also announced and started working on 20 sustainable tourism developments across the emirate, especially on Jebel Jais where our projects have been designed to not just protect the mountain ecosystem, but to enhance it.”

SAUDI ARABIA High among the kingdom’s priorities to tip the scales firmly towards a diversified economy is the revamp of the country’s tourism landscape. The kingdom showcased its intent to rake in broader foreign interest when the kingdom rolled out its international tourism e-visa in September 2019, following a massive global marketing campaign.

Among the high-profile development projects touted to change the tourism landscape are the Red Sea Project – a sustainable development initiative spread across 28,000 sq km, with its own airport, ultra-luxury hotels and resorts (for size, that’s a little smaller than Belgium). Upon completion in 2030, the tourism destination will comprise 50 resorts, offering up to 8,000 hotel rooms and approximately 1,000 residential properties across 22 islands and six inland sites.

AMAALA, the 4,155 sq km destination will include 2,800 hotel keys and more than 900 private residential villas, apartments and estate homes.

“The Red Sea Project and AMAALA provide a gateway to a new frontier in tourism. Both destinations deliver an exceptional barefoot luxury experience that is not only unprecedented in Saudi Arabia, but the wider region,” adds John Pagano, CEO at The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC). “The kingdom has an extraordinary vision to develop the tourism and hospitality sector with a goal to attract 100 million local and internaJohn Pagano tional visitors annually by 2030, and giga-projects such as The Red Sea Project and AMAALA are pivotal to this vision. TRSDC is also vital to the creation, training and capacity-building of the present and next generation of Saudi talent through the creation of 120,000 direct and indirect jobs across both current projects by 2030.”

“In addition, our ambitious regenerative tourism projects are paving the way for renewed sustainable practices within the tourism industry, setting new standards as we progress.

We will be leaving 75 per cent of The Red Sea Project’s islands untouched, for example, and only less than one per cent of the site will be developed – unprecedented in any documented coastal development plan in the world.”

Other eye-catching initiatives include NEOM, the $500bn 10,000-square-mile futuristic city in northwest Saudi Arabia,

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“The Red Sea Project and AMAALA provide a gateway to a new frontier in tourism.

Both destinations deliver an exceptional barefoot luxury experience that is not only unprecedented in Saudi Arabia, but the wider region”

“Qatar is currently fully focused on the FIFA 2022 World cup. The region is expected to attract a significant inflow of visitors into the countries, thereby boosting the hospitality and tourism industry. In fact, Qatar is adding 105 new hotels to its already large portfolio of properties, as the country gears up to host the World Cup. The new properties include Banyan Tree, Pullman West Bay and JW Marriott West Bay,” says Assy.

Bahrain, meanwhile, aims to attract 14.1 million tourists by 2026, as part of a new strategy to diversify its economy. By 2026, the kingdom aims to increase the average daily visitor spend to BHD74.8 ($198) and raise a tourist’s stay on average to 3.5 days. The tourism strategy depends on seven key pillars: developing marine attractions, business tourism, sports tourism, recreational tourism, medical tourism, cultural tourism, and media tourism and cinematography.

Oman also aims to bolster its tourism landscape. The Oman Tourism Development Company (Omran Group) partnered with Dubai’s Diamond Developers for the $1bn first phase of the Yiti Tourism masterplan, which will focus on constructing a sustainable mixed-use project in the sultanate. Meanwhile, Kuwait’s Touristic Enterprises Company revealed its new strategy last year with redevelopment plans for 11 projects, following Kuwait Investment Authority’s approval of a KD250m capital increase.

which is being curated as an incubator for cuttingedge technology. Other tourism projects include the Soudah Development as well as the AlUla project. The masterplan ‘The Journey Through Time’ to sustainably develop the historical area of AlUla, will be implemented in three phases until 2035 and upon completion, aims to deliver 38,000 new jobs and contribute SAR120bn to the kingdom’s GDP. Meanwhile, Boutique Group, a new hospitality brand, which will convert the kingdom’s historic and cultural palaces into ultra-luxury boutique hotels, was launched last month.

OTHER GCC MARKETS With their economies undergoing economic transformation, other GCC countries are also filling up a promising canvas. Besides playing host to the FIFA World Cup later this year, Qatar is keen to welcome visitors from all over the globe. In 2021, Qatar Tourism launched its promotional campaign targeting 17 visitor source markets. The campaign is part of a strategy to increase tourism’s contribution to the GDP to 10 per cent by 2030, as well as attract six million visitors. Qatar Tourism also announced the launch of a two-year ‘World Class Chefs’ project, to host renowned chefs from around the world.

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GOING FORWARD With an ever-growing impetus for sustainable choices, a penchant for immersive experiences and a landmark shift in consumer preferences, tourism will continue to evolve, with the modern traveller seeking more than just a hotel check-in and city tours.

Kearney Middle East’s Assy notes: “Modern tourism has undergone an awakening and strong shift in preferences.

For instance, travellers are increasingly seeking meaningful, transformative, and immersive experiences to reinvent themselves – 72 per cent of millennials prefer spending more money on unique experiences rather than on material things.” Pagano builds on it: “We see environmental consciousness and responsible tourism as a significant consumer preference. In fact, a survey by the World Travel and Tourism Council and Trip.com Group revealed that

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83 per cent of respondents believe sustainability to be a top travel priority. Social impact is a key factor within the tourism industry, as travellers are becoming more selfaware of their impact on the communities they visit. We are also witnessing an immense increase of technology in the travel lifecycle. Innovative technology, when applied to the tourism industry, translates into smart services that create a seamless travel experience and enhance comfort throughout the entirety of any trip.”

Meanwhile, Phillips adds that they have seen a tremendous change in consumer behaviour across most markets with visitors looking to take longer holidays in one destination to explore new places and the diversity of a destination becoming a new area of interest. “We’ve also seen that consumers are becoming more mindful of sustainability and travelling in a responsible manner.”

With the arrival of the modern traveller embracing a renewed set of priorities, a new sense of travel is manifesting, pushing the region to espouse a dynamic touristic era – for which it appears well ready.

SPECIAL REPORT

Destination: Anywhere but home B Y VA R U N G O D I N H O

While outbound tourism from the GCC means tens of billions spent in the destination countries, it also presents an opportunity for entities within the originating country.

These could imply revenue streams for tour operators, airlines and travel insurance providers, among others, which stand to gain when the country’s residents book their foreign trip. According to data shared by Research and Markets, the Saudi revenue from its outbound travel and tourism market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 18.21 per cent from 20212028, reaching $27bn by 2028. There are positive figures for almost all the other GCC markets. The UAE, which has the Arab world’s second-largest economy – and which has an approximately 90 per cent expat population – is expected to gather a revenue of $30.5bn by 2028 by way of outbound travel, Qatar will raise $13bn by then, and Kuwait will notch up $17bn in revenue from this avenue by 2028 (up from approximately $12bn in 2019.)

A PANDEMICPROOF REGION

The pandemic has undoubtedly pushed global tourism off a cliff. The UNWTO said that in 2020 international arrivals The size and monetary value of plummeted by more than 70 per cent, to levels not seen in over three decades. It estimated that the decline resulted in the outbound GCC tourism market a loss of about 1 billion arrivals and $1.1 trillion by way of were never in question – but what international tourism receipts. At the time, UNWTO projected are its challenges, opportunities a rebound in international tourism over the second half of 2021, though cautioned that a return to 2019 levels in terms and key growth drivers in the of international arrivals could take between 2½-4 years. foreseeable future?

However, preliminary data released earlier this year by UNWTO showed that while there was a 4 per cent year-onyear increase in international tourists’ arrivals in 2021, overall, these figures were still 72 per cent below pre-pandemic levels of 2019, highlighting the need for a more sustained and uniform recovery.

