Business Insight June 2015

In partnership with

June 2015

Legal

ISSUE

a Business In Afric

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in the Su Health Hazards

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Telecommunication partner

Finance partner

Corporate Social Responsibility – Why Bother?

Marketing In Ramadan

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Editor’s Foreword

I

t is June already and the Holy Month of Ramadan is upon us, and we will all be wishing each other Ramadan Kareem.

With a focus on business in Africa (see our articles on the Promise Beyond Darkness: The Rise of Africa on page 14, and Legal and Commercial Considerations for your Business in Sub-Saharan Africa on page 42), we don’t want to forget that people in these countries need the help of others to get out of poverty.

They need to be shown ways of doing things, free from corruption and exploitation. Therefore it made sense for us to also highlight the good that businesses globally are doing by giving back to the people. Why is a Corporate Social Responsibility plan so important though? We answer this in our article Corporate Social Responsibility – Why Bother on page 24.

Did you know that social media usage is at it’s highest in Ramadan? Probably not as we found this surprising also… so what options does this give you for Marketing in Ramadan? By turning to pages 48 to 53, you will find ways and top tips as to how you can make this your most cost effective month for marketing.

Finally, why is it important for businesses owners to look after their personal finances as much as their company ones?

Paul Donovan from Arbuthnot Latham explains all you need to know on page 36.

From the team at Business Insight - Ramadan Kareem Mubarak!

Publisher & CEO Liam Williams liam@flipflopmedia.ae Managing Director Harry Norman harry@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9062 Business Development Executive Paul Davis info@flipflopmedia.ae +971 04 369 9061 Editorial Editor Tanya Selley tanya@flipflopmedia.ae +971 4 369 9063 Staff Writer Rachel Stracey info@flipflopmedia.ae Design Head of Design Mhar Delaben design@flipflopmedia.ae Operation Steve Miller Operations@flipflopmedia.ae circulation & Production Circulation and Distribution Manager Antonio de Marco circulationdm@flipflopmedia.ae

Enjoy!

Database and Circulation Manager Aaliya Khan databaseandcm@flipflopmedia.ae Production Manager Juan Vasquez productionmanager@flipflopmedia.ae

Tanya

Digital webmaster@flipflopmedia.ae

Talk to me at tanya@flipflopmedia.ae and let me know what information you need to take your business forward — and I will try to help you in the next issue.

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June 2015 Cover Promise Beyond Darkness – The Rise of Africa Corporate Social Responsibility – Why Bother?

Marketing In Ramadan

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June 2015 | 3

56 14 June 2015

24

Contents Foresight Page 14 – Promise Beyond Darkness – The Rise of Africa Page 20 – The One Great Piece of Advice Page24 – Corporate Social Responsibility…

Why Bother Page 27 – All Businesses Should

Success Series

40 50

Page 28 – Interview: Sudhaker Tomar, Managing Director, Hakan Agro DMCC

Money Page 34 – The Cost of a Healthy Cash Flow for the SME Sector Page 36 – Private Client Banking – What a Successful Business Person Needs and Why

People Page 38 – Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Page 40 –CSR… It Isn’t Just for the Larger SMEs and Corporates!

Legal

DMCC Section Page 56 – DMCC’s 10,000th Member Company Up and Running in Record Time Thanks to Dubai’s Smart Government Initiative Page 58 – Transformation Project Q&A with Krysta Fox

Technology Page 60 – Top Security Risks Page 62 – Don’t Just Scratch the Surface When Securing Internal DNS Page 63 – Bimodal Organisation Requires Adaptive Sourcing

Property Page 64 – Diamond Developers Further Research Into Sustainability

Business Incubator Page 66 – Health Hazards in the Summer Page 69 – Air Miles Everywhere for UAE Small Businesses Page 70 – Ten Ways to Boost Innovation at your Workplace Page 72 – Fit For Business Page74 – Skin Cancer Symptoms & Signs

Page 42 –Legal and Commercial Considerations for Doing Business in SubSaharan Africa Page 46 – Legal Advice Before Leg Work

Marketing & Advertising

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2015

Page 48 – 30% Surge in Social Media Activity During Ramadan Page 50 – Social Media A to Z… Page 54 – Where Consumer Loyalty Lies

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expert panel

EXPERT PANEL John Brash Founder & Chief Executive Brash Brands

Jonathan Hall Founder and Managing Director Mulverhill Associates

Caroline Jones Director Infopod

Yogesh Mehta Managing Director Petrochem

Jeffrey Rhodes Founder & Managing Consultant Rhodes Precious Metals Consultancy DMCC

Hind Abdulrazak Creative Director Audax Investment

Sara Abdulrazak Managing Director Audax Investment

Dr. Tommy Weir Founder Emerging Markets Leadership Center

Louis Lebbos/ Founding Partner Astro Labs

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2015

Muhammed Mekki Founding Partner Astro Labs

Nita Maru Managing Partner TWS Legal Consultants

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Office Suite 3001 PO Box 17317 30th Floor / HDS Tower / Cluster F / Jumeirah Lakes Towers / Dubai UAE Tel No: +971 4 448 4284 Fax No: +971 4 448 4285 Email: admin@willsuae.com Web: www.willsuae.com and www.twslegal.ae

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foresight

Cape Town

Promise Beyond Darkness – The Rise of Africa For decades, the defining images of the so-called ‘Dark Continent’ (Africa) have been dictators, despair, disaster and death.

It isn’t that Africa has changed overnight and the darkness has disappeared, but that in the midst of its continuing poverty and political turmoil, Africa is becoming the land of opportunity - an emerging growth market, attracting investors from around the world.

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apid economic growth in SubSaharan Africa over the past decade is worth celebrating.

Growth has averaged 5 percent a year or more, driven by domestic demand, foreign investment, strong commodity prices and improved economic governance. The ultimate measure of progress however, is the wellbeing of the 2 billion people that live there – and Africa’s current growth has not done nearly as much as it should to reduce poverty, hunger and child mortality, or to improve education, therefore more investment is required as well as further corporate/government collaborations.

R

Why Africa?

Africa is one of the fastest growing economies with an average annual growth rate of 5 percent, as reported by the Africa Progress Panel (see figure 1 on page 16). Compare this to Developing Asia, which averages 7.3 percent, or 1.4 percent in advanced economies, and you can understand why the International Monetary

Fund has projected that over the next five years, ten of the twenty fastest-growing economies in the world will be from subSaharan Africa, and two will be from North Africa. None will be from developed Western countries. Fuelling this growth is private local consumption, together with the exporting of consumer goods, capital goods etc.

There are many factors that have emerged recently as reasons why people would want to invest in Africa, especially as the policies which Governments all over the continent made in the 80’s are finally begin to take shape (such as higher commissions, increase in domestic demand, less red tape for business, increase in public investment… the list continues). Other factors that make Africa an attractive proposition for business are the potential workforce. With the median age of Africans at just 20, the potential workforce for the future is incredibly large. Morgan Stanley’s Sustainable and Responsible research team state, “Over the next 20 years the global population of 20 to 64-year-olds is expected to grow by about

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foresight

900 million, but 30 percent of this growth will come from sub-Saharan Africa”. Average incomes are rising – But some are rising faster than others. (See figure 2) Africa is also urbanising faster than any other continent. Whilst this is a plus for some businesses, it has also created the Green Revolution that is taking Africa and the world by storm. Africa is the world’s larder.

With rich fertile land, other countries are beginning to realise that their food shortage problems can be addressed when they look towards Africa. With the influx of global brands and businesses they have brought with them working practices that are slowly changing the working environment.

At a country level, Governments are fastforwarding their plans to enter the business arena. Kenya, which is seeing a high middle class growth, is strategically positioning itself with an increase of free zones, whereas Ethiopia’s Government is heavily investing in it’s infrastructure. Within Africa itself, the fastest growing economies are the DRC, Mozambique, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

Generally speaking, the floating middle class has a daily disposable income of US$20, although at present, they are largely lowend consumers. This needs to be addressed as public consumption is in fact falling at present and which also hints at the potential of the continent.

The mobile phone is the way most of the African population accesses the Internet, who have embraced this technology. The use of the mobile phone as a financial tool is widespread, and now over 67 percent of the population bank online, although there is less social networking compared to elsewhere in the world.

Improving Political and Economic Framework The continent is marching forward in democracy/governance/economic management and the rule of law, thus providing increased stability.

With this has also come the implementation of Free Zones for businesses and differing laws relating to businesses that wish to set up in Africa and want to enjoy taxfree status. That doesn’t mean to say that they have reached the idiom of political stability free from corruption just yet though, but it is an indication of the progress that is being made.

Politically, most countries in subSaharan Africa have democratically elected governments and the region has seen major advances in freedom and democracy, although this is not a consistent story (Freedom House 2013). Social unrest has generally related to economic concerns about the cost of living, and population growth will probably put pressure

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foresight

The World Bank believes that economies in the continent could be on the brink of an economic acceleration, similar to that of China 30 years ago and India 20 years ago

on governments to find solutions to economic and social challenges.

Corruption remains a major issue: a recent survey from Transparency International (2013) shows that many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have weak institutions, whilst others are growing notably stronger.

Land And Infrastructure Africa is a continent with almost 20 percent of the world’s landmass, and is abundant with mineral resources, however the infrastructure for transporting them is poor. With much of their growth dependent on natural resources – including fossil fuels, metallic and non-metallic minerals - as well as agriculture products, this is being addressed.

Railways – the Trans African Railway will link Cape Town to Cairo, with stops going through all major cities en route. Old colonial railways are being upgraded and new railways built. And with railways being built from Turkey to Cairo, Turkey to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, not to mention how London can now connect via train to Turkey, it will shortly be feasible to travel from almost anywhere in the Middle East to Cape Town and in between, and then back again to anywhere in Europe – All by train.

Air – There are now 17 flights daily between the UAE and 30 countries.

For countries like Ethiopia, there is more than 1 per day over several carriers. From ‘Farm to Fork’ it now can take as little as 36 hours for produce to travel to their destination in Dubai.

Investing According to Reuters, African Investment team funds have grown

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nearly five times in value over the past six years, in attracting new forms of capital. That said investors already jittery about global market volatility in the third quarter of this year were unnerved even further by the African Bank saga.

This is best illustrated by the Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) industry who recording anemic net inflows of only R1.8 billion in the third quarter, bringing to R95 billion the total net inflows for the 12-month period to the end of September 2014. However, just this month it has been announced that 3 of Africa’s main trading blocs, the East African Community (EAC), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) finally agreed to come together to form the African Grand Free Trade Area (FTA). The new agreement will mean that goods can be traded tarifffree within the new FTA, which comprises 26 countries with a combined population of over 500m people. Intra-African trade as a proportion of total trade is very low by global standards, and while challenges to trade remain in terms of infrastructure, this is a positive step in terms of fostering further exchanges within the continent.

The long term prospective is a positive outlook. The World Bank believes that economies in the continent could be on

the brink of an economic acceleration, similar to that of China 30 years ago and India 20 years ago (World Bank 2011).

In 2013, sub-Saharan Africa’s economy grew by 4.7 percent, and seven African countries are among the top 10 fastestgrowing economies in the world for the period 2011–15 according the World Bank.

The economic progress that is expected to continue, will take place during a period of significant demographic change. The population is expected to have grown to over 2bn by 2050 (PRB 2011). These rising numbers, coupled with higher income levels, have generated a large African middle class, which as we have mentioned before, have a greater spending capacity.

Where To Invest?

Set up in June 2010 UK investment firm Alquity manages Alquity Africa fund, and targets long-term growth. Based on a ‘virtuous circle’ model of growth Alquity promises attractive returns, sustainable investment whilst transforming lives.

The fund invests in companies that are either listed on thirteen of Africa’s stock exchanges, or derive most of their income or profit from within Africa. “And above all we donate a minimum of 25 percent, not from our investor’s return but from

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foresight

Companies in the UAE are increasing their African exposure and with greater links through rail and air, this looks set to continue

Typical housing community in Addis Ababa

our net management fee revenue, to micro finance projects that support local economic activity in Africa. This also conforms to Islamic belief of returning to society a part of the earning,” said Simon Smith, Business Development Director of Alquity Investment Management.

Alquity is one of the few noted funds that are targeting Africa. Other investable funds include J.P Morgan Africa Equity, DWS Invest Africa, Investec Africa Opportunities, Nile Pan Africa Fund, and Magna Umbrella Fund PLC, Africa fund. Launched in May 2012 Templeton Africa fund has produced a 14 percent return by the year-end where as J.P Morgan’s Africa Equity Fund produced a return of 60 percent since its launch in May 2008.

Eaglestone Asset Management has launched five private equity funds targeting investments in the following sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa: real estate, infrastructure, mining and natural resources, agribusiness and general industry and services. They have a target capital of US$100 million and each of the funds will be regulated in Luxembourg. It should be noted though that African funds tend to be smaller, relatively expensive and have limited performance histories.

Several are also denominated in US dollars, which means there can be currency risks.

Business In Africa One of the most lucrative countries to invest in is Nigeria, where the average

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income per capita has quadrupled since 2000, and is becoming particularly popular with specialist fund managers after consistent annual growth rates of approximately 7 percent. Other countries with growth potential include Kenya and South Africa.

As far as the traditional African sectors are concerned the old investor’s view of oil and mining cannot be discounted totally. Mining continues to represent a substantial percentage of Africa’s growth, 14 percent according to Renaissance Capital data analysis of 2020-2009. Their data also showed that 53 percent of Africa’s growth derives from services such as banking and telecommunications. They feel that Africa’s growth story is consumer driven and subsequently why it might make sense to focus on fast-growing sectors like food, consumer goods, telecoms and especially mobile telephony and banking. Further favoured investments include banking stocks, particularly in Nigeria, with demand for financial services increasing due to the growth of the middle class. Pharmaceuticals and breweries are also in demand.

Companies in the UAE are increasing their African exposure and with greater links through rail and air, this looks set to continue. At present, many UAE businesses are already firmly rooted in land of opportunity. DP World runs the Port of Senegal and owns the ports in Mozambique, Algeria, and Dijbouti and Dubai Investment Group

owns 35 percent of Tunisie Telecom, whilst Etisalat owns 82 percent of Sudans Canar Telecom, 51 percent of Tanzania’s Zanizbar Telecom (Zantel) and 50 percent of West Africa’s Atlanique Telecom.

Think Before You Leap As with any potential high-return investment opportunity there are also a number of risks that you need to consider before taking the plunge.

You need to ensure all areas are well thought-out and that you have strategy surrounding these. Think of political instability, social unrest and violence, as well as corruption and unreliable power/water supplies.

The high rates of economic growth are not being experienced across all African countries, and do not necessarily correlate with stock market returns either. Slim Feriani, whose Advance Frontier Markets fund has 40 percent of its assets in Africa, says the preponderance of consumer-facing businesses listed on African markets means there is a good correlation between economic growth, corporate earnings growth, and shares in African companies which offer outstanding yields.

Economists also warn against making too many optimistic assumptions about future growth potential in Southern Africa, based on demography alone, especially as distribution of wealth in Africa is extremely unequal. David Mcilroy, Chief Investment Officer of Alquity Investment Management has previously advised, “Failing to take account of those risks can destroy long-term shareholder value. So Africa investors also have to take a longer term view, and not be afraid to ride out short-term turbulence.” l

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foresight

The One Great Piece of Advice

Every month in our Success Series, we end with the question, “What is the one piece of standout advice you have ever received that you would like to impart on other entrepreneurs starting out today?” We have received many answers and have collated them here.

