Business Insight May 2015

In partnership with

May 2015

bator Business InBcu e A Millionaire?

Who Wants To

People

ISSUE

14

Handwriting Says What Someone’s About Them

urism Travel and To the es gi Redefining Smart Technolo ndscape Local Tourism La

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Google‌ Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly DIFC Wills And Probate Registry Is PR Worth The Investment?

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Editor’s Foreword

A

nother day, another dollar… And with summer just around the corner, it is full steam ahead whilst we try to ensure that we have covered everything before the annual slowdown in business arrives.

In light of this, being able to “Anticipate What Your Customers Want” is critical. It will enable your business to capitalise now, whilst also preparing their business plans for the last half of the year. On Page 18, we give you an insight on what other businesses do so they can optimise their customer satisfaction and ensure that they have the right products at the right time.

What about the changes that Google have made? Are you one of the thousands of businesses that have been hit by this, and have you found yourself several pages back in the search rankings when you used to be on the first page? If so, Grant King’s article on page 16 is one for you.

Did you know that out of the world’s 80 wealthiest people, only 11 of them inherited their money? The others are all self made. With time on the horizon in the hotter months, you should be able to plan what is next for your business so that you can move up the ladder towards the elite. Maybe we should also be taking tips from the top. What is it that has made these people so successful? On page 72 we have reviewed the wealthiest people globally to ascertain exactly, “What Millionaires Do That We Don’t.”

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 circulation & Production Circulation and Distribution Manager Antonio de Marco circulationdm@flipflopmedia.ae

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

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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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May 2015 Cover Running A Family Business *DIFC Wills And Probate Registry *Is PR Worth The Investment?

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May 2015 | 3

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54 14 µaY 2015

24

Contents Foresight Page 16 – Google: v Is Your Mobile Website Friendly Page 18 – Anticipating What Your Customers Want Page 22 - Oil Price Scenarios

40 50

Success Series Page 24 – Interview: Rabea Ataya, Founder and CEO Bayt.com Page 28 – Interview: Craig Moore, Founder and CEO, Beehive

Money Page 32 – Reading Financial Statements

People Page 36 – What Someone’s Handwriting Says About Them

Legal Page 40 –DIFC Wills and Probate Registry

Marketing & Advertising

Technology Page 54 – Going To The Office? BYO Apple Watch Page 56 – Close the IT Relevance Gap By Transforming The Old IP To The New IP Page 58 – Smart Technologies Reshaping Regional Tourism Landscape Page 60 – Mobile Apps Are The New face Of Businesses Finds Oracle Page 62 – Redefining Mobile Data Management Page 64 – Is SSL Hurting More Than Helping Middle East Organisations?

Property Page 66 – Shifting Landscape Puts Northern Emirates Under Spotlight

Travel & Hospital Page 69 – RAK Hospitality Holding Concludes AED880 Mn Debt Transaction

Business Incubator Page 70 – How To Give a Ted-style Talk Page 72 – Who Wants To Be Millionaire?

Page 74 – Ways To Ruin Your Credibility

Page 44 – Tips To Building A Strong Brand Page 46 – Is PR Worth The Investment?

DMCC Section

62 12 | May

2015

Page 50 – Panel Debates And Sparkling Soirees Key To The Success Of Dubai

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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

14 | May

2015

Muhammed Mekki Founding Partner Astro Labs

Nita Maru Managing Partner TWS Legal Consultants

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foresight

GOOGLE… Is your website mobilefriendly?

By Grant King, Digital Marketing Director, IHC Dubai

Some online marketers have referred to this month as “Google Meltdown” for many website owners. This may be a slight over-reaction, but it is certainly one of the single largest changes Google has made in recent years to its Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) algorithmic requirements

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f your website does not meet Google’s new search engine criteria introduced this month, you’ll risk your website moving down the search engine results ranking pages, and may end up unread on page 50! For many businesses relying on Google as their principle sales or lead generator, this is an important change that cannot be ignored and could spell disaster if not correctly addressed.

I

D-day For Your Website…

Google set 21 April 2015 as the deadline for websites to ensure they are mobilefriendly. Google has stated that its systems will prioritise search engine results for mobile-friendly websites from this day, and those that do not meet the requirements risk being penalised with downgraded rankings.

Consequently, thousands of UAE businesses

could have their websites gradually bumped down Google’s search rankings if they have not met the mobile-friendly requirements from this month.

Why? Last year, the number of mobile device users accessing the web surpassed PC and laptop users for the first time in history, and the amount of users using mobile devices to access the web can now be as high as 80 percent.

Increasingly, people prefer visiting websites through mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, instead of laptops and computers since it is accessible at any time as they are so portable. Mobile-enabled websites tend to be preferred by most users since they are fast and easy to use from a mobile device, with larger navigation buttons and automatically re-sized text and content.

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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

What Does Google Have To Say? In a recent survey released by Google, two-thirds of smartphone users said a mobile-friendly site makes them more likely to buy a company’s product or service, and 74% say they’re more likely to return to the site later. “Mobile is creating massive opportunity,” says Jason Spero, head of Google’s global mobile sales and strategy.

61% said that if they don’t find what they’re looking for (probably within about five seconds), they click away to another site. Half said that even if they like a business, they use its site less often if it doesn’t work well on their smartphone. “This is a wakeup call,” says Spero. “You will lose customers at the moments that matter,” without a site specifically made for mobile devices.

Circa 50 Percent Of Company Websites Are Not Mobile-Friendly If your website is not currently mobile-friendly, you are not alone. A recent Roi.com.au analysis shows 51.5 percent of ASX 200-listed companies, including Domino’s Pizza, CocaCola Amatil and BHP Billiton, do not have mobile-friendly sites and consequently, will fall in Google search rankings. Many of these

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If your website does not meet Google’s new search engine criteria introduced this month, you’ll risk your website moving down the search engine results ranking pages, and may end up unread on page 50! companies are now updating their websites, buts it goes to show you how unprepared the business community is to this change.

Easily Solved…

The key is to act quickly, check your website is mobile compliant now, and if not, contact your webmaster or digital marketing expert to make the necessary arrangements.

This is often a simple matter of clicking an “Mobile-enable” button on your website

content management system (CMS), or adding a mobile module to your existing website, and then following up with some further corrective SEO actions.

The Need To Act Quickly So the moral of the story is to take corrective action now to ensure mobilefriendly compliance to avoid the risk of your website being bumped down Google’s search engine rankings. l

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foresight

Anticipating What Your Customers Want Anticipating exactly what it is that your customers want is vital in business today. Not only will it lead to repeat business, but being one step ahead will ensure your survival, as getting to your customers first means they will stay loyal to you; so how can you ensure you meet your customers needs?

Having a written policy and procedure that all staff can follow is equally important.

Your staff should know just how important customer satisfaction is; and that it is a directive from the top down” Rachel Conde Sales Force Effectiveness Leader, GE Capital UK

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ou can note things like the desires of an individual customer.

On the Dior concessions department in Debenhams in one of the UK branches, the assistant would note your personal purchases so that husbands, partners and family get the right presents whenever they wanted, but there are also more fundamental steps to take.

Customer service is an integral part of our business. They are your most vital assets as without them, your business would not survive.

When you satisfy your customers, they not only help us grow but they recommend you, so you immediately gain loyal customers who already have the trust element.

When you’re a start-up with few employees and few customers, it’s easy to

Y

stay on top of what customers want and what they’re getting. However, as you add more customers and employees, you add links to the customer service chain, which not only creates the potential for growth but also the potential for poor service. That’s why creating a customer service policy and adhering to it is so important. In order to do this there are a few points that you need to consider.

Be The Customer Ask yourself what the experience is like for the customer. Their needs might be unusual, recurring, or even just basic. If working on a retail sale, or business pitch, the anticipation of a customer’s needs is to ensure you not only ask the right questions, but also to take note of all unspoken language; by this we mean,

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foresight

the body language and facial cues.

Always ask for market feedback.

You may believe that your service is the best, but your clients will be happy to tell you honestly if this is not the case.

Also, ensure you ask yourself if you have you taken time to try out or play with your products or services? What things did you discover about them that you would like to be helped with as a customer? Think about your own customer experience in general.

How do you like to be treated and helped when getting service?

Do not forget though, that your casual ‘bronze’ customers will have a different set of requirements to those of your ‘gold’ clients, so consider this; for example, your gold clients may be price orientated wanting to build a long term relationship with you, whereas your bronze may only need you to fill a gap in their supply chain.

Listen To The Actual Request Of Your Customers This is the easiest way of understanding exactly what your customers are wanting. If an unusual request is asked for often and your establishment is able to accommodate this customer, expect them to be your best advertisement ever.

The Supermarket Spinneys in Jebel Ali Village has recently opened.

Due to not knowing their client base, they were asking customers to advise them if there was anything that they didn’t stock which they should do. Within a couple of months of their opening, they had catered perfectly to their clientele.

Be Accommodating Always make yourself look like you are going above and beyond the call of duty for your client. Do not allow them to see your reluctance or laziness. How many times have you walked from a shop counter when you were ready to part with your money, just because the person behind it wouldn’t finish their conversation on the phone, or

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even acknowledge you were stood there?

Find polite and reassuring ways to let the customer know how you can achieve their request or give reasons on why you can’t.

Policy And Procedure “Having a written policy and procedure that all staff can follow is equally important. Your staff should know just how important customer satisfaction is; and that it is a directive from the top down,” says Rachel Conde, Sales Force Effectiveness Leader, GE Capital UK. She continues, “You are in business to service customer needs. This should not be forgotten by anyone. It certainly helps if you know what it is your customers want.

Customers are not always right however they do appreciate honesty. Honesty is vital to good customer service. It is also important to remember that customers naturally seek out places where they feel comfortable asking questions.”

Top Tips for Customer Service Be a good listener: Identify customer needs by asking questions and concentrating on what the customer is

really saying. Isn’t it nice when someone at the end of the phone recognises you?

By listening to your client, you can get to know and understand them. By knowing and understanding the customer, you can build a relationship. It is this relationship that makes a customer return. Beware of making assumptions and thinking you intuitively knows what the customer wants. Ask yourself; do you know what three things are most important to your customer? Effective listening and undivided attention are important, as you need to know this answer.

Identify and anticipate needs: Customers don’t buy products or services. They buy good feelings and solutions to problems.

Some customers needs can be emotional rather than logical, so do not fail to pick up on this – You could lose out on business otherwise. The more you know your clients, the better you become at anticipating their needs. Communicate regularly so that you are aware of problems or upcoming needs.

Make customers feel important and appreciated: Treat them as individuals.

Always use their name and find ways to

Treat your employees with respect and chances are they will have a higher regard for customers

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foresight

If working on a retail sale, or business pitch, the anticipation of a customer’s needs is to ensure you not only ask the right questions, but also to take note of all unspoken language; by this we mean, the body language and facial cues

compliment them, but be sincere.

People value sincerity.

Thank them every time you get a chance.

Your words and actions should be congruent.

Help customers understand your systems: “You may have the world’s best systems for getting things done, but if customers don’t understand them, they can get confused, impatient and angry,” explains Conde. Take time to explain how your systems work and how they simplify transactions.

People like to hear “Yes”: Always look for ways to help your customers.

When they have a reasonable request but you don’t know if you can do it, say so, but advise that you will try to find the solution, as Mary Smalley posted on a Facebook forum, “I am surprised, I needed a transaction to take place, which I doubted the

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bank would be able to do as I wasn’t processing it on line or in person. The person on the phone didn’t say no outright though. He said he would see if he could help me and would call me back. He did call back, apologising he couldn’t help, but he also gave me the names of people to ask for in my local branch, whom he had briefed.”

Mary went on to name the bank in question. Her post received lots of ‘likes’ from readers - Great, free PR for the bank. And all because the Customer Services attendant went above and beyond their call of duty.

Engage In Dialogue: Encourage and welcome suggestions about how you could improve. There are several ways in which you can find out what customers think and feel about your services. By listening carefully to what they say, check back regularly to see how things are going, and

providing a method that invites constructive criticism, comments and suggestions you will be able to pre-empt any issue as it arises.

When something goes wrong, apologise.

It’s easy and customers like it when it is accompanied by how you plan to rectify the situation. If your client is complaining about something just for the sake of complaining, then explain the reasons behind a decision.

Don’t be concerned about complaints though, it is an opportunity to make improve.

Make it simple for customers to complain.

As much as you may dislike hearing it, you will understand the action to take to make things better. However, penalising the staff will not help in this quest. You should view this as the chance to give on the spot training.

Be a surprise: As the only way a business can survive is to keep customers happy, think of ways to ‘out-do’ the competition. Consider things like, what can you give customers that they cannot get elsewhere? What can you do to follow-up and thank people even nothing was purchased? And finally, what can you give customers that they wouldn’t unexpected?

Treat employees well: Treat your employees with respect and chances are they will have a higher regard for customers.

Most importantly, your customer service policy should be in writing: These principles should come from you, but every employee should know the rules are and live by them.

Something as simple as “Be honest with the customers” can suffice, although you may want to get more detailed to cover yourselves.

Finally, don’t forget to smile – and ask your staff to do the same. Smiling shows that you are approachable; even if you are not face to face with your customer, ensure both yourself and all staff get into the habit of smiling, including when on the phone. Try it, you can ‘hear a smile’ as it naturally changes the tone of your voice, getting people to engage with you on an emotional level.

By implementing all of these points you will be able to actively anticipate what your customers want and get ahead of the competition. l

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foresight

Oil Price Scenarios

By: Andy Gibbins, Vice President MENA, Euro Petroleum Consultants

As we know, the energy business is fundamentally important to all of the GCC countries, as revenues from this sector make up a very important part of GDP for all GCC countries. Given the recent significant drop in crude oil price and the impact that it has had on local companies, the future direction and possible recovery of oil price is very much the subject of discussion in all companies involved in the oil, gas and petrochemicals sectors

The consensus or more optimistic view is that prices will recover steadily, reaching perhaps as high as US$80/bbl by the end of this year and returning to over US$100/ bbl in two or three years

e are already seeing a significant impact. The major companies are reducing discretionary expenditure and are looking very closely at the financial viability of future capital projects. This is a natural reaction; given the impact that crude price has on the profitability of energy companies in this region. Even non-oil sectors such as solar are impacted, as the comparative economics shift due to the fall in oil and gas prices, impacting power generation costs.

