Thank God it’s Friday takes on a whole new meaning in the Middle East. It is much more than a substitution for the western idea of Saturday, considering the modified workweek being Sunday to Thursday. Realising that family is the significance of Friday in Middle Eastern culture is essential for leadership impact.
So why does the family dynamic have such a powerful influence in the corporate setting in the region? Because family is more than a name — it represents belonging, it is pride.
Reading the decade-old guidebook Don't They Know It's Friday? is a mere beginning to understanding the significance of Friday in the region. Leaders need to move beyond the cultural insights and etiquette guidance that is found in these books and comprehend what the weekend represents in this society — specifically "family day," which is like a weekly version of Christmas, but even more intense.
The idea of “family day” portrays the prominence of the group dynamic. Every week, the whole family (brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins) gathers at the patriarch’s house for an extended lunch and a day of lively discussions. This simple and precious act highlights the role of group interaction in every day life.
More than in the West, the influence of family in the Middle East is very strong and exerts tremendous influence over how people lead and what employees are looking for in their leaders. At the very least, organisations need to be aware of this influence. The business environment is a replica of this family structure: employees look to their boss for strong leadership and expect to experience what they would at home. At the same time, the boss embraces the responsibility for the stewardship of the employees.
An Arab family is a very tight-knit group of people, and the extended family is the locus for most social interaction, creating a strong group orientation. Family members have a say in an individual’s major life decisions, such as education, work and marriage. They live life out as a group, so much so that it is quite common to find cousins as best friends. In the Arab world, all of life, including business, is based on such relationships. So leading must be as well.
The pride in belonging extends beyond the family. As an example, consider how the residents stand beside Emiratis in celebrations of National Day across the UAE. This is a beautiful picture of what belonging can and should look like. When leveraged correctly, there is pride in belonging.
Building the Business Family — the tribe, which is a regionalisation of the word team, is one of the key leadership actions and needs to be a priority for every chief executive, managing director and business leader in the Middle East. This region is historically and in many senses still a tribal society, meaning that it is largely organised on the basis of kinship.
The strong tribal and family orientations influence the way business is conducted. The Middle East is a collectivist culture in which the group continues to protect the individuals, from their birth throughout their lifetime, in exchange for unquestionable loyalty.
Consequently employees in such societies highly value group interaction and seek strong attachment to their organisations and leaders. This strong cultural element carries over into the business environment. The employees’ value and identity in large part come from the relationship network of which they are part.
The Arab world revolves around the family as a group; the collective identity is greater than that of the individual member. Building a tribe from your workforce is an unrealised opportunity that leaders need to leverage. Employees saying they “belong” to your company fail in consideration to having a true group identity. Leadership success demands that you become a leader of a cohesive group rather than a mere collection of individuals.
Tommy Weir is a leadership adviser, author of 10 Tips for Leading in the Middle East and other leadership writings and the founder of the Emerging Markets Leadership Center
Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.
- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Awar Qalb
Director: Jamal Salem
Starring: Abdulla Zaid, Joma Ali, Neven Madi and Khadija Sleiman
Two stars
GRAN%20TURISMO
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Neill%20Blomkamp%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20David%20Harbour%2C%20Orlando%20Bloom%2C%20Archie%20Madekwe%2C%20Darren%20Barnet%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
More from Neighbourhood Watch: