Vision and Hope in Dubai

After the world-acclaimed national achievements of the past few months, with the opening of the Burj Khalifa and the Metro, I would not be surprised if some Emiratis might be starting to develop a certain blasé attitude towards their examples of technical achievement.

This week I am about to return to UAE for the first time since the opening of the Burj, and I can tell you that there is no reduction in my expectations for the dynamic world of Dubai.

As 2009 starts to edge away into history, my focus sharpens and my vision of that momentous year is full of eager wonderment. Perhaps as the outsider (or maybe part-time insider), I might be the one to remind you all just how much has been achieved.

First  -  inevitably  -  the Burj, a soaring statement for which the journalists have understandably run out of superlatives. Praised as the supreme icon of civil engineering achievement, it has also been criticized by others for what they see as excessive luxury.

Well, it can hardly conceal its luxury characteristics, and nor should it. Almost every great building we travel the world to admire was built in a spirit of pomp and grandeur. The Empire State Building in New York originally suffered the same criticism, when it was the tallest building in the world.  But now the Burj is equal to two Empire State buildings – one on top of the other!  So no wonder the world is amazed.

For me, it is the prospect of visiting the world’s highest observation deck (124^th floor) that is setting up the greatest anticipation, and I expect this to be a surreal moment of suspense between heaven and earth. The world’s highest mosque and swimming pool also strike me as more than just engineering achievements. They somehow lift the mind and make the world nobler and loftier than it was. (But meanwhile, if anyone is thinking of inviting me to view the world’s most luxurious apartments or boardrooms, then do contact me!)

Envy

From luxury, then, to necessity  –  and to the great Metro, with its fast, air-conditioned driverless trains equipped with in-cab signalling and wi-fi, linking smoothly with water-taxis and light railways, aiming to ease movement around Dubai as its population nears 3 million and its tourist visitors hit an annual 15 million.

Here at least, there is almost unanimous agreement on the benefits for all groups. The only resistance is psychological; UAE is acknowledged to be a country where everyone is proud of their ‘wheels’. People still enjoy the sensation of steering their own little capsule, and so congestion may not disappear as rapidly as we would like.

As for myself, arriving from London, [the city that is still living with the world’s first underground railway], do I feel I am looking at the ‘kid brother’ of our own system? Certainly not. I look with envy on this wonderfully efficient 21^st century, metro network that suffers from none of our breakdowns, worn-out installations and endless signal failures.

To turn both of these dreams into reality in the same year, under the demoralising pressure of a savage recession, has taken an unusual mix of ambition, creative vision, persistence and the sheer guts  -  now shown, under economic pressure, to be qualities profoundly symbolic of Dubai and the UAE.

Key points about the new Dubai

• It is possible to develop a ‘blasé attitude’ about great triumphs
• To build the Burj and the Metro in the same year is a unique achievement
• Dubai has demonstrated a blend of qualities that can build the future

 [Reprinted with the kind permission of Gulf News]

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC guest-broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies.  See Carole live http://bit.ly/TUWbX

Contact Carole  for a FREE stress strategy consultation – Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593  or email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk.    She is dedicated to supporting your long-term growth through talent retention rooted in effective stress management.

Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from IBM to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

Having trouble motivating your staff in this crisis? Let a new decade enthuse them. Read more > http://ping.fm/6PXAY

Remember smoke-filled rooms? Forget them. UK tells UAE about the benefits of a smoking ban. http://ping.fm/bEfze

Get linked in to your business

If a decade always has to be identified with some particular theme, what will identify the 2010’s?  To me, this upcoming decade is certain to be shaped and coloured by social business networking  -  the wonderful world of the blog, the tweet, the podcast, the various online channels with their 24/7 inter-group dialogue.

True, social networking has already been operating for some time. Or more strictly, its component parts have been in place, available to be utilized. But there is a time-lag before it swims properly into focus, and people can see just what is this thing called social marketing.

I believe social networking can best be described in terms of what it has replaced. It is an astonishing new version of the first handshake, the interview, the shortlist and the new-business pitch rolled into one. It has taken over from the reception desk, the telephone enquiry, the formal letter of application. It is also a remarkably efficient way to retrieve lost contacts, perhaps from years back  -  but a two-edged sword, as you can guess. To have your overture to join a group rejected is a painful but salutary experience. To have it accepted is a most satisfying endorsement of your credibility and standing.