So given the profound affect on the GCC and its producer companies, it was most interesting to hear the differing views from our speakers at recent Euro Petroleum Consultants industry gatherings. As expected, when you have several people speaking on the same subject, you hear several different points-of-view.

The pessimistic scenario is driven by the gap between supply and demand. The hypothesis is that crude oil and gas supply will continue to grow, due to new finds and technological advances in areas such

W

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2015

as unconventionals, which result in lower production costs. Meanwhile demand will slow due to moves away from oil to natural gas, fuel efficiency measures in cars, the impact of demographics and a change in the Chinese economic model, which will result in a slowdown of demand growth in the region.

So as the world essentially enters a period of deflation, demand remains fairly static.

This in turn means that the investment community is unlikely to return to oil as a good commodity for investment and the price remains static or falls even further, until the supply demand equation balances.

The consensus or more optimistic view is that prices will recover steadily, reaching perhaps as high as US$80/bbl. by the end of this year and returning to over US$100/bbl. in two or three years. The demand would continue to rise globally, based on the projections we can find in many references and supply would be constrained due to reduced investment levels and hence a rapid closing of the supply/ demand gap.

There was one alternative and interesting viewpoint on supply. A speaker shared his viewpoint that Shale is a poor reservoir, for both oil and gas and that shale should only be exploited when nothing else is left. The speaker postulated that there are limits to the shale revolution in the USA, which will be demonstrated in the coming years and there will be limited shale oil and gas production outside of North America in 2015-2030. This would also lead to a quick shift in the supply/ demand gap, which would encourage investors to return to the market, driving up the price.

So what does this tell us? For sure, different experts have different points-of-view.

Of course they do, that’s how they remain in business. As for exactly what will happen, who can predict? If we had that clarity of insight, we’d be making millions as investors.

The one thing that is sure is that we need to look at different but plausible scenarios when assessing future plans. By doing this, we’ll be far better prepared for whatever the future might throw at us. l

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Š 2014 EYGM Limited. All Rights Reserved.

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The views set out in this publication are not necessarily the views of the Ernst & Young global organization or its member firms.

success

Success Series Interview:

Rabea Ataya

Founder and CEO, Bayt.com A seasoned entrepreneur, Rabea Ataya, founder and CEO of Bayt.com is not shy of hard work and capitalising on gaps in the market, “At age 25 I was fortunate enough to found and operate a fast growth business - InfoFort - that was building a regional footprint. The business was a wonderful one with a predictable revenue stream, an impressive roster of clients, and a limited set of variables to manage et, at InfoFort I also faced multiple challenges. The first of these challenges was locating great talent. I was entirely dependent on three sources.

Local newspapers produced a small number of applicants of generally sub-par quality. Recruiting agencies did not understand my business, its work culture or the type of candidate that would suit it. Word of mouth was slow and limited its exposure. This was particularly frustrating as I realised that across the region there was phenomenal talent that was either unemployed, underemployed, or unhappily employed who also complained about their inability to find opportunity,” which clearly led him to Bayt.com, the region’s largest online recruitment website.

“Y

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What else did InfoFort teach you?

A second challenge was a very personal one. While the business was a successful one as measured by typical business metrics, it did not fulfill my need to build an enterprise that had a social mandate. I felt strongly that a business should be able to enrich both the community it is in as well as its traditional stakeholders (i.e. its employees, customers, shareholders).

My dream was to build a Middle Eastern institution that truly empowered people to lead better lives and in doing so became globally admired and respected.

The combination of these 2 challenges and the fact that I had a technical education at Stanford (BS Electrical Engineering, MS Engineering Economic Systems) and an insight into institutionalised entrepreneurship (my first

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success

I attribute Bayt.com’s success first to investing a lot of time and effort on cementing our values as an organisation, and then applying these values to every facet of life and work at Bayt.com�

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May 2015 | 25

success

job was in investment banking helping entrepreneurs take their companies public), prepared me to pursue an entrepreneurial path in a technical field that was socially responsible.

When the Internet arrived in the region, all the elements were in place and I embarked on the Bayt.com journey.

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

Challenge: The nascence of the Internet in the region - We were trying to offer a service online when less than 1% of the population was online. The service was an important one but at the start the audience was very limited.

Solution: Patience is a virtue any where in the world. In the Middle East it is an essential part of survival. We had to pace our investment to ensure the fact that we spend as much as the market would absorb.

Challenge: The complexity of the Legal Environment - Setting up a regional Internet business in a region where the Internet was brand new meant that the laws still did not adequately know how to deal with our type of company.

Registering Bayt.com across the Middle East was therefore a very complex process.

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‘You owe it to yourself to be happy!’ I was told this quote by a friend in university and it has stuck with me and been an important part of my life philosophy” Solution: Often times the credo “ask for forgiveness not permission” was necessary particularly when there was so little clarity.

Challenge: The shortage of funding for Internet startups - When we launched in November 2000, the Internet bubble had already collapsed globally and stock markets had lost trillions of dollars as a result.

People around the world were very wary of the industry. Add to the Internet funding challenges, the political, economic, and legal risks that Middle Eastern companies generally face and the funding of Bayt.com looked like it would be near impossible Solution: We had to first self-fund. Then we had to be reasonable about the 3rd party amounts we wanted to fund-raise and knocked on hundreds of doors all around the world until we found a willing and able investor.

Challenge: The shortage of Internet specific talent - Given the Internet was just starting up in the Middle East and was relatively new globally, finding people with relevant industry experience was close to impossible.

Solution: Our solutions included recruiting globally for the best and training locally to ensure sustainability.

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

I attribute Bayt.com’s success first to investing a lot of time and effort on cementing our values as an organisation, and then applying these values to every facet of life and work at Bayt.com. We believe in having a corporate framework that revolves around values instead of rules. We apply our mission, vision and values in every aspect of company culture. We always look for a cultural fit, and we assess all candidates against our values first and foremost.

Persistence also plays an important role.

Over the years we have faced what at times felt like insurmountable challenges from political and social tumult (forcing our offices to be shut down for short periods of time), to acts of terrorism (directed at the compounds in which our employees lived), to funding shortages, to

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success

governmental intervention.

Our commitment to the region and our social mission meant that we never considered giving up.

You work in a people business.

Why are people important to business and what do you do to ensure that you have the right people for the right positions?

The right Bayt.com people are the most important part of Bayt.com.

We spend a huge amount of time, effort, and passion in hiring good people who are selected for displaying Bayt.com values and who perform their inputs and outputs to the best of their ability. We place more importance on ethics and positive value contribution than we do on productivity. All our managers are also involved in leading and delivering orientation training for all direct reports, and we have a department that produces, reviews, and optimises training material.

Our work culture has won us numerous awards in the past few years, and this is something we’re really proud of. We recently got lauded as one of the “Top 10 Best Small and Medium Workplaces in Asia” and that was such a huge honor.

Our efforts have paid off, and we’re so proud of being a Middle East institution focused on being admired and respected that just received a truly global accolade, reflecting what the Middle East is capable of from a talent and corporate perspective.

What is next for Bayt.com?

Bayt.com continues to expand its product and service offering, its business lines, its mediums of delivery and its geographic footprint.

The general public often does not know how much Bayt.com does.

Check out Talentera.com, YallaMotor. com, our new Mobile app, or our new recruiting activity in Egypt and you will get a tiny flavor of the amount of projects that we are running at any moment in time.

With questions over the global economy, how does this affect strategy?

We have survived and prospered in crazy times in the Middle East

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Our work culture has won us numerous awards in the past few years, and this is something we’re really proud of” over the past 15 years. The global and local volatility have forced us to take an aggressive view of expansion and a conservative view of cash management. Business planning and long-term vision has been essential to ensuring that we have continued to grow even in the most difficult times.

In business, whom do you most admire?

The list is long but is generally centered on those who beat the odds delivering new products and services in difficult markets. I also very much admire those who achieved this while maintaining their ethical values.

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

“You owe it to yourself to be happy!” I was told this quote by a friend in university and

it has stuck with me and been an important part of my life philosophy. Business, and by extension work, are important part of our lives.

Striving for happiness in our professional lives is often neglected but is as important as doing so in all other aspects of our lives. At Bayt we strive for a happy work environment that in turn generates productivity and helps focus us on delivering happiness to others.

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

Profit is a bi-product of doing good.

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

There is no single piece of advice. Surround yourself with great people and you will get a lot of helpful learning. l

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success

Success Series Interview:

Craig Moore

Founder and CEO of Beehive Late last year, Beehive made huge splash in the sea of banking and finance within the UAE, when they emerged as an alternative route to securing financing for SME businesses. But who is behind the brand that everyone is talking about? raig Moore is the founder and CEO of Beehive, but previously also the Founder and COO of Butterfly Software, a business he set up in the UK which he sold for an undisclosed fee to IBM. He rather modestly puts all of his success down to timing, “Success is often defined by timing. Getting the timing right on bringing an idea to market can really make the difference between a good idea and a huge success. Having first mover advantage is advantageous in any market but the market itself and the potential consumers have to be ready to embrace the opportunity.”

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Why did you choose Dubai to launch Beehive?

I’ve been a regular visitor to Dubai for many years and I became aware that SMEs in this region experience the same challenges as those in the UK. SMEs are critical to the growth of this economy yet they can face many hurdles when trying to obtain reasonable credit terms on their finance agreements.

I had been actively investing in Peerto-Peer finance (P2P) whilst researching the concept, and considering the funding gap of US$260bn in the region; the UAE seemed the right market to launch the Beehive platform. Businesses are in need of low cost, faster funding and there

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2015

is certainly an investor appetite to invest in strong, UAE based businesses and make attractive returns.

How has starting a business in Dubai differed to the one that you started in the UK? In general, business set up within the UK requires less paperwork than in the UAE, so in effect you can set up a business quickly and cost effectively. Setting up Beehive in Dubai was effectively launching a completely new concept into this market. The challenge here is about driving awareness of Beehive and ensuring education and understanding of the peer-to-peer concept.

What is the one piece of standout advice that you have learnt that you would like to impart on others?

A good idea well executed is better than a brilliant idea poorly executed. Having the ideas is the easy part, its ensuring excellent implement at ion that requires real focus and tenacity to deliver results.

There are times in business when all leaders will make mistakes.

How do you recover from these?

Everyone makes mistakes at times, particularly in innovative and pioneering industries.

If you’re don’t experience some element of failure at some stage then you’re not exploring and

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success

“I fully believe the old mantra of ‘a vision without a plan is just a dream’.

Plans are critical to establish a roadmap.

The business plan helps you identify the goals for your business and the strategies and tactics that outline how you will achieve them” craig moore founder and CEO of Beehive

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2015

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success

The team is A critical element to any successful business.

Without a motivated team it won’t be possible to actually execute any of the plans that you have set out” often have a certain mindset and thrive on the pace of change and activity. There is a real buzz but a lot of hard work and tenacity.

From a financial perspective, all of our employees get stock options in the business because I really want each employee to feel an intrinsic part of the company and share in the success. innovating enough. The key difference among successful leaders is that they learn from their mistakes.

What do you believe are the top three things that make a business successful and why?

I tend to refer to the acronym ‘BET’ – Belief, Energy and Teamwork.

Belief – You have to have a belief and a real passion in your idea because that will drive you through the difficult times and ensure you stay true to your idea. Clearly, you have to be flexible in terms of the evolution of the idea but the core belief as to why a problem should be solved should stay firm in your mind.

Energy – You need a relentless energy and drive to achieve.

Actually, if you have a strong enough belief in your idea it provides that natural drive to do everything you can to pursue your goal.

Teamwork – This is absolutely critical. One of the most important jobs of the entrepreneur is to bring together the right team with the right skills to execute the business plan. Effectively you should always aim to hire the best people you can to help deliver your vision.

What has been your biggest challenge to date?

The biggest challenge is overcoming the fear of leaving a corporate job, and the security it affords, and striking out on your own. The initial

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fear, and the continued desire to succeed need to be positively harnessed to drive you on and keep the belief in your vision. This was my biggest challenge when setting up Butterfly Software, all the way to selling the company to IBM. You are known to take great pride in your staff and show you value them by encouraging a team atmosphere in the office. Why is this important? What steps do you take?

As I mentioned before, the team is a critical element to any successful business. Without a motivated team it won’t be possible to actually execute any of the plans that you have set out.

We try to operate a very open and innovative culture and I think it’s important to ensure that employees feel empowered to do their jobs and that their ideas are valued by senior management. We expect all staff to readily volunteer ideas and creative solutions as to how we can make the business and the workplace better.

Obviously I want enthusiastic and engaged team members but it is a also a responsibility of the leadership team to communicate the business vision, goals and the progress made to ensure that staff stay motivated and feel like they are a part of the journey. Good communication ensures that the team connects with the business and feels part of the journey.

Having said that, the start up environment isn’t for everyone. Employees working in a start up

Why are business plans so important?

I fully believe the old mantra of “a vision without a plan is just a dream”. Plans are critical to establish a roadmap. The business plan helps you identify the goals for your business and the strategies and tactics that outline how you will achieve them. Having a business plan will guide your activities and is critical to success. It is also a key way of measuring your progress in achieving your vision.

Who inspires you and why?

There are a number of leaders, statesmen and visionaries that I admire for what they achieved, and in many cases, against the odds. I admire Winston Churchill for the way he was able to galvanise and motivate an entire nation through very dark times to believe and not lose hope – that takes a very special force of personality to achieve. In the business world Elon Musk is an inspiring figure as he is constantly challenging conventional thinking to redefine industries and the way we live.

What is the best piece of advice that you have been given?

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. l

May 2015 | 31

MONEY

Reading Financial Statements

Understanding financial statements is critically important to the success of a small business and can be used as a roadmap on your business journey to economic success. Most business owners don’t realise that financial statements have a value that goes far beyond their use to meet costs or simply show profit. Because of this, Business Insight thought we would put together a basic overview to help you on your way…

Balance Sheet The balance sheet shows your company’s financial position, what it owns (assets) and what it owes (liabilities and net worth) at any given time. The ‘bottom line’ of a balance sheet must always balance (i.e. assets = liabilities + net worth).

