< Previous40 C EO M I D D L E E A S T JA NUA RY 20 19 BUSINESS | TOP INTERVIEWS 2018JA NUA RY 20 19 CEO MIDDLE E A ST 41 Goods will be able to move faster, more frequently and in smaller quantities, and the consequent flexibility in processes will mean that logistics will end up be- coming “one of the single most attractive growth areas for the Internet of Things (IoT) as well.” CAPITAL OR CONSEQUENCE? Some would say Kaeser’s comments suggest the new era of industrial manu- facturing will come at the expense of decreasing rates of human employment. Kaeser, however, is of the opinion that the concerns are overblown and puts the burden of explaining and distributing the virtues of AI and a new industrial era on industry leaders. “They need to show society how not to worry. It’s the split of society especially those within that could be affected in a negative way that we need to understand. If they are given the opportunity to benefit as well from the revolution, then it will all be okay.” AI will help mankind “and that is very important to understand,” but getting to where uncertainty stops giving way to fear will entail a lot of “retraining” he adds. HIRING UNDERWAY So far, Siemens’s AI plans are requir- ing additional human help to bolster the company’s 386,000 global employees. The company has already hired 1,000 staff to man its planned new hub in Dubai. “By 2022, we’ll double our forc- es,” Kaeser says, adding that they are highly skilled. “They aren’t afraid of the future. That’s the way we look at it.” Y 2021 SIEMENS’ CEO JOE KAESER ex- pects its new global airport and logistics headquarters in Dubai will be up and running. An- nounced last year, the global industrial manufacturing giant will repurpose the infrastructure being put in place at the soon to be built Expo site and use the permanent buildings of Expo 2020 Dubai as the new home for its future global lo- gistics headquarters. By doing so, it is looking to capitalise on Dubai, and the UAE’s, advancements in aviation and cement its position in the space in a part of the world that is a four-eight hour flight away from two thirds of the world’s population includ- ing India, China and Russia, and nearly all of Africa and Europe. “Dubai has the highest quality of air- ports anywhere in the world. Aviation is a big part of the economy in the city and the country with Emirates, and nearby Etihad and others. So a huge amount of innovation in the industry happens here. Then there are big ports and logistics ecosystems. So the Expo 2020 in Dubai is the right occasion to go ahead with our plans and we’re quite optimistic about having our global airport logistics head- quarters here,” says CEO Joe Kaeser. It isn’t just airport logistics that excite Kaeser, however, when speaking about the new facility. “We’re going to demonstrate how artificial intelligence is going to help mankind, not enslave us.” INVISIBLE HANDS The fourth industrial revolution is nigh, according to Kaeser, and a lot of it will be about advancements in AI. “Today, a lot of things that humans do robots and computers can do better. Think about healthcare scanning: humans make many mistakes in the processes involved. On the other hand, if computers don’t recognise something, at most, they won’t complete the process. Here, humans can step in to fill the gap in information so that the computer can recognise it from then on. Computers don’t overlook things,” he says. AI will help humans to see, hear, sense and think better and faster, according to Kaeser, “but you won’t be able to see it. All you will see are applications written on the platform that will help everything run,” he says. Through those invisible but tangi- ble movements is how industry 4.0 will make itself felt in modern manufacturing and why Siemens will be pushing Mind- sphere, a software that Kaesar calls “the AI software for the Expo.” “It is the most prominent thing we will be bringing, and which will dem- onstrate what the industrial revolution will bring to modern manufacturing,” he says. Siemens’ open source software will allow it to bring together a host of fully automated AI-related processes through which engineering that begins in the vir- tual world of software will make its way into the physical world of manufacturing. “That’s how we will demonstrate what the industrial revolution will bring to modern manufacturing,” he says. In two years, AI will have advanced sufficiently enough to deliver a host of corporate benefits, according to Kaeser. B BUT FOR PROACTIVE BUSINESSES AND EMPLOYEES, THERE’S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, ACCORDING TO SIEMENS CEO JOE KAESER WHAT HUMANS CAN DO, COMPUTERS CAN DO BETTER BY SHAYAN SHAKEEL42 C EO M I D D L E E A S T JA NUA RY 20 19 BUSINESS | TOP INTERVIEWS 2018JA NUA RY 20 19 CEO MIDDLE E A ST 43 We are just in a process of completing our hiking and biking routes with a professional consultancy firm from the UK, and are in the architectural