Breathe In AND Out: Creating a High-Performance Culture Feb,2010 Arecent survey revealed that 9 out of 10 executives believe that corporate culture is as important as strategy for business success. The report surprised me because it seems so obvious, why would it be a headline? (It also implies that 10% of executives thought it wasn’t as important, which is even more surprising!). Surely this is like saying that 9 out of 10 executives believe that breathing out is as important as breathing in! The two are inextricably linked, and each has limited use without the other (to put it mildly!).
»LIVING
Time for Celebration: Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons Marks 60 Years of Success With New Book Feb,2010 Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons represents one of the Middle East’s largest portfolios of Swiss timepiece brands, with 52 locations in the UAE and more than 450 employees. The firm carries more than 50 prestigious brands, including Patek Philippe, Rolex, Hublot, Chopard and more.
Question of Trust: Getting on the Good Side of Customers Feb,2010 I’ve just put the phone down on a salesman who was trying to be someone else. He called implying he was from the phone company O2 and was checking to see that as a current customer, everything was OK for me. I assumed that it was a service call, so I took it. Things soon became clear he wasn’t who he appeared to be as he started to sell his own company’s services. I asked if he was from O2, and he repeated that he was ringing about O2, and continued to try to sell to me.
»REGIONAL BUSINESS
Year of Reflation: World Economic Outlook for 2010 Feb,2010 2010 will be a year of reflation just as the latter half of 2009 has been, and the positive trends from 2009 will continue well into 2010 as more sceptics will be triggered to “buy into” the turnaround story after extraordinary amounts of stimulus to the developed economies. After the biggest ywar on year drop since 1938, the S&P 500 in 2009 had the strongest half-year rally since 1933.
»INVESTMENT AND FINANCE
Threat and Opportunity: Chinese Investment Abroad Feb,2010 While everyone else is tightening their purse strings in this economic climate, China is increasing its overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A). According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development World Investment Report, China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows for the period 2002-2006 grew at a rate of more than 60% per year, and its total FDI stock at the end of 2008 was almost $148 billion, or 3.4% of China’s GDP in the same year.
»REGIONAL BUSINESS
From Sinking to Sustainable: The Case for GCC Pension Reform Feb,2010 Pension systems in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are remarkably generous. People in the region retire well and they retire early. To the extent that the region’s pension systems are intended to provide social welfare, they are certainly fulfilling their role. However, the overemphasis on social welfare is at odds with the region’s movement away from a pure welfare state model toward one that relies on steady diversification of the economy and growth of the private sector.
The light dawned. I was in a meeting with my colleagues reviewing the rapid changes in our training and consulting business and sorting through our priorities for the coming quarter. We had doubled our already substantial business over the past 18 months. While the growth was exciting, it was also exhausting. We were piling on new programs, services and organisational changes.
Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons represents one of the Middle East’s largest portfolios of Swiss timepiece brands, with 52 locations in the UAE and more than 450 employees. The firm carries more than 50 prestigious brands, including Patek Philippe, Rolex, Hublot, Chopard and more.
In October 2009, Beirut received a shot of high-octane glamour with the opening of CampbellGray Hotels’ first property in Lebanon and the Middle East, Le Gray. 
I’ve just put the phone down on a salesman who was trying to be someone else. He called implying he was from the phone company O2 and was checking to see that as a current customer, everything was OK for me. I assumed that it was a service call, so I took it. Things soon became clear he wasn’t who he appeared to be as he started to sell his own company’s services. I asked if he was from O2, and he repeated that he was ringing about O2, and continued to try to sell to me.
2010 will be a year of reflation just as the latter half of 2009 has been, and the positive trends from 2009 will continue well into 2010 as more sceptics will be triggered to “buy into” the turnaround story after extraordinary amounts of stimulus to the developed economies. After the biggest ywar on year drop since 1938, the S&P 500 in 2009 had the strongest half-year rally since 1933.
While everyone else is tightening their purse strings in this economic climate, China is increasing its overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A). According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development World Investment Report, China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows for the period 2002-2006 grew at a rate of more than 60% per year, and its total FDI stock at the end of 2008 was almost $148 billion, or 3.4% of China’s GDP in the same year.
Pension systems in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are remarkably generous. People in the region retire well and they retire early. To the extent that the region’s pension systems are intended to provide social welfare, they are certainly fulfilling their role. However, the overemphasis on social welfare is at odds with the region’s movement away from a pure welfare state model toward one that relies on steady diversification of the economy and growth of the private sector.