Liabilities And Net Worth Liabilities and net worth on the balance sheet show your company’s sources of funds. These are composed of ‘creditors’ and ‘investors’ who have provided cash or its equivalent to the company in the past. ‘Assets’, on the other hand, represent your company’s use of funds. The company uses cash or other funds provided by the creditor/investor to acquire assets. Assets include all the things of value that are owned or due to the business. Liabilities represent your company’s obligations to creditors, while net worth represents your investment in the business.

Current Assets Current assets are those which mature in less than 1 year.

They are the sum of the following categories: zz Cash zz Accounts Receivable (A/R)

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2015

zz zz zz zz

Inventory (Inv) Notes Receivable (N/R) Prepaid Expenses Other Current Assets

Cash Cash is king! Cash pays your bills and obligations. Inventory, receivables, land, building, machinery and equipment do not pay your obligations, even though they can be sold for cash and then used to pay bills.

Financial Advisors say that you should have 10 percent of your portfolio in cash. If it is so important for investors, isn’t it therefore just as important to have Cashflow for the businesses that they are investing in?

Accounts Receivable (A/R) Accounts receivable are monies due from customers (debtors). The receivable exists only for the time period between the selling of your product/service and the receipt of the payment.

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MONEY

It is very important that the level of inventory be well managed so that the business does not keep too much cash tied up in inventory, as this will reduce profits and affect the cashflow needed to meet your bills and obligations Current Liabilities Current liabilities are those obligations that will mature and must be paid within 12 months, such as an overdraft or loan. These are liabilities that can create a company’s insolvency if you don’t have sufficient cash.

Inventory Inventory consists of the goods and materials that you purchase to re-sell at a profit. If your business sells a product, then inventory is often the first use of cash. It is very important that the level of inventory be well managed so that the business does not keep too much cash tied up in inventory, as this will reduce profits and affect the cashflow needed to meet your bills and obligations. At the same time, a company must keep sufficient inventory on hand to prevent ‘stockouts’ i.e. having nothing to sell.

Notes Receivable (N/R) N/R is a receivable due the company, in the form of a promissory note arising because the company made a loan, or extended credit.

Other Current Assets Other Current Assets consist of prepaid expenses and other miscellaneous and current assets.

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May 2015 | 33

MONEY

Non-Current Liabilities Non-current liabilities are those obligations that will not become due and payable in the coming year. There are three types of non-current liabilities, only two of which are listed on the balance sheet: zz Non-current Portion of Long Term Debt (LTD) zz Subordinated Officer Loans (SubOff) zz Contingent Liabilities

‘Contingent Liabilities’ are potential liabilities that are not listed on the balance sheet. They are listed in the footnotes because they may never become due and payable. Contingent liabilities include things like Lawsuits and warranties Fixed Assets Fixed assets represent the use of cash to purchase physical assets which will remain for over 1 year. Examples of these assets are: Land, buildings, computers, machinery, furniture etc.

Intangibles Intangibles means the use of cash to purchase assets with an undetermined life and which may never mature into cash. They may also include things which physically you can’t hold. For example: Company insurance and staff benefit packages, Research and Development , patents etc.

Other Assets Other assets consist of miscellaneous accounts such as deposits and long-term notes receivable from third parties. They are turned into cash when the asset is sold

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or when the note is repaid. Total Assets represent the sum of all the assets owned by or due to the business.

Notes Payable Notes payable are obligations in the form of promissory notes with short-term maturity dates of less than 12 months. Often, they are demand notes (payable upon demand). Other times they have specific maturity dates (30-360 days maturities are typical). The notes payable always include only the principal amount of the debt.

Accounts Payable Accounts Payable are obligations due to trade suppliers (creditors) who have provided inventory or goods and services used in operating the business. It should be noted however, that whenever possible you should take advantage of payment terms as this will increase your Cashflow.

The non-current portion of long-term debt is the principal portion of a term loan not payable in the coming year.

Subordinated officer loans are treated as an item that lies between debt and equity. Contingent liabilities listed in the footnotes are potential liabilities, which hopefully never become due. Notes payable to the officers, shareholders represent cash, which the shareholders (or owners) have put into the business.

‘Contingent Liabilities’ are potential liabilities that are not listed on the balance sheet. They are listed in the footnotes because they may never become due and payable. Contingent liabilities include things like Lawsuits and warranties. If the company has been sued, but the litigation has not been initiated, there is no way of knowing whether or not the suit will result in a liability to the company. It will be listed in the footnotes because while not a real liability, it has potential and may impair the ability of the company to meet future obligations.

Total Liabilities Total liabilities represent the sum of all monetary obligations of a business and all claims creditors have on its assets.

Equity Equity is represented by total assets minus total liabilities. Equity or Net Worth is the most patient and last to mature source of funds. It represents the owners’ share in the financing of all the assets.

Income Statement Also known also as the profit and loss statement (P&L), the income statement shows all income and expenses over a period of time, so it clearly illustrates how profitable a business is. Remember that an income statement does not reveal hidden problems like insufficient cash flow problems. l

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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

Family Matters and Divorce

Wills, Inheritance Issues and Guardianship Issues

Recent statistics have shown that

Did you know that

zz

zz

zz

Probate Administration

Are you or any members of your

Administering an estate following the death

on the death of a husband, the

family thinking of establishing a

of a partner or family member can initially

has increased 40% in Dubai over the

surviving wife may not automatically

company in the UAE?

seem a simple exercise. However, the

past two years

be appointed as the legal guardian of

Did you know that any shareholding

process can quickly become complicated

the UAE has the highest rate of

any children under the UAE law?

that you have in a UAE on-shore or

and extremely time consuming. It may be

the Dubai International Financial

a freezone company is exposed to

the case that you simply require advice on

taking the first place in the country

Centre (‘DIFC’) has established the

a Sharia distribution in the event

the legal processes within the UAE or UK on

Dubai alone recorded 1129 divorces

new ‘DIFC Wills and Probate Registry’

of death?

the death of a partner or family member.

in 2012

implementing new succession and

Do you and your business partners,

Alternatively, you may feel that you wish to

inheritance rules for non-Muslims

or any members of your family,

instruct a firm of qualified solicitors to assist

with Dubai assets?

need a partnership agreement or a

in the administration of a specific asset, or

contract drafting?

the administration of an entire estate.

separation between married couples

divorce in the region with Dubai zz

Corporate Structuring

If you should ever require assistance

zz

regarding any family or divorce matters,

zz

zz

zz

TWS’s family law team comprises of British

The UAE Courts will adhere to Sharia law

and Arabic speaking lawyers, who regularly

in any situation where there is no Will in

Before you take any steps into business

TWS have considerable experience of

advise on divorce, separation, custody, and

place. If you live and work in the UAE, and

ownership you should fully understand your

dealing with the administration of estates

financial settlements in the UAE and UK

you die without having made a Will, the

options and understand the risks. When it

comprising assets in either or both of the

Courts. We also offer a mediation service

local courts will examine your estate and

comes to setting up a company in the UAE,

UAE and the UK, and can advise you on all

as and when required to assist you in

potentially distribute it according to Sharia

the question of where to establish your

of the processes involved from determining

reconciling your differences, or agreeing on

law where the distribution of assets are as

operation is dependent on your business

the assets and liabilities to ensuring that an

the best course of action for your family.

per fixed share ratios. It is also extremely

model. The first port of call should be to

estate is distributed to the rightful heirs or

important to make provision for the

seek legal advice and to be honest with your

beneficiaries.

Should you find yourself in circumstances

guardianship of your children in the event

advisor about what you hope to achieve

where you are suffering from irreconcilable

of death of one or both parents.

through the business.

TWS are suitably qualified to advise both

TWS can advise and assist you regarding the

Muslim and non-Muslim individuals on

structuring/re-structuring of your business or

the laws that apply to you in the UAE and

corporate assets through bespoke solutions

how you can protect your family and assets

in a number of offshore jurisdictions.

marital difficulties, we conduct divorce proceedings in the UAE and UK Courts.

through both the DIFC and UAE Courts.

Licensed by The Government of Dubai Legal Affairs Department, The Dubai Rulers Court and Registered with the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts’ Register of Legal Practitioners.

Wills – Guardianship - Family & Divorce – Corporate Services

people

Graphology is the study of handwriting, which can analyse a writer’s character, personality, ability and other traits. It is believed that you can identify over 500 personality traits, and has also been used in the medical field to aid diagnosis and track diseases.

What Does your Employees Handwriting Say About Them?

slanting No Slant Logical and Practical, they don’t let their emotions take over Slants to the Right Outgoing and Personable. They enjoy meeting new people and are open to new experiences Slants to the Left If right handed, they could be expressing rebellion. Otherwise, they like to keep themselves to themselves

shape of letters

size

Rounded letters Creative & artistic Large Letters They are outgoing, peopleorientated, outspoken and love attention.

They may also put up a front and pretend to have a lot of confidence

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May 2015

Small Letters Means that they are shy, withdrawn, concentrated and meticulous

Average Well adjusted and adaptable

Connected letters logical, systematic & make decisions carefully

spacing between words

Wide spacing They enjoy freedom and don’t appreciate being overwhelmed or crowded

Pointed letters Agressive, intense, very intelligent & curious

Narrow spacing They may easily feel lonely. They overcompensate by crowding people and may appear intrusive

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people

looping

l

Wide L Loops They wear their hears on the sleeve. They are spontaneous and relaxed

l

Narrow L Loops They may be feeling tense and they are likely to be restricting themselves

e

Wide E Loops Creative, Open minded and often a thrill seeker

e

crossing t’s

Narrow E Loops Naturally a sceptic. They keep their emotions in check

dotting i’s A high dot over the “i” Very Imaginative Dot to the Left of the “i” Procrastinator Slashing i’s Impatient and self-critical.

They can be people that don’t tend to learn from their mistakes

Dot over the “i” Organised, emphatic and detailed orientated Circles over i’s Visionary. May be childlike

At the very top Optimistic and ambitious Right in the middle Confident Long crosses Can be stubborn, but also very enthusiastic and determined

page margins Left hand margin Stubborn. They have a hard time forgetting and forgiving Write all over the page Juggling many balls.

Always on the go and not good at relaxing Right hand margin Fear the unknown.

Worried about the future

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May 2015 | 37

people

page pressure

Heavy Pressure Committed and serious. They dislike criticism, but they have high energy levels

Legible Comfortable and confidant.

What you see is what you get

Not Legible

Hard to understand. They are very private

Light Pressure Full of empathy and sensitivity. It can also indicate tiredness and a lack of energy

speed

open & closed o’s Open O Sociable, outgoing, talkative. They wear their heart on their sleeve

Closed O Private and introverted

A slow writer Organised and self reliant A quick writer Impatient

writing “I� to refer to oneself A small I than the other capital letters Happy with themselves A larger I than the other capital letters Arrogant. They feel their own self-importance

energy levels Handwriting with a heavy pressure where the writing appears dark, or shows thought to the back of the paper-indicates high level of energy A light pressure indicates a lack of energy or tiredness

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May 2015

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LEGAL

DIFC Wills and Probate Registry By: Nita Maru, Managing Partner, TWS Legal Consultants

In a landmark move, the Dubai International Financial Centre (‘DIFC’) has set the ball rolling for the introduction of new rules relating to succession and inheritance matters of non-Muslims owning assets in the Emirate

esolution Number (4) of 2014 has been signed by HH Sheikh Maktoum Al Maktoum, President of the DIFC providing for the legal basis required for the establishment of the DIFC Wills and Probate Registry (for non-Muslims), which was launched on the 4th May 2015.

The DIFC is the first jurisdiction in the region where a non Muslim individual can register a will under the internationally-recognised Common Law principles.

Currently, the distribution of assets of a deceased is guided

by UAE federal laws such as the Personal Status Law, Civil Transactions Code and by public order.

R

The Background To The Rules Currently the dilemma of the contradictory legislation where inheritance matters are concerned, coupled with

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2015

the legal uncertainty of expatriate wills and the Courts discretion in applying Sharia Law (when they consider it appropriate), will welcome such a move. In order to avoid lengthy and costly probate battles at the Dubai Court, the risk of estates being contested and the conflicting inheritance laws, many expatriates transfer their assets into offshore structures. Such a shift is common where property is purchased as there is no right of survivorship concept in the UAE (that is property passing onto the surviving joint owner upon the death of the other owner) and this is a serious concern for many investors. Guardianship issues for those parents that have minor children residing in Dubai is also a common fear.

The fixed distribution of assets as per UAE law and the freezing of bank accounts for example, tend to make expatriates uncomfortable in retaining funds leading to them

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LEGAL

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May 2015 | 41

LEGAL

Nita Maru, British qualified solicitor and Managing Partner of TWS Legal Consultants. Nita was personally involved in the working panel in the formation of the Rules for the Registry.

For more information visit www.twslegal. ae or email info@twslegal.ae Tel: 04 4484284

to transferring funds offshore and out of the jurisdiction. This naturally affects the economic growth and further investment in Dubai and the surrounding Emirates.

Brief Details Of The DIFC Will And Probate Rules 1. The DIFC Wills and Probate Registry marks the introduction of a new set of rules relating to succession and inheritance matters for non-Muslims with assets in Dubai.

2. The DIFC Wills and Probate Registry provide a mechanism for non-Muslims with assets in Dubai only to pass on their estates according to their wishes.

3. The testator (the person making a will) must have reached the UAE age of legal majority (21 years) to prepare a will and must be non-Muslim. The testator must own assets in Dubai, but there is no residency requirement - even nonDubai residents can register a DIFC will.

4. The assets dealt with under a DIFC will, will be limited to Dubai assets. Those assets held in any other Emirate, or outside the UAE cannot be dealt with under a DIFC will.

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The DIFC Wills and Probate Registry provide a mechanism for non-Muslims with assets in Dubai only to pass on their estates according to their wisheS 5.

6.

7.

A DIFC will can also cover guardianship if the testator has minor children living with him/her in Dubai.

