Category: Business News & Insight

Car Rental

Speeding Up the Car Rental Industry With a Customer-centric Marketplace: OneClickDrive

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
Car Rental

OneClickDrive is the UAE’s biggest car rental marketplace with more than 1300 verified listings. You can find every type or brand of car for hire in Dubai through the OneClickDrive website and mobile apps. We caught up with one of the founders – Vinay Pagarani – to know more about their exciting journey and impressive growth rate.

OneClickDrive is a platform that connects users directly to the listed car rental companies for the booking process. While other websites and apps allow online bookings and may charge additional fees (upfront or hidden), OneClickDrive is completely free of charge for its users. They don’t pay any commission, booking, or admin fees.

Customers can compare offers for every type of car and book one directly with the service provider. There are cars to suit all styles and budgets, from a convertible Ferrari and an exotic Rolls Royce to an economy Nissan Sunny and even a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV. Vinay Pagarani, Founder and Growth Manager, tells us more about the innovative firm.

“Build, collect feedback, and improve is our philosophy,” he begins. “We take user feedback and complaints very seriously. We have resolved 99% of issues. With our ever-growing experience of working with the local car rental market, we make sure to list only reputed car rental companies. In fact, we have delisted untoward partners in the past.”

It was in 2015 that OneClickDrive came into existence and this was at a time when the car rental industry was predominantly offline in Dubai. Most car sales relied on walk-in customers and outbound telesales marketing and Vinay tells us it was an arduous task to get people online and to adopt inbound marketing strategies. Yet the companies that initially partnered with OneClickDrive are still with the firm several years later.

Cut to the pandemic when walk-in customers completely vanished from the industry and OneClickDrive really came into its own. “We saw it as an opportunity in disguise and scaled up our digital marketing activities,” says Vinay. “Users found our partners’ fleet on OneClickDrive and booked with them instantaneously. A lot more companies came onboard soon after.”

“Among other things, User Experience is a prime factor we take into account,” elaborates Vinay. “Our website and app are constantly overhauled to deliver a better experience to our users. Feedback is collected on a regular basis and worked upon.”

Staff strive to stay constantly ahead of the game when it comes to the latest digital trends and are always exploring new avenues that can give OneClickDrive an edge over its competitors. In fact, OneClickDrive was the first to begin training its clients and their staff on not just using the platform but also about customer service and, to date, the firm regularly delivers inbound sales and communication training to ensure complete customer satisfaction each and every time.

The team at OneClickDrive is entirely capable, focused, and diverse. The culture is progressive yet flexible. “Together with an open plan office layout, we follow a flat hierarchy. Projects are assigned across teams so each one is up-to-date on developments and offers their two cents along the way,” Vinay shares.

Due to its hard work, diligence and devotion to customer care OneClickDrive was recently recognised in the MEA business Awards 2021 and named Best Car Rental Application Platform – Dubai, and Vinay has big plans for the future.

“We are working on a CRM SAAS for the car rental industry,” he enthuses. “One that’s closely aligned with the local UAE market and moving forward, as per international markets. This will catapult OneClickDrive to new heights in the region. Our main objective is to standardize the industry, streamline their operations and improve customer service.” “OneClickDrive is poised to expand globally. We hope to enter the European market as the Covid regulations are put at ease. While we already work with a number of companies online, local presence would speed things up.” The future looks promising for OneClickDrive, Vinay, and his team.

Download the OneClickDrive Car Rental Marketplace on your mobile phone: iOS App | Android App

For further information, please contact Vinay Pagarani or visit www.oneclickdrive.com

Ransomware

Financial Services Companies Could Face Ransomware Vulnerabilities for Another Two Years

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
Ransomware

Organisations in the sector need an additional $2.61m and 29 new IT staff each to tackle the ‘vulnerability lag’ caused by COVID-led digital transformation, finds research from Veritas

The financial services sector is falling behind other industries when it comes to bridging the gap between the new technologies they have rapidly introduced to deal with COVID-19 pandemic, and the security measures required to protect them, according to research from Veritas Technologies, the global leader in enterprise data protection.

The Veritas Vulnerability Lag Report, surveyed 2,050 IT executives from the UAE and 18 other countries, including 245 respondents from the financial services sector. It discovered that companies in the financial services space were more likely to be struggling to keep pace with their security than those from most other sectors, with nearly half (48%) stating that their data security was lagging behind their digital transformation deployments. The average across all industries was 39%.

 

As a result, financial services companies are leaving themselves exposed to an increased risk of ransomware and other data loss incidents. The heightened threat to the sector is set to continue for another two years as organisations struggle to close the gap.

Johnny Karam, Managing Director & Vice President of International Emerging Region at Veritas Technologies, said: “In line with the UAE government’s ambitions to establish a strong digital economy, the UAE financial services sector has made significant strides in introducing new technologies and services to cater to evolving customer needs. However, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a curveball that no one could have seen coming, forcing organisations around the world to make transitions more rapidly than they anticipated. This has meant that the pace of security rollouts to protect this innovation has lagged behind, leaving them badly exposed to digital risk.

“In the UAE, we’re seeing businesses across all industries make strong progress with their data protection efforts. Unfortunately, the global financial services industry still has a long way to go. The good news is companies in this sector are beginning to redress the balance: 16% are confident that they will be able to close the gap this year.”

Financial services organisations that want to eliminate their vulnerability lag within 12 months would need to spend, on average, an additional $2.61m and hire 29 new members of IT staff. $2.61m is 5% more than the average required across all sectors, which may be disappointing news for IT leaders in the sector, given that they already typically spent 19% more than their peers on IT initiatives last year.

Financial services companies were also less likely to have the funds required to take action everywhere that their security was lagging. 43% of respondents in the financial sector said that they lacked the funds to close all of their gaps, compared to 28% of energy companies and just 25% in the public sector.

 

Expansion of cloud increases the risk of ransomware

Cloud environments are most at risk while this vulnerability lag persists: 82% of financial services respondents have implemented new cloud capabilities or expanded elements of their cloud infrastructure beyond their original plans because of the pandemic. With organisations having introduced an average of six new cloud services in the last twelve months alone, 54% of respondents said that they had gaps in their cloud protection strategy – more than any other area.

Responding to the global survey, three in five IT leaders at financial services organisations said that security risks have risen due to COVID-led digital transformation initiatives, with 44% specifying that the risk of ransomware attacks in particular, had increased.

Business operations have already suffered due to the vulnerability. 89% of financial services stated that their organisation had experienced downtime in the last 12 months, not least because, on average, financial services were the victims of 3.22 ransomware attacks which caused disruption and downtime to their businesses – this is nearly a third (32%) higher than the average across all sectors.

Karam said: “While the pressures that COVID-led digital transformation put on IT departments weren’t unique to the financial services sector, its position as a highly-attractive target to hackers may have meant that the industry has felt them more acutely. With hackers beating at the door, and limited resources to push them back, it can feel like the IT team is between a rock and a hard place. However, astute IT leaders are finding a third way: partnering with data protection providers that can minimise the admin burden of data protection through simplified tools leveraging AI and machine learning. Taking this approach can help financial organisations to accelerate their security rollouts and stop their protection infrastructure lagging behind their digital transformation.”