stage of completing phase 1 of the hiking route by the end of this year, with some fantastic scenery for mountain bikers as well. Also, one of the best products we are working on, and which is very close to my heart, will be the first of its kind in the region. It’s the luxury camping spot on the Jebel Jais mountain. This luxury camp that we are now in the process of selecting an operator for, is going to be unique and will offer people the option of staying overnight in the mountains after their adventure. How geared towards luxury will Ras Al Khaimah be in terms of hotel spaces and developments in the emirate? It may look like it is a lot, but luxury is only 10 percent of our inventory, predominantly with the announcement of Ritz Carlton, the Anantara coming on board, and the Waldorf Astoria. We have 5,500 rooms in the pipeline but most of those are four- and five-star hotel categories. As the CEO of an inreasingly important tourism authority in the region, you straddle boardroom meetings with crucial decision makers while also being the first to test new adventure facilities around the emirate. What does that say about your management style? One thing about me is that I am very passionate about what I do. And that means I may sometimes seem pushy. We have achieved so much so far...what I do know is that it hasn’t been easy. But then I don’t necesarily believe in good things coming to you easily. efore you joined RAK TDA, Ras Al Khaimah was a much sleepier Emirate... Ras Al Khaimah had a different focus then, mostly about driving tourism toward beaches, sun and sand, which still is a great product offering. There are great value for money hotels, fantastic four-star brands as well as five-star products and they all have amazing beaches. The beaches of Ras Al Khaimah are very natural, until today. You can walk in, pick up some beautiful shells, see stingrays, starfish, and even find little baby sharks that are totally harmless. So the ecosystem is perfect and the marine life is great, but what we have to explore more is how to position Ras Al Khaimah as an emirate that compliments what other emirates do, but also attracts travellers today who are looking for a bit of adventure as well as culture and history. How are you doing that? Ras Al Khaimah is the richest emirate in terms of historical sites. We have sites that date back over 7,000 years. Combine that with the highest mountain in the UAE, at about 2,000 meters high, and the beautiful desert. If you look at the desert, the pockets of trees, it just makes your mind go ‘Wow’. So it’s that natural terrain that Ras Al Khaimah has that enable us to position it as the adventure tourism destination in the Middle East, as well as a destination with other assets that span it’s heritage. What are the tourist numbers showing? How have they grown? When I joined, we had 500,000 mostly domestic UAE tourists coming to Ras Al Khaimah every year. Now we have a 60- 40 spread of international to domestic tourists that will number about a million by the end of the year. Our strategy ,which we launched in January 2016, is to have close to three million visitors by the end of 2025. Of course, that will require more infrastructure developments, attractions and experiences to offer the tourists. So we have government entities working together with the public works projects with the Municipality of Ras Al Khaimah, the police, all of us hand in hand. Do you have a plan to preserve the emirate’s natural environment? None of this will affect Ras Al Khaimah’s natural environment. We are working closely with the Department of Environment to protect the flora and fauna, including the mangroves and the flamingoes and others. There is an order now, for example, where jet skis, and motor rides are not permitted anywhere close to these mangroves. The world’s longest zipline was a major tourist attraction. Do you have plans to build on that? Yes, we are now expanding our zipline product and introducing two more ziplines which will be able to take about 400 people a day. That’s 200,000 people a year going down a zipline. So instead of only two, now a family of four can ride the zipline together. Also, by the end of the year, you can expect probably a whole zipline path with a number of different lengths ranging from 500 metres to 3km. What else can the three million tourists by 2025 expect will be waiting for them after they have tried the ziplines? B BY GROWING ITS REPERTOIRE FOR ADVENTURE TOURISM, HAITHAM MATAR, CEO OF RAK TOURISM AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, IS ON A QUEST TO BRING THE WORLD TO RAS AL KHAIMAH PUTTING RAK ON THE MAP BY SHAYAN SHAKEEL44 C EO M I D D L E E A S T JA NUA RY 20 19 BUSINESS | TOP INTERVIEWS 2018JA NUA RY 20 19 CEO MIDDLE E A ST 45 and the fans will have their authentic expression in organizing things around Money Heist and shows like that. You announced Jinn and another standup special would be coming to the