issue 4 public sector excellence uae

The Oil and Gas Story

SHARING EXCELLENCE

EMPOWERING EXCELLENCE

p.26

p.18

Ali Chareuf, local Oil Veteran and one of the longest serving employees at an oil operations company, takes us through

his 38 year oil and gas story

Fostering Excellence in the People is the title of this month’s Excellence Enablers series

ISSUE 4 April 2015

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Issue 4 - april 2015

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WORD FROM THE EDITORDenise Daane, Managing Editor at PSP introduces our fourth issue of PSE: The Oil & Gas Story

CURRENT NEWS AND AFFAIRSA summary of the latest public-sector news and current affairs across Abu Dhabi

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AT A GLANCEContinuing on from our last article on Project Execution, this installment is all about Project Monitoring and Controlling

BENCHMARKSA look at some of the good practices in oil and gas production from around the globe

KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGEThe employee value proposition: How to be an employer of choice by Stewart Black, INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour

Fostering Excellence in the People is the title of this month’s Excellence En-ablers series

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Ali Chareuf, local Oil Veteran and one of the longest serving employees at an oil operations company, takes us through his 38 year oil and gas story 26

SHARING EXCELLENCE

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48OFF TOPICLearn more about some of Abu Dhabi’s “not to miss” culture and heritage attractions

IDEA WATCHA look into the world of business analytics in the public sector today

BUILD YOUR SOCIAL PROFILELearn how the public sector can utilise LinkedIn for effective public relations and marketing initiatives

An in-depth look at the present and future state of Abu Dhabi’s oil and gas industry

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IN FOCUSNoor Al Tamimi, Founder and CEO of BeDashing, tell us the story of her start up success and what it takes to make it in the Abu Dhabi market 36

LOCAL ENTERPRISE

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In July, we explore the growth and development of Abu Dhabi’s banking and finance industry into the world class system it is today

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WORD FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR

I N OUR FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF PSE MAGAZINE, we explore the backbone of the UAE’s economy, the oil and gas sector. In this edition, we take our readers through the history of Abu Dhabi’s “Oil and Gas Story” in our “In Focus”

segment, highlighting some of the milestones in the journey to excellence in oil and gas production that the Emirate has wit-nessed. We also explore some the other leading oil and gas pro-ducers from around the world in our “Benchmarks” segment to draw comparisons and learn about some of the good practices in the field elsewhere.

In this issue of “Sharing Excellence,” PSE meets up with Oil and Gas veteran Mr. Ali Chareuf, who is the longest serving employ-ee at one of Abu Dhabi’s major oil and gas operations compa-nies. He has seen it all and shares his experiences with us as well as his outlook on the future of Abu Dhabi’s most important industry.

In continuing with our series on Enablers, in the “Empowering Excellence” section this month, we focus on the key drivers of any organization: Its People. Complementing this article is an insightful piece contributed by Professor Stewart Black, INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Organizational Behavior title “The Employ-ee Value Proposition.” In our ongoing series, “Project Manage-ment at a Glance,” we continue from where we left off in our last issue’s project execution article, and carry through into the project monitoring and controlling process.

In our “Local Enterprise” segment, PSE meets up with the ex-ceptionally bright and promising local entrepreneur Noor Al Tamimi, CEO and Founder of BeDashing, a once small nail bar concept that has turned into a successful Beauty Lounge fran-chise. As always, we continue to provide you with the latest Abu Dhabi government news and affairs, as well as our monthly “Idea Watch,” where we explore the essentials of business an-alytics. In our “Off Topic” article, we take a quick tour of some of Abu Dhabi’s culture and heritage attractions that are not to be missed.

We would like to thank all of our readers who have been con-tributing their valuable feedback and suggestions to us and en-courage all readers to share their thoughts via email to [email protected]. Also, stay tuned for some upcoming compe-titions with great prizes in our future issues.

For additional articles, downloads, and professional resources please visit our website: www.psemagazine.com

Best regards

Denise DaaneManaging Editor

WE FOCUS ON THE KEY DRIVERS OF ANY ORGANIZATION: ITS PEOPLE.

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PUBLIC SECTOR NEWS AND AFFAIRS

Abu Dhabi Current News and Affairs

OIL AND GAS

ECONOMY

ABU DHABI SAY’S NO TO TOBACCOThe Health Authority Abu Dhabi has

announced its annual campaign, “Abu Dhabi Says No to Tobacco”. The cam-paign coincides with the World Confer-ence on Tobacco or Health, which will be held in Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. The campaign aims to create awareness through educational materi-als and community outreach regarding the harmful effects of tobacco usage, in their aim to curb smoking in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

HEALTH

CONTINUED GROWTH IN NON-OIL SECTORS

The Department of Economic De-velopment (DED) recently issued the Economic Report for Abu Dhabi 2014. According to the report, the emirate has experienced significant econom-ic growth compared to the previous year, with the GDP reaching a total of Dh 953 billion as compared to previous year’s Dh 910 billion. Furthermore, the report indicated that non-oil sectors experienced an impressive growth rate

of roughly 7.4%, which is a result of the government’s initiative to diversify Abu Dhabi’s economy.

SHAH GAS PROJECT EXPECTED TO REACH FULL CAPACITY IN SECOND QUARTER

Production at the landmark Shah gas project will reach full capacity in the second quarter, earlier than ini-tially expected, according to ADNOC’s chief executive. The Shah gas fields, which are in the desert about 180 kilometres south-west of Abu Dha-bi city, have H2S levels that average 23 per cent, as well as high levels of carbon dioxide. The project entailed constructing the world’s first single gas plant to process at least 1 billion standard cubic feet (SCF) of gas with such high levels of H2S.

After processing, which includes the removal and transport of more than 10,000 tonnes per day of granular sul-phur to the export facility at Ruwais, the project is expected to contribute 500 million scf/d of gas to the UAE sys-tem. The UAE’s gas imports have been increasing in recent years to meet surging demand.

The US$10 billion project is also set-ting a precedent for other similar sour gas mega-projects in the region, where most of the world’s known sour gas de-posits are located.

MUDABALA PETROLEUM VENTURING TOWARDS MOROCCO FOR OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION

Mudabala Petroleum, the Abu Dha-bi investment company, has agreed with the Morocco’s Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines to help in its first commercial hydro-carbon reserves, which are spanning over 3,000 Km off the Mediterra-nean cost.

ADEC LAUNCHES HIGHER EDUCATION CAREER GUIDANCE SYSTEM

The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) announces the launch of the first ever Higher Education Career Guid-ance System. The system is expected to enhance the careers of many young and aspiring students and help them guide through their career planning de-cisions. Every student has the potential to excel in their respective careers and all they require is the correct form of guidance, which the career guidance

EDUCATION

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PUBLIC SECTOR NEWS AND AFFAIRS

TRANSPORT AND PORTS

system will effectively provide.

INTEGRATED INNOVATION SYSTEM LAUNCHED BY ADEC

ADEC announced the launch of an in-tegrated innovation system. The council is partnering with the Young Scientist Competition, which has over 50 years of experience in organizing innovative competitions for students. In order to ensure the successful implementation of the project, the ADEC intends to hold the competition only in Abu Dha-bi schools for the first year. However, in the subsequent years the competition will be extended to the entire UAE and even internationally.

EDAAD TRAINING PROGRAM LAUNCHEDADEC has recently launched a new

training program, EDAAD, for individ-uals seeking a career in education. The training program will allow individuals to acquire necessary skills and education to become an educator within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It will also help to improve the standard of education, which is nec-essary to create human capital for future prosperity of Abu Dhabi.

INTELLIGENT TRAFFIC SIGNALS INTRODUCED IN MOHAMMAD BIN ZAYED CITY

The Department of Transport, in its continuous pursuit to improve secu-rity and safety of commuters, intro-duced intelligent traffic control sys-tems in all signalized intersections.

The project is first of its kind in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, costing around Dh 75 million and expected to sub-stantially enhance the traffic in the city by reducing recurring congestion levels. The innovative system will also provide real time traffic information to help in strategizing initiatives.

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT IN ABU DHABI LAUNCHES ITS LARGEST CAMPAIGN OF FIELD SURVEYS

The Department of Transport (DoT) has announced that it will launch its largest campaign of field surveys re-garding transport patterns and prefer-

ences in all regions of of Abu Dhabi, in-cluding Al Ain and the Western Region (Al Gharbia).

The aim of the field surveys, which will be conducted between the be-ginning of March and the end of May 2015, is to engage the public resid-ing in the Emirate in the planning and development of the transport sector. This will help tune the trans-port services and structures with the public current travel patterns and meet future needs of the transport network.

