Yasmeen, Linda, Fazana, & Tony
Heritage for Henna Shop in Dubai, UAE

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Final Thoughts and Photos

[May 31, 2008]

From the beautiful beaches, to the shockingly peaceful society and unmatched cultural acceptance from nearly everyone, Dubai seems like it will soon be the promise land that New York once boasted of being. It is an incredible land of opportunity, especially for knowledge workers entering the job market with higher education degrees.

These two weeks have been an amazing adventure - from seeing the pyramids up close to seeing the growth of Dubai. Repeatedly, we heard about how safe each place was despite their locations in the Middle East where there is constant strife. By the end of our week in Cairo, we had grown accustomed to seeing the pyramids daily and it became another landmark in the skyline. Reflecting back and remembering that the pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the world makes us realize how lucky we were to have the opportunity and experience to visit them - something we had all grown up learning about and trying to imagine what the big deal was. Now we understood especially with our weekend visit to Luxor. Egypt's history has shaped the nation through the centuries whereas Dubai is just now creating its history. Created in 1971, the Dubai emirate is relatively young yet growing rapidly as it attracts the world's attention with its desire to the biggest and the best in the world. Despite their differing histories, both play an important role in the social, political, and economic realms of the Middle East, the US, and the world. Egypt and UAE showed us the role that government policies play in transforming a nation's economy and its livelihood and providing support to entrepreneurs.

Here are some photos from our week in Dubai.

 

Sunrise in Amsterdam (during our flight from Dubai)

Saw this all over Dubai but not sure what it is

Various Free Zones in Dubai

Building in Dubai Jumeriah Towers

Junsui Restaurant (Burj Al Arab)

Display at UPS UAE LLC

 

Wafi Mall - Khan Murjan Section

Enjoying the nightlife on our last night in Dubai

Posing at Le Meridian Hotel Mina Seyahi (nightclub and private beach were accessible through this hotel)

Linda at Dubai Airport shortly after our arrival

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Last Day in Dubai

[May 30, 2008]

Today was the last day of our Study Abroad program. In the morning, we were free to make plans to explore the city. Some group members went to Jumeriah Beach and others went to the Mall of the Emirates. The Mall of the Emirates is well known for its indoor ski resort and for being the largest mall in the world.

During the afternoon, we were accompanied by a tour guide to see the highlights of Dubai. Our first stop was the Jumeriah Mosque. Friday is the day of worship in the Muslim religion, so we were not able to enter into the mosque for a tour.

We caught a quick glimpse of the home of Sheik Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai. It was fascinating to see several peacocks, including a baby peacock, roaming around the entrance of the home.

This is the Sheik - His Highness - on billboards all over Dubai.

 

Our next stop was the Dubai Museum. There are several displays of maps and photographs showing the development of Dubai over the years. The museum also had life size mannequins of the traditional settlers posed in various life scenes in Dubai.

The remainder of the evening was spent doing some last minute shopping around Dubai. We made stops at the Spice Souq and the Gold Souq where we bartered and negotiated for the last time on our trip. A few of us were successful in getting the prices we wanted. Our last stop was at the Deira City Center Shopping Mall before we headed to the Dubai airport to catch our flight to Amsterdam. We were all exhausted by the end of the day and hoped to get some sleep on that flight.

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Meeting SZABIST Students

[May 29, 2008]

In the evening, we visited SZABIST (Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology). This university was founded by Benazir Bhutto in honor of her father, former president and prime minister of Pakistan.  Also, she served as the first (and so far only) female Prime Minister of Pakistan for two non-consecutive terms. SZABIST has 3 campuses in Pakistan and 1 in Dubai focused on serving the Pakistani population in the UAE. It opened its doors in Dubai 4 years ago.  It is one of two Pakistani universities in the UAE but is the 1st university with a Corporate Social Responsibility Award. It has over 3,000 graduates already. Go to http://www.szabist.ac.ae/ to learn about the school's Dubai campus.