Middle East in 2019. What sort of con- tent have you found works in the Middle East that you’d want to source more of ? Well we’re looking at many options. So it’s really great stories that travel and they could be of many different types. Does that mean you are also looking to produce content from budding filmmak- ers who aren’t able to get their ideas onto TV for lack of an industry as devel- oped as it is in say Europe? You know for the first time filmmaker Youtube is probably the best bet. We’re really focused on professional storytelling. People who have done many things, who have a great insight. And so that’s kind of our specialty. And if we do our part well then as they get to be successful they too can do these big Netf lix productions. It’s something that there seems to be a market for in the region, going by the number of Youtube subscribers. Is it something to keep an eye on? I think we’ll be successful with how we’re doing it right now because we keep investing in these local shows and that helps us connect with people and grow, like with The Rain in Denmark. we’ve seen is young people watching Netflix shows. Yes, they are also watching other things that are short form, but there’s still a taste for real storytelling. Like Money Heist as we’ve seen is a great example. IT WOULD BE FAIR TO SAY THAT NETFLIX’S CEO, REED HASTINGS, IS A MAN OF FEW WORDS. But the man who grew a mail-order DVD business into one of the only two business models in Silicon Valley to beat (the other being Uber’s) doesn’t need to say much. Netflix is now among the hottest companies in the world, with a share price that is constantly growing. Hastings himself is a billionaire nearly four times over, and his platform is also a studio, funding productions, hiring ac- tors and in many ways challenging the traditional way content has always been consumed: in cinemas or on TV. Much has been made about the fac- tors behind the company’s success. One of them is, undoubtedly, the amount of data at Netflix’s disposal and how granu- lar it can get in terms of what it can glean from users consuming content on the platform. With that information, Netflix can make more accurate bets on what its customers would want to watch. However, greenlighting shows isn’t a matter of incredible complexity it seems; Hastings himself doesn’t feel the need to greenlight which shows come on the plat- form: “A lot of our executives do that,” he told CEO Middle East in an exclusive interview in Rome last month. The keys to Netflix’s kingdom, it seems, rest with its executives. And figuring out which executives man the fort however is something Hastings made sure to get right himself. Spelled out in the company’s ‘Culture Deck’, a set of now legendary guidelines created by him and others in 1998, when the company was in its infancy, are key attributes Netflix looks for in its employees before it hires them. If whom Netflix hires meet those criteria, they are entitled to top grade pay, and as much time off as they’d like. Provided, of course they come back with the one demand Netflix has: exceptionall performance. Those attributes, among others , include: integrity, a constant third to deliver better results, quick decision making and importantly, conciseness. The result? Well, the term ‘Binging on…’ has only one solid contender vying for you to put its name in the blank. Do you consider yourself a technology guy, an idea guy, or a content guy? What takes up most of your time? You know when you look at great com- panies they combine multiple skills, like Apple is very good at both fashion and technology. And what we’re trying to be is very good at content and technology. So of course we want the best shows like The End of the ******* World, Thirteen Reasons Why, but we also want incred- ible technology to make it smooth and easy to watch those shows on a televi- sion or on a phone. What can you tell us about how data af- fects what you commission in terms of the kind of content, and the tone of the programming? Not so much tone, but we do get feed- back when something is very successful and what we should do you more of. But it doesn’t solve the problem. There’s still a lot of judgment for us on what to do. Money Heist had a phenomenal reaction in Saudi Arabia, where the shows fans turned up at football games dressed as characters from the show. How can you capitalise on the sudden viral take-off on so many of the shows on your platform? You know, I don’t know whether we can capitalise on it. It’s really a natural phenomenon coming out of the show I IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, NETFLIX CEO REED HASTINGS TELLS US THAT THE SECRET TO HIS COMPANY’S SUCCESS IS SIMPLY “HAVING GREAT SHOWS” THE KING OF CONTENT BY SHAYAN SHAKEEL46 C EO M I D D L E E A S T JA NUA RY 20 19 BUSINESS | TOP INTERVIEWS 2018JA NUA RY 20 19 CEO MIDDLE E A ST 47 to involve a court where they can’t present themselves? People change. Our generation, and