Here are the words of wisdom directly from those who have made it.

“There is no single piece of advice.

Surround yourself with great people and you will get a lot of helpful learning” Rabea Ataya, Founder and CEO, Bayt.com

“Don’t be afraid to create and take risks!”

Jean Cassegrain, CEO, Longchamp

“I have learnt ‘You never know until you ask for it.’ By that I mean it is not to miss the opportunity of asking.

Because you will most likely get it or get closer to where you want to be” Hind Abdulrazak, Managing Director, Audax Investment Group LLC

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“I would say empower your people and delegate. There is a common thread amongst entrepreneurs and business owners as they try to do everything themselves. You need to find the right people and surround yourself with them. Delegate and empower your employees” Sara Abdulrazak, Managing Director, Audax Investment Group LLC

“The best piece of advice that I received quite early on in my life was ‘Regret the things you don’t do, not the things you do’. I try to follow that advice both professionally and personally because it encourages me to try new things, experiment and innovate” Craig Moore, Founder and CEO of Beehive

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foresight

I am not sure if Dubai is unique on this front, but I have always found that people are willing to share experiences and offer advice or suggestions on how to improve the business.

Entrepreneurs help each other with client contact’s, business leads and ideas so I would always recommend listening to what people have to say. It may not be right for you but on the other hand, you may just come across some advice that is highly relevant and leads to great things!”

Caroline Jones, Managing Director, InfoPod

We are living with extraordinary leaders and people, who have extraordinary skill sets so we need to think about developing something extraordinary ourselves.

You need to bring that extraordinary power out.

If someone is to open a business, then without the extraordinary something, you are creating nothing.

The extraordinary creates the power the skill. Without this, your business will fail.

You have to have the guts to have this exploration journey and accurate planning in order to create your business and ensure the entire system integrated with successful profitable model” Shaikha Al Mutawa, Founder Power of People Foundation

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“Be patient and take ownership of your failures. Youth want instant success and gratification. Patience eludes the young. To find true success, be patient, focused, honest and hardworking. Also, create your luck! With out luck, you will not succeed” Yogesh Mehta, Managing Director, Petrochem

“There will be hard times, happy times etc., but when you are fed up and reach the hard times, take a break. Don’t make a bad decision immediately. Step away from what you are doing, and give you some time.

Don’t make the wrong decisions at the wrong time.

Breathe and then think on it. Don’t act in emotion or else you will likely end up regretting it” Maryam Al Hashemi, UAE Kimberley Process Director

“I think some businesses fall in to the trap of being internally focused at times. For me, one of my great learning’s was to make sure you have an eye on your competitors constantly and make sure you are always focused on your customer” Inga Beale, CEO, Lloyd’s of London

“The value of taking good advice is one thing that entrepreneurs take at some point. I have always been hugely impressed with their passion in what they do. This is what separates successful entrepreneurs from the others - the ability to understand risks. The graveyard is full of many who have known the risks, but have not known how to deal with them when they face challenging times.

My overriding advice would be stay focused on the principal objective and don’t be distracted!”

James Fleming, Chief Executive, Arbuthnot Latham & Co., Limited

“It is a standard answer.

Fight, fight, fight and never give up” Fats Lazarides, Founder, Ocean Basket

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foresight

Corporate Social Responsibility… Why bother?

With the Holy Month of Ramadan around the corner, and our focus this month on business in Africa, what better time to also talk about the responsibility that businesses have to ensure that they act socially responsible. ithin the UAE, many companies have an active CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme, but sadly all to often you hear about other companies that blindly go into new territories and don’t have a focus to ensure that the people of those countries aren’t abused normally unwittingly.

In the UK, you often hear of shocking tales of slave labour in factories, where both adults and children work for next to nothing, 16 hour days, 6 and maybe 7 days a week – all to cheaply produce garments for the west to sell on at a huge profit. Is this fair? Would you want to know that a 7 year old boy or girl has blisters on their hands, bad sight because of poor lighting conditions, not to mention other physical ailments such as a hunched

W

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back and malformed bones, due to their sitting at a sewing machine for hours on end – all to produce your jeans? Often these factories are outsourced to and the company who sells the end product is unaware as to what happens on site, but do they have a policy as to what to do if they find this is happening? Do they check the factories before commissioning them?

These are all questions that have been fired by the general public and the media to the companies that they view exploit the needs of these children.

There is increased attention to how businesses operate in countries which don’t have the rules, or those that lack the manpower to enforce the laws of the land that are in place regarding workers rights.

Henrik Holmquist, Operations Director, Global Child Forum says, “People are wanting to see change. Younger generations are more socially aware of the world around them. Workers often want to work for a company that they can feel proud of; not one that is in the press for bad treatment of their workers.

“It goes beyond this change in attitude though,” he commented. “A company’s reputation is valuable. With the increased

access to social media, people are able to snap a picture of a horrific situation and it could go viral in minutes. Can you imagine what this could do to your reputation? It will ultimately hit your bottom line as it will effect how your customers perceive you. It could stop them from buying from you altogether.”

Children and Business The effects that business has on a child cannot be underestimated. Did you know that the each year, the World Health Organisation states that three million children under five years old die due to environment-related diseases? Children under 18 years old account for one third of the world’s population. They are our future. They are the future of all business, either as consumers, family members of the employees, workers and business leaders.

They are key to all walks of life.

Childhood is a unique period of rapid development, in which their physical selves, as well as their mental and emotional wellbeing are set for life. What happens to a child during their early years will remain with them forever and be passed down throughout the generations. Children are

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Children under 18 years old account for one third of the world’s population.

They are our future.

They are the future of all business, either as consumers, family members of the employees, workers and business leaders.

They are key to all walks of life

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June 2015 | 25

foresight particularly vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse, especially during emergencies. The impact of climate change and pollution on children can also be more serious and long-lasting than those on adults. The Unicef Children’s Right and Business Principles Report makes the point that, “Children are even affected by everyday hazards differently and more severely than adults. Due to their physiology, children absorb a higher percentage of pollutants to which they are exposed, and thus their immune systems are more compromised and vulnerable.

“Children employed or affected by a business are often invisible.

Typical examples include children working illicitly in the supply chain, children on or around company premises, children employed as domestic workers in employee housing, children exposed to business products, children arrested and detained by security services and children of migrant workers left at home.”

They make the point that during their research it was found that integrating respect and support for children’s rights into the core strategies and operations of a business, can strengthen existing corporate sustainability initiatives while ensuring benefits for their business. Such efforts can build reputation, improve risk management and secure their ‘social license to operate’. A commitment to children can also help recruit and maintain a motivated workforce. Supporting employees in their roles as parents and caregivers, and promoting youth employment and talent generation are just some of the concrete steps that business can take. Considering how products and services can better meet children’s needs can also be a source of innovation and create new markets. Finally, working for children helps build strong, welleducated communities that are vital to a stable, inclusive and sustainable business environment. So why aren’t more businesses doing this?

Perception James Bernard, Business Development Director at DMCC has the same view as other business leaders, “The reason a lot of businesses

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don’t have a CSR policy in place, is because it is viewed as the domain of Corporations – and not something that SMEs get involved with.

A lot of business leaders may do something personally, but there is room for improvement when it comes to the SME market and CSR. “At the DMCC we have recently been successful in driving the engagement of CSR with the #myDMCC campaign. Whilst this campaign was initially launched to celebrate reaching 10,000 member companies, it also started a social drive to raise money for the Emirates Red Crescent. Each time that a post was placed with the #myDMCC, the DMCC donated AED 50 to charity. In total, we raised AED500,000 and achieved high levels of engagement of our member companies and the 85,000 people who live and work within the JLT Community - All of which illustrates that many are becoming more socially conscious.”

Why Would Companies Take The Time To Create A CSR Policy?

All companies benefit from positive PR. It is the lifeline of a company as it promotes them in public opinion, which creates positive feelings from the general public – Exactly what all great marketing campaigns do.

For example, Unicef cite a leading Indian company who recognised the valuable contributions that schools and schoolchildren – together with youth, parents, teachers, partners and the community at large – can make to help curb excess power usage. As the demand for power in India increases, and energy resources are being rapidly depleted, the company sought to involve youth in an initiative to avert a crippling power crisis. In 2007, it began raising awareness among school

children in Mumbai about energy conservation issues and gave them the tools and skills they need to share this information with their families and communities. The initiative has grown to become a national movement involving more than 250 schools and educating more than 1 million citizens.

So What Can Companies Do? The best way is to formulate your own on CSR policy. Consider points such as what you should do if you found to have children working illicitly in a factory, or if one of your factories that you outsource to inadvertently pollutes the local river that provides food and water to the local communities.

What can you do to give back? You may be aware that the staff wages of the factories are low, which could push their workers into putting their children to work as opposed to being at school. How can you counter balance this? With all that is happening in the world, our actions in this arena can make a fundamental difference to thousands of children globally.

Realistically though, if you could say with a clear conscious that you have ensured that the businesses to which you outsource do not abuse their workers by paying too little, then you are also likely to be able to state that you have done everything in your power to ensure that their workers children have been able to go to school, and will not go hungry. Children are the future.

They are the business leaders, workers, doctors and ultimately the consumers of tomorrow.

Should they not be protected at all cost?

We have more illustrations on what businesses are doing to give back to the community on page 38.l

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foresight

All Businesses Should…

According the Unicef Report, “Children’s Rights and Business Principles”, all business should…

1

Meet their responsibility to respect children’s rights and commit to supporting the human rights of children

2

Contribute to the elimination of child labour, including in all business activities and business relationships

3

Provide decent work for young workers, parents and caregivers

4

Ensure the protection and safety of children in all business activities and facilities

5

Ensure that products and services are safe, and seek to support children’s rights through theM

6

Use marketing and advertising that respect and support children’s rights

7

Respect and support children’s rights in relation to the environment and to land acquisition and use

8

Respect and support children’s rights in security arrangements

9

Help protect children affected by emergencies

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Reinforce community and government efforts to protect and fulfil children’s rights

June 2015 | 27

success

Success Series Interview:

Sudhakar Tomar Managing Director, Hakan Agro DMCC

Sudhakar Tomar is the Managing Director of Hakan Agro DMCC which is arguably the most extensive agro-commodities focused supply chain of any UAE head quartered organisation with offices, factories, distribution hubs and farming operations in 30 countries. Now Hakan Agro (which was established in Dubai in 1996) supplies over 2.5 Millions MTs of food commodities, from 50 countries of origin. This is valued at over AED 5 Billion to more than 1000 customers in over 100 countries. ailing from a farming family in northern India, Tomar previously worked in trading and management roles with the multibillion dollar Aditya Birla Group in India, Syria and Turkey, and now serves as a board member of various organisations including the Dubai Food Trade Advisory Group of DMCC, The CXO Alliance, Krishna Education Trust.

With over 22 years of industry experience, Tomar was recently bestowed with the “Grain Asia” and “International Pulse Man of the Year” awards for outstanding contribution to agri-commodities trade, but it is his work with the Global Pulse Confederation which outside of his daily

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duties is the most fulfilling, “This organisation represents 60 million tons of production, valued at US$100 billion.

We have a keen interest in rural poverty alleviation and global malnutrition in Asia and Africa and this initiative has helped to raise over US$3 million that was used to create awareness about global malnutrition and the use of pulses as a solution to combat this epidemic.”

You have had an interesting career path…

My story has quite a few twists and turns! My initial years were in my proud but struggling farming family in a rural part of northern India that had fallen on tough times.

A strong desire to break free saw me through colourful

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schooling in mofussil towns and interesting years studying Plant Sciences, Geology and Management at provincial universities of Kanpur and Lucknow, India.

My first breakthrough came in early 90s when I found myself trading commodities with Aditya Birla group in India. I did reasonably well there, and in 1995 I came to Dubai to trade commodities in Jebel Ali Free Zone.

From an early age I became aware that agri-business is a complex yet socially responsible and profitable business, where trade and governments need to balance the well being of farmer’s versus commercial interests. What we often overlook is that about 2 Billion farmers all over the globe are the largest investors in the food supply chain followed by traders, governments, processors and consumers. It is my firm belief that poor farmers, especially in emerging economies, must be considered as the strongest link to any strategy for long term agri-business’ to ensure that our grand designs and investments in agriculture are socially and economically sustainable and environmentally sustainable.

What challenges did you face when setting up your business and how did you overcome these?

Frankly speaking other than the increasing costs and permanency issues of manpower we did not face any major barriers. Dubai as a quintessential trading hub that has existed for over hundred and fifty years is full of infectious but positive entrepreneurial energy, and the city offers so many fantastic benefit propositions; such as stable government, super safe place to live, easy liquidity, freely convertible currency since 40 years, a strategic location with convenient time zone, great infrastructure, no taxation of any kind on profits or personal or company income, no foreign exchange controls, no restrictions on capital movement and freehold ownership of property. I have traveled the world and can safely say that despite the problems of 2009 Dubai remains the most important, free, vibrant service center in the growing region of more than 2 billion

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people. I believe Dubai’s competitors still can’t match its pragmatic mixture of quick decisions, freedoms, conveniences and incentives.

What made your organisation so successful?

In today’s world, the key to success for any organisation is keeping the long-term interests of the team aligned with the organisational objectives, managing diversity and handling change effectively.

We have an experienced core management trio of diverse cultures, capabilities, backgrounds and complimentary strengths.

Despite the different approaches and management styles, the core management team stick together in every situation. Consensus is that we always continue until we get what it is that we are striving for. As an organisation we value the continuity of business and pride ourselves as being a family owned yet professionally managed business, and we continue to place great value our long term relationships – some of which are as old as the organisation itself.

Other than our approach at the management level, other factors that have contributed to our success include: Global yet Local - We believe in a multicultural, yet local work force. Of our 1,000+ team, we have employees from 50 nationalities. We believe in creating a hard working talented pool of team members whose interests are aligned with the organisation. Despite our growing size we have retained our employees

and local identities in whichever market we operate in.

Recession Resilient Portfolio - Due to price inelasticity our agri-food portfolio is relatively recession resilient and less subject to economic downtrends.

Integration - In major exporting and importing countries we have vertical or horizontal integration initiatives. With the help of a medium to long-term supply chain mechanism we procure, source, and originate healthy, quality food and raw materials. These are then are sent across the world through our Integrated Supply Chain network.

Non-Competition - We don’t compete - we cooperate and collaborate. About 30 percent of our clients include companies that are both buyers and sellers as clients.

Diversification – No concentration policy. We do not have any concentration risk since we originate 55 agricultural commodities from 10 business lines from over 55 countries to over 1000 customers in 100 countries.

Systems and Procedures - We employ prudent and efficient financial management, risk management and Management Information System policies. These help us in swift and proactive management decisions as we can accurately monitor what is happening in our business and take corrective measures Lowest Cost Producer and Premium Merchandiser - We pride ourselves in originating at the lowest cost possible, and selling our products at a premium due to unparalleled brand equity.

June 2015 | 29

success

What do you believe the secrets to your success have been?

I always have great respect for those who are detailed and work hard with an ownership mentality, regardless of their position or place.