It is not hard to see how social networking has revolutionised the entire process of new-business hunting and recruitment across all sizes of organization, though its benefits show up most vividly in the SME, especially at its launch and in the early growth-stages.

These new social media

The top social networking sites are currently dominated by the global online business club LinkedIn. Let me suggest that you start as I did, with Jan Vermeiren’s book ‘How to REALLY use LinkedIn’, which I have studied carefully, page by page. This could usefully be backed-up by a training course or perhaps even with one of the many tele-seminars being offered. At any rate, when you’ve created your profile, you are cordially invited to connect with me by typing in ‘carole spiers’ and I will return the compliment.

Another popular branch of social business networking is Twitter, where your own group automatically receives your mini-newsletter in the form of a single statement restricted to 140 characters  -  among other things, an intriguing new test of the copywriting skill. This of course links-thru to any item you may want to promote. You’ll find that the quality of your Twitter profile makes a big difference to results from the social networking community, and you may like to personalise your own profile. 

Otherwise, there are all the other well-known business social networking  outlets, which you may not have directly identified as self-marketing media relevant to your own operation. There is YouTube, on which you can make quality broadcasts and promotions amongst many others.

Podcasts enable you to build credibility in your field. Mastermind groups represent particular ‘inner circles’ of expertise, equally suitable for those in corporate companies or freelance, while tele-seminars can brainstorm limitless ideas from all over the world.

One caution: you do need to study these social business networking media in-depth, rather like learning a new language properly, not just a few phrases to use in the street. But you’ll be glad you did  -  take it from me.

Happy networking in 2010!

 Key points about social business networking

1       The decade of the 2010’s will be shaped by social networking

2       These media are a unique mix of the comprehensive and the selective

3       The social media need to be studied in-depth like a language

[Reproduced with the kind permission of Gulf News]

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC guest-broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies.  See Carole live http://bit.ly/TUWbX

Contact Carole  for a FREE stress strategy consultation – Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593   or email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk.    She is dedicated to supporting your long-term growth through talent retention rooted in effective stress management.

Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from IBM to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

 

Stress of the Vanishing Lunch-break

Although we can safely ignore the idiotic ‘Lunch is for wimps’ challenge, made in that certain Michael Douglas movie, there is no doubt that the formal lunch-break, once the daily, universal custom, is being observed less and less frequently.

One explanation is clearly cultural, a social statement to do with an increasingly flexible workplace policy  -  a natural urge to distance yourself from the legacy world of typewriters and fixed working hours. To be seen at your desk between 12 and 2pm confirms that you are a member of the modern office culture, where you’re free to slip out to a coffee-shop at any time you want. It may also suggest a certain indispensability.

But a much more important factor is the new dynamic of the workplace, where commercial pressures put even junior executives into an entrepreneurial mindset. They may be waiting for some crucial email that requires their urgent attention. More likely, they might be working through a complex commercial problem involving an important contract, so that going off to lunch might be completely unrealistic. Or, if a lawyer, they may be charging-up billable time, where the temptation to charge an extra hour, may be irresistible.

Wrong Focus

I once had to counsel an ambitious young lady called Amanda in Dubai, who was in her first job as a sales consultant at a travel agents. The basic salary was very low, but the bonuses could mount up if she made enough sales.

The trouble was that most of the customers came in at lunchtime, and the sales staff were tempted to skip their own lunch-break in order to increase their monthly  bonuses. As this was good for business, the manager did nothing to discourage the habit.

However, two of the other saleswomen pointedly refused to do this, saying that their lunch was important to them, so Amanda found she was picking up even more sales by staying at her desk at the time when she should have been taking a break. (Meanwhile it was forbidden to snack at the desk for reasons of company image. Only coffee being allowed.)

Like many others of my clients, in the enthusiasm to focus on her monthly pay, she forgot to focus on her health. Month after month, she simply failed to eat properly through the day (though she drank a good deal of coffee) and she found herself taking more and more headache pills. Stress can make you vulnerable, as I can testify, and sure enough, during a local outbreak of flu, Amanda went off sick for nearly two weeks, but her two colleagues shrugged it off. That loss of two weeks’ earnings finally made her realise what was important. There could be no clearer illustration of the value of a regular mid-day lunch-break with a healthy walk and a nourishing diet.  Keeping your body running smoothly with nutrients is even more important than putting gas in your car.  You can always get a new car if the old one breaks down…

 Key points about the disappearing lunch-break

• The lunch-break is often mistakenly seen as unnecessary
• Modern workplace pressures make it hard to leave your screen
• Direct incentives may also tempt you into working through lunch

[Reproduced with the kind permission of Gulf News]

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC guest-broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies.  See Carole live http://bit.ly/TUWbX

Contact Carole  for a FREE stress strategy consultation – Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593   or email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk.    She is dedicated to supporting your long-term growth through talent retention rooted in effective stress management.

Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from IBM to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

Dubai – A World Centre of Excellence

Dubai, as a successful new financial centre, has inevitably been impacted  by the global credit crunch, although somewhat later and not as severely as in Europe or America.  

Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Investment bank in the US last year, the world economy has undoubtedly been in a mess and there has been a significant economic contraction that has affected business and consumer confidence.

That there are financial problems, as in New York or London, is clear – but there is no doubt that the Dubai government of HM Sheikh Mohammed will find the necessary solutions with its international partners. The country has supreme confidence in this.

The last few days has, however, drawn some media distortion from certain journalists who are always willing to ‘invent’ a catastrophe, where none exists.  Some of the world’s press, may have jumped on Dubai’s financial challenges, and in doing so, have ignored many of the facts – ten of the more obvious being: 

1. The financial crisis and economic turndown are global phenomena
2. Arguably, both the UAE, and Dubai in particular, have fared no differently than other financial centres – possibly better.
3. There is an element of schadenfreude in a proportion of press comment
4. Dubai has proved itself to be a centre of excellence and achievement in many fields, over the past decade.
5. Its architectural innovation and engineering ingenuity, are the envy of the world
6. The tallest, inhabited building anywhere on the planet, the Burj Dubai, at over 800m tall, is a monument to the most advanced civil engineering technology in the world and a triumph of unsurpassed architectural know-how
7. Hotel accommodation and hospitality accommodation is of such a high standard that it is unrivalled in New York, Paris or London
8. The crime rate in the UAE is, compared to Europe or  America, non-existent
9. Emirates Airline offers the most advanced flying experience anywhere in the world
10. Hospitals and medical services in Dubai are of a world-class standard and attract eminent specialists from around the globe

To try to evaluate Dubai against European or American standards, is problematical.   The Emirate of Dubai is an autocracy than runs and has run extremely successfully.  Government policies have been some of the most far-sighted of any country, building an unparalleled infrastructure in a timescale that has astonished other nations with its attention to detail and excellence of design.

I, myself, have advised many senior management teams in Dubai, and the UAE, for over five years.  Having worked all over the globe, in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia in a period spanning twenty years – I am today, extremely proud of being associated with the extraordinary achievements of the Dubai government of HM Sheikh Mohammed.

Dealing on a professional basis with CEOs and executives throughout UAE’s industry and the professions, I am constantly impressed with the level of higher education (the number of MBAs and Doctorates is extraordinary), and the pride that Emiratis and expatriates take in their achievements.

Over the past decade, millions have come to Dubai from every continent on the planet – many via Emirates Airlines – to see for themselves a true example, the only example, of 21^st century architecture and engineering – all within a crime-free environment.    Most visitors are hugely impressed.

Dubai will survive – leaner but stronger, and will continue to be an exemplar to the world of how to apply modern technology to provide good living.  [Reproduced with the kind permission of Gulf News]

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC guest-broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies.  See Carole live http://bit.ly/TUWbX

Contact Carole  for a FREE stress consultation – Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593   or email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk.    She is dedicated to supporting your long-term growth through talent retention rooted in effective stress management.

Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from IBM to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

The Stress of Formula 1

No, I wasn’t here for the first Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but I’d watched some of the preparations down at the Yas Marina, and was vividly reminded of the day I was invited by a longstanding client, called Colin, to his Corporate Hospitality event at the UK’s big Formula 1 venue, Silverstone.

I’d never taken much interest in the world of motor-racing before, but by the end of that day, I had identified it as the sport that most reflected the stress of big business. For a start, it was the only sport I’d ever watched that looked rather unhealthy. It seemed to me that a contestant would need to take regular exercise to compensate for the odd mix of physical inertia and acute mental pressure of life on the track.