There are tourism destinations that bucked hat the GCC market compristhe trend last year – especially when it comes to ing Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, attracting visitors from the GCC. Switzerland is Qatar, Kuwait and Oman, can a prime example. According to figures shared by prove to be an incredibly lucrative Switzerland Tourism as well as from the Swiss source market for global tourDepartment of Statistics, from July-November 2021, ism is beyond doubt. According there was a 2,107 per cent growth in the number to figures shared by the United Anastasia Popova of arrivals from the UAE compared to the same Nations World Travel Organisaperiod in 2020 – it isn’t unusual for tourism boards tion (UNWTO), international tourism expenditure to report such large differences over 2020 when most of the from the GCC climbed from $40bn in 2010 to $60bn in 2017, world was under lockdown for several months and stringent with per capita expenditure of individuals from the GCC 6.5 travel restrictions remained in place. times higher than other regions worldwide.

However, Switzerland Tourism’s highlight is that the JulyTourism boards across the world are only too aware of the November 2021 arrivals of 201,670 people from the UAE fact. “All over the world, [visitors from the GCC] are known was 19.5 per cent higher than the 168,701 individuals that as travellers with high solvency: their average spending on travelled from the UAE over the same period in 2019 – which foreign trips is $1,700-$3,000,” says Anastasia Popova, head means that as far as visits from the UAE are concerned, of International Division, Moscow City Tourism Committee.

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“All over the world, [visitors from the GCC] are known as travellers with high solvency: their average spending on foreign trips is $1,700-$3,000”

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SPECIAL REPORT Switzerland is beating its pre-pandemic figures. the UAE, 9,840 visitors from Qatar, and 3,815 From the GCC alone, Swiss Tourism received visitors from Saudi Arabia,” observes Moscow 352,956 visitors, who in turn generated 15.7 tourism committee’s Popova. million overnights in the Alpine country from A burgeoning GCC source market is true for the July-November last year.

Far East as well, is also reflected in statistics by the Pre-pandemic figures shared by Switzerland Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO).

Jennifer Huntley suggested that Saudi and the UAE account for “In 2019, Japan saw a record high number of around 35 per cent of its arrivals from the GCC, while Kuwait visitors from the GCC countries with 28,222 visitors making and Qatar recorded 13 per cent, and Bahrain and Oman the journey, a 28.4 per cent increase on the previous year followed at between 2-3 per cent. and the figure doubling in the past five years,” says Tomoko Another region that is bucking the trend is the UK. “Flight Kikuchi, executive director of JNTO’s Dubai office. bookings data from ForwardKeys has shown signs of recovery Apart from the often-visited European, Asian and American from the Middle East when it comes to arrivals into the UK haunts for GCC travellers, there are new markets that are only in recent months. The most favourable week so far for the just opening to them – namely Israel. “Following the signing of Middle East was in late November, when arrivals reached 78 the Abraham Accords in 2020, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism per cent of pre-Covid levels, outperforming all other global held the first virtual joint tourism forum of the Emirates and regions,” says Jennifer Huntley, head of partnerships, APMEA Israel in December 2020. One of the main purposes of the region for VisitBritain. forum was to create connections between Israel and UAE’s “In our most recent year of full data, 2019, 1.2 million tourism industries and to initiate collaboration between the visitors came to the UK from the GCC, and those visitors spent two markets in the tourism field,” says Ksenia Kobiakov, GBP2.6bn during their stays. GCC visitors stayed on average 12 director of New Markets Development Department, at the nights, and spent GBP2,151 per visit. On average, from 2017Israel Ministry of Tourism.

2019, 45 per cent of visits from the GCC originated from the “The UAE is a brand-new market for our ministry, specifiUAE, 19 per cent from Saudi Arabia, 16 per cent from Kuwait, cally for our New Markets Development Department. We see 13 per cent from Qatar, 4 per cent from Oman, and 3 per cent great potential in incoming tourism from that destination. from Bahrain,” explains Huntley. Huntley’s assessment of the Therefore, we have put in action – and are already actively lion’s share of visits from the region coming from the UAE, is implementing – a detailed plan to promote tourism from UAE supported by data released by the World Travel & Tourism and Bahrain,” adds Kobiakov.

Council in 2019 which found that while Saudi Arabia was the leading international market for outbound departures from the UAE with a share of 30 per cent, it was followed next by the UK at 17 per cent.

LOCAL The collective tourism potential of the GCC is further CONNECTIONS underscored by other destinations including Moscow. “The growing interest in Moscow is confirmed by statistics such as Realising the need to tailor their messaging for the region, in the first nine months of 2021, there were 107,000 visitors global tourism boards are going the distance. JNTO, for from the Middle East, including almost 19,000 visitors from example, opened its first Middle East office in Dubai last November. By 2030, Japan intends to attract 60 million visitors with a projected annual consumption of JPY 15 trillion – and to get there, it’s going to need to make a big splash in the Middle East. “According to a survey conducted by the JNTO in six GCC countries from May to June 2021, approximately 30 per cent of respondents answered that they would like to go to Japan in the future. Conversely, almost 40 per cent of the respondents answered: ‘I don’t know much about Japan’, presenting an opportunity for the JNTO Dubai office to broaden awareness and increase the number of visitors from the GCC,” says JNTO’s Dubai-based Kikuchi on the reason why it decided to open a representative office in Dubai in the midst of a pandemic.

Also last year, the UNWTO opened its first Middle East office in Riyadh in order to coordinate its initiatives and policies across 13 member states within the region.

At times, attempts are being made at direct exchanges with local tourism boards from the region to learn best practices

Apart from the oftenvisited European, Asian and American haunts for GCC travellers, there are new markets that are only just opening to them – namely Israel

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SPECIAL REPORT as well as to facilitate an exchange of knowledge. and MICE agencies in the region taking part in “I am in touch with Dubai Tourism to develop Arabian Travel Market and events dedicated to collaborations,” says Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the business travel: Meetings Arabia and Luxury deputy mayor of Jerusalem and co-founder of Travel Congress (MALT) and Qatar Business and the UAE-Israel Business Council. “Our tourism Luxury Travel Congress (QBLT),” explains Popova. ministries are in contact and working on [ways] to Foreign tourism boards, as part of their local bring value to each other. We are getting requests outreach initiatives, are also working closely Fleur Hassan-Nahoum about trips to Israel from a cross-section of the with influencers from the region. Switzerland’s public in the Gulf.” tourism board, for example, collaborated with Raha Expo 2020 Dubai particularly has been a focal point in Moharrak, the youngest Arab and first Saudi woman to climb the efforts of countries to drive tourism from the region to Mount Everest, as well as Sara Murad and Haya Yasmeen to their destinations. As Kobiakov from Israel’s ministry of participate in the Swiss “100% Women” initiative where 700 tourism points out, Israel had its pavilion at Expo Dubai women from 20 countries scaled all of the 4,000-metre-plus 2020 opened by Israel Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov. peaks in Switzerland last year. In another initiative, Swiss VisitBritain, VisitScotland and Tourism Ireland meanwhile Tourism also partnered with the wildly popular Dubaiturned to the Expo to launch 10 new itineraries across the based Supercar Blondie who undertook a Grand Tour of UK at the mega event.

Switzerland and produced content for her over seven million Some studies have also correlated a direct measurefollowers on YouTube and close to 10 million followers ment of the impact that the Expo will have on driving outon Instagram. bound tourism. “Middle East tourism accounts for 1.3 per cent of the arrivals to Italy. It’s estimated that a 5 per cent increase of tourist flows to Italy following Expo Dubai would generate an economic value of EUR25.5m a year, accordGROWTH ing to the School of Management of Milan’s Politecnico,” DRIVERS says Paolo Glisenti, commissioner-general of Italy at Expo 2020 Dubai.

There are going to be a handful of key drivers in growing The Expo has allowed international tourism boards the outbound GCC tourism market. These include intraoperating in the UAE one more platform other than the GCC travel whereby residents of countries are encouraged traditional annual Arabian Travel Market held in Dubai every to visit other GCC markets, the role of airlines and finally, year. “The Moscow City Tourism Committee will continue governmental policies that encourage travel. to forge links with travel influencers, major tour operators According to data shared by the GCC Statistical Centre in Muscat, in 2019, the percentage of intra-tourism among GCC countries reached approximately 28.7 per cent of the total number of foreign tourists arriving within the GCC states.

Reportedly, in Bahrain, 95.6 per cent of all the international tourists it received were from other GCC countries. The numbers varied for countries such as the UAE where 15.4 per cent of all its international tourists were from GCC countries, whereas in Saudi that figure stood at 26.5 per cent – indicating the potential of each GCC country to either further encourage travel from within the GCC, or as in the case of Bahrain, encourage it to open up further to tourists from beyond the GCC. Playing a crucial role in stimulating an appetite to travel beyond national borders are airlines. Within months of the signing of the Abraham Accords, several carriers including flydubai, Etihad, Emirates and Gulf Air announced direct flights would begin operating to Israel. Also, budget airlines have recently ramped up operations to aid those who are travelling on modest budgets. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, for example, an ultra-low-cost carrier and a joint venture established between ADQ and Wizz Air Holdings, began operations out of the UAE capital in January 2021. “Wizz Air Abu Dhabi has successfully operated more than 1,000 flights since its launch in January 2021, with over 500 flights

“Our tourism ministries are in contact and working on [ways] to bring value to each other. We are getting requests about trips to Israel from a cross-section of the public in the Gulf ”

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“The introduction of electronic visas, suspended because of the pandemic, will be a great advantage and will contribute to increasing the number of tourists from the GCC to Moscow”

taking place in the fourth quarter of last year. Q4 results were particularly impressive after the easing of travel restrictions in September, with load factors at nearly 85 per cent in December,” says Michael Berlouis, managing director of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi. “Wizz Air Abu Dhabi offers 37 destinations from the UAE to 22 different countries. Further growth East will build on the success of the first year of operations and capitalise on pent-up demand for travel.”

Apart from the low-cost model, other airlines such as the full-service carrier Emirates, have entered into agreements directly with foreign tourism boards to encourage travel.

Emirates recently signed an MoU with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Public Service of The Bahamas to roll out joint initiatives to promote tourism to the Caribbean country, including via its Emirates Holidays platform.

Another avenue to grow outbound tourism will be governmental and administrative policies, including visa liberalisation measures. A few months ago, a visa waiver agreement between Israel and the UAE for citizens of the two countries took effect, and the results are already being felt on the ground. “Thanks to the elimination of the need for visas

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since October 10, and the re-opening of Israel borders, we are looking forward to seeing a major increase in the number of visitors from the GCC. According to our estimates, Israel expects to welcome around 100,000 visitors from the GCC annually as long as the tourism situation worldwide goes back to normal,” says Israel tourism ministry’s Kobiakov.

The sentiment is echoed by Moscow City tourism’s Popova who adds, “The introduction of electronic visas, suspended because of the pandemic, will be a great advantage and will contribute to increasing the number of tourists from GCC to Moscow.”

Healthy forecasts are shared by VistiBritain’s Huntley too, who notes, “The most recent forecasts from Oxford Economics/VisitBritain predict that visits from the GCC will more than double in 2022 compared to 2021, reaching 550,000 in total. Visits in 2023 are forecasted to be a further 50 per cent higher, reaching 828,000.”

The pandemic and its numerous curveballs notwithstanding, forecasts such as these show that the growth drivers are primed to support an exponential growth in GCC’s outbound tourism market.

SPECIAL REPORT

Tourism: Crunching numbers A closer look at the growth and potential of the GCC region as a source market for destinations worldwide INTERNATIONAL TOURISM EXPENDITURE FROM THE GCC

$40bn

$60bn

2010

2017

With per capita expenditure of individuals from the GCC 6.5 times higher than other regions worldwide

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352,956 NUMBER OF VISITORS RECEIVED BY SWISS TOURISM FROM THE GCC

FROM JULY-NOVEMBER 2021 Generated 15.7 million overnights in the Alpine country

Within months of the signing of the Abraham Accords

Etihad

ALL DATA ARE NORMALISED TO A SCALE OF 0 TO 100, WITH 100 THE BEST SCORE

45% 40

ARRIVALS INTO THE UK

19% 13%

1.2 MILLION

4%

3%

VISITORS CAME 10 TO THE UK FROM THE GCC, AND THOSE VISITORS SPENT

BAHRAIN

OMAN

QATAR

KUWAIT

0 SAUDI ARABIA

announced direct flights would begin operating to Israel

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16%

Gulf Air

Emirates

30

(2017-2019)

UAE

flydubai

GBP2.6BN

DURING THEIR STAYS

A 5 PER CENT INCREASE OF TOURIST FLOWS TO ITALY FOLLOWING EXPO DUBAI WOULD GENERATE AN ECONOMIC VALUE OF

EUR25.5m a year 57

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“DUBAI HAS BEEN AT THE VANGUARD OF THE WORLD’S TOURISM AND ECONOMIC REBOUND, SETTING THE TONE FOR SUSTAINED RECOVERY AND GROWTH” HELAL SAEED ALMARRI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, DUBAI’S DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMY AND TOURISM

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The art of time Artist David Galbraith has unveiled a series of special-edition clocks celebrating the UAE and its heritage p.68

“We have exciting plans to open more stores across the GCC as well as continue to develop our e-commerce operations” —Martijn Hagman, CEO Tommy Hilfiger Global and PVH Europe

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Technogym x Dior A set of limitededition stylish home fitness products arising from this new collaboration include a treadmill, a multifunction bench and a wellness ball February 2022

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Responsible fashion Martijn Hagman, CEO Tommy Hilfiger Global and PVH Europe, is helming a brand that focuses as much on fashion as it does on its social development goals. With an aggressive expansion strategy underway in the GCC, this is a region where the brand is fully aware of its untapped potential

BY VARUN GODINHO

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February 2022

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Martijn Hagman, CEO Tommy Hilfiger Global and PVH Europe

Lifestyle / Fashion

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o regard Tommy Hilfiger as only a premium allAmerican designer brand is a severely limiting exercise.

The brand, which employs more than 16,000 people globally and generates billions in sales revenue annually, knows that its voice extends far beyond fashion and deep into conversations around sustainability, circular economy and inclusivity.

“The topic of sustainability…is core to who we are as a brand, and a responsibility that directly reports to me within the business,” says Martijn Hagman, CEO of Tommy Hilfiger Global and PVH Europe, in an exclusive interview with Gulf Business.

“We launched Make it Possible in 2020, which is our bold sustainability programme that reinforces Tommy Hilfiger’s commitment to create fashion that Wastes Nothing and Welcomes All. We’ve outlined initial targets centred on circularity and inclusivity, as seen in our recent products using more organic and recycled materials, as well as in our increased transparency, as it relates to products, supply chain and brand impacts.”

There is a dire need for the fashion industry to drastically alter its course to become more sustainable. By one estimate, the fashion industry consumes 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources annually, while the volume of clothes being bought is projected to triple by 2050.

