$1TR PRIZE | Opportunities and dangers of GCC wealth transfer \\P16

L I S T E N I N G I N : Who will win the regional music streaming battle? \\P20

H E A LT H C A R E | Restructuring the sector for a technological revolution \\P18

VOL. 19 ISSUE 46 | DECEMBER 16 – 22, 2018

arabianbusiness.com

CHANGE MAKER
MUBADALA AEROSPACE HEAD
BADR AL-OLAMA ON THE RADICAL
FUTURE FOR THOSE WHO ADAPT

‘ There will
be very few
winners and
many losers’’
Lombard Odier’s Arnaud Leclercq
on speculative investing, global
economics and what banks need
to do to protect their customers

UAE: AED 15 Bahrain: BHD 1.500

Oman: OMR 1.500 Kuwait: KWD 1.200
 The Breitling Cinema Squad
Brad Pitt
Adam Driver
Charlize Theron

AIR
PREMIER

LAND

SEA #SQUADONAMISSION
 DECEMBER 16 – 22, 2018, VOL 19 NO.46

1 0 T H E B I G P I CT U R E

An Emirati child releases a falcon

while on a hunting trip at
Al-Marzoom Falconry Reserve
in the Abu Dhab desert
December 8, 2018.

UPFRONT
8 T H R E E R E AS O N S W H Y
Opec cut oil production,
plus why it may not boost
prices for long

9 STO C KS
The expert view on who
C OV E R S TO RY
went up, who went down
THE PURSUIT OF GROWTH
24 Arnaud Leclercq, Capital Partner at Lombard Odier, explains how the
Swiss private bank’s discreet services focus on what really matters
– and what that means for
the markets

9 PERSON OF THE WEEK

Jasper Hope, CEO of
Dubai Opera has revealed
ambitious plans for 2019

MAP
12 GCC
Saudi Arabia to restore
historic Al-Turaif historical
site, Kuwaiti authorities
ground a troubled airline

1 4 A R A B WO R L D
30 MAKING CHANGE 3 6 T H E F U T U R E I S N OW Egypt’s Sisi vows to
Global Manufacturing and Industrial Summit and Mike Sutcliff, Group CEO of Accenture Digital, enhance trade with Africa,
Mubadala Aerospace head Badr Al-Olama on how explains how digital transformation is going to France urges Lebanon to
emerging technologies can change entire societies impact businesses and individuals in the UAE form a government faster

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ǻʲ̛˨˦ˠˣˣˣˣˢˤ˟ˡ ǻʲ̛˨˦ˠˣˣˣˣˢˣˠ˨ ǻʲ̛˨˦ˠˣˣˣˣˢˡˡ˦ ǻʲ̛˨˦ˠˣˣˣˣˢˡˡˢ
rʲŘ_NjsɠʳOŸɚsNj˔ÞǼƼʳOŸŎ rʲƼNjŘɚʳɚ_sÌNj˔ÞǼƼʳOŸŎ rʲǼsNjÞʳ_ȖŘǣǼŘ˔ÞǼƼʳOŸŎ rʲĶOÞsʳOȖNjǼÞǣ˔ÞǼƼʳOŸŎ
F I R S T WO R D | BERND DEBUSMANN JR, CHIEF REPORTER
Time to make an impact
Businesses have a key role to play in helping solve some
of the world’s most pressing issues
AS BUSINESSES AROUND
the world adapt to the
emerging technologies
of the Fourth Industrial
Revolution, much of the
discussion has revolved
around the challenges,
such as job disruption and
displacement or the urgent
need for companies to
digitise. Much less talked
about, however, has been
the possibility that these
technologies can have a
revolutionary – and positive
– impact on those in dire
need around the world.
As Badr Al-Olama, the
head of the organising
committee of the Global
Manufacturing and
Industrialisation Summit
(GMIS) noted in one of this
week’s features, there are
approximately 880 million
people – 12 percent of the
world’s population – living
in challenging conditions
around the world.
Traditionally, alleviating
their suffering has been
considered the remit of their
own governments, or of
international organisations
such as the UN. But a new
key player is now finally
emerging: business.
Technology to the rescue?
At the forefront of this new
era will be those focused
on technology, which will
now be called upon to use
the same innovation that
has driven them to succeed
in business, but focused on
good. The ‘Global Maker
Challenge’, for example,
6 Vol. 19/46, December 2018
u Vulnerable and impoverished communities around the world
could be helped through wise investments and technology
has asked innovators and
entrepreneurs to help
overcome the challenges
faced by vulnerable rural
populations around the
world. These sustainable
solutions, ultimately, will
help farmers produce higher
yield crops, with less land,
water and labour while
improving the efficiency of
the entire value chain.
Investors will also have an
important part to play going
Q MILLENNIALS ARE
WILLING TO SPEND
MORE ON PRODUCTS
FROM SUSTAINABLE
BRANDS”
12%
Percentage of the world’s
population that lives in the
least developed nations
Q IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT WE ARE SEEING MORE
AND MORE COMPANIES LOOK TOWARDS MAKING
POSITIVE CHANGES IN SOCIETY”
forward as they search for
opportunities – which, of
course, will have to make
business sense – while
also having an impact for
the better.
The subject of this week’s
cover story, Swiss private
banking firm Lombard Odier,
for example, has a very well
defined approach to the
impact of its investments,
which it has even termed
a “third dimension” of its
business practice, alongside
risks and returns.
Do good, make money
These sort of investments
are already making for
sound business decisions.
A global report from Nielson,
for example, found that 73
percent of millennials are
willing to spend more on
products from sustainable
brands, while another 81
percent said they actively
look for declarations of
corporate citizenship from
their favoured brands. Other
statistics, from research
company Cone, found that
81 percent of millennials
were more likely to make
purchases from brands that
offer help to specific issues,
while a whopping 84 percent
said they look into a brand’s
involvement in social causes
when researching purchases.
Given these numbers, it’s
no surprise that we are seeing
more and more companies
look towards making positive
changes in society while at
the same time accomplishing
their business goals. As
Crescent Enterprises CEO
Badr Jafar said in an interview
with Arabian Business earlier
this year, business needs not
be a zero-sum game in which
there is somehow a trade-off
between profit and ‘purpose’.
More and more,
businessmen around the
world will begin to see the
best investments as ones
in which a positive impact,
whether it be on people or,
perhaps, the environment,
is built into the concept
from the outset, rather than
as an unintended happy
consequence.
Ultimately, these sorts of
investments will go a long
way in helping the world
achieve some of the goals
set in the United Nations
Sustainable Development
Goals, such as alleviating
hunger or promoting clean
energy. And that, most people
will agree, is nothing but a
good thing. a
 Aw
#CW
s
ard
Aw
#CW

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Upfront
D EC E M B E R 1 6 - 2 2 , 2 0 1 8

The top news and business

headlines from the region

T H R E E R E AS O N S W H Y

The chairman of Swiss-

d OPEC countries are Belhotel International
cutting 800,000 plans to open its first hotel
barrels per day and the
in the Gulf in 2019
non-OPEC countries
will cut 400,000
barrels per day

Gavin Faull

GOOD WEEK

BA D W E E K

Oil prices surged after OPEC agreement

But will prices stay higher and who will blink first?
Why were cuts made?
A glut in the market had
led to oil prices falling by more
than 30 percent in two months.
It led OPEC members and 10
other oil producing nations,
including Russia, to agree to cut
output by 1.2 million bpd in a bid
to reverse recent falls in prices.
The deal – which takes effect
from January 1 but has already
sent prices surging – was
reached after two days of talks
at OPEC headquarters in Vienna.
Will this be enough?
The price of Brent crude
surged 4.43 percent afterwards
to $62.7. But the deal may not be
enough to keep prices buoyant.
“I would describe the cuts as
close but not close enough with
regards to eliminating the global
oil glut,” said Stephen Brennock,
oil expert at London brokerage
PVM. “A combined reduction of
1.5 mbpd was needed to avoid a
supply surplus in the first half of
next year,” he told AFP.
Theresa May
What happens next?
The details of how cuts
will be shared out will be key.
Russia will introduce them
“gradually” to allow for “climatic
and technical conditions”.
Saudi is under pressure from US
President Donald Trump, who
demanded in a tweet that the
cartel boost output so as to The UK’s prime minister
lower prices. Trump has stuck faced a no-confidence
by Riyadh over the Khashoggi vote by MPs in her party
killing but has called for more oil over her handling of
to lower prices. Brexit negotiations

WEEK IN NUMBERS

HEALTHCARE Hedge fund returns fell 0.35% in November

The industry is down 3.62% this year
$38.6m 0.50% IMPACT OF VAT REFUNDS
The value of Amanat’s 69.3 percent stake in The UAE is seeing an average of
Bahrain’s Royal Maternity Hospital Holding 0 3,800 transactions per day under
its recently launched Tax Refunds
for Tourists Scheme, it was
FINANCE -0.50 announced last week by the
Federal Tax Authority.
It said the average refunds

$11bn All Funds CTA /

Managed
Futures
Equity
Hedge
Event
Driven
Fixed
Income
Directional
Fixed
Income
Relative
Macro Multi-
Strategy
-1.00 processed per day has so far
totalled $251,868. The scheme,
launched last month, processes
The capital raised by KSA’s Public Value refund claims at Abu Dhabi, Dubai
Investment Fund – its first ever borrowing Sources: Bloomberg Hedge Fund Database and Sharjah International Airports.

8 Vol. 19/46, December 2018

 EVERY WEEKDAY, 10am
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for regular updates

Follow us on ArabianBusiness arabianbusiness #arabian business arabianbusiness

PERSON OF THE WEEK

D I A RY

QAUDIENCES In an announcement, Dubai

Opera Chie Executive Jasper Hope BUSINESS
APPRECIATE NOT said that the world's most popular
musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
EVENTS
ACROSS
HAVING TO GET Phantom of the Opera, will be
headed to the Downtown Dubai
THE REGION

ON A PLANE TO venue next year.

