MARCH 2021 # 167 THE GUIDE TO GOOD BUSINESS AND BETTER LIVING UA E AE D 20 KS A SAR 20 BA HR A IN BH D 2 KUW A IT KW D 2 OM AN OM R 2 WOMEN OF INFLUENCE IN THE ARAB WORLD 2021 The women shaping the future of the Middle East and beyond4 C EO M I D D L E E A S T MAR C H 2 0 21 18 CELEBRATING VISIONARY LEADERS CEO Middle East shines a spotlight on the women leading companies, building empires, serving governments and shaping their societies. Women have achieved excellence in every industry and in every field. They are presidents, prime ministers, CEOs and entrepreneurs. But there is still much to be done, even in 2021, to level the playing field. These women lead by example, empower and inspire others and act as a force for good in society. From empowering those around them, to educating and uplifting others while growing big businesses, their achievements are not just shaping the boards and businesses they serve, but the communities in which they work and live. 1216 10 14 March 2021 7 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 8 10 TECH TRENDS The 10 emerging technology trends very business leader should keep on their radar 10 GOALS FOR GENDER EQUALITY Hana Barakat, Associate Director at startAD, is adamant that society must ensure greater gender parity in the workforce 12 WOMEN AS CHANGE MAKERS Grace Najjar, Managing Director, MENA, PMI, shares insights on leadership mindset and project management skills 14 THE ANXIETY EPIDEMIC Lighthouse Arabia founder Dr Saliha Afridi on how the pandemic has affected mental health in the workplace and beyond. BusinessLeadership WOMEN OF INFLUENCE IN THE ARAB WORLD 2021MAR C H 2 0 21 CEO MIDDLE E A ST 5 42 46 50 contents 42 LIFE’S A BEACH Head to Nikki Beach Resort & Spa Dubai, for a staycation that ticks all the boxes 44 YOUR NEXT CHALLENGE? Reached the top of the tree? Try endurance sports for a transformational way to push yourself beyond every limit 46 SCENT OF SUCCESS What is it that sets a fine fragrance apart? The experts at Parfums de Marly share an insight into the world of bespoke and precious scents 48 TOP TABLES FOR MARCH We round up the latest dining spots in the city, perfect for power lunches and business dinners 44 MEN’S STYLE Brunello Cucinelli to Hermes show off their s fuelled world of endurance easonal finery for gentsoff seasonal finery for gents 50 THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT A jewellery house with an empowering mandate has launched in Dubai. CEO Middle East goes behind the palace walls to meet its royal founder Pleasure6 C EO M I D D L E E A S T MAR C H 2 0 21 REGIONAL NEWS BUSINESS BANKING THOUGHT LEADERSHIP MEGAPROJECTS BRAND INSIGHTS DRIVING FORWARDS LAMBORGHINI’S PAOLO SARTORI ON WHY THERE’S ROOM FOR OPTIMISM THE BUSINESS OF LUXURY RICHARD MILLE HAS GRAND DESIGNS IN 2021 INSPIRING LEADERS THE MEN AND WOMEN LEADING BOLDLY THROUGH TOUGH TIMES JANUARY 2021 # 165 THE GUIDE TO GOOD BUSINESS AND BETTER LIVING TALABAT CEO TOMASO RODRIGUEZ ON DRIVING DIGITAL INNOVATION AND ANTICIPATING THE FUTURE DELIVERING RESULTS A LEADERSHIP JOURNEY HH SHEIKHA INTISAR ALSABAH UA E AED 20 KS A SAR 20 BAHR AIN BHD 2 KUW A IT KWD 2 OM AN OMR 2 Arabian Business THE BEAUTY OF TIME WRISTWATCHES TO CELEBRATE ACHIEVEMENTS AND MILESTONES STEP BY STEP DUBAI CHAMBER CEO HAMAD BUAMIM ON GROWING UAE-ISRAEL BUSINESS TIES THE ADVENTURE EMIRATE IN CONVERSATION WITH RAK TOURISM CEO RAKI PHILLIPS JA N U A R Y 20 21 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. 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ITP MEDIA GROUP CEO ALI AKAWI MANAGING DIRECTOR ALEX REEVE GENERAL MANAGER , ARABIAN BUSINESS GROUP EDDIE TAYLOR EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN- CHIEF JOLA CHUDY jola .chudy@itp.com ART DIRECTOR ADRIAN LUCA DESIGNER MOHAMMED IRQSOSY SUB EDITOR EDWARD LIAMZON EVENTS & MARKETING DIRECTOR OF AWARDS & MARKETING DANIEL FEWTRELL +971 4 4 4 4 3684 Daniel Few trell@itp.com ADVERTISING GROUP COMMERICAL DIRECTOR AMIT CHOPRA +971 4 4 4 4 3463 amit.chopra@itp.com SENIOR SALES MANAGER PANKAJ SHARMA +971 4 4 4 4 3510 pankaj.sharma@itp.com SALES MANAGER FARAH KANAANAN +971 4 4 44 3317575 farah.kanaanan@it@itpp c.comom PO BOX 500024, DUBAI, UAE +971 4 4 4 4 3000 OFFICES IN ABU DHABI, DUBAI & LONDON PHOTOGRAPHY SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHERS EFRAIM EVIDOR ADEL RASHID STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS AASIYA JAGADEESH FRITZ JOHN ASURO AJITH NARENDRA YULIYA PETROVICH JESSICA SAMSON PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION GROUP PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR KYLE SMITH PRODUCTION MANAGER BASEL AL KASSEM PRODUCTION COORDINATOR MANOJ MAHADEVAN SENIOR IMAGE EDITOR EMMALYN ROBLES CIRCULATION DISTRIBUTION & WAREHOUSE MANAGER PRAVEEN NAIR ITP LIVE GENERAL MANAGER AHMAD BASHOUR ITP GROUP CEO ALI AKAWI CFO TOBY JAY SPENCER-DAVIES PUBLISHED BY AND © 2021 ITP MEDIA GROUP FZ-LLC. MEDIAM A R C H 2 0 2 1 C EO M I D D L E E A S T 7 ED IT OR ’S P OR TR AI T: O LI VE R @ P HO TO SO LU TI ON S. M E hat is influence? The Oxford Language dictionary reliably informs me that influence is the capacity to have an effect on the character, de- velopment or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself. I’d add to that the ability to challenge or change opinion, and to minus, or at least to stick a pin in the idea that an influencer is solely someone with a huge following on social media. While I may be showing my age by focussing on Instagram (and do head over to @ceomiddleeast and give us a follow if you haven’t already) the sheer array of platforms available today to individual entities has lev- elled the potential playing field for ‘influence’ like never before. TikTok for Business is making waves amongst businesses with its Arab-focused capabilities, while ClubHouse offers a refreshing anti- dote to visual glibness with ‘rooms’ that give space and audience to individuals with authentic knowl- edge of their respective industries. Influence has become something of a loaded word, but it is still the word I would have chosen to title our 2021 list celebrating preeminent women in the Arab world. Though quite a few of them aren’t even on Instagram, the women in this year’s list have influenced the busi- ness landscape, their societies and communities and even the culture of their countries. They stand for gender parity, for equality in the workplace and in society – they are ambassadors and campaigners even before they sit down to do their high-powered, de- manding ‘day job’. I’m in awe of their achievements, their humility and the qualities that they bring to the table. They lead with vision and they lead by example, and through their col- lective achievements they continue to forge a path for the women who will follow in their footsteps. Despite much being done in this country to engage more women into senior roles, the private sector still lags, as it does elsewhere in the world, when it comes to equality. It says a lot that leaders who happen to be women still frequently find their job title prefaced with ‘female’. The work isn’t finished, which is why we will continue to devote editions to championing women of achievement. I hope one day it isn’t remotely noteworthy that a woman is a CEO; I’ll be the first to honour male and female leaders in equal numbers in a new list. Jola Chudy Editor-in-Chief FROM THE EDITOR W Share your views on thought leadership and innovation by getting in touch. Q U ESTI O N S? CO M M E NTS? Jola.Chudy@itp.com JOLA CHUDY Editor in Chief WOMEN OF INFLUENCE LIST 2021 Style and substance CEO Middle East is proud to present the women who are making a difference in the Arab world8 C EO M I D D L E E A S T MAR C H 2 0 21 BUSINESS 10 TECH TRENDS FOR 2021 NEWS INNOVATION MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP DR. HOUSSEM JEMILI, PARTNER AT BAIN AND COMPANY DUBAI, LEADER DIGITAL TECH PRACTICE ME, AND TRUC MAI DUPONT VOHONG, VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL PARTNERSHIPS, BAIN & COMPANY PARIS HE COVID19- CRISIS HAS DRAMATICALLY accelerated the pace of digital transformation; keeping up with fast- moving technology trends is critical. Edge AI transplants brains to factory tools and machinery Edge AI or AI on the edge is a network infrastructure that makes it possible for algorithms to run on the edge of a network or even on the devices collect- ing the data. The dramatic changes in network traffic that have accompanied T CRITICAL DIGITAL TRENDS FOR THE WORLD OF TOMORROW Covid-19 lockdowns and the shift to working from home are likely to ac- celerate this. Benefits of edge computing include preserving bandwidth and increasing efficiency by processing information closer to source of data, rather than sending that data for processing in central locations or in the cloud. 