As for striding towards a sustainable future, Tommy Hilfiger has hit the ground running. By 2030, it aims for all its products to be designed, produced and distributed to return to biological or technical loops at the end of their

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“We currently have more than 50 Tommy Hilfiger stores across the GCC region, working with a franchise model and collaborating closely with our local partners to deliver our strategic ambitions” lifecycle. Two years ago, it launched its first 100 per cent recycled cotton denim jeans, which used leftover cotton scraps obtained from factory floors and cutting tables, in addition to thread from recycled plastic bottles. It made Tommy Hilfiger the first brand to achieve 100 per cent recycled cotton fabric at an industrial scale for one of its most popular lines, its denim jeans.

Its Luv the World Spring 2021 capsule collection launched last year took that thought one step further. All the pieces in it were designed using 100 per cent recycled as well as 100 per cent recyclable

materials which further used chemicalfree print graphics too.

Rather than discarding the pieces at the end of their lifecycle, Tommy used the hang tags on them to depict how to tie-die white T-shirts, how to turn a T-shirt into a tote bag or a face mask, and even how to repurpose a hoodie into a striking dog jacket.

Its previously launched Tommy for Life programme also builds on the idea of extending the end-of-life terms of its products. Tommy for Life takes preowned or damaged Tommy Hilfiger and Tommy Jeans garments and either fixes them or ‘remixes’ them into new, limited-edition styles which are then resold.

“Our Spring 2022 collection includes 76 per cent more sustainable styles. Our 2021 collections were made using 51 per cent more sustainable materials such as organic and recycled cotton, more sustainable wool and recycled polyester, an 82 per cent increase from 2020,” adds Hagman.

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n the 37 years since the founding of the brand, Tommy Hilfiger has become an exemplary business success. It is currently owned by PVH which also counts brands such as Calvin Klein, Van Heusen and Arrow within its portfolio. Overall, PVH has more than 40,000 associates operating in more than 40 February 2022

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“We envision a world where the digital and physical worlds will further merge over time. Everyone is talking about the Metaverse, and while it is still largely undefined, it is real” countries and has reported $9.9bn in annual revenues as of 2019. Tommy Hilfiger meanwhile has more than 16,000 employees globally, and 2020 global retail sales of $6.9bn.

In Q3 2021, Tommy Hilfiger recorded revenues of $1.2bn, up 12 per cent over the corresponding period in 2020. It currently has over 2,000 stores globally, with an increasing focus on the GCC countries. In fact, in 2020, it opened six stores in the region, including four in Saudi Arabia and one each in Dubai and Kuwait.

The Tommy Hilfiger Store in Dubai opened in Dubai Mall last May, marking the brand’s first dedicated footwear and accessories concept in the GCC. Its new 62

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outpost in Kuwait opened in Kuwait City’s Assima Mall in September. “We currently have more than 50 Tommy Hilfiger stores across the GCC region, working with a franchise model and collaborating closely with our local partners to deliver our strategic ambitions. In 2021, we opened an office in Dubai. The Middle East and Africa (MEA+) regions present us with many growth opportunities. While it’s still relatively small, representing approximately 2 per cent of our Europe Middle East (EMEA) business, we see great growth potential,” says Hagman.

Its partners in the region are the UAEheadquartered Apparel Group, led by Sima Ved and Nilesh Ved. Apparel Group

operates Tommy Hilfiger stores across the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, as well as the e-commerce operations of the business within the region.

Of the six new stores opened in the region last year, notably, four were in Saudi. They included one each in Medina’s Rashid Mall, Jeddah’s Jeddah Park Mall, Riyadh’s Nakheel Mall and a 300-square-metre presence in Riyadh’s Granada Mall. “The retail section in Saudi Arabia is among the fastest growing in the world,” notes Hagman, adding, “We have exciting plans to open more stores across the GCC as well as continue to develop our e-commerce operations.”

E-commerce has played a significant role in Tommy’s business model, further accelerated by the pandemic. It’s one that Hagman as CEO has kept a close eye on even as its brick-and-mortar expansion plans remain firmly underway. “We increased our focus on our digital channels for consumer-facing and B2B. Prior to the pandemic, our Digital Showrooms around the world had revolutionised wholesale gulfbusiness.com

Lifestyle / Fashion

selling through fully digital experiences.

As the pandemic escalated, we quickly shifted to accommodate remote appointments and introduced two new selling options: Virtual Showrooms and a B2B Webshop platform for customers to place seasonal orders remotely.

“Our brick-and-mortar retail spaces will continue to play an important role, and as we further integrate these spaces, they will become more connected to our own e-commerce channels or third-party online platforms,” says Hagman.

As part of the overall digital transformation strategy, and a move that feeds back into the sustainability agenda, is PVH’s 3D design technology.

Last year, PVH decided to make its Stitch 3D platform available to everyone, including its competitors – at a price – to get more of its peers to grow their 3D design capabilities. “3D design technology has major advantages for the business and has the potential to create a more circular and sustainable system. Through Stitch, our 3D design hub, we have developed a tech-based ecosystem that facilitates a fully digital product-creation workflow. To further digitalise the fashion industry, digital product creation sits at the core while simultaneously enabling the industry to become overall more sustainable,” says Hagman.

the brand, the New York state-bornTommy Hilfiger himself – takes the bull by the horns on the subject. “It is my personal priority and commitment to increase the representation of black, indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC), female and other under-represented groups in all PVH Europe and Tommy Hilfiger global leadership positions. Last year, we launched the People’s Place Program to advance the representation of BIPOC within the fashion and creative industries; and two of the four pillars of our ambitious Make it Possible programme are devoted to achieving our inclusivity goals,” says Hagman.

Last month, the two winners of the third edition of the Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Frontier Challenge contest that provides BIPOC entrepreneurs with a chance to win EUR100,000 in funding and the opportunity to scale their ideas with experts at PVH were announced.

This year’s winners are Rwandan ecofriendly shoe brand, Uzuri K&Y which uses recycled car tires from sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Lalaland, a Netherlandsbased platform that uses AI to generate synthetic models of different ages, ethnicities, and sizes, in more than 35 poses.

Technology will play a crucial role in the future of Tommy Hilfiger and Hagman will have to determine that direction and pace. Hagman provides a peek into how that technology would play a role in the brand’s future. “We envision a world where the digital and physical worlds will further merge over time.

Everyone is talking about the Metaverse, and while it is still largely undefined, it is real. It focuses on making digital twins of products or uniquely digital-only pieces. For us, this may mean virtual copies of our stores and showrooms or hosting virtual experiences in stores and physical experiences in virtual worlds.

Stores will take on a new role as an interconnector, enabling us to expand the brand experience.”

Ultimately, Hagman is aware that technology can only move as far forward and as quickly as the brand’s customers dictate. “While there are many opportunities to act on, one thing is clear: we must advance innovation if we want to meet our consumers exactly where they are,” says Hagman. Determining where those customers stand is perhaps at the top of the agenda for the CEO.

“A

s a company, we haven’t done enough yet, but we are determined to do better,” Hagman admits about Tommy Hilfiger’s actions on diversity and inclusivity. It’s a rare admission for business leaders in the fashion industry to make, though Hagman – like the 70-year-old eponymous founder of

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Lifestyle / Fashion

Tailored for perfection

Left-right: Anil, Ashok and Ravi Ramchandani

Dubai-based Kachins Couture has completed over 40 years in the menswear tailoring business. Secondgeneration family member Anil Ramchandani, director of business development, is playing a key role in determining its future course

690 sq ft store offering only bespoke tailoring services to a two-storey 3,000 sq ft store offering a one-stop-shop for bespoke tailoring and fabrics under one roof. My father expanded the existing store, and also acquired two more next to it. It made Kachins a prime shopping location for men and women. This is also when he launched the first designer boutique for women.

Kachins Group currently employs 140 employees across our five showrooms and factory. At present, our volume stands in the range of 8,000-10,000 suits and shirts per annum.