Annex Investments Is On the Lookout for Promising Early-stage MENA Startups In Need of Funding and Business Support

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

With the MENA ecosystem seeing more investment activity than ever before, with exits like those of Careem, Anghami, and swvl making headlines more frequently, a lot of eyes have been opened to the region, especially as one with great untapped potential.

For Ahmed Nasser Al Nowais, who has been an entrepreneur in the UAE since the age of 16, the potential has always been there. Investing in tech and non-tech companies and going on to be a chair member at many prominent boards, committees and associations, he has built a repertoire of expertise and knowledge that he consolidated into one, concentrated effort: Annex Investments.

As one of the few truly privately-owned investor entities in the UAE, Annex Investments has also set out to act as an agent to multinational companies to help ease their entry into the MENA market, to stimulate the local ecosystem and lead to the next generation of “conglomerates, and scaleups,” Kareem Anabtawi, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Annex Investments, tells the Abu Dhabi SME Hub.

“We want founders to dream big and think they can be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, rather than selling to them,” he continues. “That is our role as early players and heavy movers in this ecosystem: to help assist both investors and founders.”

Currently, Annex is funneling its efforts into two avenues:

  • creating a venture builder for startups at the Pre-Seed stage, and going on to support them all the way to Series A;
  • deploying funds across promising MENA startups in a sector-agnostic manner.

“We’ve now allocated funds that will go into the MENA region,” Anabtawi explains. “We work on a deal-by-deal basis, finding deals where we believe the startup is of high quality and innovative, and where we can act as a strategic investor, where we can add value by opening doors, making the connections necessary, and providing advisory and mentorship for the journey of the startup. That’s essentially the investment mandate we follow. We’re sector-agnostic. We look across all of MENA.”

 

A shifting investment landscape

Looking back a decade or so at the existing investment landscape in the UAE, Anabtawi traces back an interesting journey of expedited progress and development.

“When we first started, there wasn’t really an investor scene in the venture capital in the region whatsoever,” he notes. “We were early movers into this space, before a lot of other people were. Essentially, we noticed that once Careem and Souq had exited is when everyone started to see the legitimacy of the [UAE and MENA ecosystem].”

“We believe that back then, there was an extremely small amount of deal flow within tech in the region. Because of the surge that came following [the Careem exit], we are starting to see now that the market is maturing with a lot of new regional and international investors entering. We’re seeing more and more quality deal flow. It’s not fully mature, yet, but it’s definitely heading in the right direction.”

But the mere exit of Careem and other unicorns was just the culmination of the years-long efforts led by the UAE government to make doing business in the country easy and intuitive, Al Nowais explains. In his opinion, if government entities had not innovated and revamped elements like license registration, company laws, fee processes, and all the other aspects of setting up a business, the ecosystem “would never have matured” to this stage.

He explains that it was the combined effort of government regulatory support, in addition to improved self-education among investors in the region that helped produce the favourable environment that birthed success stories like those of Careem and others, and created the conductive investment environment we see today.

 

Fostering the culture of private investing 

While the UAE startup ecosystem is no stranger to publicly-owned investment entities, as the UAE government is historically known to pump a lot of strategic capital into the market, the number of fully-private investor organizations has slowly been ramping up over the years.

As one of these entities, Anabtawi hopes that Annex Investments’ efforts will help bolster the culture of angel investing in the country and region, to encourage more private investors to take the leap.

“I think this is played on two fronts. One is with the startups and the founders. And the second is with the investors.

“As Annex Investments, it is our responsibility to help foster this tech ecosystem and to do so we need to first educate investors about what we are doing, how they can join in, how they can add value, how we can work to open doors to assist these startups and allow SMEs in the region to flourish.”

“Secondly, it comes up on the startup’s end. For example, how can we introduce X fintech company to the right banks, so that they can get the rates that allow them to assist the consumer, or have the access in the first place to these banks so that they can operate?”

“[Overall, it’s about] making sure we’re assisting SMEs as much as possible to no longer be considered an SME at the end of the day. We want to grow these startups to become large

conglomerates and maintain value for the region. We don’t want every startup in [MENA] to exit into an international [market, where] control and value become lost and the region [misses out on the value].”

 

Startups: It’s not all about the money

While the Annex Investments team is always on the lookout for exciting startups that are looking for support, it is important to remember that most investors are looking to build a relationship with their beneficiaries, rather than simply using them as an investment vehicle.

Anabtawi frames it this way:

“As an investor, would you prefer if a startup comes to you over-subscribed, yet still wants you to be a part of their round, because they know you can offer them certain strategic support and advice, or would you prefer a startup come your way simply asking for money and nothing else?”

[The startup in the first example,] those are the people we look for. The people that don’t need our money, but our value add, and that’s how we know that our money will be in safe hands.”

In terms of improving a founder’s chances at receiving funding, Anabtawi advises, “Be prepared, do your homework, know the investor, what they like, what they invest in, and where and how they can add value. Make sure this is already within your pitch.”

“We don’t believe in just bringing in a cheque and praying for returns. We like to come in, add value, be involved. [Founders should] encourage our involvement, mentorship, and know exactly what they want from us.”

Economic Recovery

Post-COVID-19 Recovery and Economic Transformation Will Be Increasingly Service-Sector-Led

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
Economic Recovery

Kenya has a very dynamic private sector, with a relatively high entry rate of new firms, in comparison to other countries with similar levels of per capita income.

These firms do face challenges in terms of scaling up – most firms in Kenya are small, largely based in Nairobi, and operate in the informal sector, according to the latest Kenya Economic Update Edition 24: From Recovery to Better Jobs. Kenya has over 138,000 formal establishments, and 7.4 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Among formal firms, only 3% have 50 or more employees, and only 1% of firms have 150 or more employees. The majority of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), 94%, are unlicensed micro firms with fewer than five employees. Nairobi hosts 36% of formal firms and 14% of MSMEs. The services sector dominates the firm landscape with 84% of formal firms and 83% of MSMEs in the services sector.

“Improving conditions in Kenya to support the ability of new firms to scale up and innovate is important to support the creation of better jobs at a large scale,” said Keith Hansen, World Bank Country Director for Kenya. “When firms reach a critical mass, and are able to access larger markets, use technology, and expand exports, this results in increased productivity, better-quality jobs, and higher standards of living for large parts of the population.”

 

Services sector leads in job creation

The report finds that, prior to the onset of the pandemic, Kenya’s job creation was concentrated in the services sector. For instance, the number of formal firms in the retail sector increased fivefold – from around 700 in 2013 to 3,500 in 2018. This outpaced the growth of formal firms in the manufacturing sector, the number of which roughly doubled over this period, from 336 to 714.

With services driving job creation, Kenya is exhibiting a new pattern of economic transformation that is emerging in Africa, and which may differ from the manufacturing-led transformation of East Asia and many high-income economies. The growth in digital technology could enable some service sub-sectors to replicate features of the manufacturing sector that enable scale, innovation, and spillovers that are important for long-term development and job creation.