The show will have
DUBAI

Paper Arabia
LONDON OR TO a cast and crew The paper and tissue industry
event will focus on items
BROADWAY
of 130 people
such as corrugated
and will involve
cardboard, packaging
TO SEE special effects
and more
materials, recycling, pulp,
machineries, chemicals and
THESE than 230
costumes.
finished products.
Date: December 16-18
SHOWS” Venue: DWTC

450
Events held at Jasper Hope,
DUBAI

Arabian Business Startup

Academy
Dubai Opera Dubai Opera The quarterly event will be
since it opened CEO held under the theme of
"bridging the SME funding gap
in the GCC" and will be held
C O R R ECT I O N U P/ D OW N from 9 AM until 12 PM.
Date: September 24-26
SENIOR FINANCIAL ANALYST AT MENACORP ISSAM Venue: Letswork, Rove
KASSABIEH GIVES HIS VIEW ON TWO MORE UAE STOCKS Downtown Dubai

ABU DHABI

World Future Energy

DRAKE ARABTEC Summit
AND SCULL The WFES event will examine
SHAJI UL MULK: Price at press Price at press all aspects of energy
AN APOLOGY
In the Indian Rich list 0.37 1.98 production, transmission,
distribution and storage, with a
published in Arabian focus on clean and renewable
Business on November MTD d 0% MTD u 4.21% energy technology.
25th 2018, we placed Date: January 14-17
Shaji Ul Mulk in eighth The company’s AGM will not The contractor’s turn-around Venue: Abu Dhabi National
place with a valuation be expected to result in any strategy has been looking good Exhibition Centre DUBAI
of $2.4bn. We now positive outcomes as further so far, boosted with new
accept this was an error restructuring will only serve contracts that were followed by
ABU DHABI
on our part as we did to prolong the firm’s life while a small dividend as a gesture
not take into account diluting current shareholder towards shareholders. The International Water
Summit
the 2018 figures that ownerships. Even securing a newest update will see the
WFES Water is the world’s
were supplied to us. By sizable contract may not act as a holding’s revenues increase on
leading event promoting
doing so, his wealth now catalyst, as investors are the back of AED3.2bn MEP
water sustainability in
comes to $2.7bn which sceptical on the firm’s ability to contract won by a consortium
arid regions, facilitating
would place him in fifth generate attractive profit margins which includes one of its partnerships to execute
place. We would like to from contracts. The company, wholly-owned subsidiaries. the massive investments in
sincerely apologise to however, has vowed to accelerate The company has seen profits water infrastructure.
Mr Ul Mulk for this error bidding and secure more projects grow significantly this year, Date: January 14-17
and any problems this in the near future, while the share up 140 percent to $49bn in the Venue: Abu Dhabi National
may have caused him. price has stabilised. Q3, it said in November. Exhibition Centre

arabianbusiness.com 9
T H E B I G P I CT U R E

An Emirati child
releases a falcon while
on a hunting trip at
Al-Marzoom Falconry
Reserve, about 100
kilometres southwest
of Abu Dhabi, on
December 8, 2018.
PHOTO: KARIM SAHIB / AFP / GETTY IMAGES
GCC
Saudi Arabia to restore historic Al-Turaif historical site, Kuwaiti authorities ground
a troubled airline, and Bahrain’s new passenger terminal to open soon

Riyadh Kuwait City

SAUDI
King launches At-Turaif
restoration programme
SAUDI ARABIA’S KING Salman
launched a programme to
restore the historic At-Turaif
historical district.
The programme is part
of the Kingdom’s Vision
2030 and plans to steer its
economy away from oil.
It aims to increase local
holiday spend by Saudis who
seek holidays abroad.
In November, the Saudi
Commission for Tourism
and National Heritage
(SCTH) added 19 new
archaeological sites to
the National Antiquities
Register. The sites, which
were found in the provinces
of Bisha, Tathlith, and
Balqarn, belong to the
pre-Islamic and early
Islamic eras.
Saudi Arabia also boasts
the Cultural Heritage Care
programme, which includes
several projects to develop,
highlight and preserve
national heritage sites.
The Emir of Riyadh and
chairman of Arriyadh
Development Authority,
Prince Faisal Bin Bandar,
said Al-Turaif has been
transformed into an
‘open museum’ with
the restoration and
KUWAIT
Wataniya Airways
license revoked
uIraq occupied Kuwait in 1990 u The A320neo is also operated
by Kuwait Airways
Kuwaiti aviation authorities
have revoked the licence of Gulfmart acquired
Kuwait National Airways –
commonly known as Wataniya by Kuwaiti
Airways – for failing to take
steps to remedy operational
wholesale firm
problems that led to a wave Kuwait’s wholesale
of delays and cancellations membership retail store
earlier this year, Kuwait’s OnCost Cash and Carry has

30m
Number of tourists that Saudi
Arabia hopes to attract each
year by 2030, up from 8 million
IN FOCUS
uThe At-Turaif historical site in Saudi Arabia’s Ad Diriyah stands nearby to the site
of the Formula-E Prix held there December 13-15
documentation of its
archaeological sites.
At-Turaif was built in
Arabic newspaper Al Jarida
has reported.
In September, Kuwait’s
the 15th century and Directorate General for Civil
boasts Najdi architecture. Aviation (DGCA) suspended the
carrier’s licence for three months
after 1,500 passengers were left
stranded abroad because
of cancellations.
In comments made to Al
Jarida, DGCA spokesperson Saad
Al Otaibi said that the suspension
was designed to give Wataniya
an opportunity to overhaul its
operations. However, Al Otaibi
said that the airline had not
made any changes, which led
authorities to revoke their licence.
Earlier this year, Wataniya
board chairman Ali al Fozan
said that the airline had been
forced to temporarily suspend
operations after unavoidable
“unexpected circumstances”.
acquired all outlets of
regional supermarket chain
Gulfmart in the country.
Gulfmart has been operating
in Kuwait since 1999. Its
acquisition will see the
company boast a total of
20 branches, with plans to
increase them to 35 in the
next five years, according to the
CEO of OnCost Cash and Carry.
Saleh Al Tunaib said the
firm is looking to expand to
Saudi Arabia and the UAE
through partnerships with
retail groups currently
operating in the countries.
“There are very few suitable
real estate locations for central
markets in Kuwait, and this was
a hurdle to our expansion
plans,” he said in a media
statement to the media of
the plans.

12 Vol. 19/46, December 2018

A R A B WO R L D
Egypt’s Sisi vows to enhance trade with Africa, France urges Lebanon to form
a government faster and the Iraqi government celebrates a milestone
EGYPT
Uber launches
Cairo bus
service
RIDE-HAILING APP UBER
launched a new bus service
in the Egypian capital of
Cairo last week, the company
announced.
The new service, Uber Bus,
allows residents request a Bus
ride through the standard
Uber app, Uber will find
other passengers travelling
in the same direction so that
everyone can get to their
destination with fewer stops.
The announcement came
just days after Uber rival
Careem launched a similar
service in the Egyptian capital.
The initial rollout will
start by covering the areas
of Nasr City, Heliopolis,
Greater Downtown, and
Mohandeseen, and will soon
expand across Cairo.
IN FOCUS
u More than 1.8 million Iraqis remain displaced as the country marks the one-year
anniversary of ex-PM Haider al-Abadi declaring victory against militants in 2017
14
EGYPT
Egypt’s Sisi
to champion
African trade
Egyptian President Abdel-
Fatah El Sisi has vowed to
champion trade between
African nations when he
becomes head of the African
Union next year.
Sisi’s comments came during
during a business forum in the
city of Sharm El Sheikh, ahead
of a planned African trade fair
in the Egytian capital of Cairo
this week.
“We will seek with sincere
effort to build on what has been
achieved over the past years
and to complete our continent’s
development agenda,” Sisi
said at the forum, which was
attended by a number of African
heads of state.
Sisi added that Egypt’s
investments in Africa rose
by $1.2b to $10.2b in 2018.
Beirut
LEBANON
France warns that
Lebanon could miss
out on aid funds
Cairo
THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT
has warned Lebanon it
could lose the international
community’s goodwill and
much-needed investments
if it takes any longer to form
a government.
Lebanon’s economy has
looked on the brink of collapse
for some time but a Paris qTHERE ARE OTHER
conference dubbed CEDRE
in April earned it $11bn in
COUNTRIES THAT MAY
aid pledges. NEED INTERNATIONAL
Polls held the following ASSISTANCE”
month gave Saad Hariri a new Bruno Foucher, French ambassador
term as prime minister but to Lebanon
Lebanon’s fractious political
class has since failed to agree
on a government line-up.
Seven months on, a
breakthrough does not
Concerns
seem imminent and French Lebanon
Ambassador to Lebanon
Bruno Foucher warned that real estate
Lebanon stood to lose a lot. on the brink
“We deeply regret that our
Entrepreneurs and experts
Lebanese friends are not able
fear that the country’s key
to agree on a government,” he
real estate sector is on the
said during a press conference brink of collapse.
held on a French frigate According to Guillaume
making a stop in Beirut. Boudisseau, an expert at the
The amounts pledged in Ramco real estate consultancy
Paris were unexpectedly high firm, there are as many as
and other conferences have 3,600 unsold apartments in
also mustered support for Beirut. Lebanon’s construction
Lebanon, whose economy has sector witnessed an
been in a downward spiral for unprecedented boom from
years due to political divisions 2008, fuelled in part by sales
and corruption. to wealthy Gulf Arabs and
The outbreak of violence in Lebanese expatriates, but has
neighbouring Syria in 2011 suffered after the war in Syria
began and demand dropped.
added to those woes.
Vol. 19/46, December 2018
C O M M E N T | BY RICHARD
R NUNN, HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, JERSEY FINANCE

Managing the great wealth transfer

Why wealth managers in the GCC are readying themselves for
a more professional future
IMMENSE OPPORTUNITIES
await wealth structurers
as older patriarchs and
matriarchs across the
countries of the GCC prepare
to pass on an estimated $1tr
or more in private wealth
in the next decade. New
research commissioned by
Jersey Finance, in conjunction
with Hubbis, confirms that
succession planning remains
the key challenge for high net
worth individuals (HNWIs)
in the GCC. An astonishing
92 percent of HNWIs admit
they are poorly prepared for
the transition of wealth across
generations.
If done successfully, the
inter-generational wealth
transfer will ensure a
strong position for the GCC
economy. It also presents
considerable opportunities
for wealth management
professionals and financial
planners seeking to support
families in the region by
providing a full suite of cross-
border, corporate, funds and
wealth management services part of the overall wealth standards, and the pressure (17 percent), asset protection
for HNWIs. management practices, of planning for wealth (17 percent), tax efficiency
International financial to a more sophisticated succession and transition. In (eight percent), and
centres (IFCs) with proven approach driven by key addition, and according to the diversification of jurisdictions
track records of reputational factors including concerns research findings, the younger and assets (eight percent).
excellence will thrive in over regional stability, generation increasingly These factors are driving
this environment. But it is the expansion of global appreciates the importance clients towards global asset
important to understand regulation, the gradual of transparent wealth and wealth diversification,
the families’ psychology, evolution of local jurisdictions preservation and planning. wealth structuring and an
if the wealth management towards the developing global Looking at clients’ increasing use of premium
community is to address this financial and regulatory sentiments, the use of offshore jurisdictions.
opportunity and leverage the jurisdictions such as Jersey
region’s growth prospects. is substantially driven by the Privacy concerns

Global planning
Today we are seeing a shift
from using structured
offshore solutions as
16
$1tr
Estimated private wealth
transfer in the GCC over
the next decade
geopolitical climate and fears
of instability (25 percent)
and succession planning
(25 percent), followed by
privacy and confidentiality
By being present in a family
wealth market, we can see that
the GCC favours structures
based in reputable IFCs.
However, industry experts
Vol. 19/46, December 2018
C O M M E N T | BY MARWAN
MARWA ABDULAZIZ JANAHI, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF DUBAI SCIENCE PARK

