MAY 2019 #148 THE GUIDE TO GOOD BUSINESS AND BETTER LIVING UA E AED 20 BAHR AIN BHD 2 KUW AIT KWD 2 OMAN OMR 2 MA Y 2019 GRO W T H TR AJE CTOR Y Online retail in the Middle East HOW ENGINEER SOBHI BATTERJEE IS ENSURING THE FAMILY LEGACY CONTINUES THROUGH HIS SON MAKAREM BATTERJEE RA M A D A N GUIDE STEPHEN HAWKING & NELSON MANDEL A THE WOMEN BEHIND THEIR GREAT SUCCESS IN THE FIRING LINE A raft of new UAE legislation means finance officers are facing bigger challenges SAFETY IS ALWAYS FIRST Ecolab’s regional executive on avoiding accidents and his secrets for success E-COMMERCE PAYS? Online retailers and websites rush to tap into shopper demand W MO T O RS FULLY-ELECTRIC CAR LAUNCH C A PSULE COLLE C T ION NET-A-PORTER MODEST FASHION BREITLING & BENTLE Y CENTENARY CELEBRATION ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO SEO AND WEB RANKINGS ONLINE STR ATE G Y ‘WHY IS EVERYTHING COMING OUT OF CALIFORNIA?’ EDUCATION IS ABOUT MORE THAN JUST PROFIT MOHAME D AL ABB ARMOULDING C A RE E R S THE ART OF SUCCES SION Arabian BusinessMAY 2 0 1 9 CEO MIDDLE E A ST 3 Business 09 NEW S EXPO 2020 TO DELIVER $33BN BOOST TO UAE ECONOMY 14 BIG PICTURE THE TRADITIONAL SPORT OF CAMEL RACING IN THE REGION 16 FIVE MINUTE INTERVIEW ARJAN BOOGAARDS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA OF ECOLAB, SHARES HIS PLANS 18 MOHAMED ALABB AR ‘WHY IS EVERYTHING COMING OUT OF CALIFORNIA?’ NOON FOUNDER ASKS 20 LEADERBO ARD E-COMMERCE OPPORTUNITY: CAN THE REGION DELIVER? 22 COVER STORY ENGINEER SUBHI ABDEL JALEEL BATTERJEE, FOUNDER PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE SAUDI GERMAN GROUP, TALKS ABOUT STEERING A FAMILY EMPIRE AND THE ART OF SUCCESSION AS HE HANDS OVER THE REINS TO HIS SON 28 INVISIBLE W O MEN THE TRUE STORIES OF THE UNACKNOWLEDGED WOMEN BEHIND SOME OF HISTORY’S GREATEST MEN. 34 TA X A N D LEG A L FINANCE OFFICERS ARE INCREASINGLY COMING INTO FOCUS WHEN LEGAL CHALLENGES EMERGE, ESPECIALLY IN TAX MATTERS 38 TECHNOLOGY WHAT CEOS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SEO AS BUSINESSES BATTLE FOR TOP WEB RANKINGS contents May 2019 09 28 16 18 22 34 144 C EO M I D D L E E A S T MAY 2 0 1 9 Pleasure 48 BOOK EXTR A C T GETTING THE RIGHT KIND OF LOUD MEANS KNOWING HOW TO ADJUST TO THE PERSON YOU ARE TRYING TO REACH, FINE-TUNING TO THE SITUATION AND THE KIND OF INFLUENCE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR, SAYS KIM PAGE 54 ST Y L E GET YOUR STYLE FIX FOR THE NEW SEASON WITH NET-A-PORTER’S CURATION OF 17 EXCLUSIVE CAPSULE COLLECTIONS FOR RAMADAN TO CORNELIANI’S SPRING SUMMER 2019 OF VERSATILE LIGHTWEIGHT CONSTRUCTIONS 62 ALWAY S ON T I ME A NEW TIMEPIECE FROM BREITLING CELEBRATES BENTLEY’S 100 YEARS OF LUXURY MOTORING EXCELLENCE 70 R AMAD AN A ROUNDUP OF THE IFTARS AND SUHOURS TO TRY THIS MONTH 72 M OTO R I N G DUBAI-BASED W MOTORS AND ITS SISTER COMPANY, CHINA’S ELECTRIC VEHICLE START-UP ICONIQ MOTORS, UNVEIL THE MUSE AUTONOMOUS CAR 74 FO O D THE WORLD’S FIRST MASTERCHEF-THEMED RESTAURANT MAKES ITS DEBUT IN DUBAI contents 48 May 2019 54 62 70 74 726 C EO M I D D L E E A S T M AY 2 0 1 9 homas Lundgren, the legendary founder of furniture brand THE One, certainly knows how to keep himself in check. Walking up the stairs at his home, the Swedish entrepreneur has framed copies of rejection letters he received from banks and investors when he was starting out and looking for funding. Reaching the top step and you are greeted with a framed 2006 cover of our sister magazine Arabian Business with the strapline ‘The Crazy One’, crowning his rise above the distractors listed below. Lundgren’s story is no different to another CEO, Ralph Debbas of W Motors, who we recently interviewed. Debbas was hit with his fair share of scepticism when he approached banks and investors about manufacturing multi-million dollar supercars in the Middle East. “We were criticised a lot when we started,” he told one of my colleagues. People even asked him ‘who are you to compete with Lamborghini or Ferrari?’ Like Lundgren, some of Debbas’ harshest critics were in the banking community. “There’s no need for you,” bank executives told him when he approached them. “There’s no way we’re going to invest in a company like this one,” he says he was told. At least the officials didn’t laugh in his face, which was the experience of Trefor Murphy (above), the CEO of Dubai-based recruitment firm Cooper Fitch, when he approached a local bank three years ago for financial support asking them to support a management buyout of the company he was working for at the time. “The woman actually sniggered when I mentioned overdraft,” he said at a recent event. “Go away, trade for two years, come back and we will consider giving you a bank account,” he added. Three years