The services sector can be divided into four groups of sub-sectors based on their ability to enable scale, innovation, and spillovers: the global innovator services (ICT, finance, and professional activities); the skill-intensive social services (education and health); the low-skilled tradable services (transportation and storage, accommodation and food services, and wholesale trade); and the low-skilled domestic services (retail trade and personal services,). Low-skilled services currently dominate employment in Kenya. Low-skilled domestic services accounted for over half of all service sector employment, and the low-skilled tradable sub-sectors for one-quarter, in 2019.

The good news for Kenya: Prior to the pandemic, Kenya saw strong growth in employment among the higher-skilled services sub-sectors. Employment in the global innovator sub-sectors grew by 10% between 2015/16 and 2019, largely led by the finance and insurance sub-sectors. Employment in the skill-intensive social subsector, i.e. education and health, increased by an even larger 23%.

“Kenya’s fintech success story highlights how global innovator services can be a source of job creation, reduce poverty and benefit the broader economy,” said Ramya Sundaram, Senior Economist, World Bank. “With appropriate investment in trade, technology and training, Kenya will be able to create jobs for people at all skill levels, ensuring that growth benefits everyone.”

 

The pandemic’s impact on the job market

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a very large impact on the labor market and some of the scarring will have longer-term implications. Workers lost jobs and moved into agriculture to survive. The services sectors, and urban areas were worst affected. The share of employment in services declined by 7 percentage points, reversing almost all the gains since 2005. Agriculture absorbed 1.6 million additional workers, increasing its share of employment from 47% to 54% in one year. Unemployment increased in urban areas, while employment increased in rural areas. In addition to contemporary effects, human capital losses during the pandemic can have significant intergenerational consequences, including through the productivity of future generations.  The incipient rebound in employment in more recent months suggest that, with appropriate measures, Kenya could recover and surpass these losses.

 

Way forward for job creation

Key takeaways from the report:

  • To recover fully from the pandemic and to create more jobs over the longer term, there is a need to orient policies consistently towards supporting a thriving private sector.
  • The main challenges facing Kenya are three-fold: (1) creating conditions that support firms in entering the market, in scaling up, and in innovating through the creation of strong entrepreneurial ecosystems; (2) reversing the losses in jobs during the pandemic in sectors such as global innovator services and skill-intensive social services to help increase the availability of better-quality jobs over the long-term; and (3) raising demand for jobs in labor intensive, lower skill sectors, including through linkages to the more skill-intensive sectors.
  • Creating conditions that support firm entry, scale-up, and innovation can be done through supporting greater access to finance, reducing barriers to technology adoption, supporting development of entrepreneurial eco-systems in lagging regions, and providing business development services to help improve firm capabilities and entrepreneurial skills.
  • Creating conditions to support the growth of firms and jobs in the services sector (among other sectors) and exploiting its linkages with the rest of the economy involves the 3Ts: (i) trade: lowering barriers to trade – particularly in services; (ii) technology: expanding access to digital technologies, and updating the regulatory framework to address new features of data and digital business models; and (iii) training: improving training and skills development among the current and future workforce to enable faster adoption of technology, as well as better socio-emotional and interpersonal skills that are especially important in some services.
  • Raising demand for jobs in labor intensive, lower skill sectors, helps support all segments of the population in attaining a higher standard of living. Cross-cutting reforms such as enabling a stable business environment and improving access to both physical and digital infrastructure can benefit all firms, across all sectors. For example, with appropriate investment in physical infrastructure, better roads, and so on, the tourism sector has great potential to further benefit the Kenyan economy and continue creating jobs for low-skilled labor.
UAE Mall

93% of UAE Businesses Concerned About a Ransomware Attack This Upcoming Holiday Season

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
UAE Mall

Research highlights disconnect between perceived threat and preparedness that results in longer incident response cycles and increased revenue losses

Cybereason, the leader in operation-centric attack protection, today published a global study of 1,200+ security professionals at organizations that have previously suffered a successful ransomware attack on a holiday or weekend. The study highlights the disconnect between organizational risk and preparedness.

The report, titled Organizations at Risk: Ransomware Attackers Don’t Take Holidays, found that the vast majority of security professionals in the UAE (93%) expressed high concern about imminent ransomware attacks. In spite of this concern, there seems to be a disconnect between the risk ransomware poses to organizations during these off-hour periods and their preparedness — in terms of personnel and technology — to respond, moving into the holiday season.

 
 

The Human Element

An indicator of the disconnect between the perceived risk and preparedness is that 39% of respondents in the UAE attributed the previous successful holiday ransomware attack to not having the right cybersecurity coverage plan or because the company was only operating a skeleton crew.

This has unfortunately meant that often times cybersecurity professionals have had to put off personal engagements and weekend plans in order to respond to the attacks — 90% of UAE respondents indicated they have missed a holiday or weekend activity because of a ransomware attack.

 

Technology Issues

On the technology front, 65% of UAE respondents (16% higher than the global average) said a ransomware attack against their organization was successful because they did not have the right security solutions in place. Most concerning was the fact that just 44% reported having an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution in place. As EDR is a foundational building block of a robust cybersecurity posture, this is particularly alarming.

 

Organizational Impact

This lack of preparedness for ransomware attacks on weekends and holidays has a significant impact on victim organizations, with 60% of UAE respondents saying it resulted in longer periods to assess the scope of an attack, 58% reporting they required more time to mount an effective response and 46% indicating they required a longer period to fully recover from the attack.

Interestingly, 23% of UAE respondents (twice the global average) reported their organizations suffered revenue losses as a direct result. This research validates the assumption that it takes longer to assess, mitigate, remediate and recover from a ransomware attack over a holiday or weekend.

“Ransomware attackers don’t take time off for holidays. The most disruptive ransomware attacks in 2021 have occurred over weekends and during major holidays when attackers know they have the advantage over targeted organizations,” said Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Cybereason, Lior Div. “This research proves out the fact that organizations are not adequately prepared and need to take additional steps to assure they have the right people, processes and technologies in place so they can effectively respond to ransomware attacks and protect their critical assets.”

 

Learning from past mistakes

There are some positives to be taken away from the research — findings indicate that UAE organizations have acknowledged the need to enhance their cybersecurity defense and ensure they have the right technology, resources and strategy in place to avoid being hit by an attack during the upcoming holiday season. 77% of respondents stated that their organizations would be adding new technology, 60% are building a more robust contingency plan and 50% planning to increase cybersecurity staff cover over the holidays.

Hybrid Walking

How a Hybrid Strategy Promotes Inclusivity and Equity of Experience

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
Hybrid Walking

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated workplace trends that had been slowly germinating for years. Chief among them as we look to the future is the reality that distributed work is here to stay

Through the early weeks of the pandemic, organizations and employees alike struggled with the sudden shift to remote work. But a year after the initial lockdowns, business leaders have warmed to the idea that their people could stay productive away from the office—at least for part of the week. Up to 70 percent of organizations are planning for at least some portion of their workforce continuing to work from home.  Research from Harvard Business School confirms this, with more than 81 percent of office workers saying that they do not see themselves returning to the post-COVID office five days a week.  

