Whether it is the world’s largest real estate development, the biggest aviation retail organisation or the Middle East’s first low-cost carrier, some of the region’s most prominent leaders gathered in Dubai for the Sixth annual Arabian Business Forum.
Click here to see the ten best moments from the Arabian Business Forum
Held at Dubai’s Armani hotel yesterday, with the theme of ‘Going Global’, heading the bill was Fahd Al Rasheed, the CEO and managing director of King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia.
As head of the biggest project in the Gulf, Al Rasheed said he was aiming to create 12,000 jobs and is looking outside of the kingdom to attract investment.
“Companies in Europe have US$1.5 trillion in cash,” said Al Rasheed. “Their difficulty is working out where to invest it – their biggest problem is entering new markets. This is something that Dubai and the Gulf needs to leverage in a big way.”
In comparison, Colm McLoughlin, the executive vice chairman of Dubai Duty Free, has grown the company from the ground up since he moved to Dubai in the 1980s. Now the largest duty free operation in the world, he outlined how he is planning to make the company even bigger.
Resilience is key trait for sustained growth and Adel Ali outlined that many thought he would fail when he set about establishing the Middle East’s first low-cost carrier.
Nine years later, Air Arabia is one of the area’s best known brands and the CEO outlined how the carrier is going from strength to strength, despite rising oil prices and increased competition.
A lot of companies in the Middle East enjoy monopolises, but sometimes competition can encourage growth. Saad Al Barrak, former head of Kuwaiti telco Zain, outlines how competition at home forced the firm to look overseas and expand into nearly two dozen markets.
Another important factor for Middle East companies is succession management and while Fadi Ghandour may have established a regional giant in the form of Jordan-based logistics firm Aramex he is now getting ready to hand over the reins to the next generation of management.
Click here to see the ten best moments from the Arabian Business Forum
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