The rules governing the Wills and Probate Registry will complement existing UAE laws on inheritance for non-Muslims, and provide non-Muslims with the option and right to choose the way in which their estates are distributed.

The DIFC Wills and Probate Registry will be within the DIFC jurisdiction and will work with the DIFC Courts for the production of grants and court orders for the distribution of assets. As the grant is issued by the DIFC Court, it will be directly enforceable in Dubai without the need to go through the Dubai Courts.

The Steps Involved In Registering A Will 1. Have a will prepared.

2. Wills are important documents that should be prepared by qualified and licensed lawyers. As noted on the Registry website, a “home-drafted will may be invalid or ineffective, causing unnecessary burdens and expenses on your executors and beneficiaries.” It is advisable to consult a qualified legal representative.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Obtain a signed declaration from any guardians nominated in your will. Your lawyer would assist in ensuring that this declaration is in the correct format.

Book an appointment at the Registry. This can be booked online by the testator or by your lawyer.

Attend your appointment for execution (signing) and registration of your will at the Registry. The execution of the will would be in the presence of a Registry officer and one witness chosen by the testator. This is to reduce the risk of challenges to the validity of the will.

The will will be stored electronically at the Registry as the original for the remainder of the lifetime of the testator (Up to 120 years).

It is prudent to seek the advice of a lawyer registered with the Government of Dubai Legal Affairs Department to ensure that the will is drawn up in line with the Registry’s legal requirements and to avoid the risk of the will being rejected by the Registry. l

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marketing & Advertising

Tips to building a strong brand

How to build a brand can be a daunting concept. When you think brands, you think of the multi nationals like Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and British Airways etc. When we see their logo, we know who they are. When we walk into a restaurant or on to a plane, say in Los Angeles, we could just as easily be in London or Paris. They have their own identity. It stands out and we remember it. We know exactly what we will get from them and exactly what we won’t he thing is, you do not have to be a multinational to have a strong brand. You do want to be easily identifiable and stand out from the rest though.

Basically, a brand is a notion that a company has a big idea, a story behind its existence. Consumers don’t just want products and services; they want to connect with something on an emotional and ethical level. We all look for ways to belong and this is where brands come into their own.

The important thing however, is to get it right internally before you are able to get it right externally.

Yes, building a brand is a marketing technique, but it is also an invaluable HR technique It is important that everyone in the company helps you build your brand as your employees are all ambassadors for you and your company, as through them, the public’s view on the company is formed, which is why hiring the right staff can be so important. The brand must go through each and every department, from the board to the person on the shop floor. You must all consider the effects your actions have on a company. Everyone wants to feel as though they belong on one level or another, so use this to your advantage. By getting each of your employees in your company to help you, you are getting their emotional support also.

T

v

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2015

With this in mind, we have put together a handy 7-step guide that will help you build your brand.

Make An Impact You want people to remember your brand. Think of the logo that you want to use, the colouring you would like associated with your brand, the design of your business cards and marketing material. All of this should be uniform.

When people see this, they should instantly know it belongs to one company; the more they see it, the more they will subconsciously register that company is yours.

The wording and artwork on all company material is important, so give this considerable thought. Think of memorable phrases and artwork to convey your message.

These can be used with regularity if the occasion fits.

You must ensure that your first impression counts.

Your literature must make people believe that you are fit for business; a weathered business card is not a good reflection on anyone. You would not place an advert in a publication without a thoughtful design process, so do not give out business cards that have not had careful consideration also.

Be Connected By this we mean consider how your customers relate to the brand. For example, in company literature, is it immediately apparent what you are about? Think of the style and content that you should be using. It should be broadly in line with your industry sector; Marketing companies use

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marketing & Advertising

You want people to remember your brand. Think of the logo that you want to use, the colouring you would like associated with your brand, the design of your business cards and marketing material wacky graphics, colourful material and ‘new’ words, where as finance companies tend to be more staid and therefore use formal language, with not much ‘fun’ in design.

Consider your industry sector brands and the language they use. We are not saying to copy them as you need to stand out from them, but their use of language will give you an idea on the formation of wordings that you can use and how you want your company to be portrayed.

The colours you use are also important. What do they signify? Did you know the reason we see financial service companies favour blue is that this signifies trust, loyalty and wisdom, as well as increase in health and status?

Ask yourself what you would like your clients to say/feel about you; Is it your service and product standards are the best, or that you are known for the innovative way you assist your customers? If so, the colours are a great way of conveying this message.

Be Clear You need to ensure you do not confuse your customer – If you are a legal company, why use too much legal jargon?

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Instantly you are alienating your client from your message as they are still trying to work out what you meant by T&Cs. You need to speak (in your verbal and written communications, as well as in your marketing literature) in a language, which your client will understand.

Also, testing your brand can be helpful.

Try to target the kind of audience you would be selling to. Go out onto the street and ask 20 people what they think your company is about from the logo and literature you have.

Record their comments. Also ask them for advices on how you could possible improve things. Remember, in the future, you may well be selling your products or services to one of them, so their advice could be invaluable.

Believe it or not, white space can add impact. A clear design will give room for the message to breath, so be careful not to drown the message with unrelated imagery or excessive text.

Be Obvious Using your services should be clear – Do not leave any room for misinterpretation. Try not to worry about pleasing every one, as you won’t; causing consternation with 20% of your target population means you still have 80% who like what they see…

Be Consistent A consistent message brings on feelings of solidarity and security – the two feelings we associate with trust. Therefore, does your letterhead reflect your business card? Do both the letterhead and business card reflect the website? Does the website reflect

your promotional material and presentations?

All of these questions should be considered.

Be Different Being different allows you to formulate your ‘Unique Selling Points’ or USPs – How do your competitors pitch themselves? What language do they use? How do you differ?

What do you do that is better? These are all questions you should ask yourself. You need to let the customer know what makes you different to the rest of the market and therefore why they should chose you over your competition.

Again, it is the design and layout that will help you convey this message appropriately.

Be Hard Hitting And Direct Interaction and/or invitations are always a good way to start to solidify a relationship with people.

Design a way of enabling your customers/ potential clients, to interact with you in any way. A website is a good place to start. Again make this uniform with all other promotional material. Display your logo and think of unique ways to gain interaction.

Ultimately, a brand is about getting noticed. By considering each of these points, your brand will grow, as will your identity and your profile in the market place. l

May 2015 | 45

marketing & Advertising

Is PR Worth The Investment?

By Georgina Woollams, Founder, Katch International

One of the many cost-cutting measures that an organisation usually undertakes is to slice its Public Relations spend. But what is it that they are cutting back on? Would they make this decision if they were aware of how effective a PR campaign could be on the bottom line of their business? et’s begin by understanding what PR is. PR is the practice of strategically communicating a brand’s message to its stakeholders through the most effective channels. A stakeholder is defined as any person, group or organisation that is affected by a brand’s message or action. To put it simply, if you are launching a new product tomorrow, some of the major stakeholders you need

L

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to consider receiving this information are the media, shareholders or investors, employees, and consumers. Why then would you want to get rid of that person or team who manages this communication between you and your public effectively?

Firstly, brands want immediate tangible results. We are going to be honest. PR does not instantaneously make a customer walk into a shop and buy that product after reading about it in

PR is all about increasing awareness and positively influencing a stakeholder’s beliefs and behaviours towards a brand, but it is hard to quantify. How then do you measure your results?

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marketing & Advertising

PR is not just a process of spoon-feeding information to your stakeholders. It’s also about listening to them and assessing what information they would like to receive and in what manner, thus ensuring you get the maximum returns possible to boost your profile

today’s paper. It does not automatically make them vote for a political candidate after watching him win a heated debate on TV against a well-loved opponent. What it does is build your reputation and provide you with the effective channels to capitalise on any opportunity.

PR Gives You Authority Communication gives you authority as it provides you with the voice and (when used with the right channels), a very good audience that are looking to you as a trusted authority on the subject. We recently launched Cle Dubai, located in Al Fattan Currency House in the DIFC. With an amazing line-up of guests including Khloe Kardashian, Paris and Nicky Hilton, Alessandra Ambrosio, Irina Shayk, Akon and more, we acquired several millions of dollars of both local and international media coverage and positive awareness. This is great, but it wasn’t going to maintain the momentum and keep people coming through the doors of the restaurant months later.

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To achieve this, we ensured that pre and post event the spotlight wasn’t taken away from the Michelin starred Chef Greg Malouf. We knew that establishing him further as a culinary authority was one of our key objectives for people to continue supporting the brand even after the shine from the celebrity attendance faded away. In order to do this parallel to the brand identity promotion, we organised several TV, radio and print interviews for Chef Greg and immediately after the doors opened, invited food critics to review the restaurant, launched his latest book at the venue and even organised cooking classes. The outcome was a success with a steady flow of guests and a high respect towards Chef Greg as the master of his craft among his guests, peers and media.

Establish A Two-Way Communication PR is not just a process of spoon-feeding information to your stakeholders. It’s also about listening to them and

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assessing what information they would like to receive and in what manner, thus ensuring you get the maximum returns possible to boost your profile. Using this technique, you can also gauge the potential of a brand in a new marketplace, as well as determining their next business move. Today’s digital sphere allows easier conversations and analysis of this, particularly with your heavy engagement consumers.

“Fashion Victims Season 2” at the Atlantis Hotel and Resort on the Palm Jumeirah, highlights how this can be established. One of the key designers we brought was Math, a trending designer we originally showcased during London Fashion Week. Math’s unique hook that made him such a fantastic PR asset was that he mixed athletic clothing items with luxury fashion trends and materials. By some people, this was considered a risk, but the comments we gathered after his shows through influencers on social media, bloggers and personalities online were that our public loved, in particular, the athletic shoe accessories idea from this collection. We knew we were on the right track. Based on this, we have now started to establish relationships with sports brands so that we heighten the brand with a stronger partnership. This is how audience interest is correlated to effective results.

Takes Care Of Vital Resources Your most important resources are your employees and therefore they need to be included in all your PR related thinking. When you review your PR strategies or budgets, you should remember to include them in your campaigns too. Some of them are your front liners. They are the face of your brand and people judge your brand based on the person from your team they encounter. PR allows you to make sure your goals are aligned with theirs and you are both communicating the same messages to your target audience.

Don’t forget, you need to ensure that your staff follow the brand’s message and deliver this in the channels that are deemed appropriate.

Also, the media may misinterpret information to get the answer that they want to hear, do you really want to enable untrained staff to speak on

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your behalf with journalists? Or if they do, who can rescue your business’ reputation to get the correct message across?

Resolve A Crisis Having a PR team in place is having the security that if an issue or crisis arises, you are not sending panic messages to your audience, or deleting hate comments on your Facebook page especially if it’s a direct attack to you. You want to tackle these head on with the correct message, but as with communication - especially written words you have to be very careful as they are easily misinterpreted. Your PR team is trained to analyse the situation and help you face it.

A case study that springs to mind was my work with Cirque Le Soir. Having worked with them globally, we thought we had a great opportunity to elevate the brand when Justin Bieber decided to celebrate his birthday at the London venue. On the night of the event at 2:00am he tweeted, “My Worst Birthday”. Immediately this went viral and we knew we had to urgently resolve this. At 8:00am, after dissecting the facts, we issued the official statement that says, “We, like all clubs in London, operate a strict age policy.

As a few of the members of the party were under the suitable age of 18, the security team at Cirque Du Soir, London clearly explained this rule and refused entry to the club for anyone who could not provide us with adequate proof of age. Justin Bieber visits Cirque Du Soir regularly, and he and his friends are always welcome, as long the members of the group are legally old enough to enter the club. This was simply a matter of regulation that we must adhere to.” Not only was the story diluted down in two days (especially when pictures emerged showing Jayden Smith, 14 years old trying to get into the venue), but we also enforced the positive message that the brand works with the law.

How to Quantify PR is all about increasing awareness and positively influencing a stakeholder’s beliefs and behaviours towards a brand, but it is hard to quantify. How then do you measure your results? Traditionally PR practitioners rely on the famed ‘Advertising Value Equivalent’ for an easy-to-gauge comparison.

For example, instead of paying for a fullpage advertisement about your event in a newspaper, your PR team obtains a full page of society images showcasing the glamorous crowd who attended your event, which both provide a more genuine image of the brand and audience awareness. If the actual value of that is US$5,000 then your PR team has

Having a PR team in place is having the security that if an issue or crisis arises, you are not sending panic messages to your audience

saved your marketing coffers that amount of money along with gaining exposure among the newspapers’ potential 30,000 audience. This is your measurable output.

A lot of PR practitioners are content giving you these numbers. But what are the actual outcomes? Whilst it is crucial to return the brand’s investments through media values, it’s also equally important to pay attention to the outcomes and work with the brand in order to achieve maximum results. After that one piece of coverage was published, how many hits did the website get, or inquiries via phone or email?

When this coverage was posted on your social media, how much engagement did it generate?

What are the demographics of this newspaper and are they really speaking to your target clients? These are just some of the questions that a PR Practitioner who cares about his or her brand asks for. Based on this, the PR together with the other teams from Marketing to Operations can convert the data into a useful piece of information for determining whether this move worked or not and what should the next steps in a campaign be.

In full, PR maintains and improves a business or an individual’s reputation that can develop into action, conversion and brand loyalty. And that whatever output PR achieves can be utilised fully for desired outcomes if PR works together in sync with all the rest of the departments. If we look at it this way, PR seizes being a luxury add-on and starts being an integral ingredient in the marketing mix.

The question you have to ask yourself is not, “Is PR worth the investment” but “Can I afford not to invest in PR?” l

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Panel Debates and Sparkling Soirees Key to Success of Dubai Diamond Conference 2015 50 | May

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t started with a sparkling cocktail party with jewelry provided by the internationally renowned Roberto Coin, and ended with a fascinating debate on financing – the most pressing issue affecting the global diamond industry.

The Second Dubai Diamond Conference took place from April 21 to 22 and hosted well over 500 participants from across the globe.

The event provided a dynamic discourse by including a series of panel discussions on pressing issues affecting the diamond and jewelry industry

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worldwide and encouraging input from audience members.