 Several approaches to distributed work have emerged, from the “binary strategy” (in which organizations view employees as either office workers or remote workers) to the “remote-first strategy” (in which working from home becomes every employee’s primary mode). The fastest-growing approach—and the one we feel has the potential to help most organizations thrive in this new reality—is one in which most employees exercise autonomy in choosing from a broad array of options both within and beyond the office for where they’ll work on a given day.

This so-called “hybrid strategy” presents organizations with an opportunity to holistically address the needs of a highly diverse workforce with a focus on equity of experience. This means considering the needs of remote team members as well as their colleagues in the office. A myriad of factors can affect an individual’s productivity and engagement—everything from work styles, location of colleagues, and project deadlines to home office conditions, parenting responsibilities, and physical/sensory needs. And these factors are not fixed; they can change from day to day or week to week.

This so-called “hybrid strategy” presents organizations with an opportunity to holistically address the needs of a highly diverse workforce with a focus on equity of experience.

By trusting employees to make choices based on their daily tasks and preferences—with support whether they choose to come into the office or work from home—organizations can reshape the office into a sought-after destination for those social and cultural connections that cannot be recreated virtually.

 

From substantial expense to competitive edge

Reorienting office space around three activities not supported elsewhere

Even before the pandemic, offices were struggling to consistently support people and their work. For many organizations, the physical office didn’t keep pace: It was often generic and too densely planned, while deprioritizing remote work. However, when given a choice, many employees had already begun working from home, coworking spaces, cafés, or elsewhere. As we look to the future, we see an opportunity to reorient the office so that workers feel less anchored to it and more buoyed by it, as facilities focus on hosting experiences that the isolation of the pandemic robbed from us all.

As we look to the future, we see an opportunity to reorient the office so that workers feel less anchored to it and more buoyed by it, as facilities focus on hosting experiences that the isolation of the pandemic robbed from us all.

What can organizations do to make their spaces more desirable as on-demand destinations for employees newly empowered to work anywhere? From data provided by more than 19,000 users of Herman Miller’s WFH Ergonomic Assessment tool 3  and other sources, we have identified three core experiences that the office is uniquely positioned to support. At Herman Miller, we’re focused on helping customers evolve existing environments with products and settings specifically designed with these experiences in mind.

 

Three core experiences best supported by the office

Community socialization

While most of us have found virtual ways to maintain a sense of connection to our closest friends and family over the past year, our “weak ties” were largely lost. This outer circle of acquaintances—whether that’s the building concierge who is on a first-name basis with everyone, or the coworker from another department with whom you like to make small talk—is vital to an individual’s social health. 4  Building these relationships is also critical for establishing and maintaining culture—and helping people feel a sense of purpose and belonging. By providing areas that encourage people to interact with their extended networks, your office can help reestablish these connections.

Team collaboration

In the prevailing model of workplace design, individual workstations are “owned” or assigned, and group spaces are shared. But organizations looking to seed spontaneous socialization and concerted collaboration need to flip this to more of a neighborhood model. In this model, team space is owned, while individual spaces are shared within it. When workplaces practice neighborhooding in this way, they better accommodate longer-term collaboration while also creating opportunities for those spur-of-the-moment chats that cannot be scheduled via videoconference.

Individual focus

The past year has stressed our homes in many ways, with spare bedrooms called into duty as classrooms, gyms, offices, or all the above. And for those of us without a room to spare, the realities of children, roommates, or extended family have made it difficult to even find a corner to work in—let alone actually finding focus. For these individuals, a return to the physical office can provide a respite for concentration and focused work, given the right spatial setup.

 

Returning office workers will bring new expectations for user control to the workplace

Technology has been reshaping work for decades, but it took a virus to change the office landscape overnight. In the early months of the pandemic, many organizations focused on adapting their spaces to provide safer work environments and limit the spread of COVID-19. However, organizations are now turning their attention to broader perspectives on employee well-being. Our view is that to be effective, this shift must emphasize adaptability in a deeper sense.

In the past, a workplace setting was considered “flexible” if it could be reconfigured for different uses by a facilities or maintenance team. As organizations plan their return-to-work strategies, however, the power to adapt a space needs to rest with the people working within it.

Change is always expected whenever any workplace moves from construction to post-occupancy. That said, it has never been tougher for organizations to plan for these changes than now, as employees return from this prolonged experience of working from home. We believe that shifting investments toward furnishings and tools that fit into existing floorplates can optimize space to embrace change. These kinds of adaptable solutions will meet rising expectations for autonomy, choice, and user control.

 

Key Insights

Examine a hybrid approach to workplace strategy

As workers return to the office, many will want to continue to exercise the freedom to work from home at least part-time. Support for that choice should be a key component of every go-forward workplace strategy. Organizations that embrace distributed work in a manner consistent with their culture will ultimately empower their employees with a robust set of choices to create positive, healthy work experiences. Companies can benefit from nurturing a sense of autonomy among their people, as an equitable and inclusive experience is essential for tapping into the productivity of a highly diverse workforce.

Embrace the unique role of the office

The office must prove its value to employees in this new era of autonomy. To do so, office design must focus on those functions that haven’t been successfully supported during this extended work-from-home experiment: establishing and maintaining social culture, supporting longer-duration team activities, and providing spaces for focused work. Ultimately, these changes will make the office more desirable and inclusive.

Empower people with the tools to reshape spaces

To remain a relevant part of the post-pandemic work experience, the office must move beyond flexibility to truly become adaptable. The distinction is subtle but important. When spaces are flexible, they can be reconfigured by a facilities team to support a range of activities. When they are adaptable, they provide a level of individual control, inviting the people who use a space to reshape it around their needs in the moment.

Air Cargo

Air Cargo, Up 9.1% in September, Capacity Remains Constrained

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
Air Cargo

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released September 2021 data for global air cargo markets showing that demand continued to be well above pre-crisis levels and that capacity constraints persist.  

As comparisons between 2021 and 2020 monthly results are distorted by the extraordinary impact of COVID-19, unless otherwise noted, all comparisons below are to September 2019 which followed a normal demand pattern.

  • Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), was up 9.1% compared to September 2019 (9.4% for international operations).
  • Capacity remains constrained at 8.9% below pre-COVID-19 levels (September 2019) (-12% for international operations).
 

Several factors impacting global air cargo demand should be noted:

  • Supply chain disruptions and the resulting delivery delays have led to long supplier delivery times. This typically means manufacturers use air transport, which is quicker, to recover time lost during the production process. The September global Supplier Delivery Time Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) was at 36, values below 50 are favorable for air cargo.
  • The September new export orders component and manufacturing output component of the PMIs have deteriorated from levels in previous month but remain in favorable territory. Manufacturing activity continued to expand at a global level but, there was contraction in emerging economies.
  • The inventory-to-sales ratio remains low ahead of the peak year-end retail events such as Single’s Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This is positive for air cargo, however further capacity constraints put this at risk.
  • The cost-competitiveness of air cargo relative to that of container shipping remains favorable. Pre-crisis, the average price to move air cargo was 12.5 times more expensive than sea shipping. In September 2021 it was only three times more expensive.