ABU DHABI PORTS SIGN 50 MILLION DEAL WITH GULF PRECAST

The Musataha agreement with Gulf Precast will allow the company to in-vest AED 50 million in a new concrete plant at the Khalifa Port’s Industrial Zone, also known as Kizad. The agree-ment will bring new investment in the Emirate and help create new jobs, ac-celerating economic growth and pros-perity in the region.

MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS

INCORPORATING NUMERICAL SYSTEM ALONG WITH STREET NAMES

The Department of Municipal Affairs has introduced a hybrid street name system, which will have numbers as-sociated with the street names. The initiative has been wholeheartedly welcomed by the people, as it helps in navigating within the city. People have known to get confused with street names. However, with the nu-merical system, the process is signifi-cantly simplified.

BANKING AND FINANCE

LINKING OF E-DIRHAM CARD WITH VUAE BANK ACCOUNTS

The innovative e-Dirham card al-lows individuals to pay for services such as utilities. The users of the card have to top it up with cash. However, linking the card with bank accounts will allow the users to electronically transfer money from their bank ac-counts through their e-Dirham cards,

effectively creating ease and conve-nience for the users.

NEW AUDITING LAWSNew laws have been enacted regard-

ing the practice of auditing, an initiative which has been welcomed by most of the auditing bodies and senior accoun-tants. The new federal law sets a higher standard for registered auditors in the country, as it will improve the standard of the industry.

FINANCIAL MARKETS THRIVE ON THE EXPECTED FED RATE

As the Fed announced its intention to increase the interest rate, finan-cial markets around the world have surged. As a result, the Abu Dhabi Se-curities Exchange index increased by 1.3 percent on the news, reaching a total of 4,337.

MINISTRY OF INTERIOR

FORUM ON THE LEADERSHIP ROLE OF POLICEWOMEN

The Abu Dhabi Police held a fo-rum on the role of policewomen in leadership roles. The dean of the business school at the University of Salford, Professor Amanda Broderick explained the influence of women in leadership roles and the immense potential female law enforcers had to offer.

ISSUANCE OF DRIVER LICENSE VIA SMARTAPP

The Ministry of Interior has recent-ly launched a new service, which will allows it to issue new drivers license to individuals who have passed the driving test undertaken by the Federal Traffic and Registration System.

THE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR LAUNCHES “NO TO BEGGING” CAMPAIGN

The “No to Begging” campaign in-tends to raise public awareness regard-ing begging and how to handle beggars. It highlights the need to curb the social-ly uncivilized nuisance, which not only affects the country’s image, but also increases the likelihood of fraud by le-veraging sympathetic emotion.

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I N OUR FIRST TWO INSTALL-MENTS we discussed Project Initiation, Project Planning, and

Project Execution—the first three phases of the methodology pro-moted by the Project Management Institute. There are many other methodologies, but they all include, at a minimum, a set of processes for initiating, planning, executing, mon-itoring and controlling, and closing a project. We find the greatest dif-ferences among methodologies in the execution phase of the project, mainly due to differences in project purpose. For example, a project to construct a building will of necessi-ty be managed differently from one whose goal is to develop a new com-puter operating system, integrating artificial intelligence and untested and untried technologies. With that

said, the PMI methodology, which we are using for this series of arti-cles, is well known and has stood the test of time. It is also very custom-izable to a wide variety of projects. Still, it’s good to keep in mind that there are other very useful method-ologies you may use to manage your next project. Even if you decide that Agile, Extreme Programming (XP), PRINCE2, or another methodolo-gy is the most appropriate for your project and business environment, all projects can be broken down into the five basic processes listed above.

Understanding that our discussion in this series is general and relevant to all projects, let’s continue with the next major process group, Proj-ect Monitoring and Controlling. The first three groups were sequential

phases—ideally, one finishes before the next one begins. This next group, though, is not so much a phase as it is a group of tasks that help keep the project on schedule and on budget. It is performed during and in parallel with the Project Execution Phase.

Much of the activity in the Project Monitoring and Controlling group can be thought of as an audit of the other process groups—scheduled tasks and deliverables, scope and requests for changes, cost, quality, communication, risk, and procure-ment. The project manager leads the work required to track, review, and regulate the execution of the project. The reason we have a sep-arate process group just for moni-toring and controlling is to ensure that the performance of the proj-

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AT A GLANCE

and Controlling8



ect is measured on a regular basis. By doing this, variances to the plan and budget are noted and handled immediately, rather than sneaking up on the project manager at the worst possible time. And the worst possible time is any time you’re not expecting it. By consciously includ-ing continuous project audits, the project manager can control chang-es, anticipate problems, and actively manage performance and costs. Ar-eas requiring attention can be tend-ed to before they reach the crisis stage. The PM can steer and adjust project activities so that they fulfill the objectives stated in the Project Management Plan.

Monitor and Control Project Work

The purpose of this process sub-group is to ensure that the work being performed meets the perfor-mance objectives of the project as defined by the Project Management Plan. Monitoring not only includes

to schedule, cost, scope, and quality.

For a large project, many organi-zations will establish both a Change Control Board and a Configuration Control Board in order to provide consistent and timely oversight of change requests. Change control is concerned with identifying, docu-menting, and controlling changes to the deliverables of the project. Con-figuration control is concerned with the specifications of the current de-liverables and project processes.

Verify and Control ScopeScope creep is the enemy of ev-

ery project; it’s like that fly buzzing around your head that will not go away. Since you can’t get rid of it, better to accept and deal with it. We do this by first, verifying yet again that the scope of the project is what the enterprise requires. Projects are, by definition, limited in scope. No project can include upgrading, improving, or changing every re-lated product, process, and system touched by it, although from the horror stories every experienced project manager can tell, this is in-deed what seems to be the case. We hear, “As long as we’re upgrading the billing system, why don’t we go ahead and upgrade the database it uses at the same time?” Or, “While you’re upgrading the billing system, let’s go ahead and migrate to a dif-ferent document vendor.” Or, “Since we’re talking about billing, wouldn’t this be a good time to introduce a paperless system?”

These might all be good ideas, but if they were not included in the original project scope, there was a reason. Each change, however minor in appearance, is a possi-ble can of worms and cannot be opened without considering the consequences. In the planning phase, the project manager made sure there was a change request procedure as part of the Project Plan. Now is the time to drag that

keeping track of what’s going on within the project, but measuring its progress to verify that it meets the schedule and cost goals, and taking corrective action or making modi-fications to the plan as necessary. This area also includes reviewing and re-assessing risks and monitor-ing the implementation of approved changes. This process sub-group also includes reporting to stakehold-ers the general project status and project performance with regard to scope, schedule, cost, resources, quality, and risk.

Perform Integrated Change Control

Changes will derail any project if not managed well. For example, you might be running a project to upgrade a billing system, one of whose parts is an externally provid-ed database management system (DBMS). If the DBMS vendor were to introduce a new software version during the course of the project, the project team would have to evaluate the change and recommend wheth-er the upgrade should be adopted by the project. Some considerations might be: What other systems with-in the enterprise use the DBMS? Is it possible to maintain one release level for use by the billing system if other parts of the enterprise decide to upgrade? If the project decides to upgrade, what testing will be re-quired of the new DBMS? How will this change affect the schedule and resource requirements? If there is a cost to the upgrade, will it affect the project’s budget? In fact, how will the simple fact of considering all the questions that need to be answered affect the schedule and budget?

This process sub-group ensures that all change requests are re-viewed, that decisions regarding their implementation are well-docu-mented, and approved changes are correctly integrated into the project, with proper accounting for impacts

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thing out, dust it off, and use it. In general, the change management process ensures that any change request takes into consideration impacts on the project’s budget and schedule and how the pro-posed change will affect other deliverables of the project. More, the Change Management Pro-cess includes criteria for whether the change proposal will even be considered. All this is designed to keep the project manageable and ensure scope creep does not cre-ate a multi-headed monster that consumes the soul of the project. If this happens, it can cause the failure of the entire project, en-suring that not only does the addi-tional scope not get implemented, but that the goals of the original project themselves at best are de-layed and at worst, disappear into the dustbin of company history.

Control ScheduleIn Project Execution the project

manager assigns work according to the schedule of tasks. In this sub-group, the PM evaluates how well the team is maintaining schedule.

Are time and resource estimates from the planning phase being ad-hered to? If not, why not and what will that do to other scheduled ac-tivities further down the line? If the project is ahead of schedule, how will that affect procurements? If behind schedule, will it be possible to make up time somewhere? Can we perform some activities in par-allel that were originally planned in series? Can we shorten scheduled work time by sacrificing quality? All these questions and countless more go through the PM’s head when monitoring the schedule.