Administrating a way to a better health industry

Restructuring the healthcare industry will allow Dubai to become a best-in-class hub
IN THE PAST FEW YEARS, THE
UAE has made noticeable
strides in improving the
structure of the healthcare
sector by delinking
operational institutions
from supervisory or
regulatory bodies. Such
efforts reinforce the
overarching role of the
Ministry of Health as a
legislative, regulatory and
preventive authority.
The emirate of Abu
Dhabi has led by example
in demarcating healthcare
management from
healthcare regulation by
replacing the General
Authority of Health Services
with two entities – the Abu
Dhabi Health Services
Company (SEHA), an
independent public joint
stock company that owns
and operates all public
hospitals and clinics across
Abu Dhabi, as well as the
Department of Health that
regulates the public and
private healthcare sectors.
For its part, Dubai has
taken tangible steps too with
Law No. 6 and Decrees No.
17 and 18 of 2018, which led The restructuring efforts Drawing lines This demarcation provides
to restructuring the internal have proven vital not just The concept of delinking operational institutions
management of the Dubai in increasing efficiency but operational and regulatory with independence to form
Health Authority on par with also towards reducing costs, functions is not specific to partnerships, sell assets or
global standards in terms size, units, departments and the UAE alone, and has been hand over their management
of organisational units and levels in the restructured endorsed by global health to a private company to further
their roles and specialties. institution, and improving systems. In recent years, drive and develop government
Policy decisions also competitiveness overall. countries of the GCC region synergies and relationships
mandated the establishment have tended to separate with the private sector.
of the Dubai Healthcare government hospitals from At Dubai Science Park,
Corporation, Dubai Health the Ministry of Health, and we have been witnessing
Insurance Corporation and
other allied entities, thereby
reengineering public
$104.6bn
Projected GCC healthcare
set up independent bodies
to overcome administrative
problems and adopt ways to
these transformations in
healthcare operations that
are aligned with the Dubai
service offerings and DHA’s expenditure in 2022, from an provide greater autonomy Industrial Strategy 2030, with
organisational functions. estimated $76.1bn in 2017 to healthcare facilities. much interest.
18 Vol. 19/46, December 2018

As a destination that
focuses on exploring
investment ideas,
introducing investors to new
opportunities, providing
the facilities they need,
and communicating with
decision makers to inform
them of investors’ needs,
Dubai Science Park is keenly
receptive to all medical and
scientific developments that
take place in the country
and their implications for
the sector at large in this
region and beyond.
arabianbusiness.com
d Aiming for the top
The Dubai Health Strategy
2016-2021 aims to make
the emirate a leading
healthcare destination
Today, the health industry
is facing considerable
challenges worldwide in
terms of accommodating
the rapid changes in medical
sciences and technologies,
the advancements in
prevention, diagnosis and
treatment methods, as
well as the tremendous
and continuous surge in
information, data and
communication networks
that disrupt the status quo
from one minute to the next,
and will continue to disrupt.
Q THE HEALTH INDUSTRY IS FACING CONSIDERABLE
CHALLENGES WORLDWIDE IN TERMS OF
ACCOMMODATING THE RAPID CHANGES IN MEDICAL
SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGIES”
Making health pay
Closer home in Dubai,
the importance of the
healthcare industry cannot
be emphasised enough
– as it also plays a crucial
role in diversifying the
economy away from oil.
The Dubai Health Strategy
2016-2021 aims to make
the emirate a leading
healthcare destination
through adopting innovative
and integrated healthcare
models, implementing
accountability principles
and standards through an
innovative framework for
governing the health sector,
and enhancing public-
private sector partnerships
in regulating, offering and
sustaining health services.
These administrative
changes can lead to
the sector’s overall
advancement. However, if
we are to transform Dubai
into a global healthcare hub,
greater engagement from
the private sector can play
a pivotal role in increasing
investments in R&D.
Creating an ecosystem that
feeds innovation through
an advanced infrastructure,
expanded networks, and
an enabling regulatory
framework will also help
establish Dubai’s position as
a destination for innovative
businesses seeking a suitable
environment to launch into
neighboring markets. This in
turn, can only be achieved by
attracting reputable global
Q RESTRUCTURING
THE HEALTH INDUSTRY
IS A SIGNIFICANT FIRST
STEP IN BUILDING
A BEST-IN-CLASS
HEALTHCARE HUB”
COMMENT
health institutions and
experts to offer treatment
solutions and supportive
smart technologies.
Given what is at stake, the
restructuring of the health
industry is a significant first
step in building a best-
in-class healthcare hub
comparable to developed
nations around the world.
Marwan Abdulaziz Janahi
is also the Chairing Member
of the Pharmaceutical and
Medical Equipment Taskforce
within the Dubai Industrial
Strategy 2030 a
Growing
sector
Dubai Health Authority (DHA)
has published a new guide for
investors as it seeks to
increase private sector
investment over the next few
years. The Dubai Health
Investment Guide 2018-25 comes
as Dubai leads the way for private
sector participation in healthcare
in the Middle East and North
Africa region.
Private sector healthcare
providers in Dubai have
contributed to developing a
strong health ecosystem, and
account for over 79 percent of
outpatient services, and over
74 percent of inpatient services.
Increase in demand for quality
health services due to Dubai’s
rapid urban development,
population growth and influx of
medical tourists is one of biggest
challenges facing the Dubai
Health Authority.
19
C O M M E N T | BY FARES GHANDOUR
GHANDOUR, PARTNER, WAMDA CAPITAL

Spotify’s entry into the region:

does it really matter?
What is most likely create longevity in the region’s
music industry is not a powerful and affordable
streaming platform, but a serious investment in A&R
I N 2 0 1 7 , G LO B A L R E V E N U E S
from streaming surpassed
both physical and digital
music sales, putting to rest
the debate on whether
or not streaming would
make up for the decline
in recorded music sales.
Streaming now accounts
for 38 percent of total
recorded music revenues,
with exponential growth
expected in future.
While the hotly contested
space, with razor thin
margins, has its clear winners
globally, the race to capture
Arabic music fans seems to
be just getting started. Spotify
recently announced its entry
into the market, a few weeks
after Deezer. Anghami,
the region’s Beirut-born
streaming platform, has been
around for a few years, but
has not raised a sizable round
of financing in over a year.
Other players, like
Apple, Tencent Music, and
YouTube, all have large
enough cash reserves to
give them all a run for their Growing its user base while 350 million person market. for user growth, or whether
money. But does any of this maintaining margins at or Spotify also has a catalogue it will stick to healthy unit
really matter for the Middle around 20 percent is what of global content that no economics as a strategy.
East and North Africa Wall Street has bought, one else has. Time will tell and it will be
(Mena) music industry, so global expansion is a However, it is a paid fascinating to witness.
which is heavily plagued natural continuation of subscription model. The
by piracy and reliant on that strategy. Mena is a advertising model is really Anghami
live performances and ineffective in generating Anghami has been in the
sponsorships. any revenues for them, market the longest, and has

Spotify
Spotify recently went public,
and its story, like Netflix,
is one of user growth.
20
38%
Percentage of total recorded
music revenues that streaming
now accounts for
so it will be interesting to
see how flexible they will
be on monetisation and
whether or not it is willing
to sacrifice monetisation
focused on local content
and monetisation streams,
including deep integrations
with a wide array of telecom
operators in the region and
Vol. 19/46, December 2018

l The Mena music
industry is heavily
plagued by piracy
and reliant on live
performances and
sponsorships
advertising agencies and
brands. However, Anghami
is a smaller player and
revenue per user is far lower
than a global player like
Spotify. It also does not have
the war chest that will allow
it to continue to reign free
over the market.
Labels and content
owners ultimately want a
better deal, and if Spotify
offers a better deal, then
that’s where loyalty will lie.
arabianbusiness.com
Deezer
The underdog in the Mena
streaming wars is Deezer.
It launched in the region a
while ago but only recently
allocated a dedicated
team based in Dubai. It is
dwarfed in size by Spotify
on a global scale, but it
recently raised a whopping
$266m from Al Waleed Bin
Talal by way of his wholly-
owned subsidiary and
largest record label in the
region, Rotana Music. This
probably means Rotana has
extended favourable terms
to Deezer, but perhaps only
at the expense of artists.
Further, Rotana’s value
lies mostly in its catalogue
and existing relationships
with artists, rather than on
new and younger talent,
which means that it will
only take them so far before
its catalogue becomes
obsolete. Rumours are that
Rotana Music has been
seeking an acquirer for
years, valuing itself at no
more than $150m, a tiny
amount for the region’s
largest record label and
recorded music library.
Q IN 2017, GLOBAL REVENUES
FROM STREAMING SURPASSED
BOTH PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL
YouTube
The real underdog is
YouTube. It offers ultimate
convenience for the
consumer, free streaming,
with a huge catalogue. For
the artist, it is a platform
on which to be discovered.
How streaming services will
be able to compete with
YouTube is unknown. How
can you compete with free?
And how do you create a
relationship with fledgling
artists that allows them to
get exposure?
Tencent and Apple Music
Apple has a head start by
way of iPhone penetration
in the market. Apple is also
hoarding cash and may
choose to use that to lure
rights owners in the region
and acquire users en-masse.
Q THE REGION NEEDS
SERIOUS MONEY TO
NURTURE TALENT.
OTHERWISE, THE
PLATFORMS ARE ONLY
AS GOOD AS THEIR
USER EXPERIENCE”
COMMENT
MUSIC SALES”
It has already hinted at
repositioning itself from
a hardware to a services
business recently.
As for China’s Tencent
Music, that unit of Tencent
will likely go public within
the next few months, and as
with Netflix and Spotify, the
lure of streaming services is
user growth.
If Spotify and Apple really
ramp up their presence in
the Mena market, that might
tempt Tencent Music to
acquire Anghami. Could that
be Tencent’s market entry
strategy here? It would be
the fastest way for it to grow
its user base in the region,
and with a fresh pile of $2bn
projected for its initial public
offering (IPO), it might not
be that far-fetched. The
question is, can Anghami
survive or even thrive until
then?
Future winners
The region needs serious
money to nurture talent.
Otherwise, the platforms
are only as good as their
user experience, and user
acquisition will be a race
to the bottom in terms of
margins, the winner being
the party with the most
capital. So far, none of the
aforementioned businesses
have unrolled a substantial
A&R strategy for the region.
It may be on their radars, but
true defensibility will only
come as a result of a fruitful
discovery and a direct to fan
model for artists, in addition
to a broad catalogue, and
a healthy user growth and
monetisation strategy. a
21
SPOTLIGHT

CREATING VALUE,
TOUCHING LIVES
Adeeb Ahamed’s journey from humble beginnings to being the driving force behind some of the
most successful ventures like LuLu Financial Group, Tablez and Twenty14 Holdings is one that is
guaranteed to inspire many. His journey is defined as much by a sharp vision as by the young
entrepreneur’s confidence in spotting a winning value proposition
A young Indian business leader
based in the UAE, Adeeb Ahamed
has achieved many milestones at
a remarkably young age through
hard work and vision. Today,
Adeeb wears many hats as an
entrepreneur and has achieved
notable success in all his ventures.
Currently, he is the Managing
Director of LuLu Financial Group,
Twenty14 Holdings and Tablez,
highlighting his command over
different business streams – from
financial services to hospitality
real estate and organised retail.

His vision in business is underlined

by the success of LuLu Financial
Group, which was established in
2009, in an already competitive
marketplace. Despite having to take
on the early players, LuLu Financial
Group recorded impressive growth
under the leadership of Adeeb.
Today, the company has more
than 200 branches across the GCC,
India, Seychelles, Bangladesh,
Hong Kong and the Philippines,
and has over 1,500 employees.
The geographic expansion of the
exchange house is testament to the
vision of Adeeb, as he positioned
the company to serve expatriates in
the Gulf region and ensured that
with a local presence in their home
country, they receive faster and
better service standards.
The highlight of LuLu Exchange
is Adeeb’s focus on ensuring the
highest standards of trust and u Adeeb Ahamed is the Managing Director of LuLu Financial Group, Twenty14 Holdings and Tablez
efficiency. “The nature of the money
exchange business is such that you “The nature of the money exchange business is such that
must develop an instant rapport with you must develop an instant rapport with the customer”
22 Vol. 19/46, December 2018

“I believe that
only when you
have the same
team that shares
the same vision
that you have for
the business, will
it start to grow”
the customers, give them added
value and gain their trust. Today, we
are a one-stop payments solution
provider, and have a loyal clientele,”
says Adeeb.
Adeeb is now driving the digital
transformation of the company by
incorporating innovative ideas to
serve the customers better through
advanced technologies. With their
widely popular LuLu Money app, the
company is en route to move 30
percent of all transactions onto the
digital platform by 2020.
Having proved his credentials in
business leadership, Adeeb took
his passion of hospitality to the
next level by taking on the
leadership of Twenty14 Holdings,
the hospitality investment arm,
which has over $650m worth of
assets across the world.
Adeeb has led the acquisition of
several strategic assets including the
prestigious Waldorf Astoria
Edinburgh – The Caledonian in
Scotland for $120m. The firm also
made a $170m agreement with
property developer Galliard Homes
to create a luxurious five-star hotel
at 1-5 Great Scotland Yard, the
former headquarters of London’s
Metropolitan Police Services in
London, UK. The historically
significant Edwardian building,
located in the St. James’s district of
Westminster, London, is being
redeveloped into a high-end luxury
boutique hotel.
In Oman, Twenty14 Holdings
co-owns the iconic Sheraton Oman,
which has been a landmark in
Muscat for over 30 years. While in
arabianbusiness.com
u The prestigious Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh – The Caledonian
u A luxury hotel is being built at 1-5 Great Scotland Yard
“We believe that business is driven
by people and not just concepts.
Our efforts should always be
focussed on keeping people
passionate about their work”
u LuLu International Exchange is a pioneer for new technology
SPOTLIGHT
India, the group marked its entry
into the hospitality sector with the
acquisition of a hotel in Kochi in
2015, followed by two other
properties in Bengaluru, that are
under various stages of
development. With more than
$110m invested in the first phase
of development already underway
in Kerala and Karnataka, the group
is actively pursuing a strategic
expansion plan by investing in
properties that complement the
company’s vision.
Across the three verticals, Adeeb
employs more than 3000 people. He
considers them to be one of the key
assets in the success of his ventures.
“We believe that business is driven
by people and not just concepts. Our
efforts should always be focussed on
keeping people passionate about
their work.
At our organisation, we create
entrepreneurs and not employees.
I believe that only when you have
the same team that shares the
same vision that you have for the
business, will it start to grow.”
Adeeb‘s growing influence as an
engaging business leader has also
earned him a position on the senior
advisory board of the South Asia
Regional Strategy Group (RSG) at
the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The invitation only flagship group
and its members are committed to
the shared mission of accelerating
the regional transformation of
South Asia through public-private
cooperation. The RSG provides
strategic guidance on the forum’s
regional agenda and is the highest-
level decision-making body for the
WEF’s activities in South Asia.
Adeeb combines his aptitude
for business with his deep values
of human respect and integrity to
support people in need.
He always stands by the
philosophy that incredible
possibilities can be created if we
stay true to doing our duties.
With his vision to create lasting
value to his business and to the
community, Adeeb is defining his
definite imprint in the business world
as a young visionary.
23
24 Vol. 19/46, December 2018
 SERVING
PEOPLE,
GROWING
WEALTH
Arnaud Leclercq, Capital Partner at
Lombard Odier, says why the Swiss
private bank’s services focus on what
really matters: the clients it serves

COVER STORY
By Ramia Farrage

arabianbusiness.com 25
C OV E R STO RY
A R N AU D L EC L E R C Q

R
ARELY DOES A BANKER
personally know
two to three gener-
ations of the fami-
lies he services, the private
details of their dynasties,
and all while being entrusted
with sensitive information to
which even some inner-circle
members aren’t privy.
“We are the most trusted
advisor to our clients, often
over generations, and in
this capacity we have access
to privileged information
regarding all aspects of
our client’s lives,” Arnaud
Leclercq, Capital Partner and
Group Managing Director
of Lombard Odier, tells
Arabian Business.
Lombard Odier’s status
as a family-owned business
for seven generations has
helped it win clientele from
some of the most affluent
families, entrepreneurs, and
private investors in the GCC,
as it helps to preserve, grow
and transmit their assets
over time. Leclercq, who is in
charge of emerging markets,
says Lombard Odier applies
to its clients the same family
principles that have driven its
own business since its foun-
dation: integrity, responsibil-
ity and long-term vision.
“There are a lot of common
values,” explains Leclercq.
“When you run a family-
owned business for several u Arnaud Leclercq, Capital Partner, Lombard Odier Group
generations you understand
the challenges, you know the “When you run decade. While Leclercq insists that clients around the world
difficulties, so when you talk this region has high potential, entrust us with. I am focused
to people who are basically
a family-owned presenting many opportuni- on continuing this success
thinking the same way the business for ties for growth, he’s discreet story but we’re not there yet.
bond is already there to start several generations when asked about the total By working hard and staying
the relationship.” you understand value of client assets the firm close to our clients we have
The global wealth and asset currently manages here. more than doubled our assets
manager, headquartered in
the challenges” “We don’t break-down our over the last six years.”
Geneva since 1796, has total figures by individual markets,”
client assets of $281bn. In answers Leclercq. “We prefer Selective growth
the UAE and GCC market,
Lombard Odier has seen a
consistent and significant
$281bn
The total client assets
to focus on our clients and
their needs, but we are
pleased to state that it repre-
While Lombard has 27 offices
in 23 jurisdictions, Leclercq is
quick to point out that these
growth of their business managed by Lombard Odier sents a significant percentage numbers aren’t necessarily
and client base for the past worldwide of the overall assets ($281bn) growth indicators, especially
26 Vol. 19/46, December 2018

u Best Overall GCC Private Bank and Best UAE Private Bank (International) at the 2018 WealthBriefing GCC Awards
u The head office in Geneva, rue de la Corraterie, where it all began
in the GCC where expansion
largely depends on a firm’s
ability to earn the trust of
prominent families.
“When we talk about
growth it’s not necessarily
about opening many offices,”
Leclercq clarifies. “It’s essen-
tially about us gaining the
trust and getting greater
access to a larger number
of local wealthy families. By
further collaborating and
providing our services to the
key families, merchant fami-
arabianbusiness.com
lies and some royals in the
region, we expand.”
These prominent fami-
lies usually have several
accounts in various banks,
including retail, commercial,
and investment institutions.
While Leclercq concedes that
the former two are useful
and necessary, he says these
families expect a different
level of service from their
private bank and takes pride
in Lombard Odier’s status as
a pure wealth manager.
“Our clients says that most
of the universal banks have
become like supermarkets,”
claims Leclercq. “They have
nothing against supermar-
kets, but they don’t shop
there. They go to selective
14%
Lombard Odier’s average
growth in the GCC year-on-
year for the past decade
C OV E R S T O RY
A R N AU D L E C L E R C Q
shops and buy products that
correspond to their wishes.”
Leclercq also draws paral-
lels between large banking
institutions and hospitals,
noting, “Clients care about
their health very much. They
would choose a dedicated
clinic over a big, bureaucratic
hospital. And they seek the
level of care and service for
their private savings – not
from a general hospital, but
from a true specialist.”
As a privately owned firm,
Lombard has the luxury
of time where it can offer
bespoke services with a focus
on caring for, preserving and
growing clients’ wealth over
the long term, rather than
rushing to meet short-term
targets. With no pressure to
report quarterly earnings,
Lombard is mid-to-long-term
oriented, working to create
profits that will be passed
down from one generation to
the next.
“We’re not a “push-prod-
ucts” bank with a product of
the week,” insists Leclercq.
“A number of institutions
have become what we don’t
want to become and what we
will never become, which is
a manufacturer of products,
where the private bank is the
distribution channel of these
products. We are exactly the
opposite business model in
the sense that we first get the
needs of the clients and then
we build and assemble for
them what they need.”
Forecasting the future
With over 200 investment
professionals working across
the globe, Lombard aims to
generate innovative invest-
ment insights, forecasting the
growth opportunities of the
future rather than focusing on
the industries or sectors that
are presently producing the
highest ROI, even if this means
lower immediate returns.
27
C OV E R STO RY
A R N AU D L EC L E R C Q
“When you invest your savings
you shouldn’t only look at
what is good now,” Leclercq
advises. “You have to invest for
the longer term. What we try to
do is really to deliver a constant
regular positive return on the
assets – a constant, positive,
return over generations.”
To project these forthcom-
ing investment opportunities,
Lombard Odier’s chief invest-
ment officer and his team of
economists conduct macro-
analysis from which they
derive an asset allocation. They
also look at emerging markets
and trends, and select certain
sectors that might benefit.
An example of this can be
found in the growing aging
population, as the World
Health Organisation predicts
nearly two billion people
across the world are expected
to be over 60 years old by 2050.
“Many companies are enjoy-
ing this boom in the number
of elderly as this group has
disposable income to spend
in certain sectors including
the cruise industry, medical
industry, real estate, retire-
ment homes, and others,”
explains Leclercq. “So our job
is to select some of these mega-
trends and then select the best
companies from different
regions of the world so that
we have good diversification.”
Another macroeconomic
trend, which is closer to the
Middle East, is the growing
middle class from India, Paki-
stan, Africa and other develop-
ing countries. Families who
were earning a monthly salary
of a few hundred dollars ten to
15 years ago are today earning
$1,000 to $1,500. This rapid
rise in disposable income
has changed their consumer
habits. “Their parents never
went to eat fast food,” says
Leclercq. “Now the young
people, they go to fast food
restaurants, they buy pizza,
they eat certain biscuits which
28
“When you invest your
savings you shouldn’t
look at what is good now.
You have to invest for the
longer term”
u The future high-tech and sustainable Geneva headquarters
they never did before. So this
is also a mega-trend, that the
middle class has increased its
revenues, thanks to globali-
sation, which has in turn
changed consumer habits.”
It’s Lombard’s mission to
extract value from the compa-
nies that will profit from these
changes in consumption. “You
have here some Halal fast food
chains for instance,” explains
Leclercq. “They did not exist
ten years ago and now they
are very successful. These are
some of the trends we look at.”
Still, there are some sectors
Lombard avoids completely.
Like many other banks, it
doesn’t recommend delving
into the cryptocurrency market
at this stage, citing its uncer-
$1bn+
Amount of assets currently
managed in the UAE, with the
figure expected to rise sharply
tain future. However Leclercq
does see promise in the under-
lying blockchain technology,
which too has endured both
positive and negative specu-
lation. “Here again there will
be very few winners and many
losers,” warns Leclercq. “But
it’s a technology which is very
promising, which is already
used in international trade and
in finance to some extent, and
which we see developing.”
Regional focus
During its 50 year presence
in the Middle East, Lombard
Odier has forged important
relations with many local
institutions. Its representative
office in Dubai has celebrated
over a decade of operations in
the UAE and has doubled in
size over the last five years.
Leclercq says while much of
the region is facing geopo-
litical turmoil, the UAE is a
country from which the entire
region can be covered.
“It is central to the area so
there’s a geographic compo-
nent,” Leclercq says. “To
establish a branch here or a
representative office is indeed
very flexible, it’s not over
expensive, we get the constant
support of the central bank,
our relationship with the
authorities is excellent, the
legal framework is clear and
pretty flexible, and it’s stable.”
Catering specifically to
the GCC, in 2012 Lombard
launched Shariah compliant
investment solutions. Then,
in February 2018 the Amanie
Shariah Supervisory Board
certified its discretionary
mandate as Shariah compli-
ant. Uniquely, this highly
conservative solution, which
provides broad exposure
to Shariah compliant equi-
ties, is fully customisable to
the wishes of each client and
offers three risk-return profiles
(conservative, balanced,
growth). It comprises three
separate building blocks of
Vol. 19/46, December 2018