“Air cargo demand grew 9.1% in September compared to pre-COVID levels. There is a benefit from supply chain congestion as manufacturers turn to air transport for speed. But severe capacity constraints continue to limit the ability of air cargo to absorb extra demand. If not addressed, bottlenecks in the supply chain will slow the economic recovery from COVID-19. Governments must act to relieve pressure on global supply chains and improve their overall resilience,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. 

To relieve supply chain disruptions, including those highlighted by the US on supply chain resilience on the sidelines of last weekend’s G20 Summit, IATA is calling on governments to:

  • Ensure that air crew operations are not hindered by COVID-19 restrictions designed for air travelers.
  • Implement the commitments governments made at the ICAO High Level Conference on COVID-19 to restore international connectivity. This will ramp-up vital cargo capacity with “belly” space.
  • Provide innovative policy incentives to address labor shortages where they exist.

 

September Regional Performance

Asia-Pacific airlines saw their international air cargo volumes increase 4.5% in September 2021 compared to the same month in 2019.This was a slowdown in demand compared to the previous month’s 5.1% expansion. Demand is being affected by slowing manufacturing activity in China. International capacity is significantly constrained in the region, down 18.2% vs. September 2019. Looking forward, the decision by some countries in the region to lift travel restrictions should provide a boost for capacity.

North American carriers posted a 19.3% increase in international cargo volumes in September 2021 compared to September 2019. New export orders and demand for faster shipping times are underpinning the North American performance. International capacity was down 4.0% compared to September 2019, a slight improvement from the previous month.

European carriers saw a 5.3% increase in international cargo volumes in September 2021 compared to the same month in 2019. This was on a par with August’s performance (5.6%). Demand was strongest on the large North Atlantic trade lane (up 6.9% vs September 2019). Performance on other routes was weaker. Manufacturing activity, orders and long supplier delivery times remain favorable to air cargo demand. International capacity was down 13.5% on September 2019.

Middle Eastern carriers experienced a 17.6% rise in international cargo volumes in September 2021 versus September 2019, an improvement compared to the previous month (14.7%). International capacity was down 4% compared to September 2019.

Latin American carriers reported a decline of 17.1% in international cargo volumes in September compared to the 2019 period, which was the weakest performance of all regions. This was also slightly worse than the previous month (a 14.5% fall). Capacity in September was down 20.9% on pre-crisis levels, an improvement from August, which was down 24.2% on the same month in 2019.  

African airlines’ saw international cargo volumes increase by 34.6% in September, the largest increase of all regions for the ninth consecutive month. Seasonally adjusted volumes are now 20% above pre-crisis 2019 levels but have been trending sideways for the past six months. International capacity was 6.9% higher than pre-crisis levels, the only region in positive territory, albeit on small volumes.

IT Cloud

New Report Reveals 86% of Middle East IT Leaders Agree Remote Working Compromises Business Networks

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
IT Cloud

Even though 93% of Middle East technology leaders are confident on visibility into IoT devices of remote workers, 91% believe their organisation’s approach to IoT security needs improvement

Palo Alto Networks, the global cybersecurity leader, today released their second annual The Connected Enterprise: Internet of Things (IoT) Security Report 2021, research conducted by global technology market research firm Vanson Bourne, which shows that 86% of Middle East IT leaders (global average: 81%) have agreed that the shift to remote working during the pandemic has led to an increased risk and vulnerability from unsecured IoT devices on their organisation’s business networks.

While 93% of Middle East IT decision makers (global average: 85%) have enough visibility into IoT devices of their remote workers that connect to the corporate network, the report shows that 91% of Middle East IT Leaders believe their organisation’s approach to IoT security requires improvement. Although 100% of the respondents surveyed in the Middle East have a specific IoT security strategy in place, many difficult-to-secure personal IoT devices are increasingly being connected to corporate networks by remote workers, creating new opportunities for hackers to infiltrate organisations to launch ransomware attacks, steal data and launch crypto jacking operations. Security incidents are defined as an event that may indicate an attack on an organisation’s network.

COVID-19 has impacted organisations greatly, and 91% of Middle East IT organisations have seen a rise in the number of connected devices on their organisation’s network in the past year, including devices such as baby monitors, pet feeders and gym equipment leaving organisations vulnerable to attacks. Top devices that Middle East IT leaders have spotted within their networks are connected pet devices (37%), kitchen devices (36%) and sports equipment (35%).

Haider Pasha, Senior Director and Chief Security Officer at Palo Alto Networks, Middle East and Africa (MEA) said: “As work-from-home models are being normalised amongst many organisations in the Middle East, it is important for security teams to have visibility into all of the IoT devices being connected on corporate networks. Organisations in the Middle East have great confidence in their visibility of the IoT devices connecting to their network totaling up to 82%, which is a big jump from last year’s 72%.”

“During the pandemic, organisations were forced to rapidly scale their remote work infrastructure to ensure business continuity. With employees working from home, having the right cybersecurity strategy in place became critical. According to our research, all the Middle East IT leaders who were surveyed have a specific IoT strategy in place, to help them manage their networks more efficiently. Pasha added. “It is crucial for organisations to follow IoT security best practices at all times, these include: having real-time visibility of devices on a network, monitoring them continuously to identify abnormal behaviour and segmenting IT and IoT devices on separate networks. Additionally, enterprises need to ensure that they are promoting cybersecurity awareness and educating their employees on security best practices on an ongoing basis, in order to maximise impact and minimise the chance for cyberattacks to take place, in both professional and/or personal environments”.

 

Key data of the second annual IoT survey in the Middle East (UAE & Saudi Arabia)

  • 86% of Middle East IT Leaders Agree Remote Working Has Led to an Increased Risk from Unsecured Devices on their Organisation’s Network
  • 93% of Middle East decision makers have enough visibility into IoT devices of their remote workers that connect to the corporate network
  • 91% of Middle East IT Leaders believe their organisation’s approach to IoT security requires improvement
  • 100% of the respondents surveyed in the Middle East have a specific IoT security strategy in place
  • 91% of Middle East IT organisations have seen a rise in the number of connected devices on their organisation’s network in the past year
Climate Crisis

How to Reduce the Human Toll of Climate Crises in Africa

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
Climate Crisis

By Amadou Diallo, Regional Disaster Risk Financing Coordinator, Crisis Anticipation and Risk Financing at Start Network

According to research and evidence collected by ARC, every one US dollar spent on early intervention through this insurance mechanism saves US$4.5 spent after a crisis unfolds.

It is this logic which lies behind the innovation of insuring against climate disasters such as droughts. In July 2019 Start Network and the government of Senegal each purchased an insurance policy to protect against drought. The ARC is a ground-breaking insurance mechanism designed to help African Union member states resist and recover from the ravages of extreme weather events.