Control Costs From the broader perspective of

costs management, which includes estimating and budgeting, we’ll fo-cus in the sub-process on controlling. We’ll monitor the status of the proj-ect from a cost standpoint, paying particular attention to changes to the original cost baseline. Cost vari-ances result from two sources: either more work is being done than was planned, or the work being done is costing more than had been expect-ed. In the Control Costs sub-process,

the project manager is concerned with ensuring that costs are con-tained within budget. If they are not, he or she must find the cause and correct the problem. If more work is being done than planned, the proj-ect manager will invoke the Change Control process to rein in costs. The extra work may have to be canceled or backed out. Or if the change is deemed necessary, the budget will have to be adjusted to account for the changes that were made.

On the other hand, if work is simply costing more than was planned, the PM will have to seek out the precise cause of the variance and decide whether the budget needs to be re-evaluated for the rest of the proj-ect, or if changes to work methods or other variables can bring actual costs in line with budgeted costs.

Earned Value ManagementBoth schedule and cost control

commonly use a technique known as Earned Value Management (EVM) to calculate and compare planned, earned, and actual costs in hours and money (whichever units are being used) at any point in the schedule. The results of the com-parison will give the project manag-er and stakeholders a quantitative view of the project’s performance. EVM can be used in any type of project, in any type of industry, but requires a well-planned, baselined time and cost schedule as a basis for calculations and comparisons throughout the project.

The ratio calculations and details of EVM are outside of the scope of this article, but the salient points to note are that the results of the calcula-tions give the project management team vital information about the cur-rent schedule and costs compared with where they were planned to be at any point, and a basis for estimat-ing a project completion date and final cost with increasing accuracy as the project progresses.

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Perform Quality ControlSometimes this can be more dif-

ficuThis process group assures that Quality Control (QC) activities per-formed in the execution phase are monitored and that results are re-corded. The purpose of the qual-ity audit process is to ensure that project activities are in accordance with the organization’s standard policies, processes, and procedures. The audit team will not only iden-tify problems and deficiencies in project practices, but will engage in root cause analysis and help to find solutions or, at a minimum, help the team take corrective action to im-prove the project’s performance. On the other side of the coin, best prac-tices and outstanding performance will also be identified. The QC team should note both positive and neg-ative aspects of the project and re-cord them in a “lessons learned” repository for the benefit of future projects.

Report PerformanceThis example may not seem like

it has anything to do with project management, but indulge me: It’s pretty well known that the Vikings had settlements on the North Amer-ican continent lo-o-o-ng before Christopher Columbus was even a gleam in his father’s eye. This is to say nothing of the fact that the Vi-kings knew for a fact that they were nowhere near India when the land-

ed in Nova Scotia. But the sad fact is, the Vikings didn’t report back to their stakeholders and publish their project report, as did our esteemed Mr. Columbus.

So, as the old saying goes, “If it’s not in writing, it never happened.” Way back in a previous article we emphasized the need for commu-nication, and here it is again. In this sub-process group, we collect data, put it into intelligible information, and distribute it to stakeholders.

The reporting requirements were designed in the planning phase and written into the Project Manage-ment Plan. Using this as a guide, the project manager will create and distribute performance and status reports on individuals, project work packages, deliverables, and any oth-er project activity. Other reporting requirements may include updated budget and schedule forecasts and updates to any requests for changes to the project plan or deliverables.

All oral reports and meeting dis-cussions should be documented in a storable medium for future refer-ence. And it’s important to note that the information reported should be appropriate for the audience. A five-minute status report to the board of directors will be altogether different from a report to the proj-ect sponsor. A high-level, summary presentation may only include “red/yellow/green” graphics on scope,

schedule, cost, and quality, while the report to the project sponsor would more likely include a list of current issues, schedule and cost variance percentages and ratios, change re-quest log, work scheduled for the next period, and more.

Monitor and Control RisksIn earlier phases of the project

we listed any risks that anyone on

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the team could think of and made contingency plans for them. Lest we have a purely negative attitude, we need to remember that risks are any unknowns that can affect the project negatively or positively. So our risk strategy is not only how to minimize the damage to the proj-ect from something bad that might happen, but also how to maximize the benefit should something good happen. A risk, if it occurs, will af-fect costs, schedule, quality, and/or project scope.

In this sub-process group we focus on the Risk Register with the intent of implementing risk response plans if necessary. We also do this simply to keep all identified risks on the ra-dar screen, updating their location, as it were, and continue brainstorm-ing to identify new risks as the busi-ness environment changes through-out the project. Through regularly scheduled risk audits, we’ll re-eval-uate and update our risk response plan, noting new risks, closing those no-longer needed, and updating contingency plans.

Useful tools are variance and trend analyses of the schedule and costs that might lead us to identifying new risks or give us more information about a previously identified risk that might be on the horizon. Keep in mind that risks, by definition, are future possibilities. Once a risk has occurred, it becomes an issue to be managed according to the contin-gency plan. If a risk event occurs or is no longer deemed a risk for any reason it should be removed from the register.

Administer ProcurementsAs we mentioned in the last install-

ment, purchasing new equipment, software, or services can be a diffi-cult area in a project, with disaster lurking at every turn. This is primarily because the project is normally deal-ing with outside vendors, over whom the PM has no direct authority. That

is exactly why this sub-process group is so important to the success of the project. In this group, we manage relationships, monitor contract per-formance, and make timely correc-tions when needed. Subject matter experts on the project team audit the obligations and commitments of the procurement contract to ensure that the project is getting what it paid for and, just as importantly, that the project is fulfilling its obligations under the contract.

Members of the project team, nor-mally from the Contracts and Legal departments of the organization, will use the contract change control system, procurement performance reviews, inspections and audits, pay-ments systems, and other tools and processes to maintain the vendor relationship and oversee contract obligations.

Through this process, the project will document for future reference how well the vendor meets obliga-tions and responds to requests for

corrective action. This information may be necessary if a vendor is not meeting contractual requirements; the documentation may be used for legal or other corrective actions tak-en against them.

The View into the ProjectThis group of processes and activi-

ties that comprise Project Monitor-ing and Controlling, ensure that the project manager, the sponsor, the project team, and all stakeholders at every level of the organization have an on-going, accurate view into the workings and the health of the project. By continuously track-ing, reviewing, and regulating the activities of the project, the proj-ect manager is able to maintain a view of the project all the way from the 30,000-foot level to the “down and dirty” work in the trenches. By faithfully exercising these process-es, surprises, while still happening, will be kept to a minimum, and those that do happen will more likely be minor and infrequent.

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7140 Fareeha Collection Press Ad 205mm x 275mm.pdf 1 12/4/14 6:34 PM


Oil and Gas

Industry

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Let’s Benchmark!


I T IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to even imagine a world without oil and gas, is the largest source of energy production in the world.

In our pursuit of energy, our production practices constantly evolve and progress so that we employ only the most cost-ef-fective and efficient production techniques available. Incorpo-rating technological innovation, minimizing the environmental effect, and ensuring social re-sponsibility improve the world today and create a better to-morrow for the generations to come.

In this article we’ll examine best practices in the industry from around the world and point out some of the key considerations in adopting selected practices in this regions’ oil and gas in-dustry.

The US has now become the leading oil and gas producer in the world and is one of only seven countries that have national guidelines requiring mitiga-tion measures during seismic surveys to reduce their impact on marine life. Despite the lack of any international re-quirements, all seven nations, including the US, collaborate to enable sharing of vital information.

The country has implemented an industry-wide data management pro-gram through its Energy Management System (EMS). The program is consid-ered the most cost-effective technique in terms of energy efficiency improve-ments. EMS promotes effective com-munication on every level. The use of such an information system allows the employment of accurate metrics to as-sess the performance and benchmark-ing of the most energy-efficient prac-tices, and provides insights to turn data into useful intelligence for improved energy and asset productivity.

In terms of offshore transportation from oil and gas facilities, operations are moving farther offshore, which is in-creasing the costs and complexity of the process. All transport vessels, whether US or international, are subject to a trea-ty of international conventions by the

The State of Oil and Gas in the

International Maritime Organization. Cargo considered as hazardous or dan-gerous is flagged and subject to stringent regulatory compliance to ensure the mit-igation of environmental and marine life exposures.

The industry has started adopting new flaring technology to improve the process and reduce excess flaring. The use of new ballistic ignition systems have considerably reduced the amount of flared gas by completely eliminating the pilot system. Furthermore, other recovery systems have been installed to reduce the impact of emissions on the environment.