The Conference focused on Africa, the growing importance of diamondproducing states on the continent, and the ‘New Silk Route’ connecting them via Dubai to growing markets in Asia.

Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman of DMCC, which organised the event along with the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE), told participants that the value of diamond trading in Dubai has soared from $5 million a year in 2002 to more than $30 billion a year now.

Keynote speaker Herman Van Rompuy, former President of the European Union, gave a robust defense of the EU project despite the financial challenges it continues to face.

Mr Van Rompuy said that nobody could have forecast the financial changes the world has seen in the last 12 months with dropping oil prices and inflation rates. He said the euro zone is now financially stable, and hoped that the idea of Greece leaving the zone would not be a question that would have to be answered.

“If that did happen, the main victims will be the Greek people,” he said, adding that the EU should strive for further solidarity and adoption of common economic and social policies.

DDE Chairman Peter Meeus told the attendees about when he arrived in Dubai for the first time in 2006 and was shown “an expanse of desert” by Mr. Bin Sulayem who told him that would be the site of the Almas Tower, which is today the venue for the conference and home to more than 1,000 companies working in the diamond trade.

“Dubai has undergone unbelievable growth in the last nine years,” he said.

World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) President Ernest Blom opened his speech by saying he was proud to have been part of the process that led to the formation of the Dubai Diamond Exchange. He said the focus of the Dubai Conference was rightly Africa and its developing role in the global diamond industry.

“There is no doubt that Africa is rightly taking its proper place in the worldwide trade, and we should all applaud and encourage that. Conferences such as these are critical for the diamond industry to focus on the issues and challenges facing us – and this conference covers all the main subjects that we are dealing with both at the WFDB and other industry organisations.”

Meanwhile, World Diamond Council (WDC) President Edward Asscher, said the WDC has made remarkable progress in the last year and had become more professional and now has more members than ever before. He commented that the diamond industry is in good shape and has improved substantially as far as the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is concerned and compliance with its rules.

“Most trading countries have KP offices and most centers are complying with the rules while most diamond firms are transparent and compliant. The industry has changed a lot for the better in the last 15 years. 19th Century practices are gone, a handshake is not enough and cash transactions not allowed anywhere.”

Following Asscher, Dr Ahmed Albanna, Director of African Affairs, UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the conference of the importance to the UAE of trading with African countries which account for US$18 billion of trade with the UAE. He said the UAE has invested US$5 billion in infrastructure projects in Africa covering many fields, including commodities, oil and gas, telecoms, port management and others. In the diamond field, 60 percent of diamonds traded in Dubai are from Africa, and the DDE organises tenders for Zimbabwe. “Dubai sits at the heart of trading routes between Africa and Asia. We are a meeting point.”

Ngoako Ramatlhodi, Minister of Mineral Resources of the Republic of South Africa, spoke of the leading role that Dubai today plays in the global diamond business, and that the conference put a stress on the importance of African diamond-producing states and Dubai’s location between them and the manufacturing and consumer markets of Asia.

In an impassioned speech, Walter K. Chidakwa, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Mines and Mining Development, spoke of the importance of the country’s diamond industry to its national development.

He also outlined the government’s plans regarding the recently announced initiative to combine the country’s diamond mining operations, with 50 percent to be owned by the government and the other half owned by the companies themselves according to a determination of the value of their diamond assets.

Among other speakers on the opening day were Rosy Blue Chairman Dilip Mehta who spoke about the challenges facing the entire pipeline, but particularly

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diamond manufacturers. He was followed by Paul Rowley, Executive Vice President, De Beers Sightholder Sales, who told the conference participants that current financial and political uncertainty and volatility were not a passing phase and would continue.

“Companies that are flexible and agile will succeed,” he said. “Dubai is a good symbol of how the industry has changed. 30 years ago Israel and Belgium were industry leaders. Now, new centers such as Dubai and countries in southern Africa have become important, but the traditional centers have continued by adjusting.

Alrosa Vice President Andrey Polyakov also spoke about the challenges facing the diamond industry and the changes needed in order to enable diamond jewelry to compete for the disposable income of consumers, particularly younger buyers.

Finally, Robert Mhlanga, Chairman of Zimbabwe’s Mbada Diamonds, said the diamond industry needed to grow in an ethical and sustainable manner. He emphasized the need for countries to act together and that interdependence meant diamond centres had no choice but to work together.

He also said that synthetic diamonds posed a big threat to African diamond producers since cheaper lab-made goods would draw sales away from natural, mined, diamonds produced on the continent.

The first day of Conference ended with an expert panel discussing the issue of Retail in Challenging Markets. The panel discussion provided a spirited debate about the main issues facing diamond jewelry retailers and the steps they can take to improve sales.

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After listening closely to the informative discourse of the day, the 500-plus delegates headed to a cocktail party and gala dinner hosted by the Dubai Westin Hotel.

The second day of the conference opened with a panel entitled Ethics, NGOs and Business discussing the ethical issues affecting the diamond jewelry industries worldwide.

The panel and audience members also asked what steps the diamond industry needs to take to be more ethical in its approach, and whether diamantaires really care about corporate social responsibility.

Edward Asscher said the diamond industry is in much better shape today than it was a decade ago from an ethical behaviour standpoint, but admitted that there would always be a very small minority of diamantaires who would attempt to cut corners and operate in an inappropriate manner.

The third panel of the Conference was entitled: Synthetic Diamonds: Problem or Not at All? Panel members discussed questions relating to whether the diamond industry had exaggerated the size of the problem because although there have been a relatively large number of reports of discoveries of synthetics during the past two to three years, the overall number of such stones is but a fraction of the size of natural, mined, rough and polished stones globally.

Some industry estimates put the amount of polished synthetic stones for the jewelry industry annually at around US$500 million, although that figure is widely disputed. Even if the figure is accepted, it pales into relative insignificance

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The banking experts stressed that in addition to transparency, it was important for banks to be able to have a full understanding of diamond companies’ operations, but this was not always clear to the banks due to the fact that the companies’ operations are often private, and family-owned with information about its financial transactions difficult to secure compared with the annual turnover of polished diamonds that are mined of US$18 billion.

Panel members agreed that it was likely there would be an increase in synthetic diamond production in the coming years as production costs gradually decline and manufacturers are able to scale up production.

Panel members also raised the possibility that synthetic diamonds could make up for some of the predicted shortfall in diamond supply that is expected in the coming decade.

With no new large mines discovered for a decade or more, rough supply is due to remain static at around 125 million carats annually.

Industry analysts project that growing demand from markets such as China and India, where increasing numbers of people are entering the middle class and are enjoying higher disposable income, means that demand for

Peter Meeus

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diamond jewelry will outstrip diamond supply in the coming five years or so, thus pushing diamond prices higher. With the price of synthetic diamonds being at least 35 percent cheaper than their mined diamond counterparts, it is possible that consumers will prefer to the less expensive stones.

The afternoon session of the second day of the Conference began with a panel discussion on Africa First..

As the centre of gravity of the diamond industry shifts from West to East and from North to South, there are clearly new opportunities for Dubai-based firms placed between the African diamond producing countries and the manufacturing and retail centres of India, China and the rest of Asia.

The shift in the diamond industry’s global axis was well illustrated with move by the Diamond Trading Company of its sorting and aggregation facilities to Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, after more than 80 years of being based in London, said Peter Meeus in introducing the Africa First panel debate. “Many people said it would not work and that it was beyond the capability of Botswana,” he said. “Well, they were wrong because the move was seamless and it has been a huge success.”

In addition to discussing this point, the panel spent most of the discussion debating the moves by African producer states over the last decade to beneficiate their diamond resources. Rather than simply sell their rough diamonds, as has historically been the case, countries including South Africa – where the beneficiation moves originated – Botswana, Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe are eager to bring added value to their resources by sorting, aggregating and cutting and polishing diamonds, as well as designing and manufacturing diamond jewelry.

Panel and audience members agreed that beneficiation efforts should have started long ago, but now that they had begun, they were enjoying global support.

However, concern was raised that, following the closure of polishing plants in Botswana this year, perhaps manufacturing in the continent was not commercially feasible.

Meanwhile, Mr Olla said that beneficiation had to be sustainable, “Laws must be put in place and government policy direction has to be clear. There needs to be positive engagement between governments and industry players and a more dynamic process of interaction. We are not capturing enough of the value of the raw materials that we dig out.”

The final panel of the Conference – and arguably the most pressing issue affecting

the industry – was on the issue of finance. The issue has gained increased prominence over the past year as institutions, such as the Antwerp Diamond Bank (ADB) and the New York branch of Israel’s Bank Leumi, have withdrawn from diamond financing.

Although the ADB case was enforced on it due to a decision of its parent company, KBC, in Belgium, the bank’s withdrawal after 80 years of servicing the diamond sector in Antwerp has created problems for many of its diamond industry clients in the city.

The issue of transparency and access to full company information and data was emphasized by members of the Finance panel.

The banking experts stressed that in addition to transparency, it was important for banks to be able to have a full understanding of diamond companies’ operations, but this was not always clear to the banks due to the fact that the companies’ operations are often private, and family-owned with information about its financial transactions difficult to secure.

Emirates NBD bank, as well as Mashreq and National Bank of Fujairah said they would be supporting Dubai’s growing diamond business to enable trading of diamonds. “I am delighted to hear the three banks say this,” said Peter Meeus. “There have been many concerns about financing for the industry in Dubai and around the world. Dubai is the one place in the world where new finance is being made available to the diamond business.”

Rajiv Jain commented that contrary to media reports, bank credit is in fact available to quality companies, especially those that are adopting the accounting standards required by De Beers for companies to be sightholders in its 2015-2018 contract period.

Panel members also agreed that building a global network of relationships played an important role in judging whether firms should receive credit. Davy Blommaert of National Bank of Fujairah said that having lived in Antwerp, Mumbai and Dubai, he had built up a network of connections that allowed him “to feel the pulse” in each location by being able to call people around the world to get information. “Not all big firms are good and not all small ones are bad, so you have to be flexible in your approach,” he said.

The Finance panel moderator, Peter Meeus, told the audience at the conclusion of the panel, and of the conference, that the Dubai Diamond Exchange was planning to hold three seminars this year on the issue of diamond industry financing due to the importance of the issue for the global diamond business. “Financing is the most important single issue for the diamond sector,” he said. l

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Going to the Office?

BYO Apple Watch By: Chris Kozup, Senior Director, Aruba Networks

The launch of the Apple Watch heralds the transformation of BYOD into BYOX. How can businesses accommodate #GenMobile’s adoption of wearables, while still staying in control?

escribed as “Gorgeous”, “Beautiful”, “Epic”, “and actually useful”, you would be forgiven for thinking that we were talking about a technological watch, but these are just a few of the accolades from the reviewers of the Apple Watch. The new device despite not being the first of its kind in the market, does holds the potential of becoming as ubiquitous as the iPhone or the iPod. However the expected popularity of the Apple Watch raises interesting challenges for CIOs and IT managers. The Apple Watch is merely the first wave of an expected tsunami of BYOD smart devices and Internet-of-Things (IoT) wearables that have

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the potential to take the workplace by storm, which will open up new risks to corporate data privacy and security.

It’s highly likely that the first Apple Watches in the workplace will be personally owned. Yet these devices will be able to interact with corporate networks - and access, download and store company data. Other wearables (not the current version of the Apple Watch) come with built-in cameras. In fact, one of the more interesting features of the Apple Watch is the ability to tether to and control iPhones over a remote connection.

IT departments will be understandably worried about the impact of the Apple Watch on the workplace. Even though

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It’s highly likely that the first Apple Watches in the workplace will be personally owned. Yet these devices will be able to interact with corporate networks, and access, download and store company data many organisations have already adopted BYOD policies, several new conundrums will pop up.

At the very top of the list: is it appropriate to allow wearable devices to connect to enterprise networks? What if the device is already tethered to a smartphone that has already been given access?

Bear in mind that, according to a study by Aruba Networks, the new generation of employees, dubbed #GenMobile, expect mobility at the workplace to be a given, so any blanket decision to ban such devices from the workplace will be highly unpopular. In fact, almost two thirds of study respondents say they use mobile devices to help them manage their work and personal lives better.

If the decision is made to accept Apple Watches and other wearables into the organisation, will existing BYOD policies that govern the use of corporate data be enough or will new policies be required?

When tinkering with these policies, CIOs have to keep in mind the fact that there will be other IoT-based devices coming along that could be embedded into an employee’s clothing or even office pantry appliances. In fact, the acronym “BYOD” will soon

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Is it appropriate to allow wearable devices to connect to enterprise networks? What if the device is already tethered to a smartphone that has already been given access? have to be replaced with “BYOX”, with the “X” symbolising “practically anything”.

Once policies have been amended appropriately, then and only then, can CIOs turn their attention to the underlying communications network.

Many IT organisations have already put in place solutions that can secure any mobile device that connects to corporate Wi-Fi; giving them complete visibility of the number, type and frequency of mobile devices assessing their network. What’s more, these platforms are also capable of enforcing flexible security policies that are capable of analysing and acting on, the context of

how an employee uses the mobile device.

For instance, an employee using an Apple Watch at a coffee shop to access corporate data may not be granted the same level of access as one who uses a PC during office hours. Depending on the context, different policies can be applied to make sure that the right balance between flexibility and security is met.

Given these considerations, CIOs will need to skillfully juggle the competing requirements to arrive at an enlightened BYOX policy that is most appropriate to company’s needs. The Apple Watch certainly won’t make that juggling act any easier, but it will certainly make it more beautiful. l

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Close the IT Relevance Gap by Transforming the Old IP to the New IP By: Yarob Sakhnini, Regional Director, Brocade

We are entering the era of the “third platform”, which also has distinct hallmarks in terms of innovation: Cloud, Mobility, Social, and Big Data are all a part of it. Gartner calls these elements the “Nexus of Forces” and advocates the need for enterprises to become digital businesses in order to survive this next wave of disruption

n the last three years, cloud spending has increased to US$65 billion worldwide. We have gone from connecting places and people to connecting things: billions and eventually trillions of things. The one thing about these things is that they love to generate and consume data.