later, he still doesn’t have a business bank account but he does have a successful company, having gone away and traded, like the bank told him, and increasing revenue by triple digits, doubling headcount and putting in place plans to expand into Saudi Arabia and Europe. So have the banks now become welcoming? “You better believe it, we’ve grown at 147 percent. I’m looking forward to when that international bank comes calling so I can tell them where to go,” Murphy says with glee. But the issue at the core of all these stories is no laughing matter. How can businesses, whether it is furniture, supercars, recruitment firms or any SME, survive and grow if the financial community doesn’t show any commitment towards supporting them. The motivation is already there at the top, as we found out during a later session at last month’s academy. Expo 2020, which will be one of the biggest events in the Middle East when it starts in October 20, 2020, has shown its dedication to the plight of small companies. “So far we have over 26,000 registered suppliers from one hundred and fifty countries wanting to do business with Expo. 75 percent of those companies are actual SMEs,” Tina Ghanem, director of Expo 2020’s Online Marketplace (OMP), told me, adding that 56 percent of the number of contracts awarded so far have gone to SMEs and the event is on target to achieve its goal to see 20 percent of the budget land in the hands of small firms. SMEs are the backbone of Gulf economies but they will only flourish if they are nurtured and supported with funding. Yes, some may fail, but in order to reach the heights set by the likes of Careem and its $3bn headline-grabbing exit, the region’s banks need to be mandated to be more supportive. Maybe then there will be more framed magazine covers and less rejection letters. TIME TO START BANKING ON SUCCESS FROM THE EDITOR T Like the magazine? Hate it? Either way, let me know: QUES T IONS ? COM M E NTS? shane.mcginley@itp.com SHANE MCGINLEY Editorial DirectorTHE REGIONS FOREMOST PROVIDER OF TOTAL COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS8 C EO M I D D L E E A S T MAY 2019 To receive your copy delivered directly to your door, subscribe online at www.itp.net/subscriptions The most important business people and CEOs talk to the most important magazine The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are advised to seek specialist advice before acting on information contained in this publication which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the reader’s particular circumstances. The ownership of trademarks is acknowledged. 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MEDIAMAY 2 0 1 9 CEO MIDDLE E A ST 9 BUSINESS ECONOMY FINANCE AVIATION MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY 25 MILLION The expected number of visitors to the Expo 2020 Dubai From the UAE to the world Najeeb Mohammed Al Ali, executive director of the Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau EXPO 2020 DUBAI TO DELIVER $33BN BOOST TO UAE ECONOMY EY RESEARCH SAYS THE LARGEST EVENT TO BE HELD IN THE ARAB WORLD IS PREDICTED TO ADD THE EQUIVALENT OF 1.5 PERCENT TO UAE GDP XPO 2020 DUBAI WILL BOOST THE UAE ECONOMY BY AED122.6bn ($33.4 bn) and support 905,200 job-years between 2013 and 2031, ac- cording to an independent report published by global consultancy EY. During the peak six-month period of the World Expo, the largest event to be held in the Arab World is predicted to add the equivalent of 1.5 percent to UAE gross domestic product. The scale of investment pouring in to con- struct and host an event of this ambition, as well as goods and services consumed by the millions expected to visit and the businesses that will occupy the Expo site in the legacy phase, will result in an economic dividend that will benefit businesses large and small across a range of sectors for years to come, according to the report. The economic impetus will be driven by the construction sector as work continues on building the site and supporting infrastructure such as roads, bridges and the Dubai Metro Route 2020 line, EY noted. Najeeb Mohammed Al Ali, executive direc- tor of the Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau, said: “This report demonstrates that Expo 2020 Dubai is a critical investment in the future of the UAE, which will contribute more than AED120bn to the economy between 2013 and 2031. Not only will the event encourage millions to visit the UAE in 2020, it will also stimulate travel and tourism and support economic diversification for years after the Expo, leaving a sustainable economic legacy that will help to ensure the UAE remains a leading destination for busi- ness, leisure and investment.” ENext >