Tell us about the fabrics used and the expertise of the tailors currently employed.

We have collaborated with many renowned European fabric brands and mills. Some of the brands we offer include – but are not limited to – Scabal, Holland & Sherry, Cerruti, Huddersfield Worsted, Thomas Mason and Monti. Our tailors have been working with us for decades now. The years of experience and practice allows us to provide our clients with a high level of quality and workmanship.

BY VARUN GODINHO

What is the range of services that Kachins currently offers?

What was Dubai’s menswear tailoring market like when your father Ashok Ramchandani established Kachins Couture in 1981?

In the 1980s, menswear tailoring was emerging in the UAE. There were only fourfive stores that provided tailoring services for men in Dubai. My father established our first store in the heart of Bur Dubai, and it still exists today. Some of his early clients included Emirates Airline, Coca-Cola, Juma Al Majid, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and many five-star hotels that placed their uniform orders with us.

At what point did Kachins transition from a small-scale business to a larger operation?

In 1989, Kachins evolved from a single 64

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We offer a complete range of products and services ranging from ready-to-wear shirts to fully-canvassed bespoke suits. The steps [to create a bespoke suit] involve an initial consultation where a client is introduced to our services and where they sample the wide range of available fabrics. They are then introduced to the master cutter who uses his measuring methods to learn about the client’s posture and considers how best to accentuate their features. Next, be it your jacket, shirt, waistcoat, trousers, or shorts, this is the point where clients can customise every little detail with a variety of options such as thread colours, linings, buttons, designs, and cuts. The next stage is fittings where a roughly-stitched suit is put together so the master can see how well it gulfbusiness.com

Lifestyle / Fashion

“My father expanded the existing store, and also acquired two more next to it. It made Kachins a prime shopping location for men and women. Kachins Group currently employs 140 employees across our five showrooms and factory. At present, our volume stands in the range of 8,000-10,000 suits and shirts per annum”

a client can set up an appointment and create a pair of shoes from scratch, and style it exactly how they want to. It’s a similar process to making a suit. Shoes have had an immense growth in demand over the past few years. We’ve been bringing in genuine bespoke shoes from Italy and Spain to fulfil this segment in our business.

You will be launching an e-commerce platform this year. What are some of your expectations from it?

This website will be our gateway to markets we haven’t been able to reach yet. Many of our clients who visit us from around the world have been unable to reach us due to travel restrictions or faced difficulties due to the pandemic. This platform will help us cater to them in a bigger and better way. We aim to establish Kachins in markets around the world and this will be our gateway to it.

What are your expansion plans?

This year, we have a few stores already in the pipeline, one of which will be our first international store outside the UAE. We have been looking into expanding in the GCC region for a while now. Covid19, of course, was one of the reasons we haven’t been able to execute this yet.

But I do believe this will be our year to finally get back out there and see Kachins expand internationally. We aim to have at least five stores overseas by the end of next year.

What are the advantages of working within a family-owned business setup?

works on the client. Alterations are made and a second fitting is decided accordingly.

Our service doesn’t stop once the delivery is done. A team member will be in touch with the client after a few weeks to ensure the suit is fitting well and to find out if there are any alterations required. Moreover, on successful completion and delivery of your garments, the client’s measurements and specifications are permanently stored in our system for future reference. This helps us minimise the lead time for repeat orders.

We also offer door-to-door services where clients can enjoy our bespoke tailoring services from the comfort of their home or their office. If necessary, a client can even get his suits as quickly as gulfbusiness.com

three days when he places an order for urgent delivery.

Apart from tailoring, shoes are another significant component of your business.

Tell us about it.

We do provide a range of ready-to-wear shoes as well as custom-made shoes where

The best part about having a family business is the support system that comes with it. Be it a new project or a difficulty you’re facing, we always support each other. Growing up with this business, I’ve not only learned from my father, but also from my siblings, Ravi and Neetu, who are a big part of the organisation. They’ve been involved in the business much longer than I have and when I joined, they supported and guided me.

Yes, there are definitely times where we have a conflict of interest or approach that we all can’t agree upon, but this doesn’t stop us from working well together. We’ve always respected each other’s decisions and moved ahead, treating it as an experiment, with its failure and success, contributing to our learning curve.

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Lifestyle / Fashion

A clear vision

Andrea Zaffin, managing director of Safilo Middle East and commercial head IMEA, outlines his strategy to take the company’s eyewear business to the next level

BY VARUN GODINHO

Give us a business overview of Safilo’s operations.

Safilo Group began in Italy in 1878 with its first eyewear and optical frames production facility. Today, we are one of the major players in the design, production and distribution of sunglasses, optical frames, and sports glasses.

Our brand portfolio is made of iconic eyewear brands such as Carrera, Polaroid, Smith owned by Safilo, as well as licenced brands including BOSS, Carolina Herrera, David Beckham, Dsquared2, Isabel Marant, Jimmy Choo, Kate Spade New York, Levi’s, Marc Jacobs, Missoni, Moschino, Tommy Hilfiger and Under Armour.

Safilo has been present in this region with its brands for decades, working with local partners and retailers. In 2014, we localised our commercial hub for the Middle East in Dubai and opened a fullyowned subsidiary with a state-of-the-art showroom in order to be close to our clients in the region and provide the full range of our latest collections.

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Last year, has been a strong year for us in the region not only in terms of numbers (top line and bottom line exceeded 2019), but also in terms of relationships and projects. For instance, we introduced a special-edition Carrera for Dubai and Jimmy Choo Middle East capsule collection; we also launched a special collaboration with Carrera as the official eyewear partner of the 1000Miglia race which will happen in 2022 in UAE. Has your approach to business changed over the last two decades that you’ve worked in Dubai?

It has been 22 years since I arrived in Dubai. This might seem like a cliché, but my approach has been always to work as a partner with our clients. However, establishing long-term alliances is not so obvious and being able to succeed in managing 15-20-year-long relationships requires much more than just ‘doing business’. It needs mutual respect and passion for building the business together.

Andrea Zaffin, managing director of Safilo Middle East

For me, the ultimate achievement is actually looking back and seeing the result of such a journey, both on a professional and personal level.

How has the eyewear distribution model evolved and where is it headed?

The eyewear industry is pretty peculiar. We do two categories: sunglasses and optical frames. They seem pretty much the same, but they are very different. Sunglasses are not only functional to protect from the sun but are also fashion accessories driven by fashion trends, whereas optical frames are clearly more functional with more medical/technical service involved gulfbusiness.com

Lifestyle / Fashion

(such as eye testing and lens prescription, for example). In the early years in this region, I remember the focus was very much on newness and big brands because 80 per cent of the market was driven by sunglasses reflecting trends seen in the fashion industry.

Newness and big names are still very important in the sunglass category.

However, in the past few years, optical frames has been the category leading the growth. The attention to eye wellness and a generally wider acceptance of optical frames is certainly lending a strong momentum to this category.

Today, this region is definitely leading internationally in terms of its retail offering.

We have among the most beautiful optical stores in the world thanks to investment by local retail groups. All major eyewear and lens manufacturers now have a direct presence in Dubai with local offices and teams. It’s clear that this has raised the bar for the entire industry, with the consumer benefitting from it.

Consumers, especially the younger generation, are now moving towards mid-price

The Carrera for Dubai collection

products. Today, it’s key to have a balanced offering and Safilo does so with brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Carrera, Levi’s and Under Armour, to name a few.

Tell us about the Carrera collection that was recently created for Dubai.