Tony, Yasmeen, Linda, & Fazana

During our visit, we had the opportunity to tour the college and spend the evening learning about the life of the students at the school.  We started the evening with a tour of Knowledge City, where many university campuses reside, and learned that all of these universities would be moving to Academic City (30 miles away) over the next few years. Knowledge City will be replaced with multinational companies.

Once we settled into a seminar room, faculty and students from SZABIST invited our instructors and a few students to participate in a candle lighting ceremony to represent hope.

After they shared what SZABIST is about, they engaged us in team-building exercises through a game of Pictionary, an egg activity (we had to build a support system to catch and protect the egg), and a bridge activity. Then we were fed some snacks and coffee. Afterwards, both schools engaged in a Q&A session regarding our experiences in Egypt and Dubai, the GSU curriculum, and the entrepreneurship experience of the SZABIST students.

We heard from several SZABIST students - Habib, Salman, and Ali - regarding their entrepreneurship experiences. First, we heard from Habib who works in a family business focused on sugar, coal mining, and power production. He talked about starting and running a business in Pakistan and the potential consumer base - 150 million people. Next, we heard from Salman who started DubaiBeat.com, a website that shares venture capital and private equity sources and happenings in the Middle East for entrepreneurs. Currently, it is an informational site only and has existed for only a year. Thus it does not generate any revenues. However, Salman does work as a part-time consultant for a job site (he describes it as the equivalent to monster.com for Dubai). DubaiBeat.com receives an average of 5,000 visitors per month due to its niche focus. We heard from Ali last. He runs a web hosting/design firm in Iran with Dubai customers in the government and private sector. He noted that while it is easy to get a license to operate in Dubai, there is a limit to the growth but there are lots of opportunities for franchising in the UAE. This is a great entry for entrepreneurs.

The evening ended with some photographs and the SZABIST students presenting a bouquet of flowers to Jim, one of our instructors. This was our last full evening in Dubai and we were anxiously awaiting our last chance at a night on the town in Dubai. Some students went shopping while others enjoyed the nightlife.

Linda, Fazana, Bakhtawar B. Zardari, Yasmeen, Tony

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Booz & Co Discuss Dubai

[May 29, 2008]

Today, the class had a very informative and insightful visit at Booz & Co.  Recently Booz Allen Hamilton Consulting Company, one of the most reputable consulting companies in the world, announced on May 16th that they were splitting into a Global Commercial and US Government groups.  Our class met with the commercial arm, Booz & Co. In summer of 2007 the staff at Booz was 150 people. Today, the staff is 350 people and by the end of the year, Booz expects to have a staff of 500.  The growth mirrors the exponential growth in the economy. Overall, Booz has been in the Middle East region for over 30 years with 5 offices and has sought business opportunities by building relationships with the government.

Andrew Horncastle, a principal for the Oil & Gas Sector at Booz & Co, spent plenty of time discussing the business environment in Dubai and the role that Booz plays.  He explained how the team of consultants look at the structure of a business and analyze its efficient and inefficiencies and recommend better processes.  They also assess business growth development strategies. 

Andrew explained that building trust over the years creates much stronger bonds and helps to beat out the competition. Dubai has the fastest in many areas including population, GDP, telecom growth, etc…  We also learned many other economic statistics about Dubai, the UAE, and the Middle East. Andrew explained that the Sheik realized that while Dubai was selling plenty of oil they were not investing in the country.  He began to make internal investments and the domestic demand in the region suddenly began to increase.  Companies of every background began to flock to the region because of the amount of accessible cash in the region.  So many companies are being formed by the wealthy in the region and firms like Booz help build the portfolio and growth strategies going forward. Andrew explained some of the challenges faced in the region:

• Bureaucracy – this is the primary challenge, need to have a board of supporters to be connected to the government and must start from the top down to develop relationships
• Finding qualified people - quality/skilled labor is low in the region but salaries have increased significantly to help attract people
• Inflation – salaries and prices are constantly increasing
• Fast growth and lack of resources to support the growth

Booz is helping address these challenges by using consultants to deliver and/or find value for the companies, and establishing a very good network of people who are well connected. The problem is not money but quality investment opportunities.