The furious sense of competition seemed to me rather excessive – the idea that if you didn’t finish up there in the first three, you were more-or-less in disgrace. (It didn’t need a stress expert to note how much dangerous pressure that would set up.) The split-second overtaking and cornering techniques were obviously non-stop tension. And although you expect trophy-winners to let-off a bit of steam, I could see how those hysterical celebration rituals would increase the stress further still.

But it was the pit-stops that really concerned me. Watching those teams of men down in the bay, rushing to service the cars in that emergency atmosphere, desperate to clip seconds off their re-fuelling and tyre-changing, reminded me of every computer crash I had ever experienced – the automatic sense of crisis, the feeling that every second counts, and super-human efforts being made, just to restore the normal state of things.

Deeply troubled man

The grand reception after the race was also revealing – and also conducted in an over-heightened atmosphere, as it seemed to me. The entertainment was most generous, but somehow more lavish than necessary. I couldn’t imagine wanting to eat and drink as much as that.

Colin was an old friend of one of the contestants, Steve, who had not driven particularly well that day, and was clearly not happy about it. Behind the polite conversation, I could detect a smouldering resentment in Steve. A few minutes’ dialogue revealed that he had been trying to win this particular event for years, with no success. He had never held up that coveted trophy, to the roar of the crowd. And he wasn’t getting any younger.

Listening to Steve, and discreetly studying his body-language and general demeanour, I felt strongly that this was a man who would soon be needing his own personal ‘pit-stop repair session’.

So I wasn’t too surprised to hear from Colin, the following year, that Steve had failed his insurance medical and would not be allowed on the track. I felt that this was a deeply troubled man who ought to have stress counselling, and after some persuading, he agreed to it. I told him that he maybe he should consider making a clean break from the whole stressful atmosphere of the motor-racing world, and re-invent himself in another field altogether. He is now a part-time tourist guide in a small city that he knows well (plenty of healthy walking there), and a partner in a firm that supplies specialist equipment – not to race-tracks but to dairies. Colin tells me he’s a new man.

Key Points About the Stress of Formula 1

• Motor-racing is an unusual mix of physical inertia and mental stress

 • The traditional track-side entertainment is liable to heighten pressure

• Those who don’t feel they’re winning should break clean away from it

[Reproduced with the kind permission of Gulf News]

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC guest-broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference, for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies.  See Carole live http://bit.ly/TUWbX

Contact Carole  for a FREE stress consultation – Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593   or email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk.    She is dedicated to supporting your long-term growth through talent retention rooted in effective stress management.

Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from IBM to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

Spreading the Word on Stress

“We’re not in the market today, thank you!”

Whether you’re trying to sell a single product or a whole new concept, I guess you’ll have been hearing those depressing words regularly during this recession.

Well, this is the 10th anniversary of a national, anti-stress initiative that I launched in the UK  -  which at first met with much scepticism but is now firmly established as an annual event in the British calendar of stress management.

It was at a meeting of our professional charity, the International Stress Management Association (ISMA), that we were sitting around the table discussing ideas to keep stress high on the national agenda.

Someone vaguely mentioned ‘focus’, and suddenly I saw that the whole emphasis could be focused on a single day in the year: ‘National Stress Awareness Day’. Everyone loved this concept although nobody could suggest how to pay for it!

With sponsorship in mind, one of our colleagues introduced us to an Australian telecoms company, Telstra, who at our first meeting showed all the signs of being singularly unimpressed. However, as I never like to leave people in a negative mood, I ended my presentation by asking if they would each like to test their individual stress levels.  They all readily agreed.

I took one of our company products out of my briefcase – a small business card embedded with tiny crystals that change colour with temperature which by pressing your thumb on the pad on the front of the card, you can get an instant readout of your own stress levels.

This small demonstration impressed them, and suddenly they agreed to be our first sponsors.  And so, the first Wednesday in November every year became recognised as National Stress Awareness Day, in the UK.

Noticed by the media

You can imagine how fulfilling it was for me, on our first big day, to step aboard the red, double-decker Stress Bus, promoting ‘National Stress Awareness Day’ from its sides, as we set about touring London.

Wherever we stopped, people came pouring out of the offices to come on board the bus. Predictably, they all loved testing their stress levels, and this led on to a more formal programme of stress training, consultations and therapy sessions. As hoped, all of this was noticed by the media, who came aboard in large numbers. It’s hard to believe, but I had completed thirty BBC radio and TV interviews by 9am! By the evening, National Stress Awareness Day had been featured prominently by the Evening Standard, Bloomberg, CNN and Sky News, amongst others.