future ones, are all thinking about how technology needs to serve people wher- ever they are. We’re using technology as an enabler rather than a replace- ment. And it always helps in provid- ing better services. However, if people prefer traditional services and to come to the Court for face-to-face services then they are more than welcome to as well. We offer both options. We are of course trying to promote these new ideas as much as possible. For instance we have a plan to go paperless by 2021. So for standard cases everything is filed electronically already. Now we’re moving toward e-bundling, for the actual hearing, where we are motivating parties to use the e-system to file documents instead of relying on paper bundles. On a more personal note, you are a woman, an Emirati, and a CEO. What are your thoughts on that? I’m a CEO. For us in the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Zayed empowered us many years ago to study and be part of the workplace. I don’t think we necessarily need to continue making that distinction [between men and women] about how we are contribut- ing to the progress of our country. Of course, being a female, an Emirati, and a CEO is a proud achievement, but for me personally, I look at how I’m contributing by being committed, motivated and faithful to the purpose of my work more than anything. hy should a court think about implementing blockchain? Aside from smart contracts, enforcement of a decision right now involves passing a lot of papers around. And sending documents involves diplomatic channels, lawyers going to different jurisdictions, translations... the whole process takes months and months. With Blockchain, after consensus from different courts around the world, we can directly integrate our judgements as soon as enforcement applications are received. This might seem a little naïve but why would this not work over email? You can, of course, but we need to be smarter about this. Email has issues such as authorisation, authentication, or unreceived correspondence etc. We don’t have it ironed out right now, but with blockchain we’re envisioning that if there’s a judgement ready for enforcement in the US then the ap- plication process could begin automati- cally at the touch of a button. And then in terms of the supply chain, with smart contracts this would involve the right authorisations for the courts involved as well as the ability to reverse permis- sions for an application instantaneously if needed. It’s certainly something we’re working toward in the future and re- quires a lot of work on smart contracts, but we’re taking it one step at a time. We’re currently working toward the en- forcement over the blockchain and how we deal with courts around the world. So you already have a relationship with those courts and now you’re trying to convince them on your vision? Yes, the vision is that the end product needs to be one where we utilise the blockchain for enforcement and for smart contract dispute resolution. This needs to be done one step at a time in terms of initiatives involving consensus with the courts, governments and the private sector. We don’t have a specific deadline for when to achieve smart contracts yet, but in terms of blockchain for enforcement we’ll have the documentation by September and look to implement it by 2020. The UAE government and authorities such as yours are some of the biggest pioneers of this new era of technology. Where is the drive coming from? It comes from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed [Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai] that we need to look into the future and make it a reality right now. If you remember, it began with simply the smartphone, then smart services and the smart government and now we’re tackling blockchain. One of the strate- gies is a blockchain-based government by 2020. To be part of the ambition we need to be part of the vision. We can’t have it that all of Dubai adopts the blockchain and we’re left behind. So we have to be pioneers. Of course it helps that we’re a new youthful court – only over a decade old. With all this digitalisation, is it a hard sell to get people onboard with the idea? Some people might be hesitant W AS AN EMIRATI FEMALE CEO, AND MOTHER OF THREE CHILDREN, DIFC COURTS’ AMNA AL OWAIS CAN’T WAIT FOR THE FUTURE THE DUBAI JUSTICE CEO WHO DOESN’T SWITCH OFF BY SHAYAN SHAKEEL48 C EO M I D D L E E A S T JA NUA RY 20 19 BUSINESS | TOP INTERVIEWS 2018 SUSTAINABLE INVESTINGJA NUA RY 20 19 CEO MIDDLE E A ST 49 we’re getting some ideas organically from the region, but to get some influence in- ternationally is something I’m a very big proponent of. “By default, a lot of these companies are going to want to expand in the US first – that’s natural. They’re also naturally go- ing to want to go into Europe. The regula- tions there are pretty tough, so you have to jump through a lot of hoops, and then maybe Asia. I’m here as an