Dubai: Businessmen’s Heaven

I don’t know why, but I always enjoyed travelling in the Middle East. It could be the culture, the music & the rhythm that always fascinated me or the people whom I shared a lot in common or the great food that is always the joy of life for me. Arabic is also the language that I always wanted to learn but never had chance since English is always the language that is mostly needed to survive. I have lived in Jordan and Egypt for two years in my previous life when I was a young engineer working for GE Medical Systems and I had the opportunity to visit UAE on several occasions in 1980’s.

My impression with these cultures were mostly alike, nice people, a relaxed atmosphere but very seldom a business culture with rules that we have learned from the western cultures. Many commitments ended with “Bucra Insaallah” meaning, “If God permits, we will do it tomorrow” which had an open door for not doing the work as planned for a reason that we cannot control.

Last week, I have planned a business trip to Dubai where recently people talked about a lot. Rumors told us that it was becoming a traveler's heaven and a paradise for the business people to invest. We hear these kind of talk for different emerging countries, but mostly the details for my satisfaction for either travel, business or both somehow has not been met for one reason or another. I am an organized person with an urge for discipline, which received criticism for being so formal and strict time to time. I mostly leave home for the airport 4 hours before the flight and mostly have the habit of looking into details in everything that I am involved. An engineer's instinctive approach maybe?

Most people know when traveling to Arab countries, you often need a sponsor and obtaining a visa is always a hassle. Before my trip to Dubai, I was thinking that this would be the first hump that I have to climb. I was wrong. The Customer Focused approach started form there.

Emirates “The National Flag Carrier for UAE” takes care of the work for you if you fly with them. Why not, since they offer a very attractive package including a comfortable flight and the 5 star hotel with a limo for transfers. Fly business, pay a little extra and get “deluxe” service if you want.

When I arrived to Dubai, it was already midnight. I have a measurement for civilizations when approaching a city before we land. I look at the lights and how well the city is illuminated. I may not be always right but mostly it is a proof of how simply technology is applied to our daily life. I am always fascinated with the NY City landing, a city of sparkling lights but Dubai was not so far away. Although smaller and warmer (47 Degrees C at while landing at midnight!), it was close with brightly illuminated highways, skyscrapers and neon signs.

Dubai Airport is maybe as big as Istanbul’s newly build and proud Ataturk Airport but it was one of the most crowded ones that I have seen at 01:00 AM in the morning. And it was not a weekend or a special day. This scared me a little. With this crowd of people, I imagined chaos through the immigration and the passport control and problems on the way out for people to meet you. I was wrong again. A customer oriented process with perfectly placed signs along with English speaking passport controllers (mostly ladies dressed in black in Islamic way) at checkpoints that are made available to handle the crowd. While expecting zillions of questions, which I am used to when entering to many countries due to my Turkish Passport, a look at the pre-prepared visa number and a glance at my passport, it took not more than two minutes to pass the test. I travel with my carry-on, since I hate waiting at the baggage claim areas. When I came near the airport exit gate, I saw my name on one of the billboards, neatly written. I saw a smiling but a professional face. He welcomed me, checked my name, and told me to follow an Indian (50% of the population of UAE people) guide who took some other folks and me to the car park where there were several limos waiting to transfer people to their hotels. It was hot outside… Hot and very humid. Another two minutes, and I was sitting at the backseat of a black limo (not a stretch one, I am afraid…) air-conditioned to comfort level heading towards my hotel.

I stayed in the Crowne Plaza. Inside the city, near to business centers and convenient for business travelers. Not a “7 star” but a luxury place with all the facilities that you may need. The only missing thing was the in-room movies but this gave me the opportunity to listen the Arabic channels where I find the long missed songs of the orient.

Next morning, setting up an appointment with a short notice, I was on my way to Dubai Internet City. I have seen its pictures and read about it before, but seeing it in real life is different. Most IT giants were there. A free trade zone itself, DIC is the heaven for IT companies who are willing to grow their business in a no - tax environment with no obligation to partner with a local UAE company. Transfer of funds and profits are free, as well. The young salesman welcomed me and talked to me in fluent English. However, instead of selling his product and services, he started the conversation with a customer centric approach and investigated my needs and my future plans of business. A US University graduate, he knew how to capture the needs of his possible client and proudly spoke about the companies in DIC to influence my buying decision. Chic designed offices with services of all kinds that a foreigner may need from obtaining visas and work permits to trade licenses which is completed in a few days. Magical, right?

After our brief but efficient meeting, I was offered a nice cup of expresso in the western designed food court area, which was full of foreigners working in DIC and enjoying a PizzaHut or an Italian freshly brewed coffee of their choice.

The next day, I was on my way to the Jabal Ali Free Trade Zone. Near DIC, this 100 square kilometers of busy trading & manufacturing estate, with well build warehouses, a giant harbor, which can accommodate the biggest container ships of the world and office buildings with glass facades not different than any modern building in Manhattan. The sales manager, again a master’s graduate from US gave me the lesson of my life. “You Turks don’t know the global trade”… After listening to his stories, I thought he was not so far away from my philosophy. Short termed business strategies with “one time” approach to customers and minimum risk taking… He told me that some Turkish business folks offered him to be their agent instead of leasing a place and looking at Jabal Ali Free Trade Administration as a business partner with a long term strategy. This is where we fail. Sometimes I believe that this is our biggest drawback. When we step into the global arena, global players look for long term partners and business environment. This is also true for our “proven to be wrong” strategy for foreign investment in Turkey. We promise and when it comes to delivering, we forget. But global business people and customers don’t… Understanding customer needs, trust and long term commitment is the name of the game. I think this is why Dubai wins…

After my meeting and thoughts of planning the next steps, I told the taxi driver to show me the Jabal Ali FTZ. 30 minutes later, seeing the taximeter rolling for approx. 100 Dirhams

(Nearly US$30) and thinking that I saw all, I was told that we have only seen one-third maybe. With its port and customs authority specially controlled by the FTZ Administration, it seems to me that al the hassles of setting up a company in Dubai are over.

Who was the person behind all this? With a long-term vision not mostly common in this part of the world, someone has changed the faith of Dubai, which was a ten thousand people tribal community 30 years ago? The name is no secret. It is the Crown Prince Sheik Mohammed Al Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai and the MOD of the United Arab Emirates. After finding out that Dubai is not as lucky as its brothers like Abu Dhabi in the fields of oil & gas, Crown Prince decided to make Dubai a trading hub for global businessmen. He runs the country like a CEO is running a corporate enterprise. Putting customer first, he has learned how to attract business people to Dubai, where it was once a no-mans land. With a population of approx. 1.2 million people, there are 350 five star hotels in Dubai not including the 7 star Burj El Arab. GNP per capita is close to US$ 25.000, nearly ten times of what we have in Turkey and growth rate is nearly 6.7% yearly. With giant projects like Dubai Marina and the Palms, Dubai became a place for tourists and a heaven for the global businessmen.

Dubai will be hosting IMF and the World Bank people in September 2003. They are planning to be the financial capital of that part of the world since they are located in the right time zone. When US closes, they will be open. When East Asian Markets are closed they will be open again.

Basically a desert on the Persian Gulf, Dubai is and will continue to be the heaven for businessmen who are willing to invest for the future.

Yalcin Yilmazkaya