The special edition Carrera for Dubai is a very important project to me – it honours the city and people of Dubai. It’s a project we are very proud and honoured to

“In the past few years, optical frames has been the category leading the growth. The attention to eye wellness and a generally wider acceptance of optical frames is lending a strong momentum to this category”

have launched in partnership with Dubai Tourism. It is a special-edition collection, featuring one of our iconic styles, the Safari 65, with Carrera for Dubai co-branding on the lens and temple.

What role will e-commerce play in Safilo’s model?

When we talk about online sales, we refer mainly to sunglasses (even though the online market for optical glasses is growing). The question is not “if” but “how” to evolve the retail proposition while integrating digital tools. I believe consumers will still pay a premium if the physical retail offering remains relevant and delivers a valuable service proposition. We need to evolve with an omnichannel approach – digital tools can help us in improving our service, allowing us to work in synergy with our customers and consumers all over the world, both online and offline.

What are the key targets that you’ve set for this year?

In 2022, we aim to deliver another strong year focusing on our Carrera and Polaroid collection, our core licences as well as the launch of four new brands (Carolina Herrera, Under Armour, Dsquared2, Chiara Ferragni Collection). We will continue to build on our optical offerings providing an assortment in line with our clients’ needs. The key objective is to support our partners with a clear calendar of activations for our brands in the region, as well as focusing on service levels and after-sales. In 2022, we will increase focus and investment on our new B2B online platform. gulfbusiness.com

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Lifestyle / Horology

Capturing time David Galbraith has brought his decades-long experience as an artist to the traditional craft of English clockmaking, with a deliberate focus on the Middle East

BY VARUN GODINHO

A

s a young child, David Galbraith always had two items on his person: a pencil and a sketchbook. By the age of seven, he added a third: a wristwatch gifted to him on his birthday that year by his parents. Those three items would go on to define the career, and now the legacy, of the Englishman.

England in the Seventies was an electric mix of cultural upheavals across the creative arts. It’s within that environment that Galbraith came of age. In 1974, he took up a part-time job as a junior graphic designer for an advertising agency in Canterbury, where his employers soon realised that his illustrative and graphic work was of a very high standard. Eager to hone that skill, he enrolled in the Medway College of Design, Chatham – whose alumni includes the likes of Karen Millen, Tracey Emin, and Zandra Rhodes — studying fine art and graphic design.

The year after he finished studying at Medway, Galbraith was offered a job as a 68

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David Galbraith

graphic designer for a French architectural company in Saudi Arabia. “I arrived in Riyadh in the summer of 1976 to start my job. I was thrilled to be living and working in the kingdom. I enjoyed embracing a completely different culture and spent much of my free time exploring Riyadh, particularly the old part of the city, the ‘Batha’. I took many photographs in the surrounding desert, wadis and sometimes went out into the Empty Quarter too,” reminisces Galbraith.

“My life at that time was a huge adventure and the perfect opportunity. During my three years in Saudi Arabia, I visited many other parts of the Middle East, including Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE.” Galbraith followed that up with several years as a designer, rising to the level of a creative director over time. But after over four decades in the industry, he knew he had to transition away from capping career highlights and towards defining his legacy.

In 2019, he left the commercial designing arena, deciding to focus on fine art. There was another aspect that Galbraith was keen to tie into this chapter: horology. “My interest in clocks started at the age of 12 when I visited Salisbury Cathedral, home to the world’s oldest clock. It was made in the 14th century, and absolutely fascinated me,” says Galbraith.

To realise his ambition of merging art with horology, he found a collaborator in Swindon-based Deacon & Son. “For 25 years, I’ve been a regular customer of the historic and high-quality jewellers in Wiltshire. Deacon & Son is a historic clock and watchmaker founded in 1848. I soon became a friend of Richard Deacon, the sixth-generation family member to run the business.”

Richard collaborated with Galbraith to form a separate company called Historic Times that produces high-end handmade clocks, decorated with Galbraith’s art.

“Three years ago, Richard and I decided to work together to design and produce gulfbusiness.com

Lifestyle / Horology

fine, handmade English clocks featuring my artwork. The world’s clock market had for decades been swamped with cheap electric or battery-operated clocks, while the handmade mechanical clock business had diminished. But now, many people want to acquire mechanical clocks and wristwatches with a real heartbeat,” notes Galbraith.

While Switzerland has done well to secure its positioning as a world-class source of high-end horology, English

“Many people think of Switzerland as being home to the finest clock and watchmakers in the world, but England has a long and proud tradition of producing fine mechanical timepieces” watchmakers, including the likes of Bremont, Roger W. Smith and Robert Loomes, are just as equally skilled as their Swiss counterparts in the craft.

“Many people think of Switzerland as being home to the finest clock and watchmakers in the world, but England has a long and proud tradition of producing fine mechanical timepieces. Richard Deacon and I are embracing the opportunity we have to combine these wonderful timepieces with fine art,” says Galbraith.

Here in the UAE, Galbraith’s artwork, as well as the clocks produced by Historic Times, are on display at The Arabian Gallery, located within the Dubai headquarters of Motivate Media Group. Some of his exquisite art includes the nearly Dhs55,000 acrylic painting on poplar panel artwork, titled ‘The Arabian Falcon’.

Meanwhile, some of the clocks from Galbraith’s collection includes The Arabian Falcon Limited Edition Carriage Clock.

The gold-plated clock, which features images of Galbraith’s Arabian Falcon artwork, has an eight-day power reserve, weighs 5kg and is limited to only 100 pieces. It is presented in a blue fitted leather case handmade in England. gulfbusiness.com

Some of the clocks under the Historic Times collection are inspired by other famous personalities. The Sir Wilfred Thesiger Cheltenham Clock features 20thcentury photographic images of Arabia, taken by the English explorer and travel writer Sir Wilfred Thesiger.

The photographic images were scanned and digitally printed onto the four panels of the clock, which are hand-lacquered and polished. The mantel clock with a polished triple chime movement has a solid brass rhodium-plated canopy, which reveals the movement. The clock is mounted on

a handmade base with a drawer. The Sir Wilfred Thesiger Carriage Clock is limited to only 50 pieces. The Sir Wilfred Thesiger Navigator Clock are also available under this collection.

To celebrate the UAE’s 50th anniversary, a country that Galbraith is familiar with since the Seventies, he released a series of clocks specially designed to commemorate the nation’s golden jubilee. “I embraced the challenge of designing a clock to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of the UAE. I was trying to think of a suitable concept for this particular clock [the Navigator] and coincidentally had ordered a book called the Arabian Nights whose cover happened to be in a particular style that immediately inspired me.

“I set about producing a digital drawing of the Al Jahili Fort in Abu Dhabi that I used as a representation of the unity of the seven emirates, and then created drawings of famous buildings from each of the seven emirates to show a sense of equality,” explains Galbraith.

The United Arab Emirates 50th Anniversary Limited Edition Navigator Clock, limited to only 50 pieces, not only features all those images at the base, but the 18-carat yellow gold-plated clock has a white dial, with 18-carat yellow gold-plated appliques.

Similarly, there is a UAE 50th anniversary edition in the Carriage Clock style with similar work on it.

Three years into the venture that merges art and clocks alongside Richard Deacon, Galbraith says there’s much more to come. “We can design and produce bespoke clocks to order, and will work closely with a client to either produce new artwork or use existing artwork for the clock’s panels.

We can design and produce custom dials along with finely engraved artwork to the client’s specifications.”

With these clocks, Galbraith has started placing the foundation stones of his legacy.

“I am currently working on a new, larger and highly accurate clock called a regulator. The regulator will be available soon. I am passionate about my art and love of horology, and the combination of the two is my life’s legacy.”

To learn more about the clocks, visit thearabiangallery.com

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Lifestyle / Sports

Shaping conversations Former British servicemen, David Wiseman and Nathan Jones, have co-founded Peak State to destigmatise the subject of mental health and change the traditional messaging around it

BY VARUN GODINHO

Nathan, in 2014, a routine flight you were flying resulted in a horrific incident. What happened that day?