Over the years I have also learnt how to separate the wheat from the chaff, i.e. understand the important from the urgent.

Like any active manager I believe in details and specifics rather than imaginary or dreamy plans. I am a firm believer in strategic long-term vision with a practical approach that delivers sustainable value for all involved – both the investors as well as the employees.

Being true to maintaining our genuine customer focus and delivering value in difficult times and places has helped us grow over the years. And I also feel management of an organisation is not a oneway process where you pass on the guidance to your employees. It is a two-way process that ensures open communication and constant feedback to and from the employees.

Tell us more about why you chose to work in Africa.

Hakan Agro has ben operating in Africa with direct presence since 2002 and we are cognizant of the fact that Africa with its abundant resources and resilient people is the key to world food demand.

Africa as the second most populous and biggest continent holds 53 countries, and although 1/3rd of Africa is desert land it has around 600 million hectares/1.5 Billion Acres of uncultivated arable land. This is roughly 60 percent of the global total.

At about 5.75 percent growth in 2015 Africa as continent has the highest growth rate. 10 sub-Saharan countries are posting annual output increases of 6 percent, more than twice the rate of population growth.

Even infamously food-insecure Malawi and Ethiopia now grow enough to export over 2 billions of dollars of food surpluses. In 2013 alone, Africa exported food worth US$25 Billion.

Africa has been at the epicentre of global land deals. Between 2000 and 2011, for example, Africa saw an estimated 1000 land deals, covering

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Weita, Omo Valley, Ethiopia

“Hakan Agro as an organisation believes that a good remuneration for farmers and respectable living conditions for the rural poor are key requirements for a sustainable future of food” Sudhakar Tomar, Managing Director, Hakan Agro DMCC 125 million hectares – an area larger than France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined.

There are tremendous Value Addition possibilities in addition to Import Substitution industries.

You work in regions where people are known to be exploited. Because of this you have a strong CSR policy. Please tell us a little more about this? How are you striving for fairness for farmers in these regions?

Hakan Agro as an organisation believes that a good remuneration for farmers and respectable living conditions for the rural poor are key requirements for sustainable future of food. In both an organisational capacity and in an individual capacity, we are strongly committed to helping marginal farmers – the weakest component but the strongest link of food supply chain - and direct actions such as vocational programs and rural educational initiatives in Asia and Africa.

In June 2012 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Hakan Agro DMCC pledged support to G-8’s

New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

It is an initiative by African Union, NEPAD and World Economic Forum. We are strongly committed to empower the farmer, the poorest but most important part of the food supply chain in the developing world, and making affordable food available to all especially in MENA, Africa and South Asia.

I have also been involved with CICILSIPTIC or the Global Pulse Confederation since 1999. The Global Pulse Confederation (GPC), head quartered in Dubai with the DMCC acting as its patron and sponsor, is a non-profit global confederation of over 16 national associations, governmental bodies and NGOs, and over 800 trading and support organisations from over 50 countries. The confederation enjoys observer status with multilateral bodies (such as the FAO, Codex, United Nations, WHO, WTO), and represents the interests of 100 Billion dollars of Pulses industry (growers, traders and consumers) with over 60 million tons in Pulses production all across the globe. As an organisation we are spearheading various

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initiatives such as UN declared, “2016 as the International Year of Pulses”, showcasing CICILS at Expo 2020 and, “Dubai Food Trade Advisory Group” a forum to celebrate Dubai and its food trade.

What is next for Hakan Agro?

We operate in US$5 trillion global food industry, which is low margin yet recession resilient. The opportunities are huge for those who can position themselves aggressively in the value add and food supply chain; the world needs to increase the food production by some 70 percent in 2050. Production in the developing countries would need to go up or they will have to import 100 percent more than what they do now. The Middle East and North Africa makes up only 5 percent of the world’s population, yet it consumes more than 20 percent of the world’s grain exports. Imports have increased from 30 million tons of grain in 1990 to nearly 70 million tons in 2011. The Middle East will need 200 million tons by 2050, equal to 66 percent of current world grain exports. We are in growth mode and see ourselves as an active player in the entire food supply chain.

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“It took me several years to emotionally recover from that blunder but it made me learn a very critical lesson in business life you should seek experienced third party dispassionate financial advise before committing yourself and your paperwork should be prudent” Sudhakar Tomar, Managing Director, Hakan Agro DMCC

You deal in produce that is affected not just by the global economy, but also by the weather. How does this affect strategy?

Climate change is harming agriculture crop production all over the world especially in those countries that are already poor, water deficient and food vulnerable. With more frequent draughts, unseasonal rains and temperature variations there is an increased risk of global food insecurity.

Agriculture contributes to climate change by emissions of greenhouse gases and by the conversion of non-agricultural land (e.g., forests) into agricultural land.

Also Agriculture, forestry and land-use – especially in the meat and dairy industry – contribute to around 20/25 percent of global annual emissions of green house gases. As an organisation we are supporting initiatives with better agriculture practice and more reliance on vegetable proteins, as opposed to meat and

dairy which are water inefficient, have higher carbon footprints and produce higher amounts of green house gases.

Everyone makes mistakes in business.

How do you get over these problems?

Although it is perfectly logical, faster and probably less expensive to learn from others mistakes, we don’t. If you have not fallen – then you have not learnt to walk yet.

One mistake I made very early on was on a financial shareholding, or lack thereof, in a business venture resulting into disproportionate risks versus rewards. It took me several years to emotionally recover from that blunder but it made me learn a very critical lesson in business life you should seek experienced third party dispassionate financial advise before committing yourself and your paperwork should be prudent.

June 2015 | 31

success

In business, whom do you most admire?

I strongly feel that with success a person should become humbler, generous, sensitive and more accessible to people to pass on the experiences of his journey to a larger audience.

No one embodies this philosophy more than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who have used their good fortune for greater good. Together they have pledged about US$70 billion or more than 70 percent of their net worth for charitable causes.

In the non-business sphere I greatly admire Sheikh Mohammed as an exemplary visionary leader who believes in genuinely empowering people. He has performed a stunning transformation of Dubai into one of the bests flourishing city-states at an astonishing speed. He has taught us to aim big and proved that there is life beyond recession and that you can be liberal, profitable and progressive despite the unrest in surrounding countries and despite the lack of oil reserves.

What is the one piece of stand out advice that you have been given during your career?

My guiding principle in life and business was taught to me by my late father that - you should never ever forget where you came from and be thankful to those people and places who shaped, supported and guided you in your journey.

Farmers in Ethiopia

“I am a big fan of people with and entrepreneurial and ownership mentality. You don’t need to start your own business to realise this attitude” Sudhakar Tomar, Managing Director, Hakan Agro DMCC people who are really good at where you are not. Never be afraid to listen and mend what others have to say, but know the fact that you and only you are the best judge of your strengths and weaknesses.

Be a realist - Make a realistic assessment of your capabilities and skills. Make and constantly update to-do lists. Don’t be afraid

to seek help or learn new skills be it a new language or a vocation.

Make a plan, set a time limit and risk capital - It is critical to make a plan, assign the min/ max target time to realise it and allocate a risk capital (which should last you 18-24 months) to achieve that.

And if your plan fails, start all over again. l

What is the one most important thing that you have learnt during your career?

I am a big fan of people with and entrepreneurial and ownership mentality. You don’t need to start your own business to realise this attitude. You can excel, achieve great results and rewards in any capacity as long as you work with mentality as if you own the business.

If you could give an entrepreneur one piece of advice, what would it be?

KNOW YOUR UNIQUE SELLING POINTS! You should try to figure out what you are uniquely good at. Also surround yourself with happy, successful and positive

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Farmers in the Simian Mountains, Ethiopia

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MONEY

The cost of a healthy cash flow for the SME sector Maintaining a healthy cash flow is integral to the survival of any business. Historically, extended payment terms often indicated that a company was experiencing cash flow problems, however recently a growing number of the world’s largest corporates now demand 90 to 120 days to pay their suppliers as a business strategy to maximise their working capital. y extending their payment terms to up to four months, large corporates can increase their cash flow to invest in more projects at the expense of their suppliers who are usually small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This trend puts a major financial burden on the SME sector which is already operating with a small financial cushion and suffering from various hurdles to access funding.

With large corporates applying pressure on SMEs, and other conventional lenders lacking the appetite to invest in small-business loans, SMEs are unable to accommodate the financial pressure of extended payment schedules imposed on them due to the significant credit gap.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that the current SME funding gap in the MENA region is around USD$260 billion. The UAE has a strong SME sector of about 300,000 SMEs that account for around 60 percent of GDP and over 90 percent of employment. They are the backbone of the economy, but they suffer from a lack of funding options that give them the credit they need with reasonable terms.

A popular tool that SMEs currently favor to maintain a healthy cash flow is Invoice Financing. It allows SMEs to manage their cash flow by closing the gap between the moment a business issues an invoice and when it receives the payment.

Invoice Financing is an extremely useful tool for SMEs in releasing some of the cash tied up in outstanding invoices without taking an actual loan. This enables the SME to match the receipt with the funding repayment. The Invoice Finance solution helps SME businesses boost their working capital and

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improve cash flow, by unlocking the value of their account receivables to ease the dual challenges of late payments and inflation.

In February 2015 Beehive, the UAE’s leading online marketplace for peer-to-peer finance, launched its SME Invoice Financing product to help bridge the current SME funding gap and to support the thousands of small-tomedium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the UAE in reaching their full potential.

Beehive’s powerful peer-to-peer funding platform links small businesses with smart investors, offering affordable short-term financing for UAE based SMEs. The Invoice Finance process is quick and easy, and businesses are able to list invoices that are due within 60 to 120 days and receive financing within 24 to 48 hours at rates starting from 0.75 percent per month, significantly below alternative means of finance.

“Beehive helps business to gain access to faster and more flexible funding with rates much lower than conventional banking finance and with no charge for early repayments.

We rigorously assess the risk profile of the businesses and their customers before adding them to the platform to make sure they are creditworthy and can make the repayments as agreed. This enables Beehive to pass on the benefits to both SMEs and investors by using platform technology to drive down costs. Our role is to ensure a fast and direct connection between investors and SMEs where both parties optimise their rates.” Craig Moore, Founder and CEO, Beehive. l

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MONEY

Private Client Banking – What a Successful Business Person Needs and Why By: Paul Donovan, Director of International Private Banking, Arbuthnot Latham & Co. Ltd.

Successful people have banking arrangements that are tailored for their needs. But for those of us just starting out, what exactly is Private Banking and why is it necessary to take a slightly different approach once we have become a high net worth individual? rivate banking is how banking originated. The first banks were focused on managing the personal finances of wealthy families. Private Banks became known as ‘Private’ to stand out from the typical retail focused banks.

P

What is Private Banking?

The main distinguishing factor of ‘Private Banking’ is the recognition that there is no such thing as a typical client. There are no stereotypes. Within this context, there is an understanding that each client will have a unique background, which will differ from other clients, and will therefore require a unique solution. As a result, it is imperative that the finances of high net worth individuals and businesses, are overseen by a Bank with a proposition designed explicitly to cater for such clients.

‘Private Clients’ will have access to an extremely diverse range of seamless solutions delivered by a single point of contact - their Private Banker - whose function it is to understand their background, business, goals, values and aspirations for the future.

Private Banks have specific ‘client groups’ within their organisation such as business owners, professionals, entrepreneurs, sports and entertainment. This ensures that the client is assigned a Private Banker who has the necessary expertise, understanding, experience

and knowledge of their affairs to appropriately manage the relationship, giving them the comfort their finances are safe.

Client’s Needs The Private Banker will adopt an effective and responsive approach and form a vital ‘partnership’ with the client to ensure they achieve their goals and lay the foundations for future generations. As a private client, a holistic approach is adopted so that the client’s needs, often unknown by the client at the outset, can be identified, explored and if appropriate, a suitable solution proposed.

However, not available to the masses, the minimum entry level to become a Private Bank client ranges from between US$1m-US$5m of investable assets.

Successful business owners and leaders are exceptional people, each with very different needs when it comes to banking and wealth management. It is therefore essential that they are provided with an unparalleled service, tailored to their precise circumstances. In most cases, successful business leaders that are able to fulfil the necessary financial criteria will often have complex requirements and therefore require more sophisticated solutions. As such, it is imperative that the entrusted bank has a ‘fit for purpose’ offering. For example, ‘premium relationship managers’ from High Street banks will typically look after 250+ clients, whereas a Private Banker will look after perhaps 50.

This demonstrates the capacity required to give high net worth individuals an appropriate level of service.

Management Of Affairs One of the pitfalls of being a successful business person is that inevitably they are, or will become, time poor. They need to know that wherever they are, whatever their requirements, their Bank and Private Banker are available to assist and their

High Net Worth individuals will often require access to a much larger investment universe, including alternative investments (hedge funds/ Private Equity), which can be used to reduce risk and give important diversification to the client

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MONEY

Asset structuring and succession planning also becomes more relevant as people become wealthier. As their wealth grows, so do the complexities associated with managing it. It requires looking well beyond the accumulation of assets, to clearly outline how the wealth can best serve them and the lives of their future generations

n is a Director at Arbuthnot Latham & Co. Private Bank based in Dubai. Paul has over 10 years industry experience and previously held the roles of Vice President at Coutts & Co Private Bank and Senior Investment Adviser at HSBC. Paul holds various professional qualifications including the Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning (DipPFS) and the Investment Management Certificate (IMC). Paul is a Keen golfer, off +1 handicap, and enjoys chess and travelling.

finances are being looked after incessantly.

Therefore, having their banking requirements managed by their Private Banker, sometimes known as a Relationship Manager, allows them the freedom to concentrate on what is important to them – their business, family and personal interests.

Successful business people know that ‘cost’ is vital and has a major impact on the eventual success of any strategy. Wealthy individuals should take advantage of the more granular and cost effective charging structures offered

by Private Banks. It is largely due to ‘economies of scale’ that solutions can be delivered through Private Banks much more cost effectively. Business People will also recognise that in general, banking has become more bureaucratic. They require a Bank to be flexible in approach and responsive in execution, handling day-to-day banking transactions, cash management, short/long term deposits, mortgages, bank guarantees, indemnities or letters of credit. Whether big or small, simple or complex, their needs are fulfilled using innovative products and solutions.

Mechanisms Mechanisms such as Lombard Financing can play a valuable role in the wealth management of clients. Leveraging assets - like

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cash, money market products, equities, high grade bonds and investment funds – can improve overall returns on portfolios. Of course, it can also be used for diversification purposes and by the client to make funds available for other commercial interests.

Lombard lending is a pertinent example of a solution typically only available to Private Banking clients. However, it is very important that professional advice is sought before implementation of such a strategy, as there are intrinsic risks associated with Lombard lending. As a result of globalisation, currency needs are increasingly more relevant. Private Clients, via their Private Banker, will have direct access to the bank’s Treasury specialists to design dynamic currency strategies to reduce and manage currency exposure and to ensure profit maximisation.

Know Your Client The likelihood is that a business person will have funds with which they would like to ensure capital preservation, whilst keeping pace with inflation. It is also likely that with other funds they would invest in a more aggressive and dynamic manner. Once again, conscious of the fact that every client is different, the Private Banker will organise a consultation with the banks Investment Management team. At this point, time is taken to understand the client’s business, family and life goals. The team should work side-by-side with the client to understand their personal financial goals, risk tolerance, return expectations, preferences and needs. Ultimately a solution will be designed and executed based on the output from the consultation.

