Category Archives: United Arab Emirates

Rediscovering customer excellence – my trip to see Gary Rhodes

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Well, the title may be misleading but these experiences are something I have meant to blog about since Boxing Day last year. To me customer service is paramount. Your product may not be the best value, but if you make me feel appreciated as a customer I’ll keep on coming back. Unfortunately in the Gulf region customer service usually means blaming the customer; the phrase ‘no Sir’ will constantly ring in your ears. There are times when even the cynic in me is proved wrong and I end up being taken aback by an organisation’s/employee’s devotion to the customer.

As usual, my food cravings are my weakness. I’ve often felt that I have the desires of a pregnant women when it comes to indulging my taste buds and Christmas was no exception. Wanting a three course British menu to fulfill my nostalgia for those Christmases long-past when I’d whoof down a couple of kilos of turkey, stuffing and Brussels sprouts I searched out for a suitable restaurant for me and my wife.

After doing all of the research (not including tasting) we plumped for a visit to The Embassy in Dubai’s Grosvenor House hotel. All the reviews had stressed that this was a top notch place with the best English grub around. Who could say no to cherry tomato tart with goat’s cheese and onion marmalade or a roast lamb with a mint crust and potatoes? And the Eton mess? Heaven!

We headed down on Christmas Day in the evening (yes, I was working that day unfortunately) and ready to be amazed. We arrived and were wowed by the views (the restaurant has a remarkable view from the 45th floor of the hotel). And then I opened the menu. And it wasn’t my menu. The Embassy’s head chef had changed and the restaurant’s new head chef had changed the menu. My craving wasn’t satisfied, even after the chef did a special off-the-menu order of Eton mess for us. We didn’t complain, we enjoyed our food but we did tell the maitre d’ that we’d expected something else. I left with a full tummy, but my desires hadn’t been fulfilled.

Flash forward two days and my wife received a call from the hotel (her number had been stored on their customer management system). They told her the head chef at Gary Rhodes Mezzanine would do us a special no-alcohol Christmas menu replete with roast turkey, turnip puree, baby potatoes and all the other trimmings. My explanation doesn’t even do the menu or the cooking justice (truffle crumpets is just magical and no, I don’t Instagram food). After two and a half hours of food heaven, including five different courses and more English tradition than the Queen giving her Christmas address followed by Only Fools and Horses I went home more than satisfied.

What did it for me was the attention to detail, and how the staff had remembered our comments the first time we visited the hotel, how they had reached out us and how they had done all they could do to make us happy. The food and beverage manager Lorenzo had gone out of his way to arrange a special night and a one-off menu. He’d come to visit us at the restaurant and he’d personally seen to it that we were happy throughout. For me, customer service was redeemed in the Gulf. And all it took was a man called Lorenzo at the Grosvenor House.

Is there anything better than Bread and Butter pudding? Well, maybe Gary Rhodes’ version. There’s nothing like customer excellence to keep you coming back for more!

How Dubai’s Tamweel Tower fire and its aftermath has been shaped by social media

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Dubai woke up Sunday morning to a horror story. In what seemed to me to be a throw-back to the movie the Towering Inferno a fire broke out on the roof/top floor of a 34-storey tower in the city’s Jumeirah Lakes Towers development at around 2am. Incredibly, no one was killed or seriously injured and the tower’s 600 residents were evacuated from the building.

The fire, which you can see a clip of below, took several hours to be brought under control. However, for the families who lived in the property which is owned by the Islamic mortgage company Tamweel, their ordeal has only just begun.

According to news releases and press statements Tamweel has been supporting those made homeless by providing them with hotel accommodation.

At Tamweel, our very highest priority is the safety and well-being of the owners and residents,” said Varun Sood, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Tamweel. “Our staff are on site and have provided transportation and hotel accommodation, in coordination with DMCC, to any resident who requires such assistance. We will continue to work with the Building’s Owners Association to assist all residents and we remain fully committed to ensuring their well-being.

It’s no exaggeration to say that many families lost everything in the fire. Radio interviews with Tamweel Tower residents spoke of people running out wearing only their underwear and having to borrow clothing from others after they’d assembled at the emergency evacuation points outside the building. A wonderful piece was written in the Khaleej Times, a piece that conveyed the feeling of loss and confusion. If you’re hoping to gain a sense of how much some people were going through on the morning of the fire then do click through and read.

The tragedy has been covered extensively in both traditional media and on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Residents were tweeting from the site pictures and uploading videos before the first stories had been published online (I read one Twitterer write in the early hours of the 18th that traditional media were yet to publish anything on the fire – if I can find his tweet I’ll publish here).

The morning of the tragedy companies and individuals started to reach out via community forums and other online media to offer their services and support as well as provide details for those who want to volunteer and donate.

One Dubai restaurant chain offered to host residents and businesses based in Tamweel Tower at their premises

Many people posted details of people to get in touch with for donating items to those left homeless

These community charity efforts are ongoing, as is the support given by Tamweel, and will be some consolation for residents who have lost all of their belongings in the fire.