investment solutions includ-
ing Sukuks selected by special-
ists, direct equity investments
chosen through a selective
process combining Lombard
Odier’s expertise and Islamic
indexes, and special partner-
ships with thematic funds.
“The decision to offer
fully customisable Islamic
investment solutions glob-
ally is a testament to both
our commitment to our
clients and our commitment
to growth within the GCC,”
says Leclercq.
Lombard Odier’s process
for selecting Shariah securities
is extremely strict, following
the fundamental require-
ments of Islamic finance,
which prohibits usury or
exorbitant rates of interest
on loans (Riba), uncertainty
and unnecessary or exces-
sive risk (Gharar), specula-
tion and gambling (Maysir),
and investment in sectors
deemed illicit, such as alcohol
or tobacco.
arabianbusiness.com
u The bank has been a family business for seven generations
The firm’s efforts in the
region haven’t gone unno-
ticed. Lombard Odier has
won seven awards over seven
consecutive years, includ-
ing Overall Best GCC Private
Bank in 2018 at the Wealth-
Briefing GCC Region Awards.
These accolades are placing it
centre-stage in a market where
it has traditionally operated
somewhat discreetly, while
simultaneously broadening
its familiarity among potential
clients. “We’re now perceived
“We’re not a ‘push-
product’ bank.
We get the needs
of the clients and
build a solution for
what they need”
31%
Mena offshore wealth held
in Switzerland according to
Boston Consultancy
in the GCC as one of the key
players in this domain, thanks
to the awards we’ve won and
for other reasons, so when
something happens there is a
good chance that clients will
come to talk to us, and we can
discuss how we can support
them,” says Leclercq.
As the Head of New Markets,
Leclercq has an affinity with
the region and says he’s fond
of Middle Eastern culture and
people. He acknowledges that
it presents several challenges,
most notably, its geopolitical
turmoil, yet recognises that
opportunities emerge from
its instability.
“We represent stability
and security,” says Leclercq.
“Some families have decided
that 20 to 25 percent of the
assets should be abroad in
order to diversify just in case
things turn bad. So from that
standpoint we respect their
decision and find bespoke
solutions, and it’s a business
opportunity as well.”
C OV E R S T O RY
A R N AU D L E C L E R C Q
Many of these new clients
are millennials, and as a bank
with a two-century history of
innovation, Lombard Odier
is attractive to this segment.
Ironically, Leclercq says many
of these young investors tend
to be more conservative in
their portfolio preferences.
“We had a case recently where
a client sold his high-tech busi-
ness. He kept some money for
reinvesting in new projects
and placed the rest in a very
conservative portfolio,” says
Leclercq. “We invited some
bankers of his generation to
the meeting and they created
a relaxed atmosphere; you
know, no tie and stuff like that,
but for his own private invest-
ments he wanted no risk.”
Also notable about millen-
nials, not surprisingly, is that
they prefer electronic commu-
nication. “Millennials tend
to want things now,” asserts
Leclercq. “They don’t want to
call the banker and ask what’s
in their portfolio, whereas the
previous generation likes to
have a dialogue.”
No matter the generational
differences, investment pref-
erences, or backgrounds,
Leclercq says every investor
has a story and all are worth
hearing. “We are down-to-
earth and we listen to them,”
shares Leclercq. “I’m fasci-
nated by the clients. Every
family has amazing stories
about how the grandfather or
the son built up the business.
Sometimes they lost every-
thing and in 15 years they have
rebuilt everything from scratch
– completely reimagined the
family’s wealth. That’s incred-
ible. I always find our clients
very inspiring.”
His obvious interest in the
customers he serves reveals
the key to investing and
private banking: it’s as much
about people as it is about
money. And therein lies the
secret to success. a
29
F E AT U R E M U BA DA L A

MAKING

CHANGE
Global Manufacturing and Industrial Summit and Mubadala Aerospace head
Badr Al-Olama on how emerging technologies can change entire societies
and improve the lives of billions – if done right

30 Vol. 19/45, December 2018

T E C H N O L O GY BA D R A L- O L A M A

A
S THE HEAD OF THE
organising committee of
the Global Manufactur-
ing and Industrialisation
Summit (GMIS) and Mubadala Aero-
space, Badr Al-Olama has what many
would consider a broad and ambitious
goal: to change the future role of manu-
facturing in society, simultaneously
putting the UAE at the forefront of the
Fourth Industrial Revolution while
at the same time helping the world
achieve sustainable development and,
ultimately, prosperity for all.
Established in 2015, GMIS – a joint
initiative of the UAE’s Ministry of the
Economy and the United Nations
Industrial Development Organisation
(UNIDO) is an industry association
with the stated aim of bridging the gaps
between manufacturers, governments,
NGOs, technologists and investors to
use manufacturing to help regenerate
the global economy.
In the UAE, few are better placed
than Al-Olama to see what the future of
manufacturing holds for the UAE, the u Siemens and Strata will develop the MENA’s first 3D-printed aircraft interior parts for Etihad Airways
region, and the world. Before becom-
ing director of aerospace at Mubadala,
Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund,
Al-Olama was CEO of Strata, Mubadala’s
aerospace company, and has played an
important advisory role in the develop-
ment of Nibras Al Ain Aerospace Park
and is a board member of the UAE Space
Agency.

New workers, new era

Speaking to Arabian Business, Al-Olama
says that the world is now at the cusp
of an important inflection point when
it comes to industry. “Historically,
manufacturing has brought about
substantial economic and social
changes that result in more wealth, a
higher standard of living, and greater
education and training opportunities,”
he explains. “Safeguarding its long-

60%
Number of UAE business leaders
who believe a talent deficit will hit
the country by 2020 u Badr Al Olama presenting the MBR challenge at MIT Solve

32 Vol. 19/46, December 2018


term sustainability has always been
absolutely critical…it is central to how
developed countries have been able to
mature economies that deliver on the
wellbeing and health of their citizens.
This is because manufacturing is more
than what we are able to make. It is
about cultivating the knowledge needed
to make products, build skill sets, and
nurture technological improvements to
drive economic growth.”
New and still emerging technologies
such as artificial intelligence, machine-
learning, cloud computing and 3D print-
ing, however, have brought with them
a new set of challenges, and concerns
regarding the long-term employment
prospects of many current manufac-
turing jobs. According to research from
Korn Ferry, for example, 60 percent of
UAE business leaders believe a “talent
deficit” will hit the country as early as
2020, while another 50 percent said
they believe that a third of the existing
workforce will no longer be needed in
a decade, along with 20 percent of the
total number of human roles.
In Al-Olama’s eyes, however, such
concerns are largely unfounded,
provided that the labour force of the
arabianbusiness.com
u Japan’s Minister of Economy at GMIS
future can adjust in time. “The ques-
tion remains whether this adaption
and convergence [of new technology]
really changes the way we work, posi-
tively or otherwise,” he says. “For exam-
ple, despite the introduction of AI and
robotics, multiple studies have shown
that a skilled workforce will always be
necessary to complete specific tasks
within the manufacturing realm.
Indeed [it may be the case] that this
technology will create more jobs than
it replaces.
“It is not just our
employment that
will shift, but our
relationship with
manufacturing at
its core”
$2.96bn
Mubadala Investment Company’s
reported profits for the first six
months of 2018
BA D R A L- O L A M A T E C H N O LO GY
GMIS 2019
In July 2019, GMIS will hold its
second summit in the Russian city
of Yakaterinburg, one of Russia’s
most important manufacturing and
economic hubs. First announced by
Russian President Vladimir Putin in May
2018, the event will revolve around the
theme of “nature-inspired technologies”
such as biomimetic design and
biomimicry, the science of mapping
design challenges to the natural world.
The first GMIS summit – held in 2017
at Paris Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi
– focused on the role of manufacturing
in reconstructing the global economy
through technology and innovation,
global value chains, employment and
education, infrastructure, standards and
stakeholder alignment.
3D-printing
‘micro-factories’
In March 2017,
Mubadala, the Dubai
Future Foundation
GE Additive
announced that
they were coming
together to
establish the region’s
first micro-factory,
which the companies said would play
a “crucial” role in upskilling the region’s
workforce to use 3D-printing
manufacturing technology to make
specialised components. According to GE,
one micro-factory in Abu Dhabi will focus
on helping local industrial companies
speed up their adoption of additive
manufacturing and design, while another
in Dubai will focus on consumer goods and
service companies. Each facility will hold a
number of 3D printers.
33
T E C H N O L O GY BA D R A L- O L A M A

The workers of the near future, he

explains, will not necessarily have their
jobs replaced by machines, but will
be required to adapt to what he terms
“hybrid roles” in which professionals
work alongside innovations to facili-
tate production and decision-making.
As an example, he points to the intro-
duction of robotics to the manufactur-
ing sector. “This allows higher levels
of work flexibility as monotonous
or repetitive tasks are overtaken by
machines, allowing workers to focus
on creative or competitive thinking,”
he notes. “It also improves workplace
safety, as robots can be used in unsafe
or tense environments without risk of
personal injury.”
Additionally, Al-Olama points to addi-
tive manufacturing – more commonly
known as 3D printing – which he says
will increasingly be used by manufac-
turers as they strive to improve preci-
sion, produce less waste, reduce CO2
emissions, and cut down on transpor-
tation miles by manufacturing onsite,
or even in people’s homes. Notably,
in the UAE, Strata is among one of the u GE Additive will open two UAE “microfactories” with Mubadala and the Dubai Future Foundation
companies that is already making this
a reality, having last year announced a development goals (SDGs) set by the UN
partnership with Siemens and Etihad to General Assembly in 2015. To this end,
3D-print parts for aircraft interiors. GMIS has launched the Mohammed bin
For the workforce of the future, Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity,
Al-Olama says, this all creates unprec- which seeks to unite manufacturers,
edented opportunities. “It is not just innovators and entrepreneurs with UN
employment that will shift, but our agencies, academics and philanthropists
relationship with manufacturing at its improve the lives of people around the
core…no longer does manufacturing world through ‘making’.
mean a career in a factory or lab, but According to Al-Olama, the initia-
instead it offers working with cutting- tive and its goals must be examined in
edge technology utilising computer, context. “Potential for sustainable devel-
data, coding and analytical skills,” opment across many less developed
he says. “However, as the shift is so countries is stymied by severe struc-
dramatic a skills gap has emerged - the tural impediments, their vulnerability to
world needs more coders. Consequently, u Strata is to open at Nibras Al Ain Aerospace Park economic and environmental shifts and
to ensure the full scale of the 4IR is real- shocks,” he says. “This is the situation
ised, particularly in the manufacturing “An international more than 880 million people, about 12
sector, an international initiative to shift, shift to train skills percent of the world’s population, face.”
train and retain skills towards digitisa- The end goal of the newly formed
tion is needed, urgently.” towards digitisation initiative, as Al-Olama sees it, is to create
is needed, urgently” an ecosystem that is built on collabora-
Sustainable change tion and partnerships that can serve to
Looking to the future, Al-Olama says empower members of society through
that the benefits of the Fourth Industrial design, manufacturing, technology and
Revolution will extend far past factory
floors, and – if things go smoothly – may
ultimately help entire nations to develop
$7bn
Size of global 3D printing industry
innovation.
“Our objective is to ensure that the
transformation of manufacturing not
and meet the 17 global sustainable in 2017, up 21 percent on 2016 only equips the sector to thrive amid
34 Vol. 19/46, December 2018