investor to educate these companies, these CEOs. I explain to them what the Middle East has to offer, the purchasing power here. So we open the door for them and really educate them about the fact that this is a market they need to focus on.” Bringing a Silicon Valley mindset to the Middle East is no easy task, but Prince Khaled seems determined to ac- complish the task step by step. A clear area of focus is the future of food, which is perhaps no surprise given his well- known agenda with regard to veganism, animal rights and the effect the livestock industry has on the environment. Among the investents and partner- ships that KBW Ventures is linked to is the LA-based Beyond Meat and JUST, a firm that produces plant-based mayon- naise and a vegan egg alternative. Ad- ditionally, Prince Khalid has teamed up with the San Diego-based Plant Power Fast Food, which bills itself as a vegan alternative to McDonald’s. “I’m in talks with a company right now to bring all these products to the re- gion on a wholesale basis,” he says. “For me, this is something thta I need to do, because I need to educate people that there are other alternatives out there. And they just can’t be avaialble in just one or two small chains – they need to be available in Carrefour, in Spinneys and in LuLul, so people can see they are readily available,” he says. RINCE KHALED BIN ALWALEED BIN TALAL turned 40 this year, but the man who’s steadily making a name for himself as the Middle East’s most prominent impact investor didn’t take too much time out to celebrate. “I was asleep at 10.30pm,” he laughs, as he invites CEO Middle East to take a seat in his corner office with outstanding views of Dubai Creek. The four-decade mark is a milestone in anyone’s life but over the course of an hour-long chat with the prince it’s clear that he also sees this as a time of tremen- dous opportunity. Our conversation veers from Sili- con Valley to Petra, and from the Middle East’s start-up ecosystem to the prospects for Saudi Arabia. Prince Khaled’s interests can effectively be split into two distinct areas. There’s KBW Investments, the Dubai-headquartered holding company that counts Raimondi Cranes and other construction-related entities in its portfolio. Arada, the developer that has been making headlines across the Gulf for its eye-catching projects in Sharjah, falls into this category. But it’s the second portfolio, KBW Ventures that is gradually also coming more to the fore, thanks to a series of investments into companies that are gaining traction in a number of different sectors around the planet. “We’ve seen really, really good re- turns,” says Prince Khaled, of KBW Ven- tures, which has now grown to a team of seven executives. “Granted this doesn’t happen all the time, but one of the companies we in- vested in, we got about a five-and-a-half or six times return, which is decent for the venture world. But we’re in the early stages right now, and we’re just planting the seeds of where the company will be.” At first glance, there appears to be little rhyme or reason to the bewil- dering array of firms within the KBW Ventures portfolio. There’s Geltor, a California-based start-up that makes plant-based colla- gen. Prolacta, a life sciences company that is developing human breast milk formula for premature babies, is already present in “20 percent of the hospitals in the US now,” Prince Khaled points out. Then there’s Zipline, a drone delivery service that is currently flying medical supplies to rural parts of Rwanda. Throw in cryptocurrency outfits, a lengthy list of plant-based and lab-grown food manufacturers, LED and electric ve- hicle projects in Jordan and a fast-grow- ing partnership with National Geograph- ic’s Ocean Odyssey, and it seems tough to draw the threads of this diverse invest- ment strategy together. For Prince Khaled, however, the strat- egy is clear. “One of our criteria is you have to be profitable, you have to have an actual product that people can get behind,” he says. “I usually don’t invest in seed, I in- vest in Series A [rounds], B, maybe C and D is a little late.” In addition, each investment is in a company that KBW Ventures believes has the capacity to impact the planet posi- tively in the future, while Prince Khaled also says that bringing the very best that Silicon Valley has to offer to the Middle East is also a prime consideration. “Right now, every company that I’ve worked with, we’ve set out plans for them to come into the region,” he says. “Why? Not because of how promising the re- gion is, but I believe the region can ben- efit from amazing companies, amazing technology, amazing thinkers and driven entrepreneurs. Our economy and our peo- ple need new ideas and fresh blood. Sure, P WITH CANNY INVESTMENTS IN SILICON VALLEY FIRMS, SAUDI ARABIA’S HRH PRINCE KHALED BIN ALWALEED BIN TALAL IS HELPING THE PLANET, BRINGING SUSTAINABILITY TO THE MIDDLE EAST, AND CRAFTING HIS OWN LEGACY BY NEIL HALLIGANNext >