Along with Andrew, we also met Ibrahim El-Husseini (Partner), Ali, Amer, and others. They shared their experiences and helped explain misconceptions about the region especially those regarding women. We learned more about the Emirates Post system (lack of house numbers and street addresses), lack of qualified women to work, the desire to provide life/work balance, expat benefits, and the consulting environment. The time spent at Booz & Co proved to be highly rewarding as we learned about the Dubai work environment, the challenges facing Dubai and available opportunities, and clearing up misconceptions that most Westerners have regarding the Middle East.

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Different Spectrums of Dubai

[May 28, 2008]

Today, we started our day with a visit to UPS, then had lunch at the Burj Al Arab and finished the day with a desert safari. 

UPS
We visited the package operations facility of UPS in Dubai.  UPS has been operating in the Middle East for 13 years starting with import operations in Bahrain in 1986. It has been in the UAE since 1996. We arrived at 9am but it was already steaming hot inside. We met Brett Calvert, Operations Manager for the UAE, first and later met Brent Melvin, Business Development Manager. Brett gave us a brief tour of the center explaining how deliveries and pickups are made throughout the region. We learned that 95% of the package deliveries are made to businesses mostly based on the landlines rather than addresses.  In the UAE, street names are new and house numbers are rare, so directions and locations are based on landmarks. Most people use their employer’s location address to receive personal mail. We learned the process of how UPS determines the shipping destination of a package to fulfill its obligation to the shipper. Brett explained that the pre-load operations occur from midnight to 6am and the drivers depart the building between 7:30-8am.  UPS employees work 60 hours over 6 days with Sunday as the peak day. On Sundays, they have 3,500 deliveries on average while the rest of the week has an average daily delivery of 1,000-1,500.  There are 35 van routes (delivering non-documents) and 11 bike routes (delivering documents).  UPS flies 16 airplanes out of Dubai with 80-85% of the flights into Cologne (its international hub). There are direct flights to the Philippines and China. It will use commercial airlines as necessary. 

Linda, Brett, Brent, Fazana, Yasmeen

UPS has seen a 20-25% growth in import volume in the last 18 months alone.  It handles 90% of the export volume for the UAE.  Dubai’s Free Zone areas allow 100% foreign-ownership and is duty free, thus it has become a popular re-export market to the Middle East, Gulf Coast Countries, and North Africa for holding companies.  Outside of the Free Zone areas, companies must have 51% local ownership (Emirati partner).  In the UAE, UPS is setup as a joint venture with the Gulf Agency Company (GAC).  UPS has 210 employees servicing all 7 emirates. It has a trade license to operate in each, as required by law.  UPS is set up as a LLC which follows the same structure as the US.  Its workforce mimics the Dubai population – 80% of the workforce are Asian (Indian, Pakistan, and Philippines) – with 22 different nationalities represented.  It employs 3 Emiratis who work for UPS by choice rather than forced employment based on UAE law.

Brent shared with us the following facts about the UAE:

One of the interesting things we learned at UPS is that the construction in Dubai is outpacing the availability of utilities.  UPS entered its current building in January 2007 and has been waiting for an air conditioning unit for 18 months now. It expects to receive one in another 3 months.  The a/c was increased to help us students handle the heat but it was still not strong enough. 

While Brett and Brent had planned to take us to visit the freight and airline operations, we did not have enough time to see these two operations.  Our visit ended with some refreshments (snacks and drinks) and gifts from UPS.  We were quite delighted to receive the gifts and the small duffel bags came in handy to accommodate the souvenirs we had already purchased and waiting to be purchased.  Some of us enjoyed the refreshments but most of us were holding out for our lunch at the Burj which was our next stop for the day.  We had been told that the cost was $350 per person so we had high expectations and wanted to save room to enjoy this highly-priced meal.