5G revolutionises manufacturing The World Economic Forum (WEF) expects 5G, to reach a global economic output of $13.2 trillion and gener- ate 22.3 million jobs by 2035. Up to 100 times faster than 4G, 5G offers drastically reduced latency that makes it possible to share data extremely quickly, erase processing delays and ensure factory systems can react in real time. The reliability of 5G connectiv- ity guarantees a stable and constant network connection anywhere, ensuring the continuous and unhindered execu- tion of mission-critical operations.M A R C H 2 0 2 1 C EO M I D D L E E A S T 9 Retail is particularly dependent on face- to-face interactions. Some 88 percent of global retailers would rather overschedule or add additional labour than risk being understaffed, an approach that leads to high labour costs and lower profits. Workforce management technologies, however, can help retailers substantially enhance workforce agility by quickly re- sponding to activity peaks and employee absenteeism, improving operational performance and profitability. Health data is gold The rapid acceleration of health data collection gives the industry an unprecedented opportunity to lever- age and deploy groundbreaking digital capabilities, such as AI, to improve treatment. Smart use of health data has the potential to dramatically improve patient care. A leading distributor of medical supplies has applied AI to the treatment of wounds by developing an app for healthcare professionals. The app uses image recognition to identify whether a wound is infected or in- flamed. Its use has led to a substantial decrease in unnecessary antibiotics and cut healing time from years to months. In HR, cognitive science and gami- fication win the war for talent By 2025, millennials will account for three-quarters of the global workforce. As organisations increasingly work with a digital-native pool of candidates, they must modernise recruitment. Using technology to develop recruit- ing processes can enable faster iden- tification of promising candidates. Companies need to utilise software that evaluates experience, skills and multiple other factors that will foster objectivity and diversity. “THE RELIABILITY OF 5G CONNECTIVITY GUARANTEES A STABLE AND CONSTANT NETWORK CONNECTION ANYWHERE, ENSURING THE CONTINUOUS AND UNHINDERED EXECUTION OF MISSION-CRITICAL OPERATIONS.” Automated and explainable AI makes financial organisations smarter Banks and insurance companies expect an 86 percent increase in AI investments by 2025, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit. For companies to exploit the full poten- tial of AI, employees with little or no computer science background need to be able to use it to increase their op- erational performance. For this reason, user-friendly AI platforms that allow business employees to quickly build models, easily understand and trust their output, and confidently make decisions will be critical in the deploy- ment of AI at a larger scale. In cybersecurity, authentication and network access get their due According to Interpol, the Covid-19 crisis has created an unprecedented op- portunity for cybercriminals to increase their attacks. Yet most companies overestimate their cybersecurity per- formance, with only 24 percent actually meeting the bar, according to a 2020 Bain study. Identifying common IT se- curity weaknesses and developing cyber- security maturity is central to building truly resilient digital organisations. One approach hackers take is to compromise a company’s active direc- tory (AD) infrastructure, which controls user authentication rights and company network access. Companies should tailor security to their AD, invest in monitoring to detect attacks in real time and investigate all AD breaches. Workforce technologies boost agility and profitability Globally, absenteeism costs companies hundreds of billions of dollars per year. Smartphone data powers usage- based auto insurance while improving driver safety The market for usage-based insurance (UBI) is projected to reach $126bn by 2027. Developments in telematics, de- fined by Gartner as “the use of wireless devices and ‘black box’ technologies to transmit data in real time back to an organisation,” have fuelled one exam- ple of UBI. UBI allows insurers to use sensors and tracking technologies in smartphones to collect real-time data and understand their customers’ driv- ing habits. Tech expert Dr. Houssem Jemili, Partner at Bain and Company Dubai, Leader Digital Tech Practice ME Viewpoint Truc Mai Dupont Vohong, Vice President, Digital Partnerships, Bain & Company ParisNext >