Middle East news

Brendan O'Shea, the Partnership's Chairman, writes from Bahrain:

The general buoyancy in the economies of the Gulf region continues to present opportunities for consultancies that are able to provide quality services to meet urgent and important needs. Those that have a regional presence are likely to win compared to those who have not because that gives the client the benefit of quick hits and demonstrates commitment to the region.

Although there is continuing political uncertainty in some countries, it is matched by a pragmatism that business is there to be done.  It seems that there will always be the shadow of unrest so there is a realisation that the best approach is just to get on with business and prosper while you can.

In Bahrain and across the Gulf, as well as in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan we are faced with increasing demand for our core services.  There is an obvious advantage in being “global, yet local” – being close and on the ground, but also having the ability to tap into tried and tested approaches and resources in the technology of human performance from other parts of the world.

One trend that we have observed emerging is that of organisations being prepared to invest in the development of more senior staff. The perceived wisdom that those at the top in organisations don’t need to learn and change is being vigorously challenged in some more enlightened organisations. 

The greatest barrier that needs overcoming is the view of some senior executives that to admit to needing to learn will somehow be seen as weak.  It’s startling to think that these managers believe that they don’t make mistakes and naïve in the extreme for them to think that their staff might believe the same!

An emerging characteristic of those companies that have enduring and sustained high performance is their ability to confront change and to realise that in order to be successful each person must confront the fact that they, first, must be willing to change.

What’s current in our work?

• Peer and direct report feedback as part of the performance evaluation process of the senior team in an investment bank.  Getting results is a priority but in determining overall contribution the evaluation includes HOW results were achieved.  Feedback from peers and direct reports is included in the mix.

• Design, develop and put in place the Learning and Development function for a large financial institution.  The organisation, undergoing a massive transformation, does not want to lose momentum in equipping staff with the right skills and helping them with their development plans. 

• Producing a toolkit in management and leadership practices to support the decision-making of managers.  Managers use it as a day - to - day aid and contribute to keeping it “alive” by adding in their own experiences.

• Coaching of professional and qualified staff in a number of organisations.  There is ever increasing demand for personalised development, used as part of a retention strategy for some companies and by others as an enticement to join them.

• Helping the Director General of a Regulatory Agency to improve the capacity of his Senior Team to work collegially, with open communication and a better understanding of their own strengths and areas to work on. In solidifying the development of new local talent we are helping to move the agency towards a more strategic role to cope with the challenges of the industry and the demands of the consumer.

A series of deals in the banking sector make news in and around the region, with implications for the workforce - Juan Caballero reports.

Goldman Sachs has teamed with NCB Capital from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to create the largest investment bank in that country, whilst several banks from Egypt and KSA are bidding for Egypt's National Bank for Development. Lebanese Bank Audi SAL-Audi Saradar Group plans to open a total of 40 branches in Egypt by the end of 2007.

Emirates Bank Group and National Bank of Dubai have declared their intention to merge.

BNP Paribas and its Turkish partner TEB are planning to raise their market share in Turkey to five percent from the current 1.5 percent by the end of 2010, and Samba Financial Group (KSA) has completed the acquisition of a 68% stake in Pakistan's Crescent Commercial Bank for $100 million.

And this is only a small proportion of the news stories flooding the financial markets in the region.  

What are the possible implications in terms of people? We suggest a few:

The urgent need for talent - The talent pool in the region is scarce and cannot grow at the speed demanded by the rate of change. It cannot be filled by the addition of expatriates from the West or the Far East, because the new boom requires people with Arabic skills. Many countries are booming and more people with more talent are needed. The requirement to provide help and support for companies’ performance improvement and management development strategies is significant.

People with regional vision - Mergers, acquisitions and the opening of new markets means that backward - thinking minds will have a problem managing these new opportunities. Professionals who have worked in different places and have an edge of expertise in diversity and working with multi-functional teams will be in great demand.

Regionalization of operations - The issues around consistency of operational performance require an enhanced focus. There will be a quantum leap in the way systems and operations are managed, both in terms of hardware and humanware. People with a clear understanding of how to move the business forward will need to be recruited.

Start - ups - Many businesses will start from scratch, with no previous experience or history behind them. There may be risks and uncertainty, and the need is for a special kind of talent willing and comfortable dealing with high levels of ambiguity and conflict, and able to develop new skills to cope with the environment.

Women at work - An enormous employment opportunity arises for woman in the region, as the pool of male talent is insufficient to meet demand. But the creation of more opportunities for woman in the workplace will requiregovernments, employers and employees (including women themselves) to learn and develop behaviours to make the integration smooth. The countries and companies that understand this first and act on it will be the winners.

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International Leadership and Management
conference in Bahrain
We are very pleased to have been invited to speak at the prestigious “International Leadership and Management” conference in Bahrain in December 2006. Our Chairman Brendan O’Shea, and Middle East CEO Juan Caballero delivered a keynote presentation on the theme “Retaining managerial talent in organizations during times of rapid change”.

The conference, organised by the Bahrain Management Society (BMS), was held under the theme of "Successfully Managing in a Globally Competitive Environment". Delegates included senior management of private companies, banks, financial institutions, government organisations, ministries and universities.

Opening of Middle East Office in Bahrain
In October 2006 the Partnership announced the opening of its Middle East office, headed by Juan Caballero, in Bahrain. This enables us to provide a full service capability to our existing clients in the region, and to further extend our range of products and services to meet the needs of the rapidly growing Middle Eastern markets.

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Click here to meet Juan>