Burj Al Arab

The Burj Al Arab (meaning Arabian Tower) has become the international symbol of Dubai.  It is an exclusive seven-star hotel and is also designated as the world’s tallest hotel. Its shape consists of a billowing sail representing the traditional Arabian dhow. Both interior and exterior incorporate modern technology in unique ways that give this hotel many of its “firsts” in the world.  The interior is amazing with its massive 22-karat gold leaf columns, 2 two-story aquariums, spectacular atrium, dancing water fountains, and various other treats.  There are 202 suites in the hotel, with an in-suite check-in and personal butlers, plus Royal Suites that are top notch and incomparable to any other hotel.  The Burj was completed in 1999 and requires restaurant reservations for non-hotel guests to visit. 

While we waited for our allotted lunch time, some of us took a ride up the exterior elevators and were treated to breathtaking views of the Arabian Gulf (known as the Persian Gulf to the US) and aerial views of Palm Jumeriah (one of 3 palm islands) and the World.  With 8 restaurants in the Burj, our lunch reservations were at the Junsui Restaurant on the ground mezzanine floor.  We were served authentic Asian (Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, and Korean) food from 12 cooking stations. While we enjoyed our buffet lunch, we were surrounded by bright and clear blue waters.  We could see glimpses of Palm Jumeriah and the World.  The service and ambience were great, but the views and dessert made it a worthwhile visit to the Burj. We had the pleasure of tasting multiple desserts – from ice cream to chocolate fountains to local specialties. Many of us visited the dessert bar multiple times.

We left the Burj in the same manner as we had entered – escorted by hotel security via golf carts over the causeway built to connect the mainland of Dubai to the hotel which sits on its own artificial island.  This is one of two entry points – the other is via the helipad on the 28th floor.  We had learned that nightly rates at the Burj ranged from $1,500 to $5,000. For more information, go to http://www.burj-al-arab.com/.

Desert Safari

In the evening, we all piled into several SUVs and headed out into the desert to enjoy an evening of sand dunes, camel riding, dinner, and belly dancing.  In addition to our class, there were others who joined our sand dune expedition. We drove over many sand dunes for about an hour and some cars got stuck but were ultimately able to continue. We had a camera crew following us to provide video and photo footage of our experience.  At the end of the sand dunes experience, we stopped at a camel farm that belonged to the royal family. Then, we continued onto our campsite where we got to ride a camel for a few minutes, sand-board (snowboarding except on sand), hold a falcon, and get henna tattoos.  After about 30 minutes, dinner was ready. We sat on large pillows with tables low to the ground and enjoyed a meal of Arabian style food – salad, tahini (similar to hummus), grilled chicken, beef burgers, and other delights. After dinner, we were treated to belly dancing.  Our dancer got the audience involved after a few dances.  After the belly dancing, the safari people walked the camels across the desert in the moonlight. It was a perfect photo opportunity and great conclusion to our evening of fun. We had a great time and some of us purchased the combo DVD set (video and photos) to have a record of our desert adventure.

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Learning about the DIFC

[May 27, 2008]

Today, we visited the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Walking into the DIFC almost seemed like we were stepping into a futuristic setting from a designer catalog. We were met by Sally Yousif, a GSU Global Partners MBA graduate who now works in the DIFC, and Dr. Zeinab Shalhoub (Dr. Z), who also works in the DIFC to recruit knowledge workers but was previously a professor at George Washington University. Our first presenter was Abdullah Al Awar, the managing director of DIFC. He talked about the vision and plans for Dubai and how the DIFC plays a role in Dubai's long-term strategy to develop a knowledge economy. The original vision was set for 2010; however, the goals have been met so more aggressive goals have been targeted for 2015. Mr. Al Awar described the 3 horizons (phases).