The 2019 policy was premised on the basis that if rainfall levels dropped below a pre-defined threshold, Start Network members and the government of Senegal would receive insurance payouts enabling early intervention to coordinate actions to protect communities at risk. As ARC’s analysis shows, such early intervention costs roughly a quarter of what post-event interventions would cost, but more importantly massively reduces the humanitarian cost.

On the successful expiration of the first insurance policy against drought risk in Senegal, Start Network is announcing its renewal for the 2021 – 2022 season.  

Such policies shift the risk from farmers to financiers. Nearly half of all emergency multilateral food assistance to Africa is to assist with climate related disasters. While taking out insurance on the vagaries of weather is today common practice, it is not so on a national level and certainly not drought coverage – due to cultural barriers sometimes but often to financial and economic constraints at household level. What we are doing is an innovation for the African continent as we allow through a macro -insurance mechanism to protect people beyond certain exposure to the drought risk that ultimately leads to aggravated consequences in food insecurity levels and affects the most vulnerable communities.

 

Underwriting has answers to drought

The ultimate goal has to be for more and more African Union member states to take out their own insurance policies which would transfer the highest possible risk coverage. In parts of Africa, droughts are chronic and their effects on the population are profound. Having Senegal’s government take the initiative in this respect is an extremely positive signal to the rest of the continent.  

In the case of a disaster, assistance typically only becomes available three months after the event. By then, you are primarily addressing the impact of the disaster, such as malnutrition, livelihood loss, and other negative consequences. The success of interventions are therefore dependent on the timing of when aid can be delivered. Start Network and ODI research, on UN appeals, suggests that at least 55% of funding went to crises that are somewhat predictable, yet less than 1% of funding for these crises was released based on pre-agreed triggers and plans.

The science of underwriting is able to quantify the likelihood of underperforming rainfall based on years of data and its impact on the incomes of local rural communities. Trigger points are set at which payouts would be made.

The ’trigger’ is based on the Water Requirement Satisfaction Index developed by the UN’s FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation). This, correlated against satellite rainfall data calculates an estimated number of people likely to be impacted by food insecurity.

ARC Replica Senegal is run in a partnership between the Start Network, the Government of Senegal, and African Risk Capacity (ARC), and is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Development Bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW).

 

NGO lessons learned

Throughout 2020, six Start Network members – Action Against Hunger, Catholic Relief Services, Oxfam, Plan International, Save the Children and World Vision – worked alongside the Government of Senegal to deliver assistance to 355,000 Senegalese ahead of a severe large-scale drought. The agencies’ support came in the form of enriched flour and cash transfers. This enabled families to protect livestock and other valuable assets and avoid resorting to skipping meals or sending children to work instead of going to school.  

By acting earlier we can mitigate the impact of crises on communities at risk. For example in Senegal, through a disaster risk finance project which released an insurance pay-out ahead of predicted drought, 98% of children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers were able to maintain 2 meals a day over the project period -we know that this is more cost-effective then allowing people’s nutritional status to degrade until they require a nutrition intervention.  

The programme allowed us to have discussions with all partners at an early stage. It makes a big difference to have pre agreed standard operating procedures in place. It compares favourably to the traditional disaster response, wherein time is typically short as one is constantly ‘fighting fires’ on all fronts.  

This is why, this year, Start Network will be launching a scalable infrastructure called the Start Financing Facility to arrange pre-positioned funds using global best practice on risk pooling and layering, to ensure they are used to maximum efficiency. The Start Financing Facility builds upon years of our anticipation experience. It will put local voices at the centre and equip frontline humanitarian responders with the tools needed to be prepared and financially prepared for crises.

Digital Technology

The Circuit of Success!

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
Digital Technology

The world of technology has transformed the way in which we live but ensuring that this technology is made of the highest quality products falls to top-tier manufacturers. We take a look at the team from RayMing Technology Co Ltd, to see how their work affects people all around the world, and the steps they have taken to ensure their own long-term success.

The role of printed circuit boards (PCBs) within our lives has become an accepted fact, but few actually understand what they do, and why they are vital to maintain the high standards of our modern lifestyle. PCBs have a wealth of potential built into them, able to support and connect various electronic components. These pieces of technology are used in nearly all electronic products, with their design being easily automated for mass manufacture.

RayMing is one of China’s leading PCB assembly manufacturers, offering complete PCB assembly services in Shenzhen. What sets the team apart, however, is the team’s ability to adapt their comprehensive service offering to match the specific needs of individual clients. They can offer a turn-key, or partial turn-key, service that does everything expected of them. For a full turn-key offering, the team takes control of the entire production process, adapting carefully to meet their client’s unique requirements.

This involves the manufacturing of PCBs, procuring the correct components all of which are 100% original, completing stringent PCBA Testing to guarantee they are up to scratch as well as ensuring continuous monitoring of quality and final assembly. This level of attention can be applied to whatever part of the process a client might want for a partial turn-key solution, where the customer can provide the PCBs and certain components, and the remaining parts will be handled by the team at RayMing.

The role of PCBs is now laid into the very fabric of how we live, so industries around the world turn to RayMing for the team’s assurance of high standards and quality. The firm is in high demand from the medical and military sectors as they search for long-lasting and reliable solutions for their own technical developments. The importance of a solution that goes above and beyond is not lost on the team at RayMing, which is why they take such pride in the work they do.

The success of RayMing comes from the team’s incredible commitment to the core values of being uncompromising in integrity, honesty and fairness, inspiring each other in their important work and creating an environment that is as safe as possible for the workforce. This has created a workplace that is incredibly productive, always looking forward and is secure even through the challenges of an international pandemic. Having the ability to trust in a team like this to deliver high quality products has made a real difference to organisations around the world.

Looking ahead, it’s clear that the importance of PCBs is not going away, and that the high quality of what is on offer from RayMing really sets the standard by which everyone should be operating. We celebrate the team’s tremendous success in the industry and look forward to seeing what they come up with next.

For further information, please visit www.raypcb.com

World Food Programme

WFP and Takeda Deepen Partnership in West Africa to Strengthen Health Emergency Response

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

A new JPY 1.3 billion (approximately USD 10.8 million) contribution from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) Global CSR Program to the World Food Programme (WFP) builds on previous successes and brings forward a 5-year initiative to help strengthen regional health supply chain capacities in West Africa.

Takeda and WFP’s existing partnership has focused on strengthening in-country public health supply chains and supporting long-term pandemic preparedness, combining Takeda’s financial support with WFP’s supply chain knowledge and experience, built over nearly six decades of working in some of the most logistically challenging environments in the world.  

In West Africa, fragile supply chains can lead to delays and damage in the transport and storage of medicines and other vital health items, leaving vulnerable communities without the help they need. This new initiative, which will run from 2022 to 2026, will build on existing activities as part of the current Takeda-WFP partnership, helping to address supply chain gaps and challenges at a regional level, ensuring better accessibility and availability of health products in fragile environments through the WFP-managed United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot in Accra, Ghana.  

The United Nations Humanitarian Response Depots (UNHRD) are a network of six strategically located hubs around the world that provide supply chain services to the humanitarian community. UNHRD Ghana, in Accra, supports humanitarian organizations working across 17 West African countries. This initiative will enhance the capacity of UNHRD Accra to store and deliver temperature-sensitive health products on behalf of the humanitarian community, and will create a Regional Logistics Knowledge Centre, where supply chain professionals and representatives from national governments in the region can receive training on best-in-class supply chain practices, ensuring that they are better equipped to face and manage health emergencies.   

“WFP has been working with Takeda since 2020 and we value this partnership enormously,” said WFP’s Executive Director David Beasley. “This new generous donation from Takeda reflects the success and sustainability of our collaboration and will help public and private actors in West Africa prepare for, and respond to, health emergencies – so that vital supplies can reach those most in need.”  

“Takeda is proud to continue working with the World Food Programme to transform supply chains and ensure access to critical health products in West Africa,” said Takako Ohyabu, Chief Global Corporate Affairs Officer at Takeda. “Our Global CSR Program partners are selected annually by our employees around the world. Through this program, we are focused on strengthening health systems and our work with WFP continues to be meaningful to employees. As we continue this partnership, we hope to empower communities in West Africa to be ready for the health challenges of the future.” 

Investment

Arabian & African Hospitality Investment Conference 2021 at a Glance

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

The Arabian & African Hospitality Investment Conference (AHIC) returns to Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai live in person from 20-22 September 2021, bringing together four powerful, active investment communities from across the region.

For the first time, AHIC 2021, organised by Bench and MEED, will house the four close-knit investment communities of the Arabian Hospitality Investment Conference (AHIC), Saudi Arabia Hospitality Investment Conference (SHIC), Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) and the Global Restaurant Investment Forum (GRIF) under one roof.

United by the theme Rise Together, investors, owners, private equity firms, financiers, franchise owners, innovators, developers, and government entities will meet to network, share insights and do business, with the potential for partnerships greater than ever.

Jonathan Worsley, chairman of Bench and founder of AHIC, says: “To be able to bring together these four major hospitality investment communities for the first time, at our first live, in person event for this sector in the Middle East and Africa post-pandemic, is truly special. We have created a robust buyer and seller platform teaming with opportunity and developed a unique programme inspired by the key themes of ‘innovation, sustainability and the future’. With less than a month until we kick-off AHIC 2021, we are now working closely with our moderators, speakers and sponsors to ensure we spark conversations that will help this resilient and innovative industry rise from this pandemic towards a bright, successful future,” says Worsley.

The AHIC 2021 programme combines on-stage one-to-one interviews, roundtables, discussions and workshops with innovation pitches, off-stage individual meetings and networking experiences.

 

AHIC Intelligence

Many of these sessions will be underpinned by AHIC Intelligence, with industry data, insights and predictions for the region’s pipeline, performance and profitability expected to be key. On day one on 20 September, Robin Rossman, managing director, STR, will present some of the key learnings from the past 18 months.

Speaking ahead of AHIC, STR’s Rossmann says: “The pace and shape of hotel performance recovery continues to vary significantly around the world, dependant on vaccination rates as well as the spread of the Delta strain. In the Middle East and Africa, performance has also varied significantly based on some markets’ greater reliance on international travel and corporate demand. The markets able to generate more demand from domestic leisure sources are further ahead in the recovery process”.

He adds: “Looking ahead, the balance between domestic and international travel is set to change fundamentally as the industry transitions to the ‘new normal’ post-pandemic. Data shows the reality of current travel hesitancy contrasted by the significant pent-up demand that will emerge once Covid travel restrictions are eased”.

Meanwhile, Dr. Martin Berlin, partner & global deals real estate leader, PwC, will unveil exclusive research on the impact of Covid as a never-before-seen catalyst for innovation.

Berlin reveals that the pandemic has caused a loss of US$1.3 trillion in tourist receipts.

In a sneak preview of the data, he says: “International tourist arrivals declined by 74% due to Covid in 2020, compared to only a decrease of 4% after the financial crisis, while the global airline industry declined by more than 50% during Covid. This means that currently, 100-120 million jobs in the global tourism sector are at risk due to the pandemic”.

AHIC 2021 will explore how and when the industry can return to the status quo.

Day two will follow with insights on ‘how covid-19 has changed the hotel operating model’ from Michael Grove, chief operating officer, HotStats; analysis of UAE and KSA consumer data from Muhammad Ali Syed, chief executive officer, Mingora; and learnings from 22,000 restaurants in Dubai and Abu Dhabi from Alexis Marcoux-Varvatsoulis, Foodservice consulting lead, Middle East and Africa, JLL – one of several sessions set to inspire the GRIF community.

Grove says his session will explore “the cost cull”, as operators look at large scale changes to both fixed and variable costs, as well as how the luxury hotel operating model is being redefined.

He adds: “We will also discuss the importance of ancillary revenues in the Middle East and Africa. With more than 40% non-rooms revenue, how important are other revenues when considering ramp up?”.


AHIC Exclusive

Meanwhile, Hala Matar Choufany, president – Middle East, Africa and South Asia for HVS, will launch the company’s latest Valuation Index for the Middle East & Africa on day two.

In an exclusive preview of the report, Choufany says: “Hotel ownership and investment are considered as a long-term investment as the value is based on the future income that the asset is likely to generate, with valuers adopting the discounted cashflow method of valuation. As such, one year of minimal income does not mean the value of the asset has disappeared completely. The key will be the length of time it will take for the hotels/markets to recover and whether the recovery will surpass the previous levels of operation.

She reveals: “Although there was a limited number of hotel transactions that took place in the MEA region during the last 18 months, the trading performance of hotels that remained opened or re-opened suggests that leisure and resort hotels have performed better than the corporate and commercial hotels. Specifically, cities that have better managed the pandemic and gradually re-opened their borders have registered lower decline in hotel values when compared to other cities.

“In value terms there has been a significant immediate impact, registering between 20% and 25% decline in regional values in 2020, but most markets in the MEA are forecasted to recover at 10-15% per annum for the next three to four years. The MEA average is likely to achieve a CAGR of 1.3% between 2019 and 2025 and a CAGR of 8% between 2021 and 2025,” asserts Choufany.

She adds: “What the Covid-19 pandemic has shown is the importance of sensible development costs, the need to appoint an experienced operator and brand that delivers as well as the importance of decreasing operational costs and increasing efficiencies. With the continued uncertainty, it is more important than ever that owners take the opportunity to regularly review the performance of their hotels as the cashflows will impact the financial risk associated with their investment perhaps now more than ever.”

 

Saudi Focus

AHIC has already released its exclusive fourth annual AHIC Hotel Investment Forecast in partnership with MEED Projects.

According to this research, more than US $3.5bn worth of new hotel projects in the GCC have been awarded over the past 18 months during the height of the pandemic, indicating that investors expect the market to return to normality in the next two to three years when the new projects are due to open.