Whilst some business people are sophisticated investors, willing to do their own research and pick their own strategies and vehicles, most want to spend their time on matters closer to themselves; their business and families. This can be far better time-management and in any event, Private Bankers ordinarily have far greater expertise and resources available.

Therefore, whether the client is hands on and requires purely ‘execution-only’ services, or

prefers involvement via an ‘active advisory’ arrangement or alternatively requires an intensively managed portfolio, without the burden of day-to-day decision making, their requirements can be satisfied.

High Net Worth individuals will often require access to a much larger investment universe, including alternative investments (hedge funds/Private Equity), which can be used to reduce risk and give important diversification to the client. These are typically not accessible through retail banks due to the minimum access requirements and sophistication of the instruments, so this should be a consideration for those wishing to review their banking structures.

Succession Planning Asset structuring and succession planning also becomes more relevant as people become wealthier. As their wealth grows, so do the complexities associated with managing it. It requires looking well beyond the accumulation of assets, to clearly outline how the wealth can best serve them and the lives of their future generations. It is essential to have a plan in place that is monitored regularly and that evolves as the landscape changes throughout their wealth journey. A pragmatic, effective and responsive approach to succession planning and estate administration, to philanthropy and family governance, successful business persons need detailed advice and services to plan well into the future. By harnessing the resources of the Private Bank’s global network of people and businesses, they can help them reach their financial goals. The way they structure the ownership of their wealth today, can have a profound effect on their family for generations to come.

It is not uncommon for clients with complex needs to require something from their bank which is outside standard bank policy. Private Bankers are able to be very responsive and act quickly and efficiently by being pragmatic, having short reporting lines, technology enablement and a seamless integration at the heart of the banks culture. This allows a commercial approach in its decision making and effectiveness in the eventual execution, when the client needs it most.

In summary, for successful business owners and leaders, a personalised approach to banking is a necessity. It will allow them the freedom to concentrate on what is important to them – their business, their family and their life – safe in the knowledge that their affairs are being expertly handled with sensitivity and intelligence. l

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people

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) At Business Insight, we often hear how businesses are stretched and people are being asked to work above and beyond their position, quite often without understanding why. With communication and a CSR policy, a company can change it’s perception to it’s employees, engage staff and create a completely different (positive) working environment by proving that their employer is the caring type. ealistically though, what can you do as an employer of an SME? We posed this question to other business leaders so that you can inspiration from them.

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“CSR forms a major part of Arbuthnot Latham culture. Our people are engaged to ensure that we preserve resources, maintain a positive interaction with society while abiding by regulations and caring about our clients. All our people get involved whether it be saving paper, sourcing local food, giving back to the community from mentoring to helping and raise money through, triathlons, silent auctions at dinner events to dress down days for a variety of charities. Our people volunteer ideas and come together as a business to contribute.”

Paul Millar, Managing Director, International Private Banking, Arbuthnot Latham & Co., Limited

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“Arsenal Football Club has a big CSR policy which is centered on giving back to the local community on a grass roots level. They do everything from charity football matches, donations of kit and/ or money and many other fund raising initiatives.

I believe that this is very important.

We are in the perfect position to give back to the less fortunate and as such, Arsenal Soccer School Dubai have developed a policy whereby every year, myself and the coaches fly ourselves to Addis Ababa for several days and provide Arsenal Coaching to kids for free. The parents donate clothing and kit that we take out with us and distribute at the time. It is great as for just a couple of hours, the children can be children again. Last year, we coached over 2,000 children in three days! The talent is amazing and they really want to learn. It is humbling to see these kids when they turn up to us – Often without trainers, or maybe just one on one of their feet (the other foot bare), and dirty ripped clothes that are too big or too small… And then you see the look on their faces when you are able to give them something. It is a priceless experience.”

Ian Selley, Head Coach, Arsenal Soccer School Dubai

“At Caboodle we’ve recently collected and donated to the Nepalese embassy as earthquake aid participants, we’ve hosted pamper and play days for Dubai Autism Center – both catering to the children, carers and management teams and we’ve continuously raised funds for Dubai Cares since opening.”

Hind Abdulrazak, Audax Investment Group, Creative Director/Partner at Caboodle Pamper & Play

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people

“The reason a lot of businesses don’t have a CSR policy in place, is because it is viewed as the domain of the Corporations – and not something that SMEs get involved with. A lot of business leaders may do something personally, but there is room for improvement when it comes to the SME market and CSR. At the DMCC we have recently been successful in driving the engagement of CSR with the #myDMCC campaign. Whilst this campaign was initially launched to celebrate reaching 10,000 member companies, it also started a social drive to raise money for the Emirates Red Crescent. Each time that a post was placed with the #myDMCC, the DMCC donated AED 50 to charity. In total, we raised AED 500,000 and achieved high levels of engagement of our member companies and the 85,000 people who live and work within the JLT Community– All of which illustrates that many are becoming more socially conscious.”

James Bernard, Director of Business Development, DMCC

Panoriamic view of Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya. The largest slum of Africa is in Nairobi. About 1 million people live in Kibera.

“We strongly believe in giving the opportunity to all children, to participate in sport. It’s fundamental to their education, builds character, confidence and life building skills. We actively promote this message to companies who should be doing more with children in sport; after all they take their parents away from days on end. Children will be the business people of the future and by investing now it will not only benefit the economy in general but will have a positive impact on society.”

Liam Mooney, Founder of Club Fit For Business

“At Sisters, we are firm believers of purposeful CSR engagement, not for one particular program, but in our everyday roles, by maximizing positive impact and minimizing negative impact.

Since we focus on such dynamic forms of charitable work, our challenge is to make it tangible to the everyday lives of our employees and create strong awareness of the cause across the board. A recent example is our Breast Cancer Awareness campaign where we offered our own staff full breast screening sessions to ensure they are taken care of and fully aware in order to pass the information on to their friends, family and even our own clients.”

Sara Abdulrazak, Managing Director, Audax Investment Group

“For any enterprise, big or small, it is vital to find and keep the best people, people who will go the extra mile, people who love what they do, people who are ambassadors for the business. To do that an organisation needs to create a fulfilling work environment. At our core and in our hearts most people want to make a difference, and to help others, so to get the best from the team, let them give the most, not just in terms of time at their desk but also their investment in the community.

Interlink work with making a difference and the best people become better. That’s the role of CSR and it’s significance in retaining, motivating and fulfilling an enterprise’s talent.”

Mark Beer, Chief Registrar, DIFC Courts

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people

CSR… It isn’t just for the larger SMEs and Corporates!

In this issue we have spoken a lot about csr, why it is important and what businesses can do to increase their standing. It has also become apparent that many smes feel this is not relevant to them as they are too small... this need not be the case! e speak with Jim Wheat, Artist, Marketeer, Ambassador and owner of Dollarsandart FZE to find out the importance of CSR regardless of the size of the business.

“The business idea came a couple of years after an extremely challenging time in my life right at the crunch time during the 2008 crash. I made the move to Dubai in 2002 and enjoyed corporate life in Construction, but the loss of my livelihood on 2 occasions due to cut backs, the loss of people close to me and a relationship breakdown pretty much stripped all the layers away,” explains Wheat when asked how the creative release came about, initially as a form of untapped therapy. This horrific time in his life, proved to be the tipping point that literally turned his life around and his creating the Dollarsandart brand.

Having lived with the full expatriate package that he admits he took for granted and then just about making ends meet, ironically fueled more Dollarsandart creations. The $ being the main feature of his artwork, and his journey to where he is today, is what has led him to being proactive on the CSR front as a platform for him to reach out and connect with others in an authentic way, “All my paintings feature the Dollar sign - the motif of all my work to date because it’s globally recognisable. Digging deeper though my work invites you to ask more about money - its value on paper, electronically and emotionally! How many of you are here in Dubai trying to clear that debt, earn the extra $ so that ‘one day’ happiness will follow - maybe that day is right now!

“My work has become brighter in the recent collection featuring acrylic on canvas and of course -the signed $ bill,” he explained with a smile, “and it is this that got me thinking about how I was able to turn such a negative experience to such a positive one. I want to give back and help others too.”

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Speaking with Jim, it is easy to understand why he is now being asked to appear as a motivational speaker. It is also the art, and his strong self promotion of that on social media has got him back to marketing, and now to giving back, “I really enjoy socialising, it’s natural for me to donate some of my works and to speak at corporate/charity functions.”

Recently the Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs, benefitted from Wheat auctioning off a work entitled “Noor for the Eye$’* which is part of Heroes and Villains collection, “I donated it as testament not only to all the heroes who raise money for such a wonderful cause, but also for those who work, serve and are part of such an amazing training centre. Everyone can make a difference.” l

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LEGAL

Legal and Commercial Considerations for Doing Business in SubSaharan Africa By: Ian Gaitta, Partner, Anjarwalla Collins & Haidermota, Legal Consultants, Dubai

This is the first of a series of articles highlighting various legal and commercial considerations for doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this first article, we highlight some of the factors giving rise to the increased interest in African investments, as well as an overview of some practical challenges to investment in the continent. In future articles, we will explore in detail some specific aspects of doing business in Africa, such as corporate structuring, taxation, enforcement of contracts and various regulatory aspects.

ub-Saharan Africa’s current and projected economic growth story continues to attract many businesspeople and investors to pursue opportunities on the continent.

Historically, Africa has not attracted significant foreign investment because of difficulties posed by unstable political environments, corruption, civil unrest and weak and unpredictable legal and regulatory frameworks. As a result of sustained efforts by many governments in Africa and through a combination of privatisation and trade liberalisation, the updating of corporate and investment related laws and the improvement of legal enforcement and regulatory regimes, there has been a significant overall improvement in the business climate. In addition, the last few years have seen the rise in global prices of commodities available in Africa as a result of competition for resources

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amongst industrialised countries and emerging powers such as India and China. This has led to a rush for Africa’s natural resources, such as oil, gas and minerals.

Further, the growth in population and rise in disposable incomes have stimulated domestic consumption leading to the growth of domestic markets. In addition, the lack of developed and liquid capital markets makes it difficult for companies to tap into the domestic public equity or debt markets for capital, and therefore foreign private equity or debt capital has become an attractive source of funding.

Improvements in management and corporate governance in African companies have also contributed to the attractiveness of African businesses to foreign institutional investors. Challenging market conditions in more developed markets have also made African investments more attractive due to the higher rates of return achieved.

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LEGAL

Ian is a partner at Anjarwalla Collins & Haidermota (AC&H) Legal Consultants in Dubai. Ian is also a partner at Anjarwalla & Khanna Advocates, one of Kenya’s leading corporate/commercial law firms.

Ian has been practising law in Dubai for the past four years. Prior to joining AC&H, Ian practised law with two of the leading law firms in East Africa for over four (4) years.

Ian’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions and joint venture transactions. Ian has had extensive experience advising foreign investors seeking to do business in sub-Saharan Africa, including advising on corporate structuring, real estate acquisition and leasing, joint venture arrangements, business licensing and regulatory compliance, distribution and agency arrangements and negotiating business acquisition and disposal transactions relating to various jurisdictions in subSaharan Africa.

Ian can be reached at igaitta@ach-legal. com or +971 4 4529091

In some countries, specific initiatives by government have had significant positive impact on foreign direct investments. For example, many governments have liberalised their economies, facilitating foreign and domestic private enterprise.

Further, some governments in the resource-rich states have established domestic sovereign investment vehicles or sovereign wealth funds.

Investment Hotspots Much of the investment activity in v has been focused in the following economic sectors: (a) natural resources such as oil, gas and minerals; (b) telecommunications; (c) infrastructure and utilities development; (d) energy production; (e) banking and financial services; and (f) agribusiness and agroforestry.

There has been significant investment in countries which are resource rich, such as investments in the Democratic Republic of

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the growth in population and rise in disposable incomes have stimulated domestic consumption leading to the growth of domestic markets

Congo (copper and cobalt), Zambia (copper), South Africa (gold, diamonds, platinum, iron ore), Botswana (diamonds), Nigeria, Gabon, Chad, Sudan (oil), Angola, Equatorial Guinea (oil and natural gas), Ghana (aluminium, gold and, recently, oil), Mozambique (gas), Tanzania (gas and gold). There has also been increased exploration activities in countries which have not traditionally been resource rich, such as Uganda and Kenya which have recently discovered hydrocarbon deposits.

Investments in this sector have been spurred by the global demand for commodities and energy, particularly from emerging powers such as China.

There have been tremendous developments in infrastructure and utilities, through concessioning and other forms of public private partnerships, in such areas as water and sanitation projects, airports, seaports, transportation, pipeline and refinery projects.

In energy production, FDI has been channelled towards electricity generation projects, both in the traditional hydro-powered or dieselpowered projects as well as in coal and nuclear powered projects in some countries, on the one hand, and investments in alternative energy projects such as wind, geothermal, solar and methane-based generation, on the other hand.

In the banking and financial services sector, foreign capital has been attracted to

leading mainstream banks in the region as well as to micro-finance lenders. Notable transactions include the investment by the Chinese Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in Standard Bank of South Africa (acquisition of 20 percent stake for US$5.6 billion) and the acquisition by Barclays of a majority stake in Absa Group of South Africa, for US$5.5 billion (at the time the largest single foreign investment in South Africa) and the more recent investment by QNB of Qatar into Ecobank, the pan-African banking group.

Emerging Market Powers Chinese and Indian companies have emerged as key investors in Africa. In addition, there is increasing presence of Middle Eastern investment groups in the continent. Trade between African countries and China and India has grown significantly in the last decade. In addition, the Chinese and Indian governments continue to provide development assistance to various African countries. Some of the key areas in which Indian enterprises have invested include oil exploration and construction contracts to software and information technology and pharmaceutical and health care services, as well as automotives and steel industries.

In return, India has sought to obtain oil

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LEGAL

supplies. The Gulf states have also made significant investments in infrastructure projects (such as the development of ports in Djibouti and Zanzibar by Dubai World), tourism and leisure (such as the Victoria and Albert Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa and investments in hotel and lodge chains in East Africa) and in other real estate development projects.

Legal, Regulatory And Practical Challenges – An Overview Investors in sub-Saharan Africa will encounter certain challenges that their colleagues in developed markets may not have to contend with. For instance, capital markets laws and regulations in most countries in the region are by and large new and relatively untested by the courts or other relevant tribunals. In the absence of judicial precedent, it is often not easy to predict the interpretation and application of applicable regulations.

The fact that certain laws have not been updated themselves poses a challenge when structuring transactions. Similar to the “whitewash” procedure applicable in England (before the 2006 amendments to English company law), the absence of these provisions in our companies laws, often makes transaction structuring challenging.

For instance, it would be difficult to structure leveraged buy outs of companies (where the assets of the target company are often offered as security to finance debts incurred by the acquirer of the shares of the target company) in jurisdictions in which restrictions against financial assistance apply. It would also be difficult to ‘develop’ a market for shares of a company and enable existing shareholders to realise their investments by way of a share buy-back where the company laws of that jurisdiction do not permit such buy-backs.