JONES: I was flying a Voyager aircraft, an Airbus A330, from the RAF Brize Norton station to Helmand Province in Afghanistan. We were in cruise mode, flying at 33,000 feet when I decided to exit the cockpit and take a break. While I was having a cup of tea, the next thing I knew was that I was pinned to the roof. I realised we were plummeting into the sea. I had to crawl on the roof, pull myself down to my seat, and then activate a button that gave me priority on my controls [to take over the aircraft].

What happened is that the captain – I was the co-pilot at the time – was taking photos of the stars with an SLR camera and got his camera jammed at the controls. So, he moved his seat forward and it knocked the autopilot out, jamming the stick all the way forward. He was there thinking the autopilot was stuck, but instead, it was the camera jamming the controls.

I was severely injured from ramming into the roof. I split the back of my head open and broke my back. From 2014, I was full-time in the defence medical rehab centre, recovering from both physical and mental injuries.

David, you still have a bullet in your chest from an incident in Afghanistan. Tell us about that.

WISEMAN: I was an officer in the British Army in the infantry unit. It was my second tour in Afghanistan. I previously served in Baghdad. I was embedded with the Afghan National Army, with a small specialised team of nine British soldiers with me.

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(Left-right) Nathan Jones and David Wiseman

I was in Helmand Province in 2009, and it was a terrible year for us. Over two weeks, at the back end of October and November, we dealt with 25 different casualties.

On November 15th, 2009, I became the 26th casualty.

We had fought the Taliban off an area and had to push them back a little bit further that day. As we crossed into the next tactical bound, we were engaged by a position, where I didn’t have cover.

Essentially, an enemy sniper got us in the end. One round zipped past my head and it sounded like someone had cracked a whip, and soon after, I heard the sound of the weapon firing. That one went past my head.

I didn’t react quickly enough because the second one slammed into my chest. The bullet hit just below my clavicle, travelled down the length of my torso, nicking my axial artery on the way, smashing through my brachial plexus and then shredding through my lung. It shattered my ribs and came to rest in my right lung where it still sits today.

My chest was filling with blood and [my team] kept me alive for long enough until an American chopper landed to take me away. In fact, I stopped breathing three times, waiting on the ground. I was moved to the back of the chopper; as they strapped me down, I stopped breathing again. That’s when [the paramedic] took out a blade and cut into my chest without an anaesthetic

and [inserted a tube]. All that blood seeped out onto the floor of the helicopter, and I could finally breathe again.

I spent a week in intensive care in Birmingham. I left the Army in 2013 after several years in and out of the fantastic Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court.

You’ve both participated in many Invictus Games. What are some of the most heroic stories you’ve come across?

JONES: The guy who really stands out is our very good friend, Dr. David Henson. He lost both his legs to an IED. He came back from that and discovered sport, becoming a fantastic sprinter with the aid of his prosthetic legs. He then captained the British Invictus team in 2014 and went on to win a bronze medal at the Paralympics in Rio 2016. He then got a PhD in biomechanics, as he wants to develop a new prosthesis for the next generation. He and I have co-founded the CASEVAC club, a private member’s club for wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Together, we are influencing and advancing the understanding of trauma.

The two of you also co-founded Peak State.

How did that happen and what are some of its objectives?

WISEMAN: After I left the army, I went to work for Prince Harry and Prince William at The Royal Foundation. I was advising

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Lifestyle / Sports

communities. So, we create content that is bespoke for a community, region, or nationality.

One of the areas that we’re now working on is youth empowerment. We’ve spoken at COP26 and a string of conferences on this subject.

Nathan Jones and David Wiseman with Prince Harry at the Invictus Games 2016 in Orlando

them on their philanthropic involvement with supporting those who serve. There were lots of different programmes over the years, and mental health was interwoven in a lot of those programmes. But the message with mental health has always been from a negative angle. It’s always been discussing depression, anxiety or trauma – and that really isn’t the whole story. There’s the other spectrum about it, promoting the management of good mental health.

And Peak State essentially focuses on that thinking.

Peak State is a collection of tools and techniques that we’ve taken from across the world of sports psychology to influence and help people adopt a proactive approach to the better management of mental health.

JONES: I went to university to do sports

science, and sports psychology was a big part of it. When you say that your mind is the most important muscle in your body, it couldn’t be more relevant now with what we’re doing with Peak State. The issue with all these learnings are that the marginal gains of sports psychology are only being afforded to professional and elite athletes.

It’s not really being spoken about among the general public and those who arguably need it the most.

What we’re trying to do is destigmatise the conversation around mental health.

We’re giving people the option to do so through a library of tools and techniques, and we understand that it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.

We’ve packaged something, knowing that everyone stays on this spectrum of mental health – whether they’re an elite sportsperson, biohacker, or if even if they’ve never focused on it before – and we help them with tools such as breathwork to activate their parasympathetic gulfbusiness.com

What can we expect from you in 2022?

nervous system, sleep nutrition and nutrition. We help them develop their knowledge to use these daily to become higher-performing individuals.

By doing so, they’re putting on different bits of armour. So, if something does arise, and they get stressed or anxious, they have these tools in their arsenal as coping mechanisms. Why send a soldier into battle without the armour just because you know that there’s going to be someone with a plaster at the other end to fix that wound?

You were at the Expo 2020 recently. What are some of the discussions you’ve had here in the UAE on the subject of mental health?

JONES: We had a fantastic lecture at the Dubai Exhibition Center at RewirEd. I think people [here] are open to this idea of mental fitness.

I think what we’re offering with Peak State is exciting and isn’t just for elite athletes. It isn’t just for executive coaching. It is for everybody. We’ve got programmes running in Australia, the US, and are about to launch in Greece. We would love to do something in this region.

JONES: The reason why we’re here is that we created this bespoke content for different communities.

It’s pointless for someone here in the UAE, for example, to watch a video that was created for Australian

WISEMAN: If we could get our tools and techniques into the schools in this region, we’re going to have some extraordinary young people becoming adults. There’s this climate of anxiety. The youth are our future leaders, so you need to get this in place now – otherwise, you’re just putting bandages in the future. In 2022, what we would like to do in this region is for Peak State tools to be inserted into the UK personal, social, health and economic school curriculum, supported by our app, which is coming out this year.

When you have brands such as Bremont backing initiatives like Peak State, how does that help further your cause?

WISEMAN: You know, people might think that Bremont makes luxury watches, so what’s that got to do with [Peak State]?

Well, it is about values and a crossover of those values.

We see that their adventurous, forward-thinking and progressive spirit is exactly what’s needed, and that’s the kind of crossover we’re looking at with Peak State. Bremont’s tagline is ‘Tested Beyond Endurance’.

And if you have these Peak State tools, you can actually be tested beyond endurance.

JONES: Bremont is our official timing partner. We have partnered with a variety of health tech companies and firms such as Iris, who make the audio software that goes into the headsets for Red Bull Racing.

Max Verstappen’s helmet and Christian Horner’s headset have the same audio software that goes into Peak State. Iris creates dimensional soundscapes for us.

We’ve partnered with world-leading companies to bridge the gaps and legitimise what we’re doing. It gives the general public access to the marginal gains of elite athletes.

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The SME Story A dedicated hub for the regional startup and SME ecosystem

INTERVIEW

The right connection uDroppy, which recently raised $Im in a seed funding round, helps online retailers in the initial supply chain set-up process What is the core business model of uDroppy?

uDroppy has been created to be the missing piece of the puzzle. Our experience in creating and managing e-commerce stores led us to understand a simple problem of the digital retail industry.