In subsequent years, we didn’t have to look far for other sponsors. One of them was the Health and Safety Executive  -  a valuable seal of approval from an important government body. Soon, National Stress Awareness Day was being celebrated well beyond London.  Members of the Association would run training initiatives up and down the country and it had become, an ‘event’.

Ten years on, my next challenge is to launch ISMA Middle East, here in the UAE. As you know, this column is equipped with a Readers’ Comments feature, so let me know your opinion, whether you are an individual, stressed-out at work; a stress management consultant or a potential, corporate sponsor.

The launch of a Middle East branch of the ISMA, will reinforce my other role here in Dubai as a motivational speaker, showing both individuals and management how to face and overcome the current challenges inherent in times of change and economic uncertainty.

Hopefully, we may soon be hearing about International Stress Awareness Day, with red double-decker buses driving around Oxford Street in London and Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai!

Key Points about National Stress Awareness Day

• The initial proposal for a special stress-awareness day was greeted with scepticism
• Today National Stress Awareness Day in UK is 10 years old
• The overcoming of ‘impossible’ challenges. is a story many find inspiring

[Reproduced with the kind permission of Gulf News]

 Build a believable vision of a corporate future  -  with ‘Change is your Opportunity for Growth’  -  just one of Keynote Presenter, Carole Spiers’ presentations that have decisively changed attitudes and mindsets!  See Carole live http://bit.ly/TUWbX

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC guest-broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference, for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies. Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593         +44 (0) 20 8954 1593  or email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk. 

Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from IBM to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

More than a gleam of optimism in Dubai

Heading back to London, last week from Dubai, I reflected that the economic indicators for recovery in the Emirates, and of commercial confidence, are looking good.   That is confirmed by a new forecast by global HR consultants, Mercer, that salaries are predicted to rise by up to 7.5% in the next year, following a separate finding from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, showing that UAE is now firmly in recovery mode from the global downturn.

So what conclusions can be drawn from my own varied schedule of meetings with all manner of people across the corporate, retail and government sectors?

We might take note of the audience research from Naseba’s high profile Women in Leadership Forum, held last week in Dubai’s luxury Atlantis hotel, where I had the pleasure of presenting a well-attended stress management workshop. Not only did these women represent a most impressive cross-section of both national and international, executive, female talent, but  I felt a strong respect for all these highly motivated women who were succeeding in so many different areas of commerce, business and the professions. However, concerns were expressed regarding long working hours, poor communications and, sometimes, management systems that were less than efficient.  Nevertheless, I detected an abundance of confidence, along with a strong awareness of the challenges ahead and the need to adapt to the inevitable corporate change.

In denial

This corporate change has had a good deal to do with the UAE’s recent experience of its first-ever recession  -  a traumatic experience, as I can personally testify. Throughout the past twenty years, there have been a number of economic downturns in Europe, but none to match the severity of this recession. This week has reminded me of one of my old clients in Abu Dhabi, from some years back.

As he was a well-known name in the oil and gas industry of the 80’s and 90’s, I had better re-name him Ihab. He was a towering figure who had put his company firmly on the world map. In the good years, Ihab couldn’t put a foot wrong, and it seemed that he had been born to rule the industry. But this recession affected him badly  -  and revealed unsuspected weaknesses. For he had been totally unprepared for such severe setbacks, and went straight into denial. When he was advised that he must make some of his own appointees redundant, he became literally incapable of making decisions, in a way that nobody had seen him before. In other words, he was good at building-up a business during the good times, but hopeless at managing it through the difficult times. This required a whole different breed of manager. And before long, these new managers had to do the unthinkable, and make Ihab himself, redundant.

As I watched the Dubai lights twinkling below me, as I relaxed in my comfortable  Emirates Airlines jet, I remind myself that I am both an insider and an outsider, and it is this that gives me such a good perspective from which to evaluate the future of Dubai and the Emirates.

I believe that the UAE will experience continued growth as an international, commercial hub and tourist destination. There is nowhere in the world that has built such an amazing infrastructure, incorporating the very latest advances in technical design and utilising the best talent from around the globe.