Another challenge we have encountered is in relation to monopolies or anti-trust legislation in some countries in the region, which often do not

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capital markets laws and regulations in most countries in the region are by and large new and relatively untested by the courts or other relevant tribunals

provide any economic thresholds or even territorial limits and which, if attained, trigger a requirement to notify the regulator and seek clearance of a merger or takeover transaction.

To compound this challenge, most of the countries in the region are also members of regional blocs such as COMESA which have their own monopolies rules, and as such a transaction may be subject to multiple, if not conflicting, competition rules, which adds to uncertainty and transactional cost.

On the regulatory front, although regulators in most countries have made strides towards being responsive to the investor community, there are still some instances of regulators not issuing as a matter of practice any guidance notes or directives as to interpretation or application of relevant regulations: For instance, the tax treatment of a particular transaction, or the competition law implications of a particular transaction.

Consequently, how a regulation will be interpreted or applied will often be a matter to be discerned by the parties to the transaction from case to case based on the regulator’s determinations from time to time.

Administrative delays in the dispute resolution mechanisms are prevalent in most jurisdictions in the region, with tribunals and courts often taking long to resolve disputes.

Whilst this is not unique to Africa, the

uncertainty brought about by slow judicial processes can hinder the growth of FDI. Practical Challenges Apart from legal and regulatory challenges, there are also some practical challenges one will encounter in the course of doing business in the region. For instance, in many countries, the public registries such as the companies and bankruptcy registries and lands registries are based on manual records and are yet to be automated. In addition, the relevant information on an entity is frequently out of date or missing altogether. Whilst such information may nevertheless be available from other sources such as the target company and its officers, for example, the company secretary, there is always the concern as to the level of reliance that the investor can place on unofficial sources of information.

These challenges make it difficult to carry out effective investment due diligence. In addition, unlike in more developed markets, there may not always be any established credit rating systems and agencies from whom information can be derived in relation to a target entity.

In future articles, we will explore in detail some specific aspects of doing business in Africa, such as corporate structuring, taxation, enforcement of contracts and various regulatory aspects. l

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RAMADAN PROMOTION* 1 year complete package (including a flexi-desk) Only AED 32,000 ($ 8,700)

Join our award winning Free Zone and set up your company in Dubai.

What we offer: • 0% corporate and personal income tax • 100% business ownership • 100% capital repatriation • Over 10,000 licensed companies from across all sectors and industries • Licensing of start up companies, subsidiaries, branches and representative offices • Freehold property available to lease or buy • Immediate plug & play packages and solutions through flexi-desks and serviced offices • Strategic location in the heart of new Dubai • Online portal for all company and employee services * Initial applications must be completed and submitted during the holy month of Ramadan to benefit from the offer. * Terms and conditions apply.

Call 800 DMCC (3622) from within the UAE or +971 4 424 9600 setup@dmcc.ae dmcc.ae

LEGAL

Legal advice before leg work By: Nita Maru, Managing Partner, TWS Legal Consultants

It is a well-established fact that every company in the UAE must be duly licensed to operate in the country, irrespective of whether it is commercial, professional, or industrial in nature.

hat is less evident is how the law and lawyers play a vital role in the formation of a new company. Aspiring entrepreneurs, and those who already practice their profession but seek to grow it, will do well to consult a team of licensed lawyers who can advise on the procedures and processes of procuring a business licence, and ensure that is best suited to existing and future plans.

The laws in the UAE are rarely demanding, but can often prove to be daunting. Commercial licences are never generic, but instead are specific to the nature of the business activity and the company’s proposed location. For instance, the Commercial Companies Law and the Trade Agencies Law create the primary federal legislative framework controlling commercial activities in the UAE, but each of

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the seven emirates, and every free zone, has its own set of rules and regulations.

Foreign entities interested in establishing a presence in the UAE have five options - create one of seven types of permanent establishments, establish a branch office, create a civil company (in Sharjah or Dubai), enter into a commercial agency agreement, or create an entity in a free zone.

Free Zones The latter is definitely a popular and preferred option: free zones allow for up to 100 percent foreign ownership and are favoured with reduced trade barriers, tariffs, and quotas.

The uniqueness of a company registered in any of the UAE’s free zones is the ability to have a real office and truly

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LEGAL

The author is Nita Maru, British qualified solicitor and Managing Partner of TWS Legal Consultants with over 15 years of experience at senior positions held in London and the UAE. Nita has a British law degree, and is a member of The Law Society of England and Wales. She also holds a full Legal Consultancy license from the Government of Dubai Legal Affairs Department. She is well-known for her personal yet professional approach to resolving ‘real problems faced by real people’, and can be contacted at info@twslegal.ae or Tel: (+971) 4 4484284. Website www.twslegal.ae

operate within the country, when compared to traditional offshore companies, which cannot operate on the territory where they have been registered (although legal restrictions exist regarding the company’s operations within the UAE outside the free zone). Again, in contrast to classical offshore companies elsewhere in the world - where financial movements are scrutinised by banks and supervisory bodies onshore companies registered in the free zones of the UAE are considered as full-resident, but are not taxed, and therefore do not raise much reason for investigation.

That said, following the introduction of the Regulations for Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZ) Offshore Companies in 2003, international companies can establish JAFZ offshore companies, with benefits that are superior if not similar to other international offshore jurisdictions. Since 2006, the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah has also allowed the establishment of RAKIA offshore companies.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can typically be formed by partnerships between Emiratis, between associated and inactive partners, between two equal

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Even at a quick glance, there are multiple options for any potential entrepreneur, and it is only prudent to ensure that all aspects of establishing a business are clarified before starting off partners, or by general and participating partners who must be Emiratis and expatriates respectively – making another compelling case for using a sound legal structure for setting up a local business. For independent practitioners who wish to start small, getting a professional licence or setting up a sole proprietorship company are smart solutions.

Where To Start Even at a quick glance, there are multiple options for any potential entrepreneur, and it is only prudent to ensure that all aspects of establishing a business are clarified before starting off. We have been advising and assisting expatriate residents in establishing all types of business entities - both onshore and offshore, and special purpose vehicles (SPVs) for projects - and I can state with great certainty that the decision will always boil down to each individual’s specific goals and needs.

Having a solid idea and a sound business plan are but starting points. Establishing a company in the right jurisdiction quite often involves jurisprudence, so always ensure that your lawyer has this. For example, besides being official agents for the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (JAFZA), we provide professional and personalised assistance to clients who wish to set up a business anywhere in the country, ensuring that applications meet with the approval of respective authorities.

Typically, this involves due diligence on everything - industry, partner, location - before moving ahead with paper work, legal work, and leg work.

And finally, there is the matter of investment, and a great lawyer should be able to design bespoke solutions to suit exacting budgets, and yet remain flexible and scalable. l

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marketing & Advertising

30% Surge in Social Media Activity During Ramadan

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marketing & Advertising

urprisingly, the results show that residents of the Middle East use social media platforms 30 percent more during the Holy month. It also found that they engage with social media communities much later in the day and that engagement with brands is hugely multiplied during Ramadan providing businesses with the ideal window to communicate with customers.

TOP observed Facebook and Twitter activity in nine different countries across the region including: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, KSA and the UAE to provide a general overview of social media trends in the region looking specifically at levels of engagement, sentiment and perception and the timings of their interaction.

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Marketing Traditionally, Ramadan is a big month for consumer spending and Middle Eastern companies boost their spending on traditional ‘off-line’ campaigns by 20 percent during the holy month. For example, the four largest telecoms companies spend around US$200 million dollars during the month. It is from this that marketing companies and departments are now getting wise so brands can ensure that

“During Ramadan, people are most active on Twitter early evening at approximately 7pm, just before they break their fast. Therefore if brands wish to take advantage of this spike in audience, they should also consider posts that include content tailored to specific audiences that is entertaining or value-adding” Zafer Younis, CEO of The Online Project

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alongside traditional marketing campaigns, social media is fully utilised so it can reach a wider audience – one that is actually more open to engagement than at any other time during the year.

“Having discovered that social media consumption and user habits significantly change during the Holy month, we set out to study the outlying variable of this change to isolate the driving forces,” explained Zafer Younis, CEO of The Online Project said. “We monitored thousands of tweets and Facebook posts in nine countries to study the user behavior. Instead of looking at their social media platforms first thing in the morning when they wake or get into work, our results show that during Ramadan, people are most active on Twitter early evening at approximately 7pm, just before they break their fast.

“If brands wish to take advantage of this spike in audience, they should also consider posts that include content tailored to specific audiences that is entertaining or value-adding.”

Following analysis of the figures, TOP has put together their top five tips for making the most of communicating with consumers during Ramadan:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Recognise that Ramadan is a unique time in the Arab world both online and off: therefore, lessons you have learnt about your communities during the year may not apply during the holy month so adapt your campaign to recommended timings to make the most of the advertising budget you have spent.

Align your publishing times with your audience: This will help maximise engagement.

Optimise your content mix: User interests’ shift during the Holy month so adapt your content accordingly to stay relevant and build stronger relationships with your audience.

Increase your advertising support budgets during Ramadan: The Holy month enjoys higher organic engagement rates so your budget can push your content further in Ramadan.

Implement integrated marketing campaigns: Interlace social media usage increase in-line with TV, radio, and print consumption to deliver higher multiplier effects in Ramadan.

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Grant King is a Digital Marketing Expert with award-winning Communications Agency, IHC in Dubai, and has over 15 years online marketing experience in Australia, NZ, Europe and the UK. For more informtion visit www. ih-c.com

to Z ‌

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marketing & Advertising

Which Social Media platform is right for your business?

he best things in life are free and so is Social Media. That is, until it comes to your business marketing it’s services over Social Media platforms. While it’s free to set-up an account, increasingly brand page promotion and engagement now comes at a significant cost for business.

It is important to understand that not all Social Media platforms are the same or right for your business. Each has its own unique functionality and specific use- base or demographic profile. Choosing the right Social Media platform for your business can be the make or break of your branding and marketing strategy.

Business Managers are now sitting up and taking notice of the paid advertising options on the main Social Media (SM) platforms, Facebook and Linkedin. Facebook now has over 2 million active business advertisers.

Indeed, it is now essential for businesses to pay as Facebook have advised that visibility of brand page posts is now restricted unless paid. Both Facebook and Linkedin are now charging businesses for engagement on a bidding system which is now known as Social Media Marketing or SMM. So is it really worth it?

Here is a round up of the various social media platforms to help you choose which one is right for your business.

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Facebook With over 1.2 Billion users, Facebook is the undisputed king of social media. Some would say that if your business is not on Facebook, it doesn’t exist. A range of brand page and paid advertising options are now open to business.

In many respects, Facebook Advertising is suitable for nearly every businesses due to the long reach of this social media platform and the on-going engagement options, so it comes as no surprise that Facebook now has 2 million active business advertisers. With a reputed accuracy of 90 percent, paid Facebook posts can be targeted by occupation, gender, age, industry, location and interests to ensure maximum effectiveness.

Through a bidding system, a daily budget can be set to promote posts (and website clickthrough's) or to promote brand pages in order to increase the number of “likes” or followers.

User engagement can be accurately measured through Facebook Insights enabling businesses to justify media spend. Also, Facebook can be quite effective for promoting one-off offers as it is possible to include product photos, selfstart video clips, and click -through options to company websites. They also have the edge when it comes to promoting events as it is possible to establish an events page with personal invitation functionality, and then promote this to existing and new users with on-going engagement leading up to and post the event.

Overall though Facebook is known to be more effective at raising brand awareness rather than actual sales generation, so it is important that businesses don’t throw their entire marketing budget at Facebook alone.

With close to 90% accuracy, Linkedin’s paid advertising options can be highly effective for B2B promotional posts or messages, and especially for companies in capital goods or relationship-based industries where they need to maintain connections with a small group of key decision makers

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The most important aspect of Google+ is that it can lead to a larger Google listing and a higher ranking on the search engine results page Google+ Google is rapidly becoming more than just a search engine. With Google+ or Google Plus, the Search Engine giant has entered the world of Social Media but still has some way to go before it challenges Facebook.

Google+ enables companies to register for free and set up an attractive Google+ home page with logos, photos and contact information.

This page can then be linked to “Google Maps” for a red locator flag to appear on Google Maps and “Google My Business” which provide a free business listing on the search engine results page. Google+ allows other users to post reviews about your business, rate your business from 1 to 5, stars, add “likes”, and connect using the “circles” engagement option. A word of caution to politically or regulatory sensitive businesses however, is that it is possible for users to

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post negative or malicious comments so it is important to constantly monitor content to moderate or remove inappropriate reviews.

The most important aspect of Google+ is that it can lead to a larger Google listing and a higher ranking on the search engine results page.

In particular, the benefits are: zz Larger Google listing with an extra line showing how many reviews, likes your business has achieved zz An extra line giving your business address with a link to Google maps zz When searching by your brand name, a larger Google listing with your company logo, map and photo drawn from your Google+ brand page Google have also recently confirmed that free “Google My Business” listings which are

normally ranked on a first come/first served basis, will be prioritised when more engagement is achieved through using Google+. As many business managers will know, being near the top of the Google search engine results page can be the make or break of many businesses marketing efforts. So the more reviews, more likes and more users connecting through Google+ can have a very positive effect on your business and it is worth paying attention to this new opportunity.

Instagram Instagram is essentially an online photo album that is open to the World.

An excellent platform for sharing photos and show-casing any photo worthy items, new functionality has been recently introduced allowing users to “follow” other Instagramers, and to be alerted to new content uploads. It is fair to say that Instagram works best as a “bolt on” photo gallery

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marketing & Advertising

to an existing website as it possible to add an Instagram “plug-in” link.

This way, visitors can click-through to Instagram and view your photo gallery, using the well-known Instagram navigation system and user-friendly functionality. Intagram is particularly popular in design-led industries such as art galleries, architects, designers and furniture manufacturers, where powerful compelling product images can be uploaded.

Twitter With 500 million users, Twitter is the dominant online social networking service enabling users to send and read short 140-character messages known as "tweets". The majority of user engagement is through its mobile device APP widely accessed on smartphones and tablets, and as such Twitter is highly effective at achieving rapid “real-time” user engagement. However it is also worth noting that a twitter website also exists and it is now possible for businesses to establish a brand page with logos and websites links.

Photos and links can be posted on twitter which increases the opportunities for businesses to promote products and services and companies can add a Twitter live activity feed to their own websites with scrolling posts to increase engagement.

Twitter is most suitable for businesses in fast-moving industries where news or announcements need to be quickly disseminated to a mass audience or special interest group. Twitter’s user base is mostly in the Fashion and events industry, fastmoving news-led sectors such as media and Government, and for performing artists and celebrities, where short announcements can be made and disseminated by an individual person with ease and at no cost.

Linkedin Linkedin is a business professional social network platform that has only recently being taken seriously by marketers: Linkedin is now the go-to platform for targeting and engaging key individuals or business persons.

As of March 2015, LinkedIn reported more than 364 million acquired users in more than 200 countries and territories.

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A twitter website also exists and it is now possible for businesses to establish a brand page with logos and websites links Headhunters have long been using the paid search functionality of Linkedin to recruit candidates, but now this functionality has been opened up to businesses for targeting and engaging with business contacts and key decision markers. With close to 90 percent accuracy, Linkedin’s paid advertising options can be highly effective for B2B promotional posts or messages, and especially for companies in capital goods or relationshipbased industries who maintain connections with a small group of key decision makers.