Ed James, director of content and analysis at MEED Projects, says: “Longer-term, the industry is even more bullish, with US $27bn worth of hotel investments in the pipeline.The majority of these are comprised of the ‘giga project’ tourism investments in Saudi Arabia led by the Red Sea Project, NEOM, AMAALA, Diriyah Gate and Al-Ula, to name but a few”.

These giga projects will have a major presence at AHIC 2021, with Jerry Inzerillo, Group CEO, Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA), kicking off the Saudi Day on day three, 22 September, with a live-on-stage morning talk with Gloria Guevara Manzo, chief special advisor, Ministry of Tourism – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

As part of Saudi Arabia’s far reaching Vision 2030 strategy, Diryah is an iconic lifestyle and hospitality destination projected to add SAR 27 billion to Saudi Arabia’s GDP.

In a teaser to his session, Inzerillo says: “After the most tumultuous period the global hospitality and tourism industry has seen, it’s apt that the leading sector stakeholders and the investment community from the region will congregate under the banner of ‘Rise Together’.

“Whilst there is no doubt that globally the pandemic has been challenging for our industry, as a community of leaders, owners and investors, we are well-placed to steer the next phase of growth and development in the region to the wider benefits of our nations and societies.

“In Saudi Arabia we are witnessing great transformation, of which hospitality and tourism will play a crucial role in defining the nation of the future. As some of the world’s foremost hotel brands are on the cusp of entering the Kingdom and Middle East for the first time, DGDA’s goal is to attract 27 million visitors by 2030,” he continues.

“DGDA alone will provide 55,000 jobs offering diverse employment creation for its highly dynamic Saudi youth population and will see talent retained in the country for the Kingdom to benefit from in years and generations to come,” says Inzerillo.

“Adapting to the changing dynamics and the new future will best place our region to maximise the opportunities we have before us to ensure the AHIC nations stand at the front of the post-Covid hospitality world,” he adds.

AHIC 2021 will also feature speakers from another of Saudi Arabia’s giga projects, NEOM, with Andrew McEvoy, head of tourism sector, NEOM, set to discuss the foundations of developing a future destination with sustainability at the core of investment.

In a teaser to the session, McEvoy says: “Over-tourism has stripped travel of its core themes of individual self-discovery and authenticity. The future of tourism will have sustainability at its heart. Those who embrace it will win.”

On a similar topic, John Pagano, chief executive officer, The Red Sea Development Company and AMAALA, will deliver a keynote entitled: ‘Regenerative tourism and partnerships which enable it to be a reality’.

 

Into Africa

AHIC 2021 will also feature several sessions focused on the African investment community, with an interactive debate moderated by Philippe Doizelet, director, hotels and real estate, Voltere by Egis, designed to analyse the concepts most ripe for investment based on the changing behaviour of consumers.

While Africa welcomed some 70 million tourists in 2019 according to UNWTO, following an average growth of about 6% over the last five years, Doizelet says there are still barriers to entry, from visa policies to health requirements.

Therefore, sub regional tourism will stimulate the creation of tourism complexes and urban and peri-urban business and leisure centres that can become real destinations. Doizelet predicts that over the next two decades, the following countries will emerge as the most credible regional players: Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal to the west; Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda in the East; and South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to the south.

He says: “Finally, central Africa should rely rather on local demand and create opportunities for exclusive tourism clusters, particularly in Cameroon and Angola. From the above, it is clear that talking about African tourism in a global way makes little sense. National or sub-regional realities continue to prevail, thus reflecting the geographic, human, economic and political diversity of the continent”.

It is these realities that will be discussed in depth at AHIC, with leaders from this unique continent present to review the numbers and delve into the opportunity.

 

Panel debates

In addition to the focuses on the different investment communities present at this year’s AHIC – those from Saudi Arabia, Africa and the global restaurant sector in addition to the Middle East at large – there will also be numerous plenary sessions that tap into the high level issues impacting hospitality investment across the board.

Topics to be covered include: conversions and M&A; third party operators; implementing ESG into investment strategies; FDI investment funds; development bright spots in the Middle East and Africa; the regional tourism outlook; and the ‘new normal’ for profitability. In this session, Alison Grinnell, chief executive officer, RAK Hospitality Holdings, will moderate a conversation between Hassan Ahdab, president of hotel operations, Dur Hospitality; Marcus Bernhardt, chief executive officer, Steigenberger Hotels AG/Deutsche Hospitality; and Hamid Sidine, chief operating officer MEA, Millennium Hotels & Resorts, on the shifting of operating models and whether this impacts operators’ expectations on profitability.

Sidine says: “I will highlight the continuous efforts of Millennium Hotels & Resorts MEA, adapted to meet the new hospitality normal and to continue staging our guest experience while maintaining profitability.”

As always, the on-stage debate is expected to be lively and intriguing, with numerous opportunities to continue the discussion off-stage.

AHIC’s Worsley concludes: “AHIC 2021 has been in the planning for a long time now. Over the course of this year, in all our conversations with our Advisory Board, speakers, sponsors and delegates, one thing has been crystal clear: people are ready to meet, eager to share, and excited to do business”.

 

Sustainability Hospitality Challenge

AHIC 2021 will present the finals of the Sustainability Hospitality Challenge (SHC), in partnership with Hotelschool The Hague, NEOM, Bench and the Sustainability Hospitality Alliance.

SHC addresses the urgency of the climate crisis as it relates to travel and tourism by challenging international hotel school students to develop sustainable innovations for the ‘future of hospitality in the context of 2050’, along one of three pillars – future real estate, future brand, and future community.

Whittled down from 60 students from 30 of the world’s best hotel schools, three sets of finalists will present their solutions to a jury of 11 top hoteliers from global brands on the morning of day one of AHIC 2021.

The winning team will be revealed on day two, with the presentation given by Sébastien Bazin, chairman and chief executive of Accor.

Paul Griep, director of industry relations at Hotelschool The Hague and the driving force behind the challenge, says: “We look forward to an exciting final of the Sustainable Hospitality Challenge and are excitedly anticipating the presentations of students from the top hotel schools of the world. They will present the innovative solutions they’ve worked on during the past year, which have already made quite an impression on the jury and which may have a permanent impact for our industry when it comes to sustainability”.

 

Exclusive new launches

AHIC is well known as an event where deals are done and headlines are made, from the announcement of new owner-operator partnerships and hotel brands through to entrepreneurial set-ups and innovative company launches.

This year, Michael Levie, co-founder of citizenM and David Keen, founder of QUO, have come together in a dynamic new partnership to create KUBE Ventures, an investment incubator focused on global hospitality start-ups, which will be unveiled for the first time at AHIC.

Levie says: “We want to give back to the hospitality industry. All of our shareholders have united with a crystal clear purpose. We want to be a catalyst for transformation: be it in technology, operations or human resources”.

“We will look back at the post-pandemic era as one of extraordinary opportunity. Our purpose is to realise our industry’s potential and to bring it to par with the world’s most dynamic industries and organisations,” adds Keen.

Marloes Knippenberg, chief executive officer of Kerten Hospitality, and a change merchant in her own right, will interview Michael and David in a session on 20 September 2021 at 16:00 entitled ‘How do we foster transformation and change in hospitality’.