With increasingly regulations over the industry, those requiring lower oil sulfur content have increased as well. Desulfurization is performed using hy-drotreaters, utilizing huge amounts of both electricity and hydrogen and cur-rently proving to be highly inefficient. Alternative, more efficient methods for desulfurization are being developed and demonstrated at various refineries. One of these is the Zorb process, which is a sorbent operated within a fluidized bed reactor. It uses less hydrogen than the current, standard process, while producing lower sulfur gasoline and diesel fuel.

united states

CASES OF GOOD PRACTICES IN THE GLOBAL OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

Oil and Gas

IndustryOil and Gas Industry inNorway

Norway is renowned for its admin-istrative systems in the world, widely known as the Norwegian Model. In this model, it assigns oil sector functions to three different state-controlled institu-tions, each having its own distinct role.

First there is the commercial entity, NOC Statoil, one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, perform-ing extensive operations in Norway and other countries.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy,

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REPLICATING INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES IN ABU DHABINorwegian Model and Value Chain

The Norwegian model and the separation of roles it promotes al-lows for effective governance, ad-ministration, and regulation in the industry. Although highly efficient and renowned globally, the entire program does not fit every econ-omy. However, adopting selective policies would improve the level of efficiency and productivity in the Abu Dhabi oil and gas industry.

Moreover, creating a value chain in all the processes involved in the oil and gas industry would enable easier enforcement of environmen-tally friendly and efficient policies by regulatory bodies and would re-duce waste and damage to the at-mosphere and marine life.

Information SystemsDue to increasing competition and

its demanding nature, the oil and gas industry has proven to be one

of the most innovative fields in the world. It is important for Abu Dha-bi to employ Energy Management Systems (EMS), which would allow the transformation of data into in-telligence, an effective aid in future growth of the industry.

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS)

Despite the great importance of the oil and gas industry, nothing trumps the importance of the pres-

a Norwegian policy-making body, is re-sponsible to work alongside the coun-try’s political leadership in the design of strategies and the plans and regulations required to achieve those strategies.

Lastly, there is the regulatory and technical advisory agency, the Norwe-gian Petroleum Directorate, NPD. The regulatory and advisory body is mostly responsible for compiling data, collect-ing fees, advising the ministry on tech-nical matters, setting hydrogen regula-tions, and resource management. The degree of separation between the dif-

ferent entities have come to be known as the Norwegian Model of Gover-nance in the oil and gas sector.

Norway has managed to develop a highly efficient oil and gas value chain, which is divided into three phases: Upstream (exploration and extraction of oil), Midstream (gas processing and transportation), and Downstream (oil refining, distribution, selling and mar-keting oil and natural gas products). There are different companies involved in all three stages, ranging in size from global giant Statoil to recent startups.

Regulations are formulated and applied based on the stage of the value chain, making the processes highly efficient.

The country has managed to develop a cluster policy, which effectively links all related fields to oil and gas. Exam-ples of different sectors are education, training, research and development, regulations, taxation, physical infra-structure, and capital markets. This has allowed the country to become one of the most innovative and green countries in terms of operations in the oil and gas industry.

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In Saudi Arabia, there is a strong link between energy production and water consumption. A large portion of the water consumed must be desalinated which is an energy intensive process. The country has managed to incorpo-rate energy production and desaliniza-tion to improve efficiency. Power gen-eration produces significant amounts of heat, which is then used to desalinate the water. Combining these processes has reduced energy consumption by at least 20%. The effective policy pro-motes the construction of co-genera-tion and desalination plants.

The newly drafted policies have set an

Best Practices in

Saudi Arabiagy. By conforming to the new standards, the country will save over 140 million of barrels of oil per year by the end of 2030.

Saudi Aramco has been constantly re-ducing water usage in oil production. In the past few years, the water use has been constantly reduced as a result of advancements in drilling technology. Just a decade ago, such a trend would have been impossible to comprehend. The country has also efficiently man-aged its oil fields; its average depletion rate is 29%, which is substantially lower than the worldwide average.

Investments in Carbon Capture and Sequestration, CCS, and other such im-portant technologies have become vi-tally important to the sustenance of the atmosphere. These technologies have sought to reduce GHG emissions. De-spite being energy intensive, the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions is the most important for the country.

ervation of the environment. CCS, despite being extremely capital and energy intensive, offers incredible benefits to the health of the atmo-sphere. Considering Abu Dhabi’s dedication towards the preserva-tion of the environment, CCS proves to be the right way to progress for a green and clean Abu Dhabi.

Mitigating Measures for Seismic Surveys

Seismic surveys are known to cause severe harm to the marine ecosys-tem. Adopting the progressive mea-sures taken by seven other countries will fit well with other environmental

protection policies already being pur-sued by Abu Dhabi. By collaborating with the other counties, Abu Dhabi can acquire greater knowledge and expertise in technologies that can be employed to curb damage to the marine ecosystem.

Desulfurization and Mitigating Flaring and Venting

As countries have scaled up their efforts to reduce the sulfur content in petroleum and diesel products, the use of hydrotreaters should become more prevalent, despite their being energy inefficient. As Abu Dhabi’s major source of atmo-

spheric pollution is from vehicle emissions, requiring hydrotreaters, or catalytic converters as they are known in automobile use, would have a direct impact on the reduc-tion of pollution and toxicity in the environment. Furthermore, it is im-portant to stay updated on the ad-vancements being made in alterna-tive desulfurization processes and adopt them as they become more feasible and easier to implement.

As the industry has started adopt-ing newer flaring and venting tech-nology, the process has become significantly more efficient and en-vironmentally friendly.

improved minimum efficiency standard for the energy producers. The objective of the policy is to ensure reduction in the use of energy while producing ener-

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A N ORGANIZATION is only as strong as its weakest link. This makes it imper-ative for organizations to

invest in their most valuable asset: People. To do so, organizations must make sure their policies care for and nurture their people and thus make them feel valued.

Individuals make an organization what it is. Leaders can devise per-fect strategies to achieve excellent

results, but without the right people working towards achieving common goals, those efforts will be futile. Ex-cellent organizations understand the importance of unlocking employees’ potential and hence strive to create and sustain people-centric policies and a work environment that pro-motes fairness and equal treatment and opportunities. Through such ef-forts, an organization is assured to continue to attract and retain the

best talent the world has to offer.Excellent employees are attracted

to organizations where they feel acknowledged for the talent and qualities that they bring to the table and where they are rewarded for their efforts. They want to feel mo-tivated, engaged, and encouraged to contribute their ideas in a culture built on openness and honesty.

The EFQM Excellence Model (European Foundation for Quality

Fostering Excellence

in the People 18



Management) defines clearly how an organization can ensure the fulfillment of the People Enabler Criteria so that organizations can reach their highest potential. The model helps a firm form a clear picture of what they’re doing right and what they may improve, so they can begin their journey towards excellence with a clear roadmap. The Abu Dhabi govern-ment takes good care of its labor force, and through the Abu Dhabi Award for Excellence in Govern-ment Performance, makes sure that all public sector organizations are motivated to adopt the EFQM Model, so that an excellent people strategy can be implemented.

A major component of the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 is the goal of re-ducing over-dependence on oil rev-enues and creating and sustaining a knowledge-based economy. This aim has led to the need for heavy investments in training and devel-opment to ensure that citizens are equipped with the skills and com-petencies required to empower excellence across industries and functional disciplines. Recent gains have been measured and are evi-dent in the Innovations Index devel-oped by the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, which shows that in comparison to other economies dependent on natural resources, Abu Dhabi proves more capable and welcome to knowledge and change. These gains can most-ly be accredited to the continuous efforts in developing a professional and highly capable work force em-ployed across Abu Dhabi-based or-ganizations.

People Plans that support the Organization’s Strategy

The first thing that should be on aThe strategy an organization adopts provides the light that guides it to-wards its goals, so it becomes im-perative to provide its people with

clear plans which are in line with this strategy. Everything the employees do, and how they perform their tasks is defined by the company’s policies, goals, and strategies. This is why they need to have a clearly set benchmark they must reach; they must know ex-actly what is expected of them by the organization. This will help the organization get from them the level of performance required to fulfill its strategic goals.

The organization’s people must have set plans that help them make good use of new technolo-gies, and to fully understand and work with key processes involved in the production of goods and services. When developing these people plans and strategies, it is important for the firm to involve the employees; they are closer to the processes being deployed and therefore are able to give new and innovative insight on the subject. This will also help keep them more involved, so they can develop ownership of the company’s aims.

The objectives that employees have, individually and as a team, must be aligned with the objec-tives of the organization and their strategy. All this is derived from the company’s mission, vision, and values, which need to be com-municated to the people effective-ly time and again, so that they can fully embrace it as their own, and will truly feel passionately about the company’s goals. Plus, the company’s strategy must make room for the growth and self-ac-tualization of its employees, so they are willing to dedicate their full time and efforts to achieving these strategic goals and, in turn, their own personal excellence.

Through surveys and meetings with employees, an organization can get feedback on current plans and strategies from the very people involved in deploying them. This can help improve strategies so that they are more effective and in line with

the employees’ strengths. This will not only improve efficiency, but also help improve the peoples’ experi-ence working for the firm; they can find their work to be more fulfilling. They will also feel that their opinion matters and will be able to take per-sonal pride in positive results. They will not feel like just another insig-nificant cog in the machine.

Developing People’s Knowledge and Capabilities

Excellent organizations have a full understanding of exactly what kind of skills and expertise are needed to reach the goals they set. They know how to look for this list of credentials in employees, so they can take on the challenges of their jobs head on and not get overwhelmed by their work.

For certain jobs, specialized train-ing is needed to help employees carry out their day-to-day tasks effectively, so an organization must provide ample training to help workers gain these skills. Or-ganizations in the Abu Dhabi pub-lic sector, such as the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), provide continuous on and off the job training to their employees in order to ensure they not only ac-quire skills required for their cur-rent jobs, but also gear up for the future and acquaint themselves with any new processes and tech-nological advancements that are introduced. There are also career development and training pro-grams available to help employees move ahead in their chosen fields productively.

If an organization is to improve as a whole, the individuals that work within it must improve as well. The firm needs to make sure they eval-uate their employees on a regular basis and keep this process trans-parent, so that the employees and the firm can accurately gauge indi-vidual performance. These evalua-

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tions can help keep the work place competitive and give the employees the motivation to adjust their work to achieve better results.

Organizations also need to make sure the employees are not left out in the cold with little or nothing to work with. They should be provided with all the necessary tools, informa-tion, advice, and not only the free-dom but the empowerment to do their jobs effectively and efficiently. Micro-management doesn’t help anybody, but complete isolation can be equally crippling. Ample help should be provided when needed, especially to new employees; they should never feel hesitant to discuss issues and problems related to their work with their superiors.

Involving and Empowering People

An excellent organization, through its work culture and environment, in-volves the people in decision-making and goal-setting, instead of just issu-ing orders for them to fulfill. Employ-ees at every level must feel empow-ered to make a difference and be creative and innovative so that new ideas can be created and adopted.

This culture should value the em-

ployees’ dedication, skills, talents, and creativity, so they have ample motivation and incentives to work harder and continually improve themselves. Employees tend to feel more valued and motivated when they can see quantifiable re-sults and benefits of their efforts in the form of bonuses, rewards, and yearly or half-yearly appraisals and performance reports, customer and client feedback and reviews, and other statistics that show growth and success of the firm.

The work culture of excellent firms promotes innovation, creativity, and a mindset that believes in re-invent-ing the rules. The work attitude of the employees is free and open in these organizations, so new ideas can flow in, and the resulting prod-ucts and concepts are fresh and unique. This mindset can be nur-tured by the organization through a culture of entrepreneurship that helps the employees take posses-sion of the company’s projects, feel accountable for their actions, and treat the products as their own con-ceptions, so they treat them with care and put their all into making it a success. These are the things that set these organizations apart from the masses and lead them towards

exceptional excellence.

Facilitating effective communication

The first step towards effective communication is to establish the communication needs of the people and the organization. What needs to be communicated? To what de-gree is communication needed? Which mediums are best? These questions must be answered in or-der to make the job at hand easier and more efficient. Based on these communication needs and expec-tations, a firm can create a com-munications strategy, and develop and establish policies that can help employees effectively communicate and collaborate.

Effective communication also con-sists of relaying the firm’s goals, strategies, mission, and vision to its people. This should be clear and straightforward, so there is no con-fusion, and done in a way that the people genuinely feel as if they are on the same page as the organiza-tion. They should be able to feel they share in the company’s values, so that everyone, together, builds loyalty, trust, and commitment. The firm must also regularly remind its people of their immense contribu-tion to the firm’s success, so this success can be sustained and the people can be kept motivated. Un-derstanding the consequences of their actions can go a long way in in-creasing morale, improving perfor-mance, and encouraging a sense of pride and ownership in their work.

The firm must also encourage communication between employ-ees at all levels, so that ideas, in-formation, and knowledge can be shared and made available to all. The firm should share achievements and beneficial practices, encour-aging their adoption in other areas of the firm, and promoting a dia-logue about what works and what doesn’t. Problems that have already been solved should be shared as

EMPOWERING EXCELLENCEEMPOWERING EXCELLENCE

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case studies. Those employees who were involved in the solution can help others who are facing similar issues, thereby improving process-es and saving time.

Reward, Recognize, and Care For the People

It has been already established how important an organization’s people are to its success. For this reason, the organization must take special care to recognize and reward hard work and dedication to the firm, and take care of their employ-ees in every way possible. Terms of employment such as remunera-tion, benefits, redeployment, and redundancy should be in line with the company’s strategies, and must seek to ensure the involvement and empowerment of the people. The firm must also make sure they don’t over work their people, and em-ploy strategies and work plans that help them keep a healthy balance between work and personal life so that an all-around sense of fulfill-ment is achieved.

The firm must encourage and es-tablish diversity in their pool of tal-ented workers, and there should be equal treatment and fairness be-tween all groups and individuals. It should adopt policies regarding re-cruitment, career development, mobility, and succession plans to ensure that no gen-der, ethnic, or social group is discriminated against.

All workers must be recognized and rewarded for their hard work. Etihad Airways, which is a public sector organization under the Abu Dhabi Government, recognized its top performing Emirati female trainee engineers by giving them a chance to attend the 25th annual International Women in Aviation Conference in Orlando, Florida. This not only recognized their efforts but also gave them a chance to learn and be inspired by attending work-shops and talks by professionals in different fields related to aviation.

Etihad Airways can also be seen as an example of providing care to its employees and showing concern for their safety. They launched a new ambulance service specifically for their employees in August 2014. This is a 24/7 medical service that can be called with a special number provided to the employees in the city of Abu Dhabi. This kind of care and consideration makes employees feel loyal to their organization, and feel more compelled to do their best for them. ADNOC also provides its employees with a safe environment to work in and provides health and medical insurance, periodic medical checkups, and regular visits from recognized doctors to give advice

and recommendations on health and safety.

Excellent organizations also en-courage their workers to participate in activities that contribute to the wider society, which can be done through various activities, aware-ness workshops, lectures, and conferences. They should also be encouraged to maintain a work en-vironment of mutual trust, respect, support, recognition, and care. Em-ployees and teams must help each other when possible and appreciate the hard work put in by others at all levels, and must behave morally and ethically in all situations with respect to their co-workers.

The Abu Dhabi Award for Excel-lence in Government performance looks for these qualities in an orga-nization and expects utmost care and consideration, recognition, and rewarding of performance in all areas. The work culture must promote valuing and caring for em-ployees beyond the requirements of basic human rights, and the work environment and benefits should be such that top quality and highly qualified individuals are attracted to the organization in search of a re-warding and fulfilling career.



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A LOT OF COMPANIES talk about being an employer of choice, but as competition for talent heats to a boil,

Stewart Black, INSEAD Affiliate Pro-fessor of Organisational Behaviour, says executives have to do more than give the concept lip service.

According to Black, many good companies with good strategies of-

ten fail to hit their targets because they don’t have the people they need. Attracting and keeping tal-ented employees is vital for com-panies to compete today.

“The reality for most managers and executives out there is that there is a war for talent,” Black says.

In part, it’s a numbers game. North

America and Europe went from baby boom to baby bust and there just aren’t enough qualified people to fill the jobs. In Asia, the econ-omies are young and there isn’t a pool of experienced workers to meet booming demand. This is cre-ating a historic global shift.

“When you have growing demand in general, especially in certain mar-

How to be an employer of choice

STEWART BLACK INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour

KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

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KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

kets, for people with qualifications and increasing competition (for) those people, there is a shift in the balance of power from employers toward employees. This means em-ployers, if they want to attract and keep the best and the brightest, have to have an attractive value proposi-tion for employees,” says Black.

The employee as customer

Employees also have new access to information. Just as the internet increased competition for custom-ers by allowing them to compare prices and products, now employ-ees can instantly search the web to discover their value and other job opportunities.

One final factor is a big move in many countries away from tradition-al pension plans that tended to keep employees from leaving, especially employees with tenure. As compa-nies have shifted from defined ben-efit to defined contribution plans, they’ve lowered the switching costs for workers changing employers.

“So, I know more of what my val-ue is, my switching costs have gone down, so therefore to keep me you have to have an attractive val-ue proposition,” says Black of the change in employee attitudes.

All of this will require a big shift in thinking for employers, who have long acted as though any worker were re-placeable. They are beginning to find that they are no longer in the driver’s

seat when it comes to hiring talent.

Employees also pay a price

Black often surprises executives when he tells them that employ-ees pay a price for working at their company.

“They said no, you’ve got it wrong, they don’t pay us, we pay them. But the issue is that em-ployees really do pay a price,” says Black. “You pay a price in terms of the hours you give to the firm, and in some companies that’s a 40-hour week and in some compa-nies it’s a 100-hour week. You pay a price in terms of the stress and strain, literally the blood, sweat and tears you give.”

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KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

Employees weigh the price they pay against what they are being of-fered. “Is it fundamentally a good deal? If it’s not a good deal, espe-cially now that I have more informa-tion, I start shopping around for a better deal,” he said. “Unless you’re a slave or somehow or otherwise indentured, people have a choice.”

Black says there are measurable things corporate executives can do to attract and keep the best peo-ple. Borrowing a phrase from cus-tomer satisfaction analysis, he calls these “value propositions” and lists four main categories: leadership, company, job and rewards.

1. LEADERSHIPStudies show that strong lead-

ership is the single most powerful feature in motivating and keeping employees. He says workers un-derstand that poor leadership will impact not only the success of the company but the quality of the work environment and their own ability to develop and build a career.

“People do care about the quali-ty of leadership and they also care about the company’s ability to iden-tify and develop leaders, including

eventually themselves,” Black says.

2. COMPANYThis encompasses everything

about the firm: reputation, values, culture and its contributions to the world and the community. Employ-ees might be willing to work longer hours or for less compensation for a company with stronger corporate values or a better reputation.

“A few years ago Exxon was not the greatest company to work for, just after the Valdez (oil spill in Alaska). Not very long ago, En-ron was not a company that you’d want to work for. So the reputa-tion, the culture, those sort of things matter,” he says.

3. JOBThis involves many of the day-to-

day aspects of a job. How interesting and compelling is the work? Can em-ployees grow and be fulfilled in their jobs? Do they have the resources and training to achieve their goals?

“In particular, how much freedom, autonomy, growth and challenge do I have in the job that I am asked to do? How interesting is the job?“

4. REWARDSThis is what most people think of

when they think about employee compensation: wages and bene-fits. But rewards also include in-tangibles such as career prospects, development opportunities and social contact with co-workers.

Black says it’s often difficult for ex-ecutives to see how this impacts the bottom line, but it is measur-able.“Take almost any business, but certainly a firm that has a high service component, if people are going out the door too quickly, that means that they’re not getting up the learning curve and as a consequence aspects of your service suffers,” he says. “It translates directly into key aspects like service quality which have a direct af-fect on bottom line results.”

For managers, measuring their company’s value propositions for employees is a concrete way to be-come an employer of choice and to succeed as a business.“Lots of com-panies believe their competitive advantage is their unique culture; however, if you can’t attract and re-tain the right people, your culture will soon stop delivering any advan-tage,” he says.

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Ali Chareuf’s

Oil and Gas Story

A LI CHAREUF IS CUR-RENTLY among the lon-gest serving employees at one of the major oil

and gas operating companies in Abu Dhabi. He has been in the oil and gas industry for over 40 years, 35 of which have been spent in Abu Dhabi. In our exclusive interview, Ali tells us a bit about his experiences and the journey that brought him to where he is today.

Beginnings “I was born and raised in Oran, the

second largest city in Algeria. I come

from quite a large family that was supported primarily by my mother, bless her soul, after the death of my father in the Algerian revolution. Needless to say, we had to bear a lot of responsibilities starting at an ear-ly age, one of the most important of which was helping out at home by getting decent jobs to support the family.”

Ali’s career in the oil and gas in-dustry started in Algeria where he took up employment at the first LNG plant in the country. “This was the starting point of my education. I was curious about everything. My first project was working as a cost con-

troller on the construction phase of the LNG plant which strictly involved civil engineering work. However, I was still able to learn a lot about the basics of oil and gas operations through this project and found my-self drawn to what I believed to be the next big thing.”

After a stint of two years and a change in management, Ali switched to a different company. This one specialized in seismic research and took him into the desert on his first typical oil and gas work rotation cy-cle. “I learned so much every day, and life in the desert was most excit-ing and enriching. This was a differ-

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Sharing Excellence

ent discipline but still within the oil and gas industry. I spent two years working in the Algerian desert and this is where I was first introduced to the United Arab Emirates and the opportunities that existed in the oil and gas industry there.” Ali explains.

“My move to the UAE was pure co-incidence. I was young and looking for adventure when a friend intro-duced me to a UAE based company that supplied chemical products to the oil and gas industry and who were interested in my services. Since I was curious about the fast-growing UAE, which at that time was just starting to make noise in the world

scene, I signed a one-year contract and I have been in the UAE since. That was in 1976.”

Ali spent his first year in Abu Dhabi working for the chemical products provider and learning more about the local oil and gas market and the work opportunities that were avail-able in the field. He later discovered that the creation of a new oil and gas operating company was in the pipe-line in Abu Dhabi and began to inves-tigate how he could become a part of this new development. “I thought this was just the opportunity for me to develop my career and join a young company on a long journey. In retrospect, this was the best decision I ever made and I feel very fortunate to have joined this company at the very initial stage to grow with it and see it prosper through all the new technologies and challenges over the decades.”

Ali started his new career in the drilling department of the company at a very entry level position. “Since the field was new when I joined the present company, I was tasked with gathering data from a sister compa-ny working on the same field but on a different level reservoir. The data I collected was vital to creating drilling programs suitable and optimum for the drilling operations. Based on the data gathered, I started working with other engineers in the preparation of

drilling programs.” This first glimpse into the oil and gas sector was enough to convince Ali that he would make a long term career in the field and learn to be among the best.

Gaining Experiencewas enough evidence of a pressing

After a year of working the “desk job,” as Ali refers to it, it was time for a new challenge. He wanted to learn and experience more of what the oil industry had to offer. Ali went to his manager and told him he was keen to learn more and wanted a bigger challenge. At that time, the compa-ny was just starting up a training pro-gram. “Lucky for me, I spoke French fluently and was able to get along with the predominantly French management team at the time,” he says with a smile. “The management was willing to invest in sending me on a pilot training course that took me to France, the UK, and Algeria for a year of theoretical and practi-cal training which lasted a lifetime.” Ali counts himself lucky to have re-ceived this opportunity and contin-ues by saying, “It was perfect timing. The company was new and investing heavily in all areas of development including training. Just a year after my training course, the program was scaled down as many new trainees had now joined the company and the costs had become too high. In-

MY MOVE TO THE UAE WAS PURE COINCIDENCE. I WAS YOUNG AND LOOKING FOR ADVENTURE WHEN A FRIEND INTRODUCED ME TO A UAE BASED COMPANY... I SIGNED A ONE-YEAR CONTRACT AND I HAVE BEEN IN THE UAE SINCE. THAT WAS IN 1976.

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house and local training programs would replace the training experi-ence that I was lucky to have!”

Once Ali completed his year-long course, he joined the oil rig’s off-shore team as a trainee, where the time came to get his hands dirty. Ali looks back fondly at these days where the dress code was a pair of orange overalls, safety boots, and a hard hat and where work involved hard work and sweat all day, espe-cially in the summer time. This is in sharp contrast to the air condi-tioned office he sits in today where he manages well service operations from the comfort of the desk. Soon after his trainee experience, Ali took on the responsibility as the compa-ny representative overseeing the full drilling operation on the rig, a quick promotion he attributes to hard work and his inquisitive and knowledge-seeking nature which helped him learn the ropes fast. Ali spent five years as a supervisor on the rigs. Reminiscing about this time, Ali says, “The rig operation was always very exciting and there was something new every day for me. There were challenges, excite-ment, and above all, achievements and progress.”

After five years on the oil rigs, Ali decided to switch from drilling to

production. He remembers clear-ly when he decided it was time to move back to land. “Five years in, I remember coming home one day and was taken by surprise to no-tice how much my son had grown. I realized that I had missed out on watching my child grow up and wanted to be closer to home. I did my research and tried my luck again with the management for a position at the corporate office. Thankfully, timing was right once again and a suitable position was available.” Ali has covered several positions with the various production sections, mainly well servicing, with a partic-ular focus on well integrity.