Pinterest Pinterest is essentially an on-line pictorial magazine where users set the daily content selection. Users choose who or what interest category they wish follow and then relevant content is served up daily. It is especially effective for design-led businesses in the following industries: Fashion, Media, Design, Furniture, Art, and Architecture. If your business has strong compelling product photos to promote, Pinterest is the one for you. But it is important to upload images regularly, where possible daily, to retain followers interest.

Youtube It comes as no surprise that Youtube is known to be highly effective for any business with film or video content to release. However, it is now possible to establish a branded Youtube channel home page with your company logo and website links which increases the options from a branding perspective.

Other up-and-coming social media platforms worth considering are blog-based Tumblr and photo-based Flickr, but both are yet to achieve the market dominance of the other platforms mentioned above. Watch this space however, as things can change quickly in the fast-paced, online World of Social Media.

What is the bottom line?

The bottom line is that most businesses should have an account with all these social media platforms, but then only select the platform(s) that are most appropriate to your industry and focus your time and money on regular engagement on those platforms. It does not need to be all of them, and in many cases it may only be one or two.

It pays to be selective. l

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DMCC’s 10,000th Member Company Up and Running in Record Time Thanks to Dubai’s Smart Government Initiative ecoming the 10,000th member of the DMCC took just a couple of weeks for Primetals Technologies - a newly formed joint venture between Siemens AG, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and other Partners - as the company was able to complete its registration and licensing process online.

Felice Galati, Managing Director of Primetals Technologies, said, “The electronic sign up process was fantastic. We did most of the registration steps directly online, avoiding going up and down to this office and that office.

Everything was clearly laid out, the costs, the documentation requirements, the applications, the feedback, the approvals and the certificates.

Within a couple of weeks the whole process was complete, we were registered and we had our license. Not to forget the SMS alert service, which provided on-time progress of our application.

The online tools for registration and sign up were very easy to grasp and very easy to use.

And we got great support from DMCC Team

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to get additional explanations or to efficiently prepare the documentation prevent mistakes whenever it was required.”

Technology is vital to the growth and sustainability of DMCC, the UAE’s largest and fastest growing Free Zone.

Ahmed Bin Sulayem, DMCC Executive Chairman, said, “We are growing at around 20 percent year on year. If we are going to keep up that level of growth and the level of service our members have come to expect, we have to be ahead of the technology curve. We take all our members and customers on an online journey.

Every interaction between a member company, from the minute they decide to join us, to the day they move in, to licensing and trading, every step of the process is electronic.”

DMCC’s IT Transformation Project puts the free zone at the forefront of the Smart Government initiative launched in 2013 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.

The initiative aims to ease the lives of people and businesses interacting with the government and contribute to establishing Dubai as a leading economic hub. The initiative aims to achieve a virtual Smart Government through the provision of high quality customer focused e-services for individuals, businesses and government departments and to promote e-services.

Mr Galati added that DMCC’s success implementing the Smart Government initiative played a big part in his company choosing DMCC for its base in the region.

“We have come to DMCC as a small company but we have ambitions to grow,” Mr Galati said. “That is why we chose DMCC. We can see that DMCC is in the best shape to help us however big we grow. We feel that we will never have to look elsewhere because we are confident DMCC will be able to accommodate us. This fact was very important in selecting DMCC. We are very excited about being the 10,000th company to register at DMCC. We are excited to see who the next 10,000 will be.” l

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dMCC

Transformation Project Q&A With Krysta Fox

What is the DMCC transformation project?

DMCC’s IT transformation Project was inspired by a very important message from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, a little more than two years ago in May 2013. He put out the call to all of us in Dubai government and government related businesses to go completely digital. 100% online. To get rid of paper and to modernize all our systems. We were already working on it at DMCC. We have always been an innovation hub but the message from His Highness gave us the extra impetus to ramp up

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the programme and get it delivered as efficiently as possible. And we did. Here we are two years later, the deadline he set has just passed and we can safely say that we met the challenge with success.

We are 100 percent online. We have transformed.

What has it transformed?

Every interaction between DMCC and its member companies, clients, prospective members, customers of every sort, can be achieved totally online. I’ll give you some examples.

For a visa application – we used to upload nearly 13,000 passport photos in a year, ourselves. Do you

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DMCC

realise the number of man hours involved in that single process alone? It’s about 2,100, or about a full year of work days for one employee. Imagine, you spend eight hours a day, five days a week doing nothing but uploading passport photos, under the old hard copy system it would take one person a full year, assuming that is all they did. Today we upload no passport photos. Zero. The member uploads them him or herself online. They don’t have to come to the service centre and hand them over and we don’t have to spend all that time uploading them.

This same gain is repeated across license renewals, new company registrations.

Everything you need to do here.

What are the benefits to DMCC? There are so many benefits to DMCC. Firstly we simply would not have been able to grow to more than 10,000 member companies with the old fashioned system. Just accommodating the volumes of people who would need to come in to our service centre every day in order to get the business of registering a company, applying for a license and applying for visas for employees and family members was impossible.

Secondly, we have made great savings. I have already described how many hours it used to take to perform all of these tasks. Our Free Zone employs about the same number of people today in the visa, license and registration sections as we did in 2012, before the IT transformation programme started. But the number of member companies has increased dramatically.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, we have been able to create a seamless interconnected eco-system that brings together all of our members and ensures that they are well served by us around the clock in whatever capacity they need.

We have been able to offer them services that are greatly improved – like health insurance, banking services and much more – all because we can see all our member companies in one place through our portal. We get a 360 degree view of them which means we can give a 360 degree service.

What are the benefits to your member companies?

One of the most important things for our member companies, and would be members, is that they get to spend a lot

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less time lining up at the service centre and a lot more time running the businesses they come here to set up. Every minute you spend filling out a form, or lining up in an office is a lost opportunity. At DMCC we are about offering opportunities to our members and those seeking opportunity in Dubai. That is why this transformation is so important. It frees us all up to focus on what we are here for. We are Made for Trade and so are our members.

The members reap the same benefits we do, essentially. They make the same savings we do. They don’t really need to have PROs or other employees racing around dropping off documents or getting stamps and signatures. We can do everything online.

In the near future we will also be introducing more innovations like e-signature and an expanded courier pick and drop off services so we will have to do even less at the service centre.

They also benefit from being a member of a completely connected community. This ecosystem at the DMCC is, like I said, a 360 degree business experience. We can provide everything for them. And if there is a need in the community for a service we do not provide, it is easy for them to let us know – again through the portal – and we can do what we can to fill the gap.

We are a marketplace, and this level of connectivity is essential in the modern business world.

What was the most surprising discovery of the process?

The most surprising discovery of this process was how much more we can do for our members with the simple addition of this portal. We discovered the portal can unlock new potential for us and our members.

I’ll give you one example: In 2013 the magnitude and range of the value added services we offered our members was minimal – things like insurance or other business services. The connections that we helped our members make resulted in

an annual spend of around AED1 million dirhams a year. A negligible amount for a free zone of our size. More importantly, that meant we were not doing nearly enough to help our members get connected with vital services to help their business get up and running quickly and easily. Today we connect our members to a range of value added services and the value of their spending has grown 20-fold in 2 years. Each one of our members can enjoy the same level of efficiency and benefit. It is incredible what this transformation can do for business. The great news is that our range of valued added service keeps growing to serve the needs of our members.

What was the biggest achievement of the process?

There is no one single achievement that is better than any other. It is a process. But if I were forced to pick something it is this: I am very proud that we were able to fulfil His Highness’s wishes within the two year time frame that he set and I am very proud of the future of innovation and possibility that this IT Transformation project has opened up before us. We are Made for Trade but now we are made for innovation too.

We have seen the nature of the companies we attract transform during this process. Hitech companies see us as their natural home thanks to collaborations with companies like Google in our Astrolabs venture. Because we are now 100 percent online, 100 percent digital we speak the same language as these companies, the most innovative and technologically advanced companies on earth.

We recently welcomed our 10,000th member company – Primetals, which is a joint venture between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Siemens. I would love to look into the future to see what our 20,000th, 30,000th and 100,000th company will look like. There is always more transformation to come. l

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technology

Top Security Risks By: Glen Ogden, Regional Sales Director, Middle East at A10 Networks

Everyone knows that I.T. comes with danger; Danger that our information will be leaked, Danger that pertinent and confidential information will fall into the hands of competitors or worse.

So what can we do to protect ourselves? In our article, we explain the main problems SMEs in the region face and what businesses can do to combat them.

Malvertisers… Beware!

Malware distributors have zeroed in on a fast and effective way to infect millions of users: malvertising.

With malvertising, cybercriminals distribute malicious code through online advertising networks. Because the malware-laden advertisements are hosted by legitimate websites and the ads constantly change, traditional security tools that “black list” malicious sites cannot easily block malvertisers’ ads. Malware-laden ads often silently infect machines without users’ knowledge. Malvertisers will take advantage of new exploits, known exploits like Dynamic DNS, and signature and sandbox evasion techniques to further propagate their malware across advertising networks. To prevent malware infections, organisations should install anti-malware software on client machines and enforce security controls on clients’ browsers. Advanced threat protection platforms can also help detect malware in web traffic. Since many web-based advertisements are now delivered over SSL, organisations should decrypt and inspect encrypted traffic.

A New DDoS Amplification Attack Will Emerge Over the past two years, cybercriminals and other mischief-makers have exploited DNS and NTP servers to amplify the size of their DDoS attacks. With DNS

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and NTP amplification attacks, an attacker spoofs, or impersonates, the attack target and sends a small request to a reflector, which is a server that replies with a much larger response to the victim, flooding the victim’s network. DNS amplification attacks can increase the size of DDoS attacks by up to 54 times, while NTP amplification attacks can magnify DDoS onslaughts by a factor of 556 times. But DNS and NTP are not the only culprits of amplification attacks.

Attackers can also leverage SNMP, NetBIOS, and other protocols to launch amplification attacks. Attackers have even exploited WordPress applications to carry out largescale DDoS assaults. Amplification has contributed to the escalating size of DDoS attacks.

According the Verizon 2014 Data Breach Investigation Report, between 2011 and 2013, DDoS attacks grew in average size from 4.7 to 10.0 Gbps, but the real story has been the increase in the average packets per second for typical DDoS attacks; in fact, DDoS attack rates have skyrocketed 1,850 percent to 7.8 Mpps between 2011 and 2013. Many of the largest DDoS attacks over the past two years have been amplification attacks. We predict that in 2015, a new type of DDoS amplification attack will make headlines. While DNS and NTP amplification took the security world by storm in 2013 and 2014, attackers will uncover and exploit a yet unknown attack next year. Attackers continually investigate

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technology

Glen Ogden is the Regional Sales Director, Middle East at A10 Networks. Glen has over 16 years combined experience in Application Delivery and Network Security, holding positions with F5, NetScaler, Cogneto, Nokia and Qualys. Glen holds a post-graduate degree in International Business from Hull University, United Kingdom.

new attack vectors, as witnessed by the recent discovery of DVMRP-based reflection attacks. Disclosed by Team Cymru, Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP) reflection attacks have already been observed by service providers. To protect against amplification attacks, organisations should deploy security equipment that can mitigate largescale DDoS attacks.

Traditionally “Secure” Infrastructure such as VDI Will Be Compromised Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) allows organisations to host desktop environments on servers and enables users to access these desktops from any location. Compared to traditional desktop infrastructures, VDI provides a host of advantages; organisations can lower hardware and operating costs, support Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives, and bolster security. Since all data is stored in a central location—rather than on endpoint devices—VDI reduces physical data theft risks.

However, desktop virtualisation also exposes new security challenges.

Organisations often host multiple desktops with the same operating systems and the same set of applications on a single physical server.

Without proper isolation, an attacker can install a rootkit and compromise multiple desktops. With limited system diversity, attackers might uncover vulnerability, allowing them to quickly exploit thousands of desktops in one fell swoop. Attackers will execute more

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brute force attacks and conduct new and creative attacks on virtual desktops.

To protect VDI environments, organisations should implement operating system or application isolation—especially if virtual desktops are hosted in the cloud.

Organisations should also control how data can be transferred to and from VDI environments, install anti-malware software, and monitor for intrusions.

The Internet of Things (IoT) Will Expose New Security Risks More knowledge and convenience is not always a good thing. The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to make our lives easier, but without proper safeguards, it also opens us up to an array of new security threats. Even though IoT is still in its early stages, the number of devices connected to the Internet is growing, thereby increasing the potential for attacks at any time.

Three potential IoT risks include: 1. Attackers using brute force or knowledge of default credentials to gain access to IoT devices or to the cloud infrastructure that stores IoT data.

2. Malware infiltrating high-end IoT devices, such as SmartTVs, that have full Android operating systems and access to app stores.

3. Malware infecting PCs and tablets that manage IoT devices, such as home security systems or cameras.

To reduce risks associated with IoT devices, consumers and businesses alike should investigate how the device is accessed and whether it stores sensitive data. They should

avoid installing unknown software and, whenever possible, configure strong passwords on devices.

Smart Cards to The Rescue Retail breaches overshadowed virtually every other attack vector in late 2013 and 2014.

A continuous parade of breach disclosures hit headlines and affected many of the worlds most well-known retail brands. The culprit behind these breaches: malware infections on point-of-sale (POS) devices. Using a variety of techniques, including brute force and compromising management or software update tools, hackers are able to install malware on POS systems. The malware scrapes credit card numbers and CVVs from system memory. The most advanced malware strains can actually capture data from interprocess communications, quickly zeroing in on payment card data.

While we predict that these attacks will continue, the migration to chip-and-pin smartcards towards the end of 2015 will make it harder for hackers to monetise the data stolen from POS systems. They won’t be able to use fake magnetic cards and will primarily be relegated to online payment fraud. What should organisations do to prevent POS-based breaches? They can protect POS systems from malware using white-listing, codesigning and behavioral techniques, harden systems against compromise by controlling who and what can access POS terminals, and monitor for infiltrations with advanced threat prevention platforms. And since malware can communicate to command and control servers over SSL and over normally harmless protocols like DNS, organisations should inspect all traffic, including encrypted traffic. l

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technology

Don’t Just Scratch the Surface When Securing Internal DNS. Data is the core of every business.

But as people and things get more connected, targeted attacks can put your data and infrastructure at risk.