the disruptive change brought about
by the 4IR, but that this transformation
happens in alignment with the SDGs,”
he explains. “Ideas will be channelled,
developed, perfected and progressed to
the point where they are more than just
ideas, bringing real benefit to those who
need it most.”
To build this ecosystem, Al-Olama and
the initiative have created a programme
they’ve termed the “Global Maker Chal-
lenge, which is an online, open-inno-
vation platform that offers an oppor-
tunity for innovators to connect with
each other and work together to solve
real-world problems broadly fitting
within one of four themes: sustainable
energy, digital divide and digital literacy,
rural transformation and zero hunger
and sustainable cities. Challenge award
winners can win up to $1m in prizes to
make their projects a reality.
To highlight the possibilities,
Al-Olama says that the implementation
and innovation of technology in rural
areas can have a very tangible and meas-
urable impact on hundreds of millions
of people around the globe.
“We have asked our community of
arabianbusiness.com
“Manufacturing
is more than what
we are able to make.
It is about cultivating
the knowledge needed
to make products”
makers to consider how farmers in less
developed countries can increase food
and cash crop yields through advanced
methods of sustainable agricultural
production and preservation,” he says.
“The solutions will allow for the produc-
tion of higher yields with less land, water
and labour and improve coordination
within the value chain of rural farm-
ers, which supports sustainable food
production, reduces post-harvest losses
and facilitates market access in favour
of farmers. It will also increase access to
such technologies for vulnerable popu-
lations, especially women.”
This example that the initiative has
set in motion, which places manufac-
turing and product solutions at the
heart of solving the world’s everyday
challenges, stands at the heart of what
Al-Olama believes that manufacturing
can accomplish.
“These are ideas that are affordable
and reliable and making a real difference
to our world,” he says. “In manufactur-
ing in particular, we are confident inte-
grating such innovations will allow us to
realise a dream that we have been pursu-
ing for centuries – prosperity for all.” a
BA D R A L- O L A M A T E C H N O LO GY
United Nations
Sustainable
Development Goals
In September 2015, the General
Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development, which
specified 17 separate sustainable
development goals, or SDGs. Based on the
principle of ‘leaving no one behind”, the
agenda is meant as a holistic approach to
sustainable development. Among the UN’s
sub-goals in the SDGs are the eradication
of extreme poverty of below $1.25 per day,
ending malnutrition by 2035, doubling the
agricultural outcomes of small-scale
producers, achieving at least seven
percent GDP growth per annum in
the world’s least developed countries,
upgrading and retrofitting industries
to make them sustainable, and
“substantially” increasing the share of
renewable energy in the global energy mix.
UNIDO comes to
Abu Dhabi
Last week, Abu Dhabi was officially
selected to be the host city for the
2019 United Nations Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO)
General Conference. The General
Conference is scheduled to be held at
the end of 2019 and will be preceded by
UNIDO’s Least Developed Countries
Ministerial Conference.
35
F E AT U R E AC C E N T U R E D I G I TA L

THE
FUTURE
IS NOW Mike Sutcliff, Group CEO of Accenture Digital,
explains how digital transformation is going to
impact businesses and individuals in the UAE
By Shruthi Nair

36 Vol. 19/45, December 2018

F E AT U R E AC C E N T U R E D I G I TA L

C
OMPANIES IN THE UAE must
make strategic shifts in
order to unleash the intel-
ligent enterprise, according
to Mike Sutcliff, Group CEO of Accenture
Digital, speaking to Arabian Business
about Accenture’s Technology Vision
Report 2018.
He explains that the Intelligent
enterprise approach – a management
approach that applies technology to
the challenge of improving business
performance – is no longer a thing of
the future. The report notes how it has
already started mushrooming in the
region thanks to the rapid advances
made in Artificial Intelligence and emerg-
ing technologies. However, the UAE still
needs to make strategic shifts to unleash
its full potential. “The future is now but it
is unevenly distributed,” he says as both a
promise and a warning to future-minded
companies.
This work is at the core of Accenture
Digital’s mission as one of the largest
end-to-end providers of digital trans-
formation capabilities in the world. The
digital division is five divisions of the US
company, which was founded in 1951,
and is now a partner with more than
three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500,
driving innovation to improve the way
the world works and lives.
Its annual Technology Vision Report,
the company revealed in detail the five
emerging digital trends that will shape
the way technology increases business
impact across societies in the region
and the beyond. It looks at how artifi-
cial intelligence can benefit businesses,
together with augmented reality, virtual
reality, extended reality (XR) – which it
bills as the first technology to “relocate”
people in time and space; the importance
of trust with data veracity, enabling
a frictionless business that is built to
partner at scale, and creating intelligent
distributed systems.

$320bn
Amount that AI could contribute
to Middle East economy in 2030,
according to PwC report

38 Vol. 19/46, December 2018


The UAE has been in the fore when it
comes to accepting emerging technolo-
gies and trying to find a way to implement
it in governmental and business opera-
tions in order to derive revenue from it.
This has increasingly been the case with
blockchain and artificial intelligence.
The UAE aims to ensure that by 2021
half of its government’s transactions are
conducted on a blockchain platform and
has also set an ambitious goal of becom-
ing the global leader with regards to AI
adoption by 2031.
However, it is not free from challenges
when it comes to the implementation
including the availability of data and
the use of AI in different industries and
environments – a point that Sutcliff
acknowledges.
“We have a fairly fragmented environ-
ment in this region so we need to bring
the data together and make it useful
for machine-learning algorithms. And
sometimes we just need more scale of
data. We are hoping to work with our
many partners in the ecosystem to see
how we can bring some of that data
together to make it useful for different
types of artificial intelligence applica-
tions,” he explains.
arabianbusiness.com
u Mike Sutcliff, Group CEO of Accenture Digital,
is confident that technology will speed growth
“We have a fairly
fragmented
environment in this
region so we need to
bring the data together
and make it useful”
Boosting the economy
Research by Accenture shows that AI has
the potential to boost economic growth
in the UAE alone by 1.6 percent, adding
$182bn to the economy by 2035. And
in Saudi Arabia it’s estimated that the
AC C E N T U R E D I G I TA L F E AT U R E
Smart technologies,
smarter cities #1
Attracting talent
Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) last
month announced its collaboration with
Al Hilal Bank and Jibrel Network to pilot
smart blockchain Shariah-compliant
sukuks. Alex Coelho, CEO of Al Hilal Bank,
said: “We are proud to be the first bank to
launch a ‘smart blockchain Islamic sukuk;
once again the bank has demonstrated
that it has the capabilities of leading in the
competitive market of Islamic banking.
Attracting talent
Dubai Internet City (DIC) last month
launched a GoFreelance permit that will
enable freelance talent to work in the
technology sector. The product will
complement Dubai Internet City’s mission
to accelerate the emirate’s economy
through attracting top talent to the
region’s leading Technology community.
Smart roads
The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA)
recently endorsed a $160.6m project for
the expansion of smart traffic systems in
Dubai. The project comes as part of plans
to broaden the scope of smart traffic
systems in support of efforts to rank Dubai
as the smartest city worldwide, said
Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and
chairman of the RTA. “It envisages lifting
the smart system coverage of Dubai roads
network from the present 11 percent to 60
percent,” said Al Tayer.
39
F E AT U R E AC C E N T U R E D I G I TA L

boost will be just over one percent adding

$215bn to the economy by 2035. “There
is a lot of trapped value and the digital
tools and the techniques we are working
with will help unlock that potential,” says
Sutcliff. “We think there is the potential
to unlock hundreds of billions of dollars
of opportunity and that is across all
industries. And we think we can help
accelerate GDP fairly significantly,” in
the process he adds.
The start-up and SME segment
can also benefit greatly but this uplift
is not without its challenges. While
they are reaping the benefits of digital
transformation to ease out the process
of starting and carrying through their
businesses, there still exists a constant
fear and insecurity of being eaten up by
the corporate giants, who they think have
more access to emerging technologies
given their monetary advantage.
Sutcliff debunks this myth by bringing
to light how modern businesses have
moved towards conducting their
operations without boundaries. “We
are also talking about an ecosystem;
a boundary-less business. This is not
just about the way you think about
your own business, but also about
how you view the entire ecosystem.
It’s asking how you remove friction in
that ecosystem to make it easier for you
to do business, and also allow you to
take advantage of the investments that
others are making.”
Viewed in this light, technology offers
“a fantastic opportunity” for SMEs.
“The first thing that is unique about the
digital world is that you get access to
relatively cheap technology, whether it’s
computing power, storage, bandwidth,
access to devices. So even a small to
medium enterprise can take advantage of
a lot of this technology at very little cost.”
effectively performed by machines – leav- going to create jobs. There will be jobs that
Automation and unemployment ing people to focus on interpersonal, are destroyed but there will be lots of news
Public opinion has always held that auto- social, emotional skills. jobs also being created.”
mation will result in unemployment of Sutcliff agrees, and refers to an excerpt Consulting firm McKinsey & Company
the masses. The rise of frontier technolo- from the book ‘Human + Machine’ by estimates that 40 to 45 percent of current
gies like artificial intelligence has caused Accenture leaders Paul Daugherty and Jim jobs in the region could be automated
fears of robots taking over blue-collar Wilson. “There are three environments by 2030, but a more detailed look into it
jobs. However there is another view that where the humans are working with the shows that while 57 percent of individu-
says humans still have the upper hand machines to help machines do some- als with a high school education or less
given their creativity and ability to form thing and three environments where the are suspected to be negatively impacted
relationships. The type of tasks that are machines are helping the humans. When by job automation, this figure drops by
being replaced by AI algorithms are we look across the spectrum of the AI, our half, to 22 percent, for employees with a
routine, repetitive tasks that can be more research demonstrates that it’s actually bachelor’s or higher degree of education.
40 Vol. 19/46, December 2018
 AC C E N T U R E D I G I TA L F E AT U R E

“We are at an inflection

point in the market Smart technologies,
where business are smarter cities #2
saying that they now
understand what works
and what doesn’t”

implementation requires more time up

front to make sure it fits into a coher-
ent education strategy. “Once you get it
right we believe you can have a tremen-
dous impact on both the rate of learning
for students and helping with retention
and memory.”
He says that healthcare will also
benefit as the sector “moves toward a
more hybrid approach where care is
not necessarily delivered in a hospital
but also in a home environment where
people manage their disease as part of
their life,” he explains.