The challenge is that all of the data takes a lot of work to manage - it has to be stored, moved and analysed before it becomes truly valuable information.

The speed of innovation of cloud service providers such as Amazon and Google, in combination with the low cost of delivery, is creating a relevance gap for IT departments and traditional service providers. Every day, users go around these entities to buy IT services and applications directly from the cloud. User expectations for self-service, immediate delivery, and a faster pace of innovation are rising by the day. But for many companies, the IT department struggles to keep pace. The network architecture is outdated, because it was never designed to meet these needs, and 70 percent of the IT budget is spent on maintaining the old infrastructure.

These legacy IP networks, which are often referred to as “old IP” have served incredibly well for the last 20 years. The resiliency of these networks is a testimony to IP’s elegance. Nobody is suggesting that we get rid of it,

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but staying the course is not an option. A dramatic change is needed. The good news is that an advanced but evolutionary networking architecture is here—the New IP. The New IP What is the New IP? It’s the old IP networks reimagined for a modern world and designed to meet the needs of Cloud, Mobile, Social, and Big Data. The New IP is a new way to architect an IP network, and it includes both hardware and software, to provide profound business and technology benefits.

The old IP is based on closed systems in which innovation cycles are constrained by custom hardware, while the provisioning of network resources is a complex and labour-intensive task. Interoperation is limited, vendors are at the centre of the ecosystem, costs are high, and innovation is slow.

In contrast, the New IP is based on open source and open standards that extend beyond proprietary adherence to industry standards. The New IP gives IT the choice to use COTS-based or workload-specific commodity hardware. Provisioning network resources is automated and can be done in a self-service model. Open APIs are the key to interoperability, the customer is at the centre of the ecosystem, CapEx and OpEx costs are reduced,

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In the last three years, cloud spending has increased to US$65 billion worldwide and innovation happens at the speed of business. There are four essential attributes to the New IP as detailed below: Open With A Purpose The New IP allows components and services to be assembled from a broad community of innovators in order to solve challenges in new ways and it lets you combine vendors using open APIs, whilst adjusting your strategy and rate of innovation by giving you the freedom to choose and the flexibility to change.

Innovation-Centric And SoftwareEnabled Today’s industries demand innovation to power their growth.

The New IP provides a platform for fast innovation. The software allows programmatic control over complex tasks, freeing IT to focus on strategic challenges to enable business growth and fast pivots as strategies and offerings shift with market forces.

Ecosystem Driven – User Centric The New IP goes beyond singlevendor limitations to allow businesses to keep pace with innovation by tapping into and building upon a vast pool of resources. With the New IP, innovations and solutions can come from anywhere.

For example, best-in-class security from a preferred security vendor can be built into the network instead of “bolted on”—requiring network traffic be routed to the security appliance for inspection.

The ecosystem-centric approach of the New IP makes this possible in a way the vendor-centric model of the last 20 years does not On Your Terms Taking evolutionary steps with the New IP, you can start transforming your infrastructure, your IT organisation, and your business to achieve revolutionary results. It is

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Gartner predicts that over the next 20 years, every business regardless of industry will become a digital business found that enterprises can start deploying applications as much as 90 percent faster and cut operational expenses by as much as 50 percent. On top of this, CapEx can be reduced and agility improved by replacing hardwarebased appliances with virtualised network functions that run on commodity servers, or that are provided directly from the cloud as an edge service. You don’t have to take a rip-andreplace approach. You can think big and start small, while you move rapidly towards agile network architecture.

There are some surprising implications for enterprises that choose to build networks on these new IP attributes: The datacenter is everywhere and anywhere - The New IP allows you to host and manage your workloads from any source (private cloud, public cloud, or hybrid cloud) based on business goals and corporate policies. This approach improves efficiency, scalability, and agility and makes the IT organisation a better provider of services to its internal customers, vendors, and partners.

You’re able to move faster and be more efficient than your competition - Your business needs to move and innovate faster and run

leaner than ever before. The New IP helps accelerate innovation, reduces operational overhead, and gives you the control you need to stay ahead of your competition.

Your users are at the centre of the New IP ecosystem - Every one of your users and every one of their applications can have their own network with the services, quality, and security specific to their needs. There is no network edge, in the traditional sense of the word, in the New IP, the network can modify itself based on the device and location. The edge happens where the user interfaces with the network, applications and services. The result is the highest-quality, most cost-effective user experience possible. In short, the New IP is a modern network built on your terms.

Gartner predicts that over the next 20 years, every business, regardless of industry, will become a digital business. The implications of this shift to the underlying network infrastructure, and the teams that provide and support them, are profound.

If enterprises in the Middle East are to stay ahead of the curve and survive the next wave of disruption, it is imperative that they make investments in the New IP. l

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Smart Technologies Reshaping Regional Tourism Landscape Global growth in mobile bookings expected to reach 35% of online travel bookings by 2018 as wearable technology takes off; opportunities in business tourism development also highlighted with Dubai 2020 the primary catalyst in the Euromonitor Global Trends Report uromonitor International has released its latest tourism Global Trends report at Arabian Travel Market (ATM), with up-to-date insight into MENA economic trends and specific emphasis on the future impact of smart technologies and opportunities for business tourism growth in the region.

The report findings, which cover seven regions: the Americas, the UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and India, were presented by Kinda Chebib, Senior Analyst, Euromonitor International at a packed VISA Seminar Theatre session.

“Destination services, personalisation, mobile bookings and peer-to-peer are expected to be the main disruptive forces in the travel industry over the next five years, but what is particularly worth noting is the rise in mobile technology as a transformational channel for the tourism landscape in terms of bookings, customer service and consumer behaviour,” noted Chebib.

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The Middle East Looking at the Middle East specifically, Euromonitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for 2013-15 show US$ percentage growth in air transport value set to rise from

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6.1% to 12%, hotel value rising from 7.4% to 9.1% and travel retail value predicted to jump from 7.1% to 9.7%.

Incoming tourist receipts will also grow by as much as 10.9% in 2014 and 10.4% in 2015, driven by infrastructure developments, with the GCC countries the primary beneficiaries.

Business Tourism The report also highlighted new areas of tourism development opportunity with the design industry a potential catalyst for growth as well as the forthcoming Dubai Expo 2020. Said Chebib, “The Middle East is positioning itself as a design hub, from Beirut, which has the talent and production capabilities, to Dubai, which has the financial resources to create the environment. In recent years, events such as Design Days Dubai and Beirut Design Week have attracted international design professionals and helped design a new face of the Middle East.”

Chebib says that this is promoting a new dimension in tourism with events such as Design Days attracting 12,150 visitors in 2014, 40% of which were regional and international tourists, and showcasing a different facet

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technology

to Dubai’s cultural proposition. “In the run-up to Expo 2020, the opportunities to develop the business tourism segment are significant, and the Euromonitor International Global Trends report provides insightful data for industry strategists looking to fine tune their offering/products as we count down to the end of the decade,” said Nadege NobletSegers, Exhibition Manager, Arabian Travel Market.

“Business tourism currently accounts for 20% of all tourism receipts in Dubai and UAE MICE sector business generates US$653 million per year; so with the goal of doubling the number of visitors to the UAE to 20 million per annum, this is an exciting time for the industry,” she added.

Wearable Devices In her presentation, Chebib also looked at the mainstreaming of wearable electronics and the correlation between the growth in travel technology and upswing in online travel sales, which reached US$590 billion in 2013, or 27% of all travel sales. “While Asia Pacific is expected to drive global growth in online travel, with its online travel sales set to double from US$90 billion in 2013 to US$180 billion in 2018, it is a growing global trend.

Mobile devices are increasingly key in the travel industry in terms of both customer service and bookings with mobile bookings are expected to reach 35% of online travel bookings by 2018,” she said.

Big data analytics, peer-to-peer services and in-destination services are currently the fastest growing trends in online travel and, according to Chebib, wearable electronics is set to become the next big thing for travellers.

Historically compute transitions have always driven network evolution growing proclivity for, and financial accessibility to, the latest hi-tech gadgets, so with wearable technology predicted to be an instant winner in the region when it becomes mainstream sometime in 2016, this means that the industry will need to up its game in terms of understanding the functionality of working with multi-platform devices as well as the need for instantaneous response to clients/travellers expecting 24/7 connectivity,” noted Noblet-Segers.

“This is expected to be a key area of competition in the travel industry over the next few years, with companies increasingly focusing on the period after the booking and during the whole trip,” added Chebib.

Euromonitor data predicts that wearable internet-connected devices are expected to rise from nine million units sold globally in 2013 to a forecasted 180 million in 2016 led by demand for the Apple Watch.

As ATM’s fastest growing sector, travel technology has been integrated into a single event for 2015 under the banner of The Travel Tech Show. Following the format of the successful Travel Tech Show at World Travel Market (WTM) in London, ATM is building on this success to deliver technology buyers and develop the Travel Technology Seminar programme. ATM has also welcomed Sabre as its 2015 Innovation Technology Partner. l

The Changes A number of travel companies and technology developers are already addressing the trend with Expedia releasing a traveller notification app for the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch in August 2014, and working on one for Google Glass; Starwood creating its own Google Glass app that allows bookings and provides hotel directions, as well as plans to use the Apple Watch as a room key in future; and Iberia, Vueling and Air Berlin have announced that their passengers will be able to download boarding passes directly onto their wearable devices.

“Gulf residents and those in certain other parts of the Middle East have a

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May 2015 | 59

technology

Mobile Apps are the New Face of Businesses, finds Oracle An Oracle survey reveals millennials unlikely to use a company’s products or services following a poor app experience ew research from Oracle reveals that nearly 55% of millennials say a poor mobile app experience would make them less likely to use a company’s products or services.

According to the global report, Millennials and mobility: how businesses can tap into the app generation, 39 percent of millennials would also be less likely to recommend a company’s products or services to others following a poor app experience, and 27 percent admit it would even give them a negative view of that organisation’s products or services altogether.

These findings make it clear that if companies cannot provide current and prospective customers with engaging mobile app experience that also accurately reflects the values of their brand, they risk alienating the millennial generation and seeing their competition pull ahead with a more convincing mobile offering. Suhas Uliyar, VP Mobile Strategy and Product Management at Oracle said, “An engaging and personalised user experience has become the new weapon in the battle to attract and retain millennial customers.

Businesses that cannot add value for customers with a more convenient, functional, and relevant mobile experience have little chance of coming out on top.”

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Push Notifications The report also shows that millennials are turned off by unsolicited communications in the form of push-notifications that aren’t relevant to their individual needs, but are happy to receive support in the form of value-added communications from businesses.

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73 percent “like” the ability to purchase a company’s product or service using a mobile app.

Likewise, 71 percent like the ability to manage billing for services, and 65 percent like being able to flag issues or complaints to a business via a mobile app.

That said, more than half (56 percent) would prefer not to receive push-notifications. The same percentage rarely act on the push-notifications they do receive, even though nearly 50 percent admit these are personalised to them. To this point, Uliyar added, “The ability to manage bills or flag service issues to a company via a mobile app implies an agreed-upon relationship between a customer and brand or service provider. The story is completely different in the case of pushnotifications. Organisations will need to provide app-based services that deftly tread the line between helpfulness and overbearingness if they want to tap into young peoples’ affinity for using mobile and tablet apps without alienating them.”

Work Apps A region-specific breakdown of the survey reveals that young people in APAC are miles ahead in their app use across the board, most notably so when it comes to apps for work and more “serious” functions.

Nearly three times as many millennials in APAC than in EMEA rate their work apps as absolute must-haves, with a similar ratio holding true for security apps. In addition, while millennials around the world have each downloaded between 20-25 mobile apps on average, 40 percent of those in APAC have paid for as many as five of these, compared with

roughly 25 percent of those in EMEA and North America.

For millennials in APAC, mobile apps are not just “nice-to-haves”, they are necessary resources in their day-to-day lives. Young people in this region are constantly on the lookout for new innovative apps and, encouragingly for businesses, are willing to pay for applications that deliver a valuable experience Smartphone V. Tablets On a global scale, the research points to a telling discrepancy between smartphone and tablet app use among millennials. While young people use tablets on a considerable scale, smartphones remain their device of choice for accessing mobile apps. For example, 61 percent of millennials have uploaded media content using a smartphone app, nearly twice as many as have done so with a tablet (35 percent). When it comes to transferring money to a friend, 48 percent have used a smartphone app to do so, versus 22 percent that resorted to tablet apps.

“There clearly remains much room for innovation when it comes to tablet apps, as well as apps for larger form phablets, and companies that answer the call will be well-placed to capitalise on a still maturing market. However apps for smartphones and tablets should not be developed independently from each other.

Many millennials own multiple connected devices, and businesses will need to deliver a consistent, high-quality app experience across all of these if they want to add value for their customers,” said Uliyar. l

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technology

Redefining Mobile Data Management By: Nigel Tozer, Product Marketing Director EMEA, CommVault

The consumerisation of IT has brought together two very powerful forces: mobility and cloud. Either of these two represents a major shift on their own, but how they interact is giving organisations a real headache. Primarily because of the expectation of users – who want a few simple things: all of their own data and the corporate data they need for their job, anytime and everywhere.

Modern users also want easy and secure ways to share data with colleagues, business partners and customers. Simple. f it is to match the expectations of their users and get the productivity boost promised by mobility, it is important for organisations to move beyond traditional storage practices and adopt more user-centric approaches.

This means giving users the same sort of experience from your organisation that they already get from mobile devices and the consumer clouds that come with them, with regard to data access and sharing.

This is no small challenge; it is now commonplace in most organisations for more data to exist on mobile devices than in the datacenter. There is also pressure to tighten security and governance on mobile data at the same time users want more access made easier.

It’s a sad state that IT support for data on mobile devices usually only extends to basic backup for laptops (though even that is all too rare) with little or no provision made for smartphones and tablets. But if you’re going to the trouble of

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It’s commonplace for teams to share data in open public cloud folders and there are many examples of companies falling-foul of this. I heard recently of a sales team at another company that kept their prospect list in such a share folder, and one of the team that left for a competitor was still able to access it many months later...