Internal DNS Attacks Can Lead to Business Downtime Internal DDoS Attacks Flood the network with traffic to overwhelm the network or IT teams Can be launched by a malicious insider or an infected endpoint

DDoS attacks could cause losses of

$100K 66% revenue per hour.1

DNS cache poisoning attack brought down 66% of China’s DNS infrastructure, with millions of domains inaccessible.2

tent Threats (APTs) and Malware E xploit DNS Advanced Persis Malicious traffic is visible on

Every 10 min a known malware is being downloaded.4

100% of corporate networks.3

77%

of bots are active for more than 4 weeks.4

DNS Can Be Used to Smuggle Your Data DNS tunneling attacks let infected endpoints or malicious insiders

Attackers have recently used DNS tunneling in cases involving the theft of millions of accounts. 5

46%

of large businesses experienced 6

Millions Are at Stake That means: Downtime and lost revenue Damaged reputation Lost customers

Over

100M

records exposed of 20157

data breach likely to cost more than8

$100M

As advised by Infoblox Sources: 1. Neustar DDoS Attacks and Protection Report: North America, April 2015 2. DNS poisoning slams web traffic fffic from millions in China into the wrong hole, The Register, January 21, 2014 3. Cisco® 2014 Annual Security Report, January 2014 4. Check Point 2014 Security Report, May 2014 5. SANS Institute paper referencing Ed Skoudis as speaker at RSA A Conference, June 2012: http://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/dns/detecting-dns-tunneling-34152 6. DNS attacks putting organizations at risk, survey finds, SC Magazine, December 23, 2014 7. Identity Theft Resource Center 2015 Data Breach Stats, April 28, 2015 8. Anthem data breach cost likely to smash $100 million barrier, rr, ZDNet, February 12, 2015

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technology

Bimodal Organisation Requires Adaptive Sourcing Traditional enterprise sourcing procedures are proving unfit to deliver the level of agility, speed and innovation that a bimodal organisation needs. artner, Inc., said that a bimodal organisation needs to adopt an adaptive approach to sourcing, where the distinct needs of both modes of IT are recognised.

A bimodal organisation has two modes of IT. Mode 1 is traditional, emphasising safety and accuracy. Mode 2 is non-sequential, focusing on agility and speed. Both are necessary and must work in tandem.

"A truly bimodal approach to managing IT requires that sourcing reflects the different requirements of the two modes," said Ruby Jivan, research vice president at Gartner. "In a controlled and coherent fashion, this sourcing should deliver the industrialised low-cost solutions that support Mode 1, while enabling the more dynamic, exploratory and agile needs of Mode 2."

The new opportunities and threats of the digital economy are forcing organisations to focus on fast, flexible, collaborative innovation. CIOs need to improve their sourcing strategy to provide a sustainable boost to the IT agility of their organisation. While traditional sourcing can constrain improvements and innovation, adaptive sourcing can deliver greater agility benefits than the more homogenous traditional sourcing approaches.

By applying an adaptive sourcing approach (see Figure 1), CIOs can rationally apply different governance rules to IT services in each layer, regardless of the buying center requesting the services (e.g., IT, the chief marketing officer and the chief digital officer).

G

Adaptive sourcing uses a three-layer model to gain agility: Innovate Services are sourced on an ad hoc basis to address emerging business requirements or opportunities.

They typically entail a short life cycle and use departmental, external and consumer-grade technologies.

Differentiate Services that enable ongoing improvement of unique company processes and industry-specific capabilities. They have a medium life cycle (one

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Figure 1. Bimodal and Adaptive Sourcing Source: Gartner (May 2015)

to three years) and need frequent reconfiguring to accommodate changing business practices and customer requirements.

At this layer, continuous process improvement and reconfiguration are the major goals.

Run Established services that support the end-toend delivery of IT services, such as core transaction processing and critical master data management for corporate processes and the entire business. Typically, they constitute 50 percent to 70 percent of the IT budget and, being critical for business viability, they are subject to the highest controls in terms of security, compliance and financial and technical compatibility, for example.

Process efficiency is the primary focus at this layer, because the Run layer includes the operation and support of systems of record, innovation and differentiation (once the latter two enter production), the compliance requirements are very specific. There is, however, a need for modernisation of the production environment to prepare for the new digital technologies that will form the basis of the Innovate and Differentiate layers.

"Adaptive sourcing affects operating practices at many levels, so CIOs who anticipate the effects are more likely to succeed," said Jivan. "The success of adaptive sourcing rests on the agility of the sourcing and vendor management organisation to embrace robust management practices." l

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property

Diamond Developers Further Research into Sustainability

Real estate developer behind The Sustainable City to fund further research into sustainability with University California Davis.

iamond Developers the real estate organisation behind The Sustainable City - Dubai’s first world-class sustainable community project – is extending its relationship with the University California Davis (UC Davis), United States, in a collaborative venture that will fund academic and applied research on sustainable development.

To cement the new expansion to their relationship, which was first established with an MoU in February 2014, a senior delegation from Diamond Developers visited UC Davis May 12 - 14. A main item on the agenda was how the UC Davis could benefit from The Sustainable City’s Innovation Centre, a research institution that is being established to promote best practices in sustainability and how the Sustainable City could benefit from UC Davis’ world-class research and scholarship.

Included in the Diamond Developers’ group visiting UC Davis were Faris Saeed, Diamond Developers CEO and co-Founder and Wassim Adlouni, Diamond Developers

D

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Vice President and Board Member. Among the UC Davis representatives receiving the party were Linda Katehi, Chancellor UC Davis; Ralph Hexter, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor; David Lawlor, Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer, Distinguished Professor Suad Joseph and Professor Bryan Jenkins.

“This was an important visit that enabled us to discuss how Diamond Developers is going to work in cooperation with UC Davis to fund further research into sustainable development. In particular, it gave us the opportunity to showcase the facilities of The Sustainable City’s Innovation Centre, which will set new standards for research and education relating to the conservation of resources and the environment. We were delighted to be able to use the opportunity to plan such initiatives as possible future visits for UC Davis’ students to the Innovation Centre, the sharing of knowledge and the comparing of best practice,” said Faris Saeed, Diamond Developers CEO and co-Founder.

The collaboration between Diamond Developers and UC Davis extends further, including the development

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property

Faris Saeed

of a professional training program in sustainability with an online curriculum; and the development of sustainability performance indicators which will be relevant to arid climates, such as the UAE and California and other areas of research cooperation.

“The collaboration between UC Davis and Diamond Developers, especially around the twin Innovation Centers, promises to pioneer path-breaking research and train a new generation of scholars who will lead the UAE and the region towards the future of sustainable cities,” Distinguished Professor Suad Joseph observed.

The Sustainable City (TSC) is a practical implementation of social, economic and environmental (SEE) sustainability. Through stakeholder engagement, innovative design and future monitoring to sustain, the city embodies the true meaning of sustainable living. With 46 hectares, a population of 2,700 residents and located in Dubailand on Al Qudra Road, TSC is a 20 minute drive to both Al Maktoum International Airport and the Burj Al Arab Hotel.

TSC comprises of various land uses such as residential, commercial, educational, urban farming, leisure, healthcare and Innovation Center.

Diamond Developers’ excursion to UC Davis also evaluated the ongoing Sustainability Research and Training Programme (SRTP). The five research projects currently underway under the scheme are funded by Diamond Developers and carried out

by UC Davis and four leading Arab Universities; American University of Beirut, Lebanese American University, American University in Cairo and Birzeit University

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“We were delighted to be able to use the opportunity to plan such initiatives as possible future visits for UC Davis’ students to the Innovation Centre, the sharing of knowledge and the comparing of best practice” Faris Saeed, Diamond Developers CEO and co-Founder in Palestine. Project topics are related to sustainability and the built environment and include waste management, solar energy and water treatment. Proposals for new projects, currently under consideration focus on social sustainability topics.

Diamond Developers established The Sustainable City to be a world-class project underpinned by the three key elements of sustainability, economic, environmental and social. When complete, it will have a residential area comprising 500 townhouses and courtyard villas, an ‘Eco-resort’ of 143 bungalows and individual units and a luxury sustainable hotel with a natural spa centre.

Residents will enjoy a variety of sports and leisure facilities, such as a Community Centre and Equestrian Club, as well as biking and shaded jogging trails across the city. Natural ‘biodome’ greenhouses, an organic farm and individual garden farms will be in place for local food production. The city will produce much of its own electric power with onsite photovoltaic generation and will separate all waste water into grey and black water waste streams to be recycled and used for the landscape and urban farming. Convenient essential facilities will include clinics, banks

a ‘Green School’ and a mosque, while tourist attractions will feature a Planetarium and a grass Amphitheatre for the hosting of events. The Sustainable City’s Innovation Centre, which was under discussion at the Diamond Developers’ meeting with UC Davis, is expected to become a major knowledge resource and educational centre on sustainable practices.

UC Davis is a premier public institution of higher education located in California, USA. From its founding a century ago as a pioneer in agriculture, it is also dedicated to seeking solutions to some of the planet’s most pressing challenges. In 2012-13, UC Davis was awarded over $700M in research funding from agencies and foundations outside the university. It operates numerous specialized research centres. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and 99 undergraduate majors in four colleges and six professional schools. UC Davis’ commitment to the environment and sustainability is reflected in a number of national rankings. UC Davis has the number one ranked college of agriculture and environmental science in the world, and the number one ranked school of veterinary medicine in the world. UC Davis is one of the top green universities in the world. l

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business incubator

Health Hazards In The Summer

If you are a seasoned resident of Dubai, you will be aware of how fierce the summer heat and humidity is. If not… well, you are in for a shock! Regardless as to how long you have been in Dubai, it is down to the company to educate their staff as to how they should behave in the summer and this can mean the difference between life and death.

eat related deaths are preventable, yet every year people pass away because of heat. Historically, from 1979-2003, excessive heat exposure caused 8,015 deaths in the United States. During this period, more people died from extreme heat than from hurricanes, lightening, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes combined. In 2001 alone, 300 deaths were caused by excessive heat exposure.

H

Too Hot To Handle Heat related illness in people occurs when their bodies are unable to properly cool themselves. The normal process is that when the body is hot it cools itself by sweating. Sometimes however this doesn’t work and the person’s body temperature rapidly rises, which can lead to brain damage and/or damaged of other organs and/or a coma.

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In humid conditions, the body’s sweat does not evaporate quick enough to act as a cooling agent, which means in Dubai we have to take this very seriously. Other extenuating factors include age, obesity, fever, dehydration, heart disease, mental illness, poor circulation, sunburn, and prescription drug and alcohol use. Air-conditioning (AC) is the best protection you can have.

However everyone can succumb to heat if they do not take simple precautions. As company owners, it is down to you to ensure that you have trained your staff adequately to take the correct measures. By doing so, you will be able to keep productivity high and minimise the effects that heat related illness will have on your profits - as well as guaranteeing you are not taken to a Ministry of Labour Court in a costly court battle.

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business incubator

Heat stroke is a form of hyperthermia in which the body temperature is elevated dramatically. In sever cases it can cause permanent brain damage and even death Cooling the victim is a critical step in the treatment of heat stroke. Always notify emergency services immediately

A Safe And Healthy Summer In 2012, Dubai Municipality highlighted the risks due to concern over the growing number of individuals who died as a result of not taking precautions during the hot months. All you need to do is safeguard yourself and your workers by implementing the correct measures so that everyone is sensible in the heat; minimise the amount of heat you are all exposed to and stay out of the sun in the middle of the day. Whenever possible, work in the shade or in AC/cool areas, and have your staff take regular breaks. Stick to the shade as much as you can. Limit intense physical activity in high temperatures/ direct sun light.

So what are the effects of heat related illness?

There are five types of heat related illness that you should be aware of: zz Heat exhaustion (HE) zz Heat Stroke (HS) zz Heat Cramps (HC) zz Sunburn (SB) zz Prickly heat (PH) Heat Exhaustion (HE) HE occurs when a person is exposed to high temperatures for several days and becomes dehydrated. The most common signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion include: zz Confusion zz Excessive thirst zz Weakness zz Dark-colored urine (a sign of dehydration) zz Dizziness zz Fainting zz Fatigue zz Headache zz Muscle cramps zz Nausea and vomiting zz Pale skin zz Profuse sweating zz Rapid heartbeat

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Whilst this is not as serious as Heat Stroke (HS), it should not be taken as any less of a concern. Without recognising the symptoms and applying timely treatment, it can progress to HS, which can damage the brain and even cause death.

Treatment If you/your employees notice the symptoms, you have to make sure that the person concerned immediately gets out of the heat and takes a rest break in the shade or an AC building. Other treatments include: zz Drinking plenty of fluid (avoid caffeine and alcohol) zz Remove any tight or unnecessary clothing zz Dowse them in water zz Apply other cooling measures such as fans/ice towels After 30 minutes, if you fail to notice an improvement you should immediately contact a doctor for further advice so that it does not progress to HS. All managers need to be aware that a worker who has suffered from HE is likely to be sensitive to high temperatures the following 7 days and this should be taken into account to avoid a relapse.

Heat Stroke (HS) HS is a form of hyperthermia, an abnormally elevated body temperature with accompanying physical symptoms including changes in the nervous system

function. Often referred to as heatstroke or sunstroke, the term stroke is used as it refers to a decreased oxygen flow to an area of the brain.

Severe hyperthermia is defined as a body temperature of 104 F (40 C) or higher.

HS is a medical emergency that is often fatal if not properly and promptly treated.

All staff and managers should be trained to treat HS; for example Emirates Airlines build in extensive training for all staff during the onboarding process.

Symptoms HS symptoms can sometimes mimic those of heart attack. It is not unusual that they have previously displayed symptoms of HE previously. Also the symptoms may occur suddenly and develop rapidly. Signs and symptoms include: zz Nausea zz Vomiting zz Fatigue zz Weakness zz Headache zz Muscle cramps/aches zz Dizziness zz High body temperature zz The absence of sweating, with hot red or flushed dry skin zz Rapid pulse zz Difficulty breathing zz Strange behavior zz Hallucinations zz Confusion zz Agitation zz Disorientation zz Seizure, and/or zz Coma

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business incubator

Treatment If you notice any of these symptoms, guide the person concerned ideally to an AC building and immediately call an ambulance. Remove as much clothing as possible and try to cool them down by pouring water over them whilst you wait for the medics.

Heat Cramps (HC) Do you or members of your staff sweat a lot during strenuous activity? If so, you are at risk of heat cramps as sweating depletes the body’s salt and moisture, which in turn causes your muscles to cramp. HC are often a symptom of HE and therefore HS. Symptoms HC are muscle pains or spasms, usually in the abdomen, arms, or legs. They may occur in association with strenuous activity.

Treatment If medical attention is not necessary, take these steps: zz Stop: all activity, and sit quietly in a cool place zz Drink clear juice or a sports beverage zz Do not return to strenuous activity for a few hours after the cramps subside to ensure they do not develop HE or HS zz Seek medical attention if cramps do not subside in 1 hour Sunburn Sunburn should be avoided because it damages the skin and can cause cancer, which may be fatal later in life. Also serious sunburn may cause your staff to take time off of work, so advising them to use sunscreen at all times. Consider supplying it, or effective sun screening material in your workers clothes for those who work outdoors. There may be an initial outlay but you could save you money in the future through negating the affects of loss productivity.

Although the discomfort is usually minor and healing tends

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The most important measure to prevent heat strokes is to avoid becoming dehydrated

to occur in about a week, medical may be necessary if it is severe, but the symptoms are that the skin red, painful, and abnormally warm exposure.

attention generally becomes after sun

Treatment You may wish to consult a medical practitioner if your sunburn is accompanied by: zz Fever zz Fluid-filled blisters zz Severe pain zz Top tips when treating sunburn: zz Avoid repeated sun exposure zz Apply cold compresses or immerse the sunburned area in cool water zz Apply moisturising lotion to affected areas; do not use salve, butter, or ointment zz Do not break blisters Prickly Heat Heat rash is a skin irritation caused by excessive sweating during hot, humid weather and is the least concerning heat related medical condition. It looks like a red cluster of pimples or small blisters and tends to occur on the neck and upper chest, in the groin, under the breasts, and in elbow creases. Whilst this may not seem like much, it is uncomfortable and can lead employees to have a drop in production as their minds are on how they feel as opposed to the task in hand.