We asked Ali where he gained the most important experience of his career and how the experi-ence helped him reach his current position. Ali’s answer was simple: “I gained experience everywhere I worked. It is very important to cover multidisciplinary tasks in or-der to excel in your job and though there are many disciplines, they are all related and it is good to have a thorough knowledge of the wells from the start of the drilling to the production lifecycle. But having said that, I would say the drilling phase was remarkably rewarding in terms of learning and the knowl-

edge gained is an asset to your ca-reer in any oil and gas position.”

Present and Future…Ali is currently one of the longest

serving employees at the oil and gas field development company he is working for. We asked Ali to iden-tify some of the most remarkable changes and improvements that he has witnessed during his tenure and how the company has transformed over the decades. He replies, “As I explained earlier, I was blessed to join this company 38 years ago; I saw it from a very young company of about 100 employees to about 5000 now. I have witnessed amazing advancements in the oil and gas sec-tor technology and we were blessed with possibilities to attend oil shows and conferences around the world to learn and share the best global practices and latest technologies. I have co-written a paper on a proj-ect experience carried out for the first time in the Middle East and I am very proud of that. This project is a chain of new successful technolo-gies and operating optimization.”

Ali remarks how the equipment used 30 years ago to drill wells is ob-solete now and has been completely replaced by new technologies. He is still amazed at the pace of devel-

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Sharing Excellence

opment and technological advance-ment that his company and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as a whole are experiencing. “Every year we are in-troduced to new technologies. From drilling and production techniques and equipment, to process auto-mation and HRMS (human resource management systems), we are al-ways learning and improving here. As an example, earlier we could drill a deviated well up a certain inclina-tion of about 70 degrees. Now we are able to drill at any depth hori-zontally for over 10,000 feet. This is something that was not achievable just a short time ago, at least not to my knowledge. Such a long hor-izontal hole would provide for maxi-mum production from the reservoir penetrated. This was the biggest challenge and one of the biggest achievements I have witnessed in my field of expertise.”

“At the earlier stages, there were no computers in the company. Then, the secretaries were issued one each, and now every employee has a computer and most of our work is done through them, using so many applications that make communica-tion and life much easier.”

We went on to ask Ali what the best or most influential projects have been that he has managed or has been a part of during his career. He replied, “In my career I have worked on so many projects and on vari-ous project elements, but the most challenging project, which I oversaw from initial study to actual imple-mentation and eventual success, and which I have co-written a paper on, was a project to run a tool that would reach and enter any chosen lateral hole in a multi-lateral well.”

Finally, Ali shares his views on the future of oil and gas in the UAE: “The UAE’s oil and gas industry has a lot of potential and vast oil and gas re-serves to last for a long time to come. With the implementation of the new technologies and drilling and produc-tion techniques, the UAE will have

good control of the oil and gas mar-ket for the foreseeable future.” He further describes some of the more interesting projects that are taking place in the field. “Personally, one of the most fascinating new techniques that has been deployed to increase efficiency in the long run is the build-ing of man-made islands off the coast

these skills in their daily tasks for the profit and eventual prosperity of the company.”

Ali says that coaching, mentoring, and knowledge-sharing programs are also among the key training and development methods that all orga-nizations should deploy. He gives us

ONE SHOULD BE AMBITIOUS AND THERE SHOULD BE LOVE IN WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING. IN THIS MANNER, YOU ARE FOCUSED AND TAKING IN VERY EASILY ALL THAT IS HAPPENING AROUND YOU AND WHATEVER IS THROWN AT YOU WITH A POSITIVE ATTITUDE. SUCCESS WILL SIMPLY FOLLOW.

of the capital to reduce the high costs of offshore drilling versus onshore drilling techniques. This technique is now being applied by most offshore operating companies.”

When asked what projects and contributions Ali would like to see completed before the end of his ca-reer, he replies by saying, “I look for-ward to materializing all the projects I am involved in and basically phas-ing out all old generation services and replacing them with the new, up to date technologies.”

AdviceWhen asked what the key drivers

of success in any organization are, Ali responds, “The most important company assets are the employees and therefore, full-fledged training matrices should be implemented and invested in to enhance employ-ees’ skills. They, in turn, will apply

a real time example: “Furthermore, I have been, for so many years now, sharing my experience and knowl-edge with my colleagues. As part of company training strategies, I have been, among other experienced colleagues, officially assigned to coach, guide, and assess newly re-cruited locals on training involved in my disciplines. My pleasure and pride is to impart my experience and knowledge to others.”

In Ali’s concluding statement of the interview, he responds to the ques-tion of how to attain or maximize one’s personal and professional de-velopment by saying, “One should be ambitious and there should be love in whatever you are doing. In this manner, you are focused and taking in very easily all that is hap-pening around you and whatever is thrown at you with a positive atti-tude. Success will simply follow.”

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Arab Development (ARDECO) is one of UAE’s leading business enterprises with operations c o v e r i n g a w i d e r a n g e o f i n d u s t r i e s : O i l & G a s , Petrochemicals, Power & Water,

of Success” policy, ARDECO always ensures long term success and growth of its companies.

ARAB DEVELOPMENT - ARDECO PO Box 2761 Abu Dhabi, UAE

Establishedin1980

Engineering& Contracting,Energy & Industry. Following a “Partners

T: +971 2644 7373 D: 644 9499 , F: +971 26444 066 E: [email protected]

Arab Development (ARDECO) is one of UAE’s leading business enterprises with operations c o v e r i n g a w i d e r a n g e o f i n d u s t r i e s : O i l & G a s , Petrochemicals, Power & Water,

of Success” policy, ARDECO always ensures long term success and growth of its companies.

ARAB DEVELOPMENT - ARDECO PO Box 2761 Abu Dhabi, UAE

Establishedin1980

Engineering& Contracting,Energy & Industry. Following a “Partners

T: +971 2644 7373 D: 644 9499 , F: +971 26444 066 E: [email protected]


IN FOCUS

A BU DHABI, being endowed with the largest oil deposits in the UAE, counts the oil and gas sector as

a vital component of its economy. The emirate contains more than 90% of UAE’s oil reserves and 85% of its output capacity. In addition, around 9% of the world’s proven oil reserves and 5% of the natural gas reserves are present in Abu Dhabi.Before the discovery of oil, Abu

Dhabi was largely an undeveloped desert area. The tribes who in-habited the lands were primarily farmers, pearl divers, and traders. Qasr Al-Hosn, the Ruler’s Fort, was

the only prominent building in Abu Dhabi. However, all this changed after the discovery of oil in late 1950s. With the influx of petro-dollars, the area was rapidly trans-formed into a modern metropolis. Presently, this sector comprises

almost 55% of Abu Dhabi’s GDP. The rapid developments that have turned Abu Dhabi into a modern city wouldn’t have occurred with-out the discovery of hydrocarbons in the region. Abu Dhabi Vision 2030, launched

under the leadership of H.H Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, plans to further develop the oil and gas industry, while at the same time

diversify the economy to reduce its reliance on this sector. The task of developing the oil and gas industry in the region rests with UAE’s Min-istry of Energy and ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company).

Role of UAE’s Ministry of Energy and ADNOC in Development of The Oil and Gas Sector in Abu Dhabi

UAE’s Ministry of Energy represents the state’s interests in energy, water, and mineral resources. Their key role is to develop and implement gener-al policies and legislation—based on consultation with key stakeholders—

Overview of Oil & Gas Industry

in Abu Dhabi

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IN FOCUS

to fit the energy sector as per the in-ternational standards.

The vision of the Ministry of En-ergy is to preserve and develop its energy resources to achieve long lasting sustainability. They provide relevant geological and geophysical information to help with develop-ment of oil and gas in the region. In short, they offer support services to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for development and exploration of oil and gas.

Some of the stated objectives of the Ministry of Energy include:

• Organize energy and water resources according to the economic development re-

quirements• Diversify energy resources• Provide geological and geo-

physical information that serves the development of the energy sector

• Ensure provision of all admin-istrative services in compli-ance with Quality, Efficiency, and Transparency.

ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), established in 1971, manages and controls all aspects of oil and gas industry in the Emirate. Operations of the company have to comply with the UAE Ministry of En-vironment and Supreme Petroleum Council’s (SPC) petroleum policies and regulations. The SPC acts as a board of directors for ADNOC and gives direction for how the compa-ny should operate and act.

