Loads has been written about Dubai’s phenomenal rise as one of the leading cities in the world. Who would have guessed twenty years ago that every sports tournament, pop concert, cultural show and museum exhibition would automatically add Dubai to their calendars of cities to visit? It’s become the place to be for anyone important.
This side-by-side satellite image, although outdated, blows me away every time I see it. Just look at the visible, mind blowing growth the emirate went through in just over 30 years.
The driving force behind this complete transformation is the visionary leadership of Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. Of course people may point out that big brother Abu Dhabi helped Dubai out with a multibillion loan during the financial meltdown of 2008 but for a leader to have a vision of what Dubai could become and then to achieve this is without precedence.
Realizing in the 70’s that oil revenues would dry up (it’s down from 50% in the 70’s to 1.4% of GDP now) Dubai started an extensive economic diversity strategy, focused on tourism, trade, construction and financial services. It transformed the emirate to the top business gateway for the Middle East and Africa. One of the most striking examples of Shaikh Maktoum’s vision is Emirates Airlines. The Sheikh personally started the airline in 1985 with USD 10 million, two planes, and in an interesting twist, borrowed resources and manuals from Pakistan Airlines. It’s now the largest airline in the world having 50% more international passengers than United Airlines, its nearest competitor.
As the Sheikh puts it succinctly:
“You either do something yourself, you create something, or you follow somebody. If you want to follow anybody, you have to wait for them to get in front of you to follow them. I want to be a winner, so I want to create. I cannot lie back and be idle, because I want everybody to work as hard as I do. How can I ask people to do things I’m not doing?”
And although he’s adulated in Dubai and his personal net worth is more than USD 18 billion he still acts and behaves like one of the people. As Steve Croft from CBS noticed in an interview with the Sheikh:
“What surprised me was the way Shaikh Mohammad drove around Dubai, without a chauffeur and an entourage and the down to earth, friendly manner he exhibited with people at offices and at the traffic lights. The inspirational ruler’s daily practice when in Dubai is to roll up early in the morning at one of his major projects and talk to the leaders and workers. This is not an example of micromanaging but an expression of effective leadership by motivating and problem solving”
A passionate admirer and composer of Arabic poetry, the Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum showed his ability to combine poetry and explain his drive behind Dubai’s love affair for the ‘biggest-tallest-best-in-the-world-in-everything’ projects by this wonderful quote:
“Money is like water. If you lock it up, it becomes stagnant and foul-smelling, but if you let it flow, it stays fresh.”
If you want to read about some of the the other inspirational Asian Leaders in this series check out Lee Kuan Yew, Kublai Khan and Ho Chi Minh. It’s even easier to subscribe to the blog and automatically get updates in your inbox.