Treatment The most effective treatment is to retire to an AC building. Keep the affected area dry. Dusting powder may increase comfort.

Medical treatment is not normally required.

As a final safe guard for your company, have your employees sign a document that you can keep on their file. This should clearly state that you have provided training to your employees on how they should conduct themselves in the heat and those they fully understand what they need to do. This will be invaluable to you should something happen to one of your staff members, and can be presented in court to illustrate that you have done everything in your power as an employer to ensure that you staff take the correct measures for their personal safety. l

During Hot Weather To protect your employees’ health in high temperatures, train them to keep cool. This can be done as part of your induction process, and reminded to them annually. You can avoid heat related medical conditions by taking 13 simple steps: ll Clothing: Should be lightweight and loose ll Sunscreen: Apply a sunscreen with a minimum of an SPF of 30 ll Drink extra fluids: To prevent dehydration, it’s generally recommended to drink at least eight glasses of water, fruit juice, or vegetable juice per day. As heat-related illness can result from salt depletion, it may be advisable to substitute an electrolyte-rich sports drink for water ll Take precautions outdoors: During labour intense work, workers should consume another eight ounces of water every 20 minutes regardless as to how they feel ll Avoid: caffeine or alcohol ll Do not overexert yourself ll Use a Buddy System: each worker will have another to monitor them and react if necessary ll Avoid hot foods/heavy meals: they add heat to your body ll Limit sun exposure: especially during mid-day hours

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Air Miles Everywhere Launches for UAE Small Businesses SMEs can now join the region’s largest loyalty programme .

everywhere

“With limited marketing budgets we know that it can be difficult for SMEs to engage customers and keep them coming back, so Air Miles Everywhere offers an easy to implement solution for businesses that helps build and maintain customer loyalty by giving them the benefits they deserve” Paul Lacey, Managing Director, Aimia Middle East

for businesses that helps build and maintain customer loyalty by giving them the benefits they deserve.”

Lacey adds; “The launch of Air Miles Everywhere allows businesses and their customers to now enjoy the benefits of being part of the region’s most exciting loyalty programme.”

In today’s market, customers expect retailers to provide a loyalty programme as a value added service to their interactions with those companies.

Recent Aimia research shows that 71% of consumers in the UAE are high users of loyalty cards*. So much so that in fact, If you placed the 1.7 million issued Air Miles cards in the region side by side they would stretch from Dubai to Abu Dhabi (approximately 120km). Air Miles Everywhere offers added value to SMEs allowing them to replicate big-brand loyalty with the personal touch that small

businesses can offer. By becoming a part of the Air Miles Everywhere programme, companies can offer their customers the valued Air Miles currency that can be collected from over 120 partners including HSBC, Spinneys, Sharaf DG, and Zurich Insurance.

Mr. Cap, Europcar and Sensus International are among the first adopters of the Air Miles Everywhere programme in the UAE. Mr. Viacheslav Zatylkin, Managing Director of Mr. Cap commented that, “Air Miles Everywhere is a simple and adaptable solution for our employees and customers. Air Miles already has a strong and loyal customer following so the added value from using such a recognised loyalty currency allows us to effectively reward our customers and keep them happy.” l

Air Miles Everywhere, a new initiative created by global loyalty provider Aimia, is now open to small and medium size businesses in the UAE – a first-of-its kind opportunity within the region allowing businesses to benefit from being part of a coalition loyalty scheme with over a million members. Through a simple to use mobile app available on iOS and Android, SMEs can now issue Air Miles to customers or business partners, by simply scanning the Air Miles card and credit members’ accounts with Air Miles.

Paul Lacey, Managing Director, Aimia Middle East, explains, “With limited marketing budgets we know that it can be difficult for SMEs to engage customers and keep them coming back, so Air Miles Everywhere offers an easy to implement solution

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Ten Ways to Boost Innovation at Your Workplace By: Lama Ataya, CMO, Bayt.com

Savvy leaders shape the culture of their company to drive innovation. They know that it’s culture - the values, norms, unconscious messages, and subtle behaviors of managers and employees - that may limit performance. These invisible forces are often responsible for the failure of organisational change efforts. The trick? Design the interplay between the company’s explicit strategies and the ways people actually relate to one another and to the organisation.

hat is innovation? What is creativity? What is the difference between innovation and creativity? But most importantly, which is more important to your organisation?

When it comes to innovation versus creativity, opinions diverge. One of the definitions out there relates to the practicality of these terms. Some say that creativity refers to the ability to come up with new ideas or new ways to approach old problems, whereas innovation is the ability to confine these creative ideas and make them turn into reality.

In other words, creative ideas are thought experiments within one person’s mind. Innovation, on the other hand, is concerned with the actual implementation of an idea.

An organisation can use innovation to convert its creative

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resources into appropriate solutions and reap a return on its investment.

Because people are often unclear about the exact meanings of these two terms, organisations often chase creativity when they really need to pursue is innovation. In 2014, Bayt.com conducted a poll to measure the extent to which organisations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are perceived to be innovative. This poll, entitled ‘Innovation in the MENA Workplace’, revealed some very interesting insights into the world of innovation in the MENA region. For example, 83 percent of respondents claim their organisations have long-term innovation strategies; 85 percent state that they enjoy enough slack time at work to explore new ideas.

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Lama Ataya heads the marketing department at Bayt.com and within that role is also responsible for content, community experience, CSR, and corporate communications.

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An organisation can use innovation to convert its creative resources into appropriate solutions and reap a return on its investment 4.

Organisations need innovation on all fronts - not just in new products, services, or technologies.

Unfortunately, many managers don’t innovate because they don’t think it’s their job to do so. We say that innovation is everyone’s job. Great organisations don’t depend on a small number of exclusive people to come up with innovations. Instead, they create a culture in which every employee is encouraged and empowered to innovate. Innovation leads not only to new customer offerings, but also to better margins, stickier customer relationships, and stronger partnerships with other firms. In fact, 62 percent of respondents in the Bayt.com ‘Innovation in the MENA Workplace’ poll say that innovation has led to improved financial performance for their company.

In light of the above, here are 10 ways to encourage innovation at your workplace: 1. Give employees a reason to care: The fact is, if people aren’t feeling connected to your company, there’s little incentive

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for them to be innovative. Make sure your employees are in the loop on your firm’s strategies and challenges, and invite their input. Employees who are involved early on in processes and plans will be motivated to see them through to completion.

Stress the importance of innovation: Ensure all your employees know that you want to hear their ideas. Unless they understand how innovating your business processes can keep your firm competitive, your efforts at encouraging creative thinking risk falling flat.

Schedule time for brainstorming: Allocate time for new ideas to emerge. For example, set aside time for brainstorming, hold regular group workshops, and arrange team days out. A team involved in a brainstorming session is likely to be more effective than the sum of its parts. You can also place suggestion boxes around the workplace, appeal for new ideas to solve particular problems, and always keep your door open to suggestions and new ideas.

Train staff in innovation techniques: Your staff may be able to bounce an idea around, but be unfamiliar with the skills involved in creative problem solving.

You may find training sessions in formal techniques, such as lateral thinking and mind mapping, worthwhile.

Encourage change: Broadening people’s experiences can be a great way to spark ideas. Short-term job swaps can introduce a fresh perspective to job roles. Encourage people to look at how other businesses do things, even those in other sectors, and consider how they can be adapted or improved. According to the Bayt.com ‘Innovation in the MENA Workplace’ poll, 69 percent of respondents state that their companies keep up-to-date with other organisations in their field and adopt best practices.

Challenge the way staff work: Encourage employees to keep looking anew at the way they approach their work. Ask people whether they have considered alternative ways of working and what might be achieved by doing things differently. 78% of respondents in the Bayt.com ‘Innovation in the MENA Workplace’ poll say that new ideas in their organisation are encouraged and tried out.

A company as they say, is only as good as the company it keeps 7.

Be supportive: A company as they say, is only as good as the company it keeps. That’s precisely why supporting your staff - all the way from the top managers to the greenest new hires - should be a business leader’s top priority. Keeping communication lines open and aligning your employees’ vision with your own are all crucial to your company’s success. Respond enthusiastically to all ideas and never make someone offering an idea feel foolish. Give even the most apparently eccentric of ideas a chance to be aired.

8. Tolerate mistakes: A certain amount of risk taking is inevitable with innovation. ‘Failure-tolerant’ leaders embrace mistakes that result from ‘intelligent risk taking’ and, thus, foster corporate cultures that are verdant for innovation. Allow people to make mistakes and learn from them. Never put off the creative flow by penalising those whose ideas don’t work out.

9. Reward creativity: Be among the 44% of companies in the Bayt.com ‘Innovation in the MENA Workplace’ poll that reward their employees’ creativity.

You could motivate individuals or teams who come up with innovative ideas through an awards scheme, for example, or a points system that rewards the ones who bring forth the best ideas.

10. Act on ideas: Remember, innovation is only worthwhile if it results in action.

Provide the time and resources to develop and implement those ideas worth acting upon. Failure to do so not only means your firm will fail to benefit from innovation, but flow of ideas may well dry up if employees feel the process is pointless. l About Bayt.com: Bayt.com is the #1 job site in the Middle East with more than 40,000 employers and over 20,250,000 registered job seekers from across the Middle East, North Africa and the globe, representing all industries, nationalities and career levels. Post a job or find jobs on www.bayt.com today and access the leading resource for job seekers and employers in the region.

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Fit For Business

Liam Mooney is a businessman and social entrepreneur living in Dubai. He founded the global sports business community, Club Fit For Business in 2013 and is also the founder and Managing Director of Blue Pencil, a legal executive search company with offices in London, Dubai and Bangkok.

efore making a move into business, Mooney played professional rugby for London Irish, Exeter Chiefs and Bristol and also represented Ireland A and the Barbarians, whilst qualifying as a solicitor. Liam is a strong advocate in the promotion of sport and sporting values and is believes the positive aspects from sport can help foster important life skills within the individual, team or business.

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Please tell us about Club Fit For Business?

Club Fit For Business is an award winning not for profit global sports business community. We are committed to building a better working world by empowering talent through the inspiration of sport and business. By using the message of sport, Club Fit For Business engages with the business community to show that sport can be used to improve current management and leadership skills.

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Sport has the power to help develop the potential of individuals, communities and nations and can even bring about positive social change. We strongly believe it is a fundamental right for every child to have the chance to participate in sport from an early age and help equip these kids with lifelong skills. Finally, sport is great way for bringing businesses together for networking, events, etc. and we actively encourage members, who have a common passion for sport to share connections, information, and knowledge and ultimately do business together.

Since our inception, we’ve now run events in London, Dubai and Monaco … with others planned in the near future.

We have a large reach on social media; for example, we now have over 20,000 subscribers to the community and over 18,000 followers of our Twitter page. It’s interesting to note that over 20 percent of our followers on social media are in the United States and 7 percent in China, countries where we had never held an event, although we do have plans to launch in San Francisco soon.

Although, Club Fit For Business was only formed in May 2013, it has gained considerable interest from the global sports business community. We have been in discussions with a number of partners to develop and roll out several programs over the coming year, including initiatives to help disadvantaged youth and children in some of the poorest parts of the world.

Why did you set it up?

Well to put it simply, I believe sport gave me a massive opportunity and start in life. It was fundamental to my education and character. My sport was rugby and if I hadn’t have got into it; I really don’t know where I would be now! It gave me huge opportunities in education and business.

I have met some truly amazing people, some of whom have now become great friends. I really feel honoured to have met so many fantastic people and feel obliged to put something back into the sports community, that helped me so much and in the best way I know how, which is business.

When you are playing professional sport, you don’t realise how much it benefits you, as your head is buried in trying to win and achieve. It is only after I had retired, some 10 years later, do I look back and say wow; every child should be given the opportunity to play sport, as it does build character. Also as a

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“Sport has the power to help develop the potential of individuals, communities and nations and can even bring about positive social change”

Liam Mooney

“When you are playing professional sport, you don’t realise how much it benefits you, as your head is buried in trying to win and achieve”

businessman, I believe that business can learn so much from sport and I am currently seeking to engage with the business community to help retiring athletes get back on the career ladder.

I also believe companies and businesses have a responsibility to the community and should actively engage in promoting sport and making sure that all children within that community have the opportunity to participate. Overall we are looking to improve the health and economic vitality of our local communities.

What is next for Club Fit For Business?

As mentioned we have a number of exciting projects which we will be announcing shortly. One of our aims is to help children with chronic illnesses such as type 1 diabetes, build up their confidence through sport.

Surprisingly, the mortality rates of male youngsters with type 1 diabetes is significantly higher in the UK, than anywhere in the western world. One of the reasons is that the youngsters are embarrassed to seek treatment.

We are therefore looking to engage with some fantastic role models for these youngsters, who play sport at international level and who also have type 1.

Other plans to be implemented in the coming year will be the introduction of accolades and awards for people who have achieved in both sport and business. We will be offering a form of certification for business people, who adopt the best practices of sport in business as well as building a network of business mentors willing to help retiring athletes.

Finally we are looking for volunteers to run events in their locations and of course to spread the message. l

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In the UK, you are advised to use the ABCDE rule. This helps you identify a melanoma

Skin Cancer Symptoms & Signs

Being in a desert country where the summers are unbearable at times and people rarely leave the cool confines of buildings if they don’t have to, we all know that we should keep ourselves cool, rehydrated and covered up. Even in the winter, when we can venture out, we know we should slaver UVA and UVB protection onto ourselves.

But how many of us actually do this on a daily basis? Who can honestly say we take all necessary precautions to stop getting skin cancer? adly, I am not someone who can. I do not put cream on each and every day on whatever part of me is not covered up. Therefore I know I am at risk of catching one of the most deadly killers on the planet.

This is also why I actively take note of changes in my skin, as early detection is the difference between life and death.

The most notable changes are in the moles dark patches on your skin. It is not unusual to have some moles or dark patches. These may even be accompanied with a slight bump, or they may be flat which ordinarily will not change. If they don’t great; this is normal, but it is the moles or patches of normal skin that change in size, shape or colour that you should seek medical advice about.

The ABCDE Rule zz Asymmetry: The two halves of your mole do not look the same zz Border: The edges of your mole are irregular, blurred or jagged zz Colour: The colour of your mole is uneven, with more than one shade zz Diameter: Your mole is wider than 6mm in diameter (the size of a pencil eraser) zz Elevation: Elevation means the mole is raised above the surface and has an uneven surface

When To Worry Start paying attention to your skin and start to understand it. In the UK, you are advised to use the ABCDE rule. This helps you identify a melanoma. A melanoma is the term for a tumor, for which there are varying degrees of severity.

What To Do If you have any worries at all, head straight to your GP. If you have a mole, freckle or anything else that appears quickly, it is best to get it checked out. The sooner you get it seen to, the easier and less invasive the treatment. As with all cancers, early intervention is key and can be the difference between life and death. l

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Other signs of skin cancer zz A new growth or sore that won’t heal zz A spot, mole or sore that itches or hurts zz A mole or growth that bleeds, crusts or scabs

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