Scaling up the change

Benefit to social sectors
Integrating resources in some of the
most crucial social sectors, including
health and education, could result in
not just setting an example for the rest of
the world but also in the overall develop-
ment of the nation and its people. “Both
health and education have an underly-
ing philosophy. We need solutions that
work for 100 percent of the population.
That requires a more regulatory control
and thoughtfulness in how we introduce
products and services to either health-
care or education,” he says of the UAE’s
approach to digital transformation.
The Ministry of Education has devel-
oped the Education 2020 Strategy,
which promotes the use of technology
in schools with a view towards future
employability. However, since these
sectors have little room for mistakes, the
Digital transformation is going to
intrude on all sectors as companies
integrate their core business function-
alities with advanced technological plat-
forms. Hence, it becomes paramount
for “virtual” and “actual” platforms to
not just co-exist but also properly lever-
age one another. It is nearly impossible
to understand the fully potential of the
on-going digital transformations, but
organisations in the UAE are slowly
figuring it out.
With that comes the next step, which
is to implement and incorporate it on a
large scale. “We are at an inflection point
in the market where business are saying
that they now understand what works
and what doesn’t in terms of how we
combine technology. And now we are
ready to do it at a much larger scale,” he
says, adding that firms across the world
have been discussing the implemen-
tation of digital solutions from paper
proposals to actual reality.
“In the next year or two we expect to
see the start of the mass adoption of
some of these solutions that compa-
Paperless government
Phase one of the Smart Dubai Government
Establishment’s Paperless Strategy is set
to be completed by the end of 2018.
Eliminating paper transactions will remove
over one billion pieces of paper used in the
Dubai Government every year, saving
130,000 trees in the process, said CEO
Wesam Lootah. He added that it will
additionally be saving customers more
than 40 hours a year that would otherwise
have been spent on paper transactions.
Smart government
Smart Dubai and IBM recently announced
the launch of the Dubai Blockchain
Platform, the first government-endorsed
blockchain platform in the UAE. Delivered
through an IBM Cloud environment and
built locally in the UAE, the enterprise-
ready platform will serve as a stepping
stone for organisations in the UAE and

13.6%
Contribution to GDP in the UAE
of artificial intelligence by 2030
according to PwC report
nies have been working on for the past
couple of years.”
Which is another way of saying that
the future will soon be the present that
everyone will have to live in. a
globally to transition their blockchain
testing and development into full
production. It will also transform and
digitise applicable government processes
and citizen services, a statement said.

arabianbusiness.com 41
F E AT U R E
A M E R I CA N U N I V E R S I T Y O F S H A RJ A H
GLOBAL
RESEARCH
LEADERS
The ambitious plans of American University of Sharjah
AS THE AMERICAN University of Sharjah
(AUS) pursues its goal of being the
region’s leading research institution
in the next five years, Chancellor
Björn Kjerfve reveals some major
developments that AUS will bring about
in the field of education. He tells Arabian
Business about the plans to create the
UAE’s version of the Silicon Valley
and establish interdisciplinary PhD
programmes to propel the university –
and the nation’s youth – into the future.
How do you manage to attract such a
diverse student population?
We like to think it is the quality of
the institution in terms of education,
teaching, and research. Also, the fact
that we are merit-based and provide an
American-style education in the Middle
East makes us pretty unique in the region.
There are other American universities
in the UAE. So how are you different to
these other institutions?
We are very different to the others
because we are a not-for-profit
institution. If we ever have profit, it goes
into building our endowment to support
students to study with us. We give well
over AED100m per year in scholarships
and aid and so on.
42
Some 27 non-profit American
universities around the globe are
part of the Association of American
International Colleges & Universities
(AAICU), and the American University
of Sharjah is the only one in the UAE.
You put great emphasis on tolerance,
diversity and respect. Is there a
particular way in which you approach
this goal?
What we do is consider everybody to
be equal. We are very transparent and
straightforward in this regard
You describe the campus as being
unique. How so?
Well, I am biased but I think it is the most
beautiful campus in the region (127
hectares), and it was built with a love for
education. It has a lovely Arabic feel and
is well laid out with lots of fountains and
greenery, as well as grass playing fields.
“We are not a for-profit
institution. If we ever
have profit, it goes into
building our endowment
to support students to
study with us”
Vol. 19/46, December 2018
arabianbusiness.com 43
F E AT U R E
A M E R I CA N U N I V E R S I T Y O F S H A RJ A H

What constraints are there to providing

an American-style education?
Language is obviously one constraint.
Although the UAE is a country where
English is really the second language, the
quality of English is highly variable. What
we drill into our students is that they need
to be very good at understanding, speaking
and writing. There are also many cultural
differences between an American-style
institution and the Emirati culture. We
show respect and mutual understanding,
where we understand the Emirati culture
and we help students understand the
global business and academic culture,
which may be slightly different.

You said research is important in AUS.

What areas do you specialise in?
A university doesn’t just teach students.
The other equally important activity is
creating knowledge through research
and scholarship. We are buying into that
ideal in a big way and there are very few “We want students to
institutions in this part of the world that be able to participate in
do that.
In terms of our strategic planning there cutting-edge, globally
are two main areas of emphasis. One is that important research”
we want to be an absolutely outstanding
institution in which you can get a liberal
arts education. The other part is that we
want students to be able to participate in
cutting-edge, globally important research.
We are focussing on this in four separate
areas – bio-science and bio-engineering,
materials science and engineering, smart
cities (AI, IoT), and the environment,
especially the marine environment.
We are in the process of establishing
interdisciplinary PhD programmes in
each one of those four areas. We are
also establishing three research centres,
which are support centres for the campus
as a whole. One is a high-performance
computer centre; another one is a
geospatial analysis centre and a genomics
sequencing research centre, collaborating
with BGI of Shenzhen, China.

Is engineering an important focus?

Of our 5,300 students on campus,
47 percent are studying engineering
subjects. But what’s amazing is that
those engineering students also take
at least 42 credit hours of liberal arts.
We are creating students who are
smart in their majors, but have a strong
foundation in the liberal arts.
44
$1bn
Revenue base for higher
education market in the UAE,
according to the Higher
Education UAE portal
When you pursue your goal of being the
region’s leading research institution in
the coming years, what does success in
that regard look like?
There are a number of measures. Firstly,
these institutes and centres I just spoke
of will have matured and will draw talent
in terms of students that will come here
Vol. 19/46, December 2018

to study. They will have scholarships
associated with them, which will attract
top talent in terms of scientists and
engineers. The other component is that
next to the university we are creating
the Sharjah Research Technology
Innovation Park, which is our version
of Silicon Valley. Over the next five to
arabianbusiness.com
ten years we hope to attract hundreds,
or maybe even thousands, of R&D-type
companies that will want to set up shop
here because they can make money in
the market but need interaction with the
AUS research facilities. So we are looking
for the synergy between industrial and
commercial types of R&D.
And more generally, our reputation
will really come from the impact of our
alumni. When they graduate, they go out
to the market and when you ask CEOs
and HR departments around the country
and region, you will find generally that
the alumni of AUS is by far the best.
How do academic institutions forge
stronger links with businesses?
Clearly we have a long way to go in the
sense that the country is only 47 years
old, and AUS was only established
21 years ago. We have already been
through a remarkable transformation.
Our strategic plan aims for us to be the
best research university in the region in
the next five years, which requires money
to buy the right equipment and invest in
hiring the best minds. Fortunately we
F E AT U R E
A M E R I CA N U N I V E R S I T Y O F S H A RJ A H
“Our strategic plan
aims for us to be the
best research university
in the region in the
next five years”
have a commitment from HH Sheikh
Sultan Al Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah,
of $500m over five years to invest in this
transformation from a teaching university
to a full-fledged comprehensive PhD
granting research university.
Also, one of our centres is a joint effort
between BGI, which is one of the world’s
largest economic institutes in China.
On top of that, we are expecting every
one of our PhD students in the science
and engineering areas to spend their
third year abroad so that they can build
their network in another institution.
How will the new visa laws for
graduates, which are intended to help
talent stay in the country, help AUS?
I think the new, extended student
visas are important, especially for
international students that who come
here from abroad to join us. When those
students graduate, they have a chance to
continue doing their research, working
in one of these commercial research
forums in the Sharjah Research,
Technology and Innovation Park
adjacent to American University of
Sharjah. I think it will be a very strong
drawing card.
What is the UAE good at as a whole
when it comes to higher education and
where is it still lacking?
That’s a tough question. I applaud the
UAE for recognising that education is
really important. The Commission for
Academic Accreditation (CAA) has a
very tough accreditation process that
tells the parents and students which
are the quality institutions to attend
because they have achieved this
accreditation. I look forward to seeing all
117 universities across the UAE undergo
this rigorous accreditation process as
only 76 of them are currently accredited.
But the Ministry of Education, Ministry
of Higher Education and the CAA will
all help in strengthening the quality
assurance process. a
45