The speed with which social media has allowed people to express their support and rally others in the community to help the victims of the Tamweel Fire has been remarkable. How long would businesses or government bodies take to do the same? What is interesting to note is that Dubai Police also use Twitter to put out news alerts.

For me, what’s also been striking is that the owner of the building Tamweel doesn’t have a social media presence. I’m sure, after what has happened, that will change in a very short space of time.

Finance and entrepreneurship goes digital with souqalmal.com

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I love entrepreneurs, I really do. At their best they’re gutsy, bold, decisive, innovative, and they’re not afraid of risk. Frankly, we need more entrepreneurs in the Middle East.

I had the pleasure and the opportunity to meet the person behind the idea of souqalmal.com last week. After stints with GE, Mastercard and the consultancy firm Bain Ambareen Musa took the jump into the entrepreneurial space to found souqalmal.com.

Souqalmal.com is the first website I’ve come across in the region which provides a comprehensive view of a variety of financial products, including credit cards, personal finance, home and vehicle finance, insurance and personal banking accounts. In other words the portal is an Gulf-based version of money.co.uk (the site presently caters to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) and is both incredibly easy to use as well as very handy when comparing different products in the market.

Souqalmal isn’t just about providing the basic data however. The site lets subscribers rate products, just as you would do on a Tripadvisor for a hotel or amazon.com for a book. As a consumer you get to rate that service and provide your input to hundreds and thousands of others who will be using the site. That consumer feedback element should raise the bar for the financial services industry in the region by highlighting what is both good and bad about the product and it services.

What I love most about what Ambareen is doing is that she’s established a business that is providing a much-needed public service. She’s dived in, she’s pushing ahead, and I do believe that she and souqalmal.com will improve what and how the financial sector offers and deals with the region’s consumers. I for one wish her all the success in the world, and can’t wait to start putting down my thoughts on souqalmal’s review sections!

Will Souqalmal.com and one person’s entrepreneurial spirit change the face of consumer banking in the Gulf? Let’s hope so!

Going above and beyond: How IBM is supporting Sharjah through training and education (and all for free)

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Corporations often about about giving back. The phrase corporate social responsibility is often uttered by executives. But how many companies really get their hands stuck in when it comes to providing knowledge, skills, and experience to local communities.

IBM’s remit has included encouraging ICT adoption among Sharjah’s youth

One company that I admire and respect for how it does things differently is IBM. IBM, or Big Blue as the company is also known, is a vendor to the Government of Sharjah for its e-government project. IBM did what few other vendors do, and sent a team of volunteers over to Sharjah to help develop a communications strategy that would promote Sharjah’s e-government services to the Emirate’s citizens and residents. Here’s a couple of bite-size quotes from IBM’s press memo.

An international team of 14 IBM employees chosen for the company’s Corporate Services Corps program has arrived in the United Arab Emirates to volunteer their expertise in support of e-literacy and social development in the Emirate of Sharjah. As part of the project, the team will work alongside the Sharjah e-Government Directorate, Sharjah University and the Supreme Council for Family Affairs Centers.

The team of 14 IBM experts from the United States, India, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan and Australia will be on the ground in Sharjah for a month. At the Sharjah e-Government Directorate, a team will help refine a national strategy for promoting e-services of the Sharjah government to residents.

At the Supreme Council of Family Affairs, an IBM team will help the council and its organizations realize an e-literacy program and move closer towards realizing its goals of helping Sharjah women and youth improve their IT skills.

IBM’s Corporate Service Corps are teams of subject matter experts who give their time free of charge for a month to help local economies, improve skills, and provide a foundation for success in a variety of disciplines to small businesses, educational institutions and non-profit organisations.

As a person who is passionate about communications, I find it interesting that IBM focused on working with Sharjah on how to promote e-services. In a sense it acknowledges the truth that having a good technical setup and list of services just isn’t enough. If you don’t know about the services and/or your habits are ingrained then you won’t use a new services. It’ll be interesting to see how IBM and the Sharjah Government will look to tackle the issue of change, to promote services that contrast with how government affairs have been traditionally run in the Gulf (think lots of office trips and paperwork).

In addition, how will the initiative have tackled internal change, to convince government employees who would have never thought about either using e-services or promoting electronic government.

I’d love to know if IBM considered the prospect of using traditional communication methods such as a majlis (usually a night-time gathering of several dozen men, or women, in one room discuss everything from personal issues to business) to talk about and listen to ideas on how to publicize e-services as well as demonstrate the ease with which one could complete a government transaction or service without having to talk to someone face to face or leave one’s house or office.

How will IBM and the Sharjah Government promote e-services to a society that is both traditional and conservative?

In a conservative society with many different cultures, nationalities and languages what tactics can be used to convey a message successfully? The thought of using centuries-old concepts and practices to make a success out of a cutting edge technology project to change how government services are requested and delivered is fascinating. Again, I wonder what IBM came up with on this project.

All in all, this is what CSR should be about. Supporting a government e-services project through communications? Providing advice and training for getting more women and youth into technology? And for free? I hope others follow in IBM’s footsteps. We all could do with more corporate love through such projects.

