Up to 100 Omniyat jobs at risk
Posted by Zack, Dubai, UAE on 23 November 2008 at 22:22 UAE time
I agree with Alex...they spent millions and millions on marketing to make a name for themselves without even delivering a single project. And now they have even removed the IT functions from their "Bays Water" project which was sold in the market as a smart building.
Up until couple of months ago they had hired people from overseas to fill in positions. these people left their existing jobs to join Omniyat and have been over night laid off.

The days of overleveraging and stretching for this developer are over..
Posted by Alex, Dubai on 23 November 2008 at 19:23 UAE time

How can ANY company, whether it be in the US, UK or UAE, announce close to a dozen projects, without one successful project completed?

Omniyat exemplifies many organizations of the current times, that have "run before they could walk", leveraged themselves 100x over through the use of derivative products, and counted on "luxury branding" to get them through.

The reality is that, with 160 employees, Omniyat is cutting more than half of its work force. Majority of these are highly-skilled people, who have left their countries in the past few months, in the hopes of helping Omniyat build its projects.

The current situation, when it subsides sometime during the next decade, will be a great lesson for leaders of organizations such as Omniyat..

..successful organizations must act in the now, have a robust balance sheet, and focus on delivering projects instead of paying absurd fees to architects for projects that will never be created.

Omniyat, my word of advice: focus on getting your current projects on budget and on time; then and only then, can you concentrate on taking over the world.