Omar Chihane
ENTREPRENEUR OF THE WEEK
Sellanyhome.com’s Omar Chihane
The CEO of the online platform aims to connect sellers and buyers
to ultimately increase both market entrants and property value
OMAR CHIHANE LEFT A
corporate career with the likes
of Siemens, Nokia and
Microsoft to step into the
world of entrepreneurship,
and with a concept that truly
stands out. The CEO heads
Sellanyhome.com, an online
platform to sell your home
efficiently. The process begins
by offering the seller an
approximate valuation,
followed by an appointment
booking and a house visit. The
platform will then take about
60-70 pictures and conduct a
100-point evaluation, before
presenting investors with the
evaluation. Buyers then have a
30-minute window to make a
decision to buy, or not.
According to Chihane, it solves
a problem for buyers, who
enjoy an efficient deal flow as
well as transparent evaluations
without doing the work
themselves and going through
46
Arabian Business shines a light on the all-important SME sector
in the region, from success stories and VC news to expert insights
the hassle of liaising with
sellers. And if the name sounds
familiar, it is because the
co-founder happens to be tech
entrepreneur Saygin Yalcin,
also the founder and CEO of
similar concept SellAnyCar.
com. In this piece, Chihane
reveals the main purpose
behind the concept, and
where he sees it headed.
Why does the market need a
platform like Sellanyhome.
com? What makes it different?
Sellanyhome.com was born
from a need to create real time
market coordination between
buyers and sellers. The real
estate industry has been
operating in almost the exact
same way for hundreds of
years, so bringing digital
innovation into this space
seemed like a good
opportunity. Michio Kaku, a
famous theoretical physicist,
beautifully described what I
call ‘the disruption framework’
during the World Government
Summit in Dubai earlier this
year. He laid out five simple
points: Take an industry, find
its middlemen, its points of
friction, list all the aggravation
and waste and digitise it.
What is the purpose of
Sellanyhome.com, besides
connecting both parties?
Well, the real time market
coordination the platform
creates between buyers and
sellers increases entrants into
the market (as it increases
liquidity), which in turn has
the potential of increasing the
value over time.
Is the online property market
starting to get saturated?
Not even close. The potential
in the region is huge and
e-commerce is still in its
infancy stages. I think the next
few years will be very exciting
in this space.
What are some of the biggest
challenges you’re currently
facing with the business?
I’d say the same challenges
that anyone trying to disrupt
an industry goes through:
trying to disrupt before
running out of money.
What more needs to be done
in the GCC start up space to
support SMEs?
Overall, the ecosystem here is
becoming more and more
exciting by the minute.
It’s a young population and
a connected market and the
infrastructure rivals that of
mature markets from around
the world. I guess the only
thing left to do is awareness,
awareness and awareness.
This is a place where investors
can get great returns. The
opportunities are enormous
and the overall environment
is very pro-business. We just
need to shout this from every
rooftop every chance we get.
What are your expansion
plans for Sellanyhome.com?
Ideally we would like to
expand across the region.
What does it take to be an
entrepreneur?
Mindset is an entrepreneur’s
strongest tool to overcome
adversity and fear of failure.
Does having the right mindset
automatically help you win?
The short answer is yes. With
the right mindset, losses,
failures and setbacks are
nothing but an indication of
how close the win is and how
valuable that experience has
been. Second is conviction,
commitment and resilience.
You need to have the
conviction that you will win,
Vol. 19/46, December 2018
Q EMBRACE FAILURE. IT
IS YOUR BEST FRIEND,
ESPECIALLY IF WHAT YOU
ARE TRYING TO DO IS
DISRUPT IN THE SECTOR”
especially if you’re trying to do
something that nobody has
done before. Have the
commitment to put in the
work, and have the resilience
to get back up after getting
knocked down. Because you
will get knocked down. I know
you’ve heard the saying, “If it
was that easy everyone would
be doing it,” but I personally
like, “The harder it is, the more
valuable succeeding
becomes.” My third advice is
to embrace failure. It is your
best friend, especially if what
you’re trying to do is disruptive
in nature. Sure it sounds scary,
but all of the “overnight”
successes that you hear about
take years in the making, with
years’ worth of failures. So
embrace failure and don’t fear
it, for it is failure that teaches
you the best lessons.
What are some solutions to
the GCC’s funding gap for
start ups and SMEs?
To be honest, I’d say more
awareness. Of course a
massive transaction such as
Amazon acquiring Souq helps
with that but all in all, the more
awareness you create, the
more likely you are to attract
different players and so on.
What are some of the
challenges faced by the
regional retail home sector?
This region has of course a lot
less players such as venture
capitalists for instance, than
the more mature markets like
the US. So this comes at a price
which is translated into either
the amount one is able to raise
or the valuation. a
arabianbusiness.com
Saudi start up accelerators
Wamda boss calls for more support
Despite a growing number of
start ups in Saudi, there are
“not enough” support
organisations to cater to
them, says Wamda partner
Walid Faza. Speaking at the
S P OT L I G H T
Entrepreneur in
Dubai to reward
social media
users’ good
deeds with prizes
Mo Ismail – popularly known
as Mo Muscles – will be
giving away prizes ranging
from apparel to watches and
‘experiences’ to those who
share their good deeds
through social media.
The Egyptian-born American
– who is popularly known as
‘Mo Muscles’ – is a fitness
expert, bodybuilder, actor and
producer with over 195,000
followers on Instagram, which
he often uses to collaborate
with a number of fitness,
Riyadh edition of Wamda’s Mix
N’ Mentor event, Faza said the
kingdom’s start ups need more
accelerators, mentorship
programmes and co-working
spaces. Wamda partner Fares
lifestyle and entertainment
brands in the UAE. Speaking
to Arabian Business, Ismail
said that a recent period of
isolation from social media
allowed him to reflect on the
platforms and what can be
accomplished through them.
The subsequent ‘World Peace’
initiative being conducted with
the hashtag #WPInitiative will
give weekly rewards to social
media users along with the
hashtag and tag Ismail at his
account @MoMuscles.
Ghandour also added that
while government support has
increased towards start ups,
more can be done to boost
Saudi Arabia’s entrepreneurial
ecosystem. “As the region’s
largest economy, we see great
potential in Saudi Arabia
– it is an attractive market for
start ups and corporations
alike. Government support has
increased, regulatory
roadblocks are being stripped
away, but much more can still
be done to make it easier for
the ecosystem to reach its full
potential,” he said. A new report
by Wamda, in collaboration
with OC&C Strategy
Consultants and
commissioned by Google,
showed that SMEs make up a
small part of the kingdom’s
economic activity. They
contribute about 20 percent of
its GDP, despite Saudi Arabia
having the largest market in the
GCC in terms of population and
consumer spend, according to
the joint report.
S H O RT S
Arabian Business Start
Up Academy to take
place on December 19
The academy will revolve
around the theme: Bridging
the SME funding gap in the
GCC, and will feature
speakers including Fahim Al
Qasimi, Executive Chairman
of the Department of
Government Relations and
Walid Hanna, CEO of Middle
East Venture Partners. It will
take place at letswork in the
Rove Downtown Dubai from
9am until 12pm.
Entry is free.
47
Liquid assets
Strong suit: Berluti’s fine Art
500 artists to take part in
craftsmanship for modern gentlemen Abu Dhabi Festival 2019
The Parisian brand is known for being a master of exceptional tailoring. In its current The Abu Dhabi Music and Arts
collection, it reveals signature pieces ranging from sharp suits to essential accessories, Foundation has announced a
but all with a contemporary twist for the present-day man diverse programme for March

With more than 100 events, 18

1 productions, two co-productions and
two commissions across 25 venues,
the Abu Dhabi Festival will return
for its 16th year with a mix of artists
and genres across opera, ballet,
orchestra, jazz and flamenco.
The festival’s central theme is the
“Culture of Determination”, as it joins
forces with the Special Olympics
World Games Abu Dhabi also taking
place in 2019.
4

Entertainment
Trevor Noah confirms
Abu Dhabi show to go on
The stand-up comedian has
postponed all other global
shows until 2019

1 Button up Created more as pieces of accessory for in or out of the

A structured jacket is a
wardrobe essential but this
one has a modern twist with
striking buffalo-horn buttons
and striped lining. Body
lining is a warm 51 percent
cotton while Camel is a
timeless winter shade. The
fitted cut is complemented
with flap pockets for a
slimming effect.
2 In his shoes
If there’s one area where
Berluti excells, it’s footwear.
art, these Alessandro Galet
engraved calf leather
oxfords come in the
shoemaker’s signature
touches, an asymetrical
scritto pattern and patina
finishing in tobacco. Made
with a single piece of leather,
the lace up shoes feature
a rounded sole edge using
a welt wheel.
3 In the bag
It’s a travel bag but one that
works as a sophisticated
office. The cube calf leather
bag is designed with Vitello
Fiore leather and black
micro-fibre lining. It boasts a
one zippered compartment
and two flat pockets with
snap closure for ease of use,
as well as double metal zip
closure for added security.
4 Wear the trousers
These wool-blend formal
pants feature a distinctive
cotton twill waistband and
piped back pockets details.
Award-winning stand-up comedian
Trevor Noah is set to perform to a sold
out show in Abu Dhabi this month
despite losing his voice. The damage
to his vocal chords has led the popular
comedian to cancel the remainder of
his shows for this year. The upcoming
show in Abu Dhabi, however, is going
ahead. The famed South African-born
comic will return to Yas Island with his
all-new show, Trevor Noah Live at du
Forum on Friday December 21, 2018.

48 Vol. 19/46, December 2018

RESTAURANT REVIEW | BY BERND DEBUSMANN

Review: Fogo de Chão: a taste of Brazil

Meat lovers are in for a treat at this international mainstay in DIFC
When it comes to Fogo de Chão,
the Brazilian steakhouse in
DIFC, one phrase comes to
mind: it’s about time. Since
being established nearly four
decades ago, the venerable chain
has become a favourite of meat
lovers in cities and towns across
the US, from Los Angeles to
Washington DC. The DIFC edition,
however, is only its second foray
into the Middle East (after
Jeddah). But for those of us who
are fond of steakhouses, it was
well worth the wait.
Fogo de Chão’s core concept
may come as something of a
novelty for those of us living in the
Emirates. It draws from the
traditions of the southern
Brazilian Serra Gaúcha region,
which has a long history of meats
being slow-roasted over an oven
fire by local horsemen, otherwise restaurant – which is spread over
known as Gauchos. a massive space in DIFC’s Central
In practice, what this means Park towers – also has a ‘market
for diners is that this isn’t a table’ serving an array of fresh
restaurant for the faint-hearted. ingredients inspired by Brazilian
If one chooses the restaurant’s staples, as well as Feijoda, a
trademark Fogo Churrasco traditional black bean stew served
experience (AED 249 for lunch of over white rice and seasoned with
AED 299 for dinner) they are a variety of ingredients, such as
treated to a continuous and baked yucca flour.
seemingly-never ending Various meats can also be
table-side service of various ordered as standalone dishes,
meaty Brazilian dishes, ranging and so can Chilean sea bass and
from tenderloin and ribeye steaks pan-seared salmon. Taken on
to leg of lamb and chicken. their own, this breadth of options
Diners control the flow of the and the novelty of Brazilian
meat using a red-green card, hospitality in the Arabian Gulf
meaning that if the red side if would make for a highly
facing up, the waiters will walk by. recommendable destination for
If the green side is up, the meats dinner or an extended business
will continue coming, along with a lunch. But that’s not all – the
number of delicious sides ranging venue itself is one of its greatest
from warm pao de queijo (cheese strengths, spread across a large
bread) to crispy polenta, mashed open terrace with striking views of
potatoes and caramelised bananas. the Burj Khalifa and an elegant
In the unlikely event that one indoor area that never feels
hasn’t quickly gotten full from the crowded. For meat lovers
meats and the sides, the The restaurant serves an array of meaty Brazilian dishes especially, it’s well worth a visit. a

arabianbusiness.com 49

Why Sheikh Zayed’s legacy of excellence and humanity resonates
with expatriates and nationals alike
HIS HIGHNESS SHEIKH
Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan
is a name that cannot be
missed as soon as you land
in the UAE. It is a name,
a legacy and a legend that
lives beyond a single era
or any particular time.
I remember visiting the
UAE for the first time in
2006 and seeing his picture
on billboards by the roads.
That experience sparked
a great sense of curiosity
and a desire to learn more
about him. Like everyone
else, I was – and still am –
struck with awe at the rapid
progress the UAE has made
over recent decades.
Digging further into the
UAE’s history, I learned that
the seeds of this outstanding
development had been
planted by none other than
Sheikh Zayed, the Father of
the UAE; seeds which have
grown into this amazing,
modern-age UAE.
Building the foundations
Sheikh Zayed was a true
statesman of the modern
era, but also with a passion
for authentic Arabian
traditions, such as falconry,
equestrianism, camel
racing, and hunting. He
was a visionary ahead of his
time. Not only did he help
with the unification of the
seven emirates into a single
federation and transforming
50
TRIBUTE | BY JANARDAN DALMIA, CEO OF TRUKKIN MIDDLE EAST
The road to success
u Sheikh Zayed on a diplomatic mission
it into a modern nation,
but he was also a leading
force in the foundation
of the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC).
Today, the progress of
the UAE is tangible with
its rapid development in
world-class infrastructure
and its importance on the
global stage.
As an expatriate myself,
I could not be prouder of
the fact that Sheikh Zayed
not only cared for his own
people but welcomed
people from all walks of life
without any preference for
race or gender. His universal
respect and tolerance have
encouraged people from all
over the world to come to
the UAE and participate in
the process of development
and leading a better life.
The UAE is now a model for
tolerance in the region and
one of the most welcoming
nations in the world. It hosts
more than 200 nationalities
of various backgrounds and
different faiths.
He encouraged the role
of women in strengthening
the economic and social
sectors of the society, and
he also expanded the scope
of their participation in the
development of the nation.
Not only did he nurture
talent and empower women,
he showed the world the
true power of cooperation
and what leadership means.
He was a man with a big
heart, an open majlis, and
extraordinary foresight with
regard to building a nation.
He understood that the
true wealth of an advanced
nation is its people and their
education, which will allow
them to compete on the
global stage and that will in
turn lead to prosperity and
lasting success.
Under Sheikh Zayed’s
leadership, the UAE was
recognised internationally
to be at the forefront of
those nations that provide
foreign aid and assistance
to those in need, in addition
to taking care of its citizens
and their welfare.
An ongoing legacy
Today, it is good to see that
the current leaders of this
great nation not only follow
his guiding principles but
have advanced his vision
to greater heights. And as a
wider society we all look up
to him and remain inspired
by his teachings.
Sheikh Zayed once said:
“No matter how many
buildings, foundations,
schools and hospitals we
build, or how many bridges
we raise, all these are
material entities. The real
spirit behind the progress is
the human spirit, the able
man with his intellect and
capabilities.”
And this truly is reflected
in the real spirit behind the
progress of this great nation,
our UAE. a
Vol. 19/46, December 2018
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