PS for more news on IBM’s Corporate Service Corps initiative have a look at the website http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/corporateservicecorps/ or follow the hashtag #ibmcsc!

Halloween art from Dubai!

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To celebrate Halloween in Dubai my artist friend Jehan Abdulkarim has mocked up another beautiful piece of art after her Eid piece last week. See if you can spot the landmarks in the background!

Witches can often be seen flying above the skies of Dubai at the end of October! Thank you Jehan for this Halloween fun!

Lessons on leadership… Apple, Bahrain and Dubai

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It’s (hopefully) common sense that leadership can make or break any company or organisation. A leader, normally the CEO, will define the company’s direction, they will set the agenda, lead the execution and innovate.

Leaders like Steve Jobs define their organisation and create success on their own terms, much like Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum has done.

The late, great Steve Jobs has been acclaimed as one of the best CEOs in business. Jobs did it his way, he focused on the business and on creating works of art/technology that changed how we live our lives.

For me, the Apple of today is different to the Apple of yesterday. Nothing would go out of the door until Jobs was satisfied that the product was right and ready.

A simple example is cited by Mike Elgan in his recent article on Apple.

Apple had been developing the iPhone for years. After major arguments about materials, the team had decided to use reinforced plastic on the screens for the first version. That was the plan, and everybody spent more than a year working on it.

Just one month before the first iPhone shipped, Jobs summoned his team and issued an edict: The screen would be glass. He just didn’t like the plastic screen.

Of course, Job wasn’t perfect. He had his flaws. But I can’t imagine that Jobs would have let Apple Maps into the world without the solution being ready (the linked article here does make the point that Jobs himself was late to realize the importance of a maps application). As a leader could we imagine anyone else taking Apple forward better than Jobs? No. That is evident more so today when he’s missed.

So how is this relevant to us in the desert? I was talking to a work colleague, a well-respected Emirati, about the Gulf and how it has developed. He was talking about Bahrain, and commenting on how 20 to 30 years back Bahrain was where Emiratis would travel to shop and vacation.

What he was saying made sense to me; Bahrain had a well-developed economy at the time and Dubai was setting out on the journey to become one of the globe’s trading hubs. Bahrain was the GCC’s banking hub, Gulf Air was the airline of the region, and the island could do no wrong.

Fast-track to today, and it’s as if the roles have been reversed. Dubai is now the trading hub for the region, and it’s the one must-visit destination for business and tourism. Emirates is the world’s largest airline by passenger numbers, Dubai-owned Jumeirah is becoming a global brand for the hospitality sector, and, despite the credit crunch, Dubai is still thriving. As for Bahrain, it’s fair to say that the country isn’t doing as well as Dubai.

Countries are no different from companies. The leadership shown by the ruler, the prime minister or whoever at the top can be and often is the difference between success and failure. Nowhere is that more apparent than in today’s Gulf and in the vision set out by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum. Leadership is success, and a lack of leadership can be the opposite.

Al Maha Resort: A desert experience in need of nationals

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After the hard work of the last couple of weeks before and during Gitex, I treated the missus to a weekend at what may be Dubai’s best weekend getaway. The Al Maha Desert Resort is one of those places which is good for the soul. For anybody who hasn’t been to the desert and experienced its deafening silence, the Al Maha is a must.

Al Maha was conceived over a decade back as one of the first nature reserves in the UAE. The resort has helped preserve a number of species which are unique to the Arabian desert, including the Orxy, the long-horned white antelope, and gazelle. Al Maha is designed to be both a conservation reserve as well as a luxury resort, and the guides at Al Maha are experts in the local wildlife. Guests can explore the desert within the vicinity of the hotel and learn about the UAE’s flora and fauna.

Our experiences during our stay at Al Maha were remarkable. We didn’t even mind the six am start for the desert wildlife trip. For a taster of the resort and all it has to offer have a peak at the below video.

There was only one disappointment for me. No matter how hard I tried I could not find any nationals working at Al Maha. I’d asked our guide who told me that this was not for the hotel’s trying; a couple of nationals had worked at the hotel but had left several years back. The Gulf is renowned for the generosity shown to guests.

I’ve experienced first-hand the warmth of the Bedouin and locals in places like Saudi Arabia’s Qassim province. Their stories and experiences made my own journey all the more remarkable. The local culture is part of what makes any trip to the desert so much fun and, dare I say it, educational.

Frankly it was disappointing for me that there were no Emiratis working at one of the first sites set up by the UAE’s government to preserve the desert environment and its wildlife. I would have enjoyed hearing the tales of the UAE’s own Bedouin about their lives in the desert.

I do very much hope that when we do go next time to Al Maha that we will meet with local guides as well as the team that took care of us so well the last time we visited (a BIG THANK You to Shane for all the effort you put into taking care of us). Our stay will be even more enjoyable and rewarding with a touch of local knowledge. After all, our history and culture makes us who we are. To have a true desert experience in the UAE you need to be hosted by the people who have lived the Bedouin life and who call the white sands and oases their home.

To repeat, Al Maha Resort is one of the best hotels I’ve ever been to. It’ll only get better with Emirati employees.