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technology

compelled to stop, or offered an equally effective option by IT, you can bet they will continue to use it. This willingness to bypass the IT department to arrive at an acceptable experience can cause all manner of headaches for an organisation that needs to ensure data is secure, be that for commercial or regulatory reasons.

Part of the problem is that neither side of the mobility and public cloud equation (users and IT) is looking at the issue from each other’s perspective. ‘Selfish users’ want the freedom to make their work as easy as possible and the ‘draconian IT team’ does not understand how users go about their jobs.

Nigel has over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry with the past fifteen years focused on storage and data management.

He has helped organisations ranging from SME’s to multi-national corporations deal with their storage management challenges, ranging from backup & recovery through to archiving, compliance & information management.

This is no small challenge; it is now commonplace in most organisations for more data to exist on mobile devices than in the datacenter collecting data on laptops, maybe you could do more with it. And if you could do more with it, maybe there’s more reason to invest in managing mobile data?

Data Management Failure to manage data on mobile devices causes significant (but avoidable) risk and related cost issues while, at the same time, stifling productivity. Users can be relied on to find ways to circumvent anything they don’t like when it comes to the IT department and this is especially true when it comes to mobile devices. If users are told not to use private cloud storage but not

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Tough Questions Don’t Always Require Hard Answers So how do organisations deliver a data management strategy that suits users and IT in the mobility landscape? The answer is that they need to redefine data management and give data mobility the weight of consideration it deserves.

To do that, they need to ask (and answer) a number of questions: zz zz zz zz zz

What data is on mobile devices?

What importance does the data carry?

Where is the data being stored?

How is it used?

What are the risks associated with the data?

It’s remarkable how often CIOs, even IT managers, avoid these questions because they feel they could be too difficult to address or, even worse, that they could lead to a revolt within the organisation if they result in draconian measures being put in place. It doesn’t have to be like that. In reality, businesses don’t have to invade staff privacy to arrive at a more effective data management regime. The fact is they can provide the controls required to improve security, risk and productivity without antagonising their employees.

As for those who refuse to acknowledge there is an issue at all, they need to realise that pretending Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) isn’t happening

and isn’t widespread is not an acceptable excuse for inaction. It’s commonplace for teams to share data in open public cloud folders and there are many real-life examples of companies’ falling-foul of this. I heard recently of a sales team at another company that kept their prospect list in such a share and one of the team that left for a competitor was still able to access it many months later.

Strike The Right Balance It is possible for organisations to mitigate all of these challenges and provide the productivity tools that users are happy with.

The wide availability of fast networks and modern de-duplication technologies mean that collecting data from user’s laptops isn’t intrusive or the storage challenge it used to be, and once back to your datacenter, you can start to do things with the data that works in everyone’s favour.

Once user data comes under control again you can then enable secure, in-house sync and share features, keeping files synchronised and accessible on all their mobile devices, so employees have what they need, when they need it. File sharing inside or outside the organisation becomes simple for users whatever device they are using and it can be managed, with access properly controlled and made secure. The regular collection from user’s devices effectively becomes a backup, keeping them productive even if the worst happens, all with the security of remote wipe for lost or stolen devices.

Then there is the matter of governance if there’s a chance the data on mobile devices affects the company’s compliance status. As the mobile workforce continues to grow and more data gets generated outside the datacenter, bringing endpoint data into a searchable dataset for governance, compliance or legal reasons becomes critical.

This does raise privacy concerns for some though. Organisations need be completely transparent about what is collected and how it is used; there needs to be a privacy charter created for employees. The good news is that this isn’t as hard as it seems and, with the right technology, corporate actions can be audited for transparency.

It may not be apparent to organisations and users that mobility can introduce significant risks to their established data management regimes. But if businesses want to ensure they are ready to flourish in the much-altered landscape ushered in by combined mobility and cloud functions, they need to look for solutions that enable them to access and use data no matter where it resides. It may not be as hard as you expect but it’s certainly more urgent than you think. l

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technology

Is SSL Hurting More Than Helping Middle East Organisations?

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

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption is a double-edged sword for many organisations in the Middle East t bolsters security by providing confidentiality and message integrity. It also enables organisations to verify the identity of application owners and allows applications to authenticate users with client certificates. Unfortunately, attackers to infiltrate enterprises can also use encryption.

Encryption puts organisations at risk.

Hackers leverage encryption to conceal their exploits from security devices like firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, forensics solutions, and more that can’t keep up with increasing SSL decryption demands or that cannot decrypt SSL traffic at all because of their location in the network.

According to a recent Gartner survey, “Less than 20 percent of organisations with a firewall, an intrusion prevention system (IPS) or a unified threat management (UTM) appliance decrypt inbound or outbound SSL traffic.” This means that hackers can evade over 80 percent of an organisation’s network defenses simply by tunneling attacks in encrypted traffic.

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SSL/TLS is the New Default Transportation Protocol SSL usage has become ubiquitous, and many leading websites now encrypt every web request and response. In fact, 48 percent more of the million most popular websites used SSL in 2014

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than a year earlier. However, the transition from 1024- to 2048-bit SSL key lengths, combined with growing SSL bandwidth demands, has burdened security devices that decrypt SSL traffic. The impact of decryption on security devices is startling. Analysis by NSS Labs reveals that 2048bit SSL ciphers, “caused a mean average of 81 percent in performance loss” for seven leading next-generation firewalls.

However, encrypted traffic is often not protected with intrusion protection technology.

Cyber tools are not protecting the organisation’s assets and are letting encrypted traffic pass through the network unchecked.

But wait a minute—didn’t we solve SSL performance problems in the data center years ago? Specialised appliances, load balancers, application delivery optimisation, and offloading CPU-intensive SSL encryption processes are all aimed to address these issues. However, in addition organisations need modern tools to secure and optimise their modern firewalls and cyber protections.

To help organisations decrypt and inspect SSL traffic without degrading network performance, third-party security devices can be used to inspect encrypted traffic and eliminate the blind spot imposed by SSL encryption.

These security devices have the capabilities to uncover cyber attacks hidden in SSL traffic and

maximise uptime by load-balancing multiple third-party security appliances. At the same time they can scale performance and throughput to successfully counter advanced threats, whilst deploying best-of-breed content inspection solutions to fend off attacks and malware.

In today’s work environment, more and more network traffic is being encrypted. As information technology managers, we need to ensure the correct information is being protected, while the necessary infrastructure is in place to protect the organisation. Managed correctly, SSL traffic can provide the necessary protections while not exposing the vulnerabilities on the company’s security infrastructure. l

Less than 20 percent of organisations with a firewall, an intrusion prevention system (IPS) or a unified threat management (UTM) appliance decrypt inbound or outbound SSL traffic” Gartner

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property

Shifting Landscape Puts Northern Emirates Under Spotlight Changes to residential property ownership laws in the Northern Emirate of Sharjah has prompted new interest in the development of affordable expatriate-focused accommodation, according to the latest Asteco market report

Fujairah

Sharjah

n its UAE Property Review – Q1 2015 Report, the Middle East’s largest full service real estate company noted that with the February 2015 announcement of the Al Rayyan mixed-use project, which is the first development available on a 100-year leasehold basis for all nationalities, the emirate is moving into a new phase of market development.

“This project, which will offer 504 high quality apartments with two-bedroom units priced at around AED1 million, presents new opportunities for expatriate investors looking for an entry point into the market but for whom affordability is key, and location close to the Dubai border is important,” said John Stevens, Managing Director, Asteco.

Located in the busy Al Nahda area, close to the Dubai border, the development will also feature an office tower and mall, and is due for handover in Q2 2016.

“However, despite this groundbreaking move, we haven’t as yet seen comparable levels of transaction activity to match the number of enquiries as there is still some price point sensitivity,” added Stevens.

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Fujairah Port

Elsewhere in the Northern Emirates, Fujairah is also witnessing something of a real estate renaissance in Q1 with strong leasing demand for apartments.

“The government of Fujairah has made significant investment into infrastructure improvements, such as at its Fujairah Port and Free Zone, to drive economic activity, and

In Ras Al Khaimah, villas within the Mina Al Arab and Al Hamra communities continued to be popular with expatriate buyers due to their value for money

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property

this has resulted in increased demand which has prompted considerable real estate development,” noted Stevens.

Ras Al Khaimah similarly witnessed good levels of residential leasing demand largely driven by local economic activity from its ports and free zones.

Development activity in Fujairah has been most evident in the northern district of Shariya, with sizeable development of studio, one and two-bedroom units. These units rent from AED 20,000 for a studio up to AED 38,000 for a two-bedroom unit and appeal to the affordable segments of the market.

A further 250 apartments are scheduled for completion by the end of this year with a similar volume of new units in the pipeline for 2016.

“At the higher end of the residential spectrum, only limited developments are available in Fujairah, including the upscale Al Jaber Tower and Al Rostamani Tower; both of which have positioned themselves as the best

Preferred areas in Sharjah remained unchanged with the Corniche, Al Nahda, Majaz and Abu Shagara districts continuing to see high occupancy levels in better quality buildings. These four districts recorded negligible respective quarter-on-quarter movement at between -1% to zero percent

Sharjah’s commercial sector remained stagnant with little or no transactions versus Q4 2014 performance despite small increase in demand from businesses looking to set up in the city, with office space on the Corniche, along Mina Road and in Al Wahda, being the most sought after locations

addresses in Fujairah over the last few years, with close to full occupancies,” added Stevens.

The two towers offer large apartments, some with sea views, and extensive facilities including swimming pool, gym, squash courts and underground parking, and are commanding average annual rents upwards of AED 60,000 and AED 85,000 respectively for a two and three-bedroom unit.

Despite legislative changes and development activity overall, the number of sales transactions in Q1 remained low, especially in Ras Al Khaimah, despite improvement in sales prices over the last few years.

Popular developments include the US$2 billion, 25 million-square-foot masterplanned Tilal City project, situated close to the Al Dhaid interchange and Sharjah’s outlying communities.

Launched in Q4 2014, the project offers plots of land for development and has attracted considerable interest from both developers and end users looking to construct their own villas. Asteco reports that villa plots have virtually sold out due to a low entry land price of AED 30 per square foot.

In Ras Al Khaimah, villas within the Mina Al Arab and Al Hamra communities

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Ras Al Khaimah creek

continued to be popular with expatriate buyers due to their value for money.

Mirroring the situation in Q4 2014, rental rates remained stable in Q1 2015 although marginal declines were recorded in Ajman and Sharjah as rental rates in neighboring Dubai continued to settle, effectively reducing any tenant migration.

Preferred areas in Sharjah remained unchanged with the Corniche, Al Nahda, Majaz and Abu Shagara districts continuing to see high occupancy levels in better quality buildings. These four districts recorded negligible respective quarter-on-quarter movement at between -1% to zero percent.

A one-bedroom apartment on the Corniche currently rents for up to AED 50,000 with a two-bedroom reaching up to AED 80,000. In Abu Shagara, one-beds command up to AED 38,000 with two-bed units available for up to AED 48,000.

Sharjah’s commercial sector remained stagnant with little or no transactions versus Q4 2014 performance despite small increase in demand from businesses looking to set up in the city, with office space on the Corniche, along Mina Road and in Al Wahda, being the most sought after locations. l

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business incubator

RAK Hospitality Holding Concludes AED 880 Million Debt Transaction with Mashreq and Arab Bank Facility will be used for consolidating and refinancing existing debt, acquisition finance for two hotels and new finance for two hotel refurbishment projects AK Hospitality Holding (RAKHH), an asset owner and manager of a diverse portfolio of government owned hotels, hospitality and leisure assets in Ras Al Khaimah, today announced that it concluded an AED 880 million debt transaction in respect of its four internationally branded hotels, which are held by its subsidiary, RAK National Hotels (RAKNH).

Established in 2014 by the government of Ras Al Khaimah, RAKHH was formed with a mandate to consolidate and asset manage a diverse portfolio of government owned hotels, hospitality and leisure assets. RAK Hospitality Holding manages subsidiary companies that oversee the entire value chain of hospitality related services in Ras Al Khaimah. Its subsidiaries include; RAKNH; which owns hotel assets ranging from midscale to luxury, and locations ranging from city to beach to desert; namely the Hilton Ras Al Khaimah, Hilton Resort and Spa, Rixos Bab Al Bahr, Banyan Tree Al Wadi, RAK Hospitality Asset Management;

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the asset management and development advisory arm, RAK Hospitality Logistics; the provider of services and logistics to Ras Al Khaimah’s hospitality sector, Hakaya Collection; the operating arm of hospitality and leisure assets.

Mashreq was the underwriter, mandated lead arranger and bookrunner for the 8-year loan facility with Arab Bank, as the mandated arranger. As the oldest bank in the UAE, Mashreq has more firsts than any other bank and a proven track record in innovation. With an extensive branch network across the UAE, Mashreq is also present in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt and 26 overseas offices in 12 countries spread across Europe, USA, Asia and Africa providing a comprehensive range of international financial services. Locally and regionally, Mashreq has established itself as a market leader by delivering award-winning customer experiences and innovative thinking across its financial products and services. The Bank’s Islamic Window Mashreq Al Islamic

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travel & hospitality

“Tourism is leading the way in Ras Al Khaimah and we are delighted that prominent financial institutions such as Mashreq and Arab Bank believe in the future of this industry and have strategically chosen to invest in RAK Hospitality Holding” Sheikh Ahmad Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Chairman of RAK Hospitality Holding takes a highly technological approach to banking, allowing customers to experience Sharia’h Compliant financial banking solutions online. Allen and Overy acted as legal counsel for the lender and Clyde and Co represented the borrower.

The debt facility will be used by RAKHH as acquisition finance to partially fund the purchase of two hotels (Rixos Bab Al Bahr in Marjan Island and Banyan Tree Al Wadi), refurbishment finance for two hotels (Hilton Ras Al Khaimah and Hilton Resort & Spa Ras Al Khaimah) and for consolidation and refinancing existing debt.

In this occasion, Sheikh Ahmad Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Chairman of RAK Hospitality Holding said, “Tourism is leading the way in Ras Al Khaimah and we are delighted that prominent financial institutions such as Mashreq and Arab Bank believe in the future of this industry and have strategically chosen to invest in RAK Hospitality Holding. We look forward to becoming a success story through the knowledge that our team brings to the business and which we’re going to incorporate into our development plans.