Dubai already has one of the best international airlines and soon the world’s largest new airport for intercontinental travellers, and not to mention the world’s tallest building at over 800m – and the shrewd, global investments by the UAE will ensure that it is now an economic force that demands worldwide respect.

 Key Points about UAE’s first recession

• Reliable economic surveys present a favourable outlook for the UAE
• A businesswomen’s Forum confirmed commitment and thirst for learning
• Management needs to be proficient in skills that can handle recession

[Reproduced with the kind permission of Gulf News]

 Build a believable vision of a corporate future  -  with ‘Change is your Opportunity for Growth’  -  just one of Keynote Presenter, Carole Spiers’ presentations that have decisively changed attitudes and mindsets!  See Carole live http://bit.ly/TUWbX

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC guest-broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference, for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8954 1593  or email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk. 

Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from IBM to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

Dubai emerging leaner, stronger

Five months is a long time to be away from my home in Dubai  -  my second home, that is  -  and as we touched down at Dubai International, courtesy of Emirates Airlines, (probably the best airline anywhere), I wondered if things had really got as bad as the scare-stories would have us believe.

For the world’s media have certainly seized upon Dubai as the fallen idol of the Middle East  -  once, they wrote, ‘the byword for 21^st century, futuristic architecture and unrivalled prosperity, the epitome of luxury and excellence’ – and now depicted as a ghost town of empty shops and restaurants, and huge deserted building-sites topped by motionless  cranes.

Generally, I have tried to keep these stories in proportion, assuming that the media would take the opportunity of exaggerating them into a new mythology of hubris and nemesis.

Knowing the Dubai business world as I do  -  from the major internationals to the local corner-shops, and from CEOs to taxi-drivers  -  I did not believe that these resilient people would lose heart to that kind of degree.

Even the reported mass-flight of the expats sounded highly exaggerated. When our plane landed, I’d already made a note to look at the airport car-park. Was it really littered with abandoned Mercedes and Lamborghinis left over from the boom, as their owners fled home? Well, not that I could see!

Next stop was my usual check-in at the Royal Home Hotel Apartments in Bur Dubai, where my welcome was as effusive as ever. No sign of low morale there. However, the view from my window did show the building site opposite, as unchanged since last time, confirming the real-estate slump.

Then for lunch at the Kamat Indian restaurant nearby which, I reckoned, would probably be as good a barometer of trading conditions as any. The classic aroma of fresh lime pickle and saffron was as wholesome as ever, signalling business as usual  -  or nearly so, said the manager, as business was maybe down a little but was now steadily increasing again.

Hope of the future

And then to work  -  my first assignment was a presentation to Dubai Internet City Toastmaster’s Group, on ‘Using the Internet to gain Business’. No sign of pessimism here, but a group of local business people full of enthusiasm for the growth of the local economy. This worldwide leader of communication and leadership development celebrated 85 years in business this week, having taken quite a few recessions in its stride, and it was an honour and a pleasure for me to address them.  Next stop would be the Women in Leadership conference at the Atlantis …

Travelling back to the hotel along the Sheikh Zayed Road (noting in passing that the new Metro does not seem to have had much effect on the traffic congestion), my vision is inevitably dominated by the awesome Burj Dubai, due for completion in December, apparently supremely unaffected by the recent recession.

But of course the Burj is something more than just real-estate. It’s a symbol of everything Dubai stands for, and it truly represents the hope of the future. When I consider the sheer extent of the teamwork and technical expertise that must have gone into this great engineering miracle, I am reassured that Dubai has what it takes to survive the recession and emerge triumphantly at the other end.

For it is not just Emiratis whose vision is dominated by the Burj, but the whole astonished world. Don’t believe what you may read abroad about Dubai failing to cope with its first recession. Dubai is emerging leaner and stronger – a miracle of faith, planning and the genius of the vision of HM Sheikh Mohammed.

Are you working in Dubai?  How is the recession affecting you?  In our readers comments box now…

[Reproduced with the kind permission of Gulf News]

 Build a believable vision of a corporate future  -  with ‘Change is your Opportunity for Growth’  -  just one of Keynote Presenter, Carole Spiers’ presentations that have decisively changed attitudes and mindsets!  See Carole live http://bit.ly/TUWbX

Book Motivational Speaker, BBC guest-broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference, for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies. Tel:  +44 (0) 20 8954 1593 or email info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk.

Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from Bank of England to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

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