The DIFC recognized that $2.7 trillion in wealth existed in the region and that a gap existed among the major stock exchanges in the world, so it created its own stock exchange, the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX), which opened in the DIFC in September 2005. The DIFX is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. No bonds are traded on the DIFX but the DIFX has the first derivatives market in the UAE. As you can imagine, this was quite an amazing undertaking being built from the ground up in Dubai.

Due to the recession in the Western world, the environment offered in the Middle East has been a saving grace for many firms.  Currently, there is a waitlist of firms that want to be apart of the DIFC and utilize its services.  Deutche Bank is one of its largest customers. By 2015, the DIFC expects to house around 120,000 employees. It currently has 12,000 employees.  In 2007, the DIFC registered 510 companies and has already registered 655 in 2008.  The goal of the Government of Dubai is to make the DIFC the financial center of the world and increase Islamic financing to 15%.  All around the DIFC, there are cranes as far as the eye can see of additions to the financial complex and additional growth in the area.

Construction in the DIFC

There are 3 divisions in the DIFC:

1. Regulator (Dubai Financial Services Authority -DFSA)
2. Court System (exclusive jurisdiction of the center)
3. DIFC Authority (management and administration of DIFC; includes the subsidiary DIFC Investments LLC and Burj Dubai (holding structure company for the local and international exchange markets); Burj Dubai recently purchased shares of the NASDAQ providing it with 19% ownership.

We learned from Dr. Z that the UAE, including Dubai, is built on the cluster theory in which specialized areas are developed. For example, Dubai has the DIFC which is its financial services cluster, and the Healthcare City (medical services cluster). The DIFC is moving toward a lifestyle approach where employees can reside, send their children to schools, and run personal errands within the DIFC city.

Fazana, Tony, Dr. Z, Linda, Yasmeen

Dr. Z described Dubai as a "better dream" than the American Dream. Salaries are very competitive and thus so is the standard of living. It has cultural tolerance, openness and support of the government for the economy, existing wealth, and availability of jobs (there no job discrimination). She discussed health and education. The children learn to speak 3 languages in the education system (Arabic, English, and French). The 11th grade math is equivalent to MBA level math. Healthcare is part of the government's strategy. The focus is on growing medical tourism.

Next we met Ahmed Ghazal. He is responsible for Captives Insurance. He works with major corporations who have their own insurance company. There are 6 captives with a goal to grow this number. Prior to our last session, we had learned that 90% of Dubai businesses are family-owned and run. We discussed Bankruptcy Law and were told that the government is here to support companies succeed. The regulators handle bankruptcy. There are venture capitals established in Dubai.

Our last presenter was Nathalie Nakad with the Young Arab Leaders (YAL). She is its Strategy and Programs Coordinator. This organization is the vision of His Highness to provide a network for young, global leaders. It was started in 2004. Today, its membership consists of 500 people under the age of 43 among the 22 arab nations. The main requirement for membership is entrepreneurship potential. Its purpose is to create and design programs that benefits the Arab youth - both regional and international. While YAL is government sponsored, it is not funded by the government. Instead, its funding comes from the private sector. It recently received a $2 million grant from Dow Chemicals. It has various programs such as:

1. YAL Regional Internship Exchange Program which provides training prior to the start of an 3-month internship. If the interns are successful, they are given full-time jobs. This program has helped create jobs.
2. The Global Internship Exchange Program provides training only.
3. Learning For Life project provides training programs not provided in the university curriculum.
4. Top Talent Leadership Training
5. Learning from the Future
6. Arab American Fellowship - 3 weeks for 7 Arabs with plans to expand to 20 Arabs and Americans to learn about business in Arab and American context.
7. Media Training - used to help dispel misconception about the region
8. Global Action Institute - arm in US

The Young Arab Leaders organization is based on 4 pillars: leadership, entrepreneurship, dialog, and education. It recently launched the entrepreneurship pillar with the assistance of Arab Angels who will providing funding. We also learned that YAL is working with the Clinton Global Institute to provide a 6-month program that requires 1 week of classroom environment in Europe, 6 months online, and 1 week in an Arab country. YAL funds and pays for all expenses of the program. For additional on YAL, go to their website www.yaleaders.org. The YAL organization provides young Arab leaders with a global experience that they can use to help the local region grow its knowledge economy.