We are confident that the next phase of our development will be a massive support to the efforts of the government of Ras Al Khaimah; in boosting the development of

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our hotels and in playing a major role to place the global spot light on ‘Destination RAK’.”

Commenting on the deal, Yannis Anagnostakis, RAK Hospitality Holding CEO said, “This is a significant transaction for us, particularly as it marks the first step in the development of RAK Hospitality Holding’s ambitious programme. This deal will allow us to implement our growth strategy and to follow the government’s vision in setting new standards for the hospitality sector in Ras Al Khaimah. Our hotels, owned by our subsidiary RAKNH, capitalise on the strength of market demand in Ras Al Khaimah, which has been growing year on year, making us attractive for banking partners like Mashreq and Arab Bank.” He added, “The conclusion of this debt transaction confirms RAKHH’s solid financial platform. It allows us to concentrate on extracting maximum value from our existing assets and at the same time focus on investment opportunities that support our growth plans. We want to create memorable experiences for local guests and visitors from around the world.”

John Iossifidis, Head of Corporate & Investment Banking Group, at Mashreq emphasised the importance of the hospitality sector in the Middle East and how Mashreq, in conjunction with Arab Bank, have been instrumental in successfully closing one of the largest facilities in the hospitality sector in RAK to date, “The successful closure of this transaction reiterates our commitment to growth initiatives of the Emirate. The Government of Ras Al Khaimah has a long standing partnership with Mashreq and we remain committed to working alongside them

to provide solutions to their future financial service needs.”

“We are delighted to be financing RAKNH,” Said Mohammed Masri, UAE Country Manager at Arab Bank plc. As a leading financial institution, Mashreq is committed to supporting every community it serves. In the UAE, the bank pays particular attention to recruiting, training, and developing UAE National employees so it only follows that they would be interested in this project. Mashreq is the only financial institution to receive the Gallup Great Workplace Award for two consecutive years in 2014 and 2015 and is a four times receiver of the CSR Label by Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry in recognition of its global standards in social responsibility.

He continued, “Through this deal, RAKNH will be able to refinance existing debt and carry forward with its growth plans in an important sector of RAK’s economy. It also demonstrates our strong commitment to continue building long term relationships with our strategic clients.”

Arab Bank Group, during the first quarter of 2015, reported net profit after tax and provisions of USD 217.2 million, while assets equalled USD 47.7 billion and owners’ equity reached USD 7.9 billion. As one of the leading banks in the MENA region, Arab Bank plays an integral role in financing vital infrastructure projects and strategic industries throughout the region. True to its founding vision of enabling the Arab world to reach pre-eminence, Arab Bank continues to be an engine of economic growth and an enabler of social and community development. l

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business incubator

How to Give A TED-Style Talk Presentations can often be boring; How many times have you sat in a board meeting staring at a PowerPoint Presentation with too much information on the slides? You are sat there, trying to read it and are you listening to what is being said? Unlikely. How infuriating is it when the speaker moves on to the next slide? Did you even catch the main point the Speaker wanted to make? Possibly not…

Above: Joshua Foer Right: Bill Gates

he best presentations are the renowned TED Talks – You only have to Google them, or go onto YouTube to see how informative they are and, most importantly, how engaging they can be.

TED Talks presentations all follow a similar style. They use your expertise, and experience to engage the audience to really listen to you and believe in what you are saying and what you stand for.

Initially, make the points that you want to illustrate.

You should include a brief bio on yourself to prove your worth to the audience as well as the main points that you want to convey. Once you have made these follow the steps below.

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Clarity Be clear and concise about the points you want to convey. You want your listeners to be able to quote or at least paraphrase what you have to say. If they can do this after the talk, then they have bought into your idea. If they can’t, then you will not be remembered.

Compelling Did you know that you have 60 seconds to capture an audience’s attention or else they’ll start checking their emails?

Do not bother with the standard opening, “Thank you for having me here to speak with you and thank you to the organisers for inviting me.” People aren’t at the Oscars and don’t want to be listening to this. Think of something that is

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business incubator

In any talk or presentation, you should always be thinking of your brand. Keep yours in the forefront of your mind surprising. Maybe even something that people will not believe but you know to be fact.

Nobody wants a sales pitch at a forum unless they are being offered to attend a sales pitch. Think of what the audience want to hear and do not forget this.

Stage Presence Presenters have a whole stage so why stand behind something? By standing behind a lectern, you come across as though you making a sermon not talking about something of interest. If you think about it, standing behind a lectern really does put up a barrier between yourself and the audience, so come out into the light!

Fill the stage, move around it if possible.

You want to appear relaxed, so that your audience will relax and enjoy listening to you.

You want to appear larger then life, so make use of the space available!

You can also engage them more, gesticulate, smile, laugh, question - anything that makes the talk feel like you are just chatting about something as opposed to providing a lecture.

Think Here And Now Quoting facts, especially those that fly in the face of popular belief, will engage the audience. However do not quote facts that are out of date. By doing so, you will lose credibility of being a professional advisor in the given area.

Only Speak On What Is Comfortable To You If someone is telling you to quote information that you know is not the case then don’t repeat this. Only talk about topics that feel right to you. For you to gain credibility with the audience you need to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about. What do you passionately believe in? This is what you need to latch onto and discuss in greater detail.

Testing Before any public speaking role, you should always test out your presentation, on

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Did you know that you have 60 seconds to capture an audience’s attention or else they’ll start checking their emails? colleagues, or good friends, anyone who may wish to give you pointers as to how you can engage the audience more.

Brand In any talk or presentation, you should always be thinking of your brand. Keep yours in the forefront of your mind. Stick to the topics that build your brand. If you are known as authentic and honest, make sure that these are replicated in the speech.

The Big Idea “It’s not enough to be the best at what you do; you must be perceived to be the only one who does what you do,” was said originally by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and this is exactly the point you should be remembering in your talk. No

one wants to hear the same stuff said time and time again, so think of something that gives you the edge - Something that the listeners can learn from. This is what will make both you and your business stick in the minds of the people that are listening.

Do Not Sell The whole point of a TED talk is to demonstrate you know what you are talking about. It is to scale your visibility and viability. It is all about brand awareness. By remembering this, you will find that it will drive business to you.

Ultimately though, all the speakers of TED Talks are enjoying every minute of it. You only need to look at our picutres to see that. If they are enjoying giving the talks, then the audience are all the more likely to enjoy hearing them. l

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business incubator

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Did you know that out of the world’s 80 wealthiest people, only 11 of them inherited their money? The others are all self made. Yes, they may have had money to fall back on to a certain degree, but this pales into insignificance when compared to the amount of money that they have made themselves

Bill Gates, Forbes Richest Man. Net worth US$76

Mark Zuckerberg. Net worth US$34.8 billion

resently, the richest 1% of the world control 48% of the world’s wealth according to Oxfam.

Of these, the top 80 people control US$1.9 trillion total of this wealth. What makes the difference though between them and us?

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Attitude is Key Rich and successful people know you have to have a winner’s mentality. They surround themselves with other, likeminded and successful people. When you surround yourselves by others in this fashion, their effect will rub off on you. Think about it… How do you feel when all someone does is complain about money, the weather, the economy etc.? Conversely, a good attitude rubs off equally as quickly. If you are speaking only with successful people, you want to strive more for success, you feel that nothing is surmountable and you have a wide circle to contact for advice or even just a pep talk when the obstacles do come your way.

In the US it is reported that by LifeandmyFinances.com that immigrants are 4 times more likely to be successful than their counterparts who where born in the States. The UAE is unique in that people regularly comment on how positive the atmosphere is here. Fats Lazarides, the man behind

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Donald Trump. Net worth US$4 billion

Ocean Basket the restaurant food chain with over 189 outlets in 11 countries, said in an interview with Business Insight about a conversation he had with his board member Grace Harding, “We were chatting about the energy you can feel in Dubai. I truly believe that Dubai is the new New York of the world. This the new world and everybody passes here. We believe that the right thing to do for us is to create a Middle East Head Office. Currently, we service the Middle East from South Africa and Cyprus, but that can’t last. Why? Egypt is on-board with Ocean Basket as is Saudi Arabia and Lebanon is knocking on our door. Dubai is literally in the centre of all of these.” Is it that we see the UAE as a land of opportunity, which means both yourself and the UAE, can prosper? If so, this illustrates how key attitude really is.

Opportunities Not Problems The self made have a positive outlook. They view the obstacles that they come across as opportunities not problems. Be it a problem trying to get the correct licensing, to a complaint received from a client, a self made business man will see the silver lining in it. For the licensing, they will understand that networking is vital in order to make the right connections so they try to get what they want. For the complaint, they will see it as a great training tool for

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their member of staff… Everything is an opportunity and a way to learn.

A great way to illustrate the prospective of opportunity versus obstacle is to listen to the shoe salesman story that is told throughout the west. A shoe salesman found himself on an island where they the natives went barefoot. He soon gave up in frustration. Back at headquarters, the first salesman told the story to his colleague.

Also a salesman, this man’s eyes opened wide, “You mean no one has shoes? A whole island of people walks barefoot?

What an amazing untapped market…!”

By seeing obstacles as opportunities, you will find yourself heading along roads that you have never travelled before, but then, why not? It is what all the self made people have done!

Focus The one defining factor of the haves and have-nots is that people without money, have to forgo something in order for them to have something else. They have to be sensible with their money; if you cannot afford it, you don’t buy it.

The difference that has projected the haves from this scenario is that those with money have focused on how they can have both - One will not do at all. They will see that they want something and figure out a business route to get there. If that means buying properties, renovating them and selling them on quickly they will do this – Eventually they will be able to afford the house that they want to buy in cash.

Remuneration The rich have a different way of looking at their remuneration then the average person would have. They believe that they should be compensated for what they bring to the market. Believing in capitalism means that if you are contributing more for the success of an invention, or even the invention itself, then you should be paid accordingly.

Percy Shaw was a British inventor and businessman. It is rumored that his company made millions on his invention of the ‘cats eye’ in 1934 (the road markings that caught in the headlights of cars and lit up to lead the way), as he sold them globally over decades, for a profit of £0.01 per cats eye sold.

Promotion Successful people are all happy to let you and everyone else know it. They are proud of their achievements and are happy

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Richard Branson. Net worth US$4.8 billion

to admit to them. Anyone, who is a success in any field, will tell you about it. Granted, there is a fine line between arrogance and confidence, but certainly, a self-made person should surely have the right to tell you why they have been such a success.

Ultimately, it is about sales. People who have earned a lot of money have done so because they believe in themselves and have had to sell ‘Brand Me’ continuously. They believe in themselves. This is habit forming and is representative throughout life – Just look at Kanye West!

Think Power Lists Forbes have recently released their Rich List for the UK whereby the Queen Elizabeth has fallen to below the top 300 (like anyone could afford to buy Buckingham Palace from her) for the first time since her billionaire status in the 80s’. Regardless of the information that the Rich List contains, it does effectively illustrate that 99% of people who have to think about paying rent and mortgages think in terms of salary, the wealthy know that this is not as important as what their overall net worth is. They understand that keeping money is just as difficult as making it and it is this that makes someone rich.

Continually Self Educate It is not unusual to hear people who have made millions talk about their favourite books. Very often these can be

biographies of other successes, or they can be books on business, just as much as they can be fiction. Regardless as to what it is, they are always reading. They are always hungry to learn more.

Tom Corely, in his studies on “Rich Habits, The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals” found that 85% of rich people, that he defined as having an annual income of US$160,000 and a liquid net worth of US$3.2million, read two or more career related, self improvement and educational books per month, compared to 15% of poor people (Defined by a net income of US$5,000 or US$35,000 annual salary).

He also found that 94% of rich people read newspapers, blogs and news websites, keeping themselves abreast of the daily news, in comparison to just 11% of poor people, all of which illustrate a thirst for continual knowledge.

A Winning Mentality The people who have made their millions did so because they don’t give up. They don’t look at problems that they encounter and run in the opposite direction. In fact, they will tackle it head on. How many times has, “Don’t give up” been the ultimate advice that a businessperson would impart on any new entrepreneur? If so many successful people feel this way, then success is what you make it – It certainly isn’t just luck. Ultimately though, should we not be taking their advice? l

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business incubator

Ways To Ruin Your Credibility

We have all seen the Facebook posts where people mistake their “Theres”, or the text speak that people think is OK to put on their CVs. It infuriates us all. Beyond this however, it makes the writer appear to be uneducated, unintelligent and therefore gives them no credibility he written word is a very powerful tool that should be wielded carefully. How many times has someone emailed you and you mistakenly believed that you have done something wrong? Here are some mistakes that are made often which people should steer clear of.

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Writing in CAPITALS Writing in capitals makes people sound aggressive and for the reader, they will read it as though someone is shouting at them. Do you want to do business with someone who is always angry?

Apostrophes There is nothing worse than the blatant misuse of apostrophes to make you want to scream, “Are you really that dumb?”

As a general rule, an apostrophe indicates that there is a number or letter missing. For example “it’s” indicates that this should mean, “It is”.

To use “its” in a sentence can be correct when you are talking in the possessive. For example, “the cat ate its

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dinner”. The reason for this is that saying or writing, “the cat ate it is dinner” (which is what you would be saying if you included the apostrophe) would clearly be incorrect.

This simple rule can be applied to “Their and They’re” as well as other words like “Who’s” and “Whose”.

Outright Lying Using words like “literally” in a sentence is an easy way people trip themselves up. Literally means “actually” or “in a strict sense” so by saying that you are “Literally going to throw your computer out of the window in a minute if it doesn’t start doing what I am asking”, will make you sound rather stupid to some people.

Saying “Fortay” instead of Fort The correct pronunciation is surprisingly Fort (as in an English Fort and Moat) – as everyone I can think of says Fortay.

If you want to illustrate that something isn’t your strong point, it may be best to literally say, “this isn’t my strong point” (did you see what I did there), thus avoiding a prolonged debate in which phones will be produced to prove you are correct. Yes, I have been there! l

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