Whoever decides to launch an e-commerce venture today, can create it easily thanks to the e-commerce platforms (i.e. Shopify or Woocommerce). They can acquire traffic in a couple of clicks using Facebook, Google or influencers. However, supply chain set up is still extremely difficult and time consuming. uDroppy solves this problem, connecting e-commerce owners to suppliers.

Give us a business overview of uDroppy.

uDroppy was founded in 2018. It has recently secured a $1m seed funding round. The round is led by Jason Calacanis, a famous Silicon Valley Angel investor (Uber, Robin Hood, etc.).

Together with Jason, Launch Syndicate and Sequoia Capital participated in the round.

Sequoia has secured its investment using its scout programme, led by Marco Zappacosta, founder of Thumbtack, a $3bn unicorn. uDroppy has 23 employees and has just opened a new office in Dubai to expand in the MENA region after having established operations in the EU and US.

Nicoló Augusto Manica Co-founder and CRO uDroppy

What convinced you of the need to establish uDroppy?

When you launch an e-commerce venture, you have many areas to take care of. You must create your products, you need to set up your supply chain, distribution channel, market your product and eventually, make sales. It’s extremely difficult. You need a lot of knowledge and experience, otherwise failure is around the corner.

We created uDroppy to help entrepreneurs. We want to offer our help and experience in supply chain set-up to see more people succeeding in this fantastic business.

Tell us about your plans for the Middle East. Are there any specific high growth areas?

On one hand, the Middle East region is 72

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The SME Story COMMENT

Lorenzo Jooris CEO, Creative Zone

uDroppy was founded in 2018.

It has recently secured a

$1m seed funding round experiencing a huge increase in online sales. The recent pandemic has pushed a lot of people to buy products online.

Therefore, following an increase in demand, more entrepreneurs entered the e-commerce space.

On the other hand, the Middle East is still relying on cash-ondelivery payments. Hence, in this complex market, we want to offer our help. We are developing a new solution to offer cash-on-delivery solutions and advance warehousing to the e-commerce stores we help in the region.

What can we expect from uDroppy this year?

Following two years of uncertainty, we believe that from 2022 we can go back to normal growth patterns. We know [our customers] need to establish a stronger presence in the countries where they sell the most. They need warehouses and last-mile delivery there to ship fast and compete with Amazon. We have created the best product for them and we are going to release it. It’s going to be a game-changer.

What are some of the toughest lessons you’ve learned about being an entrepreneur?

Being an entrepreneur means there will be ups and downs. One day you are on the top of the world, the next you are questioning everything you did. Also, hope for the best, but be ready for the worst. I’ve realised that you should create a good team because it’s not an easy journey, and you’ll need smart people who buy into your vision. I’ve also understood the importance of networking.

My advice to someone starting: have a big vision, create a strong team and meet with as many people as possible. gulfbusiness.com

Future ready We look at industries that will be booming in 2032 and how you can leverage the opportunities they offer

M

aybe you’re starting a business today. Maybe next year.

Or perhaps you are already trading, but you’re wondering if it’s time to pivot.

The question is: What will the business landscape look like ten years from now, and is there a chance to get ahead of the game?

First things first: You would be hardpressed to find a country that does more future planning than the UAE. In fact, there simply isn’t space to detail every initiative the country has put in place in

terms of outlining its goals for the next decade and beyond. Added to that, is the relentless drive by the government to encourage SMEs and boost the culture of entrepreneurship.

THE KEY IS SUSTAINABILITY Worldwide, sustainability is the buzzword. But it’s no trend. From the US and the UK to the UAE, innovation around sustainability is key in powering the future economy.

Back in 2012, the Green Economy Initiative was launched with the aim of the UAE becoming a successful model for how the new green economy might look.

Alongside easing environmental concerns, its purpose is also to enhance the country’s competitiveness. All this means that UAE is an ideal place to locate your business to supply green products or technologies.

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The SME Story COMMENT Thought to be among the highest in the world

The entire Expo 2020 site is a blueprint for smart cities and how they might operate. And part of the Expo 2020 legacy plans is to ensure that after the six-month event is finished, its benefits live on. So, opportunities will abound for those able to offer services around the smart city of the future – because the future is already underway in the country.

In addition, the Dubai Industrial Strategy 2030 is there to help elevate Dubai into a global leader for sustainable and innovation-focused companies, while Abu Dhabi’s Environment Vision 2030 seeks to preserve and enhance Abu Dhabi’s natural heritage and use resources more efficiently.

So everything is in place for businesses offering green products and technologies – whether that’s in energy, agriculture, investment, or transport. Even consider the food and beverage, event planning, gardening and landscaping industries – almost any business can play a role in the sustainable economy.

Here’s a look at some of the top industries worldwide predicted to boom over the next 10 years. We’ll pay particular attention to our region and examine where business opportunities for entrepreneurs and SMEs might arise. These are a few more ideas to get you started.

Car charging stations The electric vehicle market is going to continue to grow worldwide, and the requirement for recharging stations is only going to increase. Several countries have already set bold goals to revolutionise the types of vehicles we use. We have seen this here in UAE, where the stated objective is to have 42,000 electric vehicles on the streets by 2030.

Drone delivery This might seem a long way off, but Amazon’s Prime Air is already making inroads in drone delivery. The MENA region is seeing major investment in this area – innovation in transportation/logistics is one of the most highly-funded areas.

The implications for those in or entering e-commerce are huge, with the chance to 74

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42,000

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

$21bn in FDI

on the streets by 2030 in line with the UAE’s stated objective

received by UAE in the areas of robotics and AI from 2015 to 2018

be an early mover in the drive to transform how deliveries are made.

Robotics If you’re an entrepreneur just starting out, it might seem like robotics is just for the world of tech giants. But what about repairs or rentals?

The scope for add-on services for robotics will grow over the next 10 years as robotics finds even greater applications in a variety of settings, particularly healthcare, agriculture, and household/garden.

It’s worth noting that from 2015 to 2018, UAE received $21bn in FDI in the areas of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), which is thought to be among the highest in the world.

3D printing In 2016, the Dubai 3D Printing Strategy was launched with the goal to become a major world hub for 3D printing technology by 2030. For many businesses, 3D printing means they’re able to create a prototype product much quicker, so using this for your own business or starting a business offering 3D printing services both offer excellent opportunities to get ahead.

Transport revolution We have already talked about the transport/logistics of home delivery using drones. But Dubai is thinking far beyond that – it’s aiming to transform one-quarter of its total transportation to autonomous by 2030. This is a bold move, and it’s projected to bring in Dhs22bn per year through savings around transportation

costs, reducing carbon emissions and creating fewer accidents.

UAE mainstays It goes without saying that retail and hospitality will continue to be major markets for the UAE, along with any future technology which is invented to add to these services. We have already seen the effect of apps on food delivery, and this looks set to continue to evolve. It’s also important to mention that as populations age, services for the elderly, including everything from telemedicine to drone delivery to easy-access transportation, will be increasingly important.

TOP INDUSTRIES AND YOUR BUSINESS No one can predict the future. But if you track both government plans and areas of the economy that are starting to really flourish, you can get a pretty good picture of what the 2032 business landscape might look like.

One thing is certain when it comes to the UAE – the goal of growth is always present. The UAE is aiming to double the national economy over the next 10 years.

That would mean reaching Dhs3 trillion by 2031.

So while we can talk about which industries you should be watching, we can also talk about which regions – and the UAE is certainly high on that list. Whether you decide you want to dive right into one of these industries, or perhaps your offering is an add-on that helps enhance an existing product or service, keeping sustainability and innovation in mind will certainly help steer you as you decide on your business idea for today, and tomorrow. gulfbusiness.com