Overall, this was a very educational experience as we learned the various ways that the Dubai government has stimulated the economic growth. Dubai is putting itself on the world’s financial map. In Egypt, we learned about the various reforms for the government and banking systems, however, it appears that Dubai has started from the ground up with the right ideas and plans in mind to become the world's financial leader.

View down from 14th Floor

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Interview with Heritage for Henna Founder and CEO

[May 26, 2008]

Standing - Linda, Yasmeen; Sitting - Fazana, Fathiya, Tony

"Always fresh, always natural, and always pure" are the words Fathiya Ahmed uses to describe her henna product. Fathiya is the founder and CEO of Heritage for Henna. After many years of staying home and raising her sons, Fathiya had the urge to try something different. In 2003, Fathiya attended an entrepreneur seminar sponsored by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for Young Business Leaders. An initial challenge in starting the business was finding support and start up capital. Fathiya pitched her idea to begin a henna business and her idea was turned down four times. She remained passionate about pursuing her henna business. Eventually Fathiya was able to secure a loan to start her company. The first shop to open was at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai. During the first month of operation, Fathiya opened 2 locations and by the second month there were 3 locations. The business sales quickly picked up and she was able to repay the start up capital loan within 9 months of opening the first location. Today, the company has grown to over 60 franchisees throughout the United Arab Emirates and Europe. The goal in 2020 is to have franchisees around the world. Fathiya describes an entrepreneur as a person that has the power to push themselves to try something new. Fathiya has a remarkable story in her pursuit of becoming a successful entrepreneur. Our group appreciated Fathiya taking the time to meet us and learning more about entrepreneurship in Dubai. We had a chance to see one of her newest shops located at the Khan Murjan in Wafi City. After the interview, we each had the opportunity to receive a henna design.

Yasmeen getting a henna tattoo

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First Impressions of Dubai

[May 26, 2008]

When first entering the downtown area of Dubai, the scenery of the buildings and creative architecture they each display is absolutely surreal. During the day, the city is gorgeous, and at night, it is spectacular.

While observing the numerous construction sites and cranes, one has to question if the rapid pace of construction will lead to future discoveries of faulty workmanship. While standing outside, I observed a construction site across the street with a single man standing atop several enormous blocks of concrete directing the crane operator where to drop the hooks that lift each piece. However, the man inside the crane’s cabin was wearing a hard hat but the man on the blocks was only wearing a baseball cap. The outside man turned around to tell another worker something as the hooks swung towards him. Two large steel hooks on the end of two thick and obviously heavy chains swung at him very quickly. Both hooks hit him in the back of the head with enough force to cause the chains to sway back and forth and knock him to the ground. Amazingly, the man jump right back up and promptly began to fuss at the crane operator. Shortly after the angry reprimand, he went right back to putting the hooks on the blocks as if nothing had happened.

Was this one mistake, a careless act, or typical operation? Without addition observations, knowing the regulations, supervision policies, or safety measures required, it is difficult to judge Dubai based on this one instance. However, it does cause concern regarding the craftsmanship and safety of the workers.

We had learned in class prior to our trip that the construction workers are paid very low wages and their labor is “farmed” from other countries where the currency is weaker than the Dirham so their labor wages are even cheaper. At the end of the work day, we saw hundreds of men in orange vests, few of them carrying hard hats, and some in sandals rather than steel toed boots all loaded into a few large buses and quickly departed.

We leave you with this question: Is Dubai being built up as a beautiful house of cards waiting to topple one day? Only time will give us this answer.

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