ADNOC has 14 subsidiary compa-nies working in various fields. The subsidiary companies are vertically integrated and operate in the fol-lowing areas:

• Exploration and production of oil and gas

• Exploration and production services

• Processing of oil and gas prod-ucts

• Production of chemicals and petrochemicals

• Maritime transport• Distribution of refined prod-

ucts• Operation of several airports

through its subsidiaries

The vertical integration of sub-sidiaries not only gives them a competitive edge, but also makes ADNOC one of the ten largest oil and gas companies in the world. It manages oil production of more than 2.7 million barrels a day. With one of the largest oil and gas reserves in UAE, ADNOC is looking forward to continued sustainable growth of the oil and gas sector in the future.

Contribution of Oil & Gas Sector to the Economy of Abu Dhabi

The 2013 Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (SCAD) data show that the oil and gas sector contributed ap-proximately 55% to total GDP, a decrease from 53% in 2012. Abu Dhabi GDP is estimated to have grown by about 4.8% in 2013

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IN FOCUS

to Dh 953.2 billion, of which Dh 524.26 billion was contributed by the oil and gas sector.

This year the total contribution of the oil and gas sector to the GDP is expected to further decrease to 49%. The decreasing contribution of oil production to the total GDP is in line with the Abu Dhabi Vi-sion 2030 that envisions reduced reliance in the oil sector in the

coming decades. Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 emphasizes further develop-ment of the oil and gas sector in Abu Dhabi, while at the same time reducing reliance on this sector by promoting other industries to cre-ate a diversified and sustainable economy.

The Evolution of the Oil & Gas Industry in Abu Dhabi

The Emirate started quite late in the oil and gas export business com-pared with other gulf states. It was not until 1958 that the first oil well was discovered in the region. Abu Dhabi Marine Areas (ADMA), initial-ly owned by British Petroleum (BP) and Total, discovered oil in commer-cial quantities at Umm Shaif close to Das Island in Abu Dhabi.

Soon after, an oil production and processing facility was built on the island. Export of crude oil began in 1962—the year that UAE joined the family of oil exporting countries in the Gulf region. It quickly trans-formed the region from a desert oa-sis to one of the most modern met-ropolitan areas in the world.

Petroleum Development Company (Trucial Coast), a subsidiary of the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), dis-covered the onshore Bab oilfield fol-lowed by Bu Hasa field in 1962. The company changed its name to Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company (ADPC) that year, agreeing at the same time to give up parts of its concession to the government of Abu Dhabi every two years thereafter. In 1968, a third concessionary company, Abu Dhabi Oil Company (ADOC), was formed to further explore and develop the oil and gas sector in the region.

After independence of Abu Dha-bi from Britain in 1971, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) was established to manage all aspects of the emirate’s oil and gas industry. Subsequently, the national oil and gas company acquired 60% owner-ship of both ADPC and ADMA.

In 1977, ADMA was renamed the Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Com-pany (ADMA-OPCO) and designated as the emirate’s offshore operator. It maintains the main offshore oil-fields at Umm Shaif, Lower Zakum, Upper Zakum, al-Bunduq, and Abu al-Bukhoosh. The onshore opera-tions in Abu Dhabi were designated to Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) in 1978. In 1990, the Umm al Nar salt and chlorine plant was merged with the Abu Dhabi Refinery to become the ADNOC Abu Dhabi Refinery. Apart from these, various other subsidiar-ies were formed to manage, oper-ate, and further develop the oil and gas sector in Abu Dhabi.

Over the next decades, oil and gas production increased gradually in Abu Dhabi. Notable developments during the period include a com-prehensive gas injection project to enhance oil recovery, a compres-sion platform and injection net-work to deliver the gas to the injec-tion wellheads which is capable of handling a total of 300 million cubic feet daily, and two oil refineries in Umm al-Nar and Al-Ruwais capable of refining 85,000 and 120,000 bbl/day, respectively

Today, unlike other gulf regions where the government maintains 100% control of oil and gas oper-ation in the country, Abu Dhabi re-tains foreign partners in this sector on a production-sharing basis. Oil companies from Japan, UK, France, US, and elsewhere own up to 40% of the energy sector in Abu Dhabi.

This decision to retain foreign own-ership of energy resources in the country was made on the premise that the advances in technology and the depth of expertise of inter-national major players would give a technological edge to Abu Dhabi in developing the oil and gas resources in the country.

Subsidized Oil for Local Consumption and Its Benefits

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The government of Abu Dhabi provides energy subsidies to its citizens and residents alike. Sub-sidizing fossil fuel ensures that all residents, especially the poor, are able to enjoy consumption of their country’s natural resources at an affordable price. In addition, the oil subsidies greatly help in uplift-ing the economy of Abu Dhabi.

Selling fossil fuels domestically at below-market price is a form of sub-sidization of petroleum consump-tion. The low petroleum prices help in the development of various busi-nesses by lowering the cost of trans-portation and other factors that rely on petroleum products. This enables them to increase their competitive-ness and sell their products at lower cost to consumers.

On the other hand, subsidized en-ergy also increases energy consump-tion. This results in an increased cost of gas and refined fuels that have to be ultimately borne by the gov-ernment. For example, a consumer in Abu Dhabi pays around four U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour for subsi-dized energy while the actual cost to the government is between 8.9 U.S. cents to 17.7 U.S. cents. Subsidizing the refined fuels market diverts pre-cious resources of the government that could have been utilized in capi-tal projects for stimulating the econ-omy. Additionally, subsidizing energy may also result in an increased cost of petroleum products in the inter-national market.

Future Outlook of Oil Production and Consumption in Abu Dhabi

While Abu Dhabi has large vol-umes of gas and oil reserves, they cannot last forever. According to the government’s estimate, there are about 92 billion barrels of oil reserves in Abu Dhabi. The emirate produces about 2.9 million barrels per day of total oil liquids, which is slated to increase to 3.5 million

IN FOCUS

To move forward, the govern-ment of Abu Dhabi has taken an active diversification and liberal-ization program to reduce the re-liance on the hydrocarbon sector. This is consistent with the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 concerning the

need to diversify the economy. In-vesting profits from gas and oil into development of the non-oil sector is a wise move by the government that will add to the stability and sustainability of the economy.

barrels per day by 2017 according to the Minister of Enery, Suhail Mohammad Al Mazroui. Thus, Abu Dhabi’s reserves-to-production is about 93 years. In addition, Abu Dhabi has about 5.8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, which will last around a century at current production rates.

The government of Abu Dhabi is therefore looking at alternative energy sources including solar and nuclear energy to compliment the use of fossil fuels. Abu Dhabi Vi-sion 2030 envisions that the non-oil sector will play a major role in contributing to the economy of Abu Dhabi.

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S PEAKING to us from the comfort of her living room/office in her Abu Dhabi home, Noor Al Tamimi hum-

bly juggles the tasks of conducting our interview while simultaneously attending to her business needs via her assistant nearby, and the de-mands of her children who enter un-expectedly from time to time to beg mom for her attention.

Daughter to an Emirati father and Jordanian mother, Noor, like so many of us in today’s globalized and mul-ticultural world says she is lucky to have the broad cultural awareness and experience that comes with a multinational background. Noor’s early education was spent mostly at Abu Dhabi’s Al Wurood Private School, which was largely composed of children from expatriate families living in Abu Dhabi as well as some Emirati children who opted for pri-vate education at the time. Her sum-mers were spent in Jordan with her mother’s side of the family where she immersed herself in the local Jordanian culture and customs. Noor comments that these experiences exposed her to different cultures, ideas, traditions, and beliefs.

Noor left high school after com-pleting her O-level examinations in grade 11 and joined the Higher Col-leges of Technology. “I am the kind

Noor Al Tamimi

Founder and CEO of

Bedashing

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LocalEnterprise

of person who is always in a hurry. Once I learned that I could leave high school early, I took the oppor-tunity immediately,” she comments. “The biggest part of my learning was during my time at the Higher Colleges of Technology. I learned so much. The excellent thing about HCT is that they teach what you need to know and that’s it. Most of the work is practical, hands on work.” She says that this type of learning suited her personality and preferred learning style so much, which had a major im-pact on her later in life.

Noor comes from a finance family. Her father has worked at the UAE Central Bank since she was a child and Noor was inclined and encour-aged to follow in her father’s foot-steps and get her finance degree at college. After graduating, she accepted a position as a financial analyst. She looks back fondly at this period of time where she was able to dive into the financial side of businesses and understand how important various financial compo-nents were to the life of a business. But she soon realized that it would be very difficult for her to continue in the banking industry. Noor admits that, “There is not much creativity involved in financial analysis. I can create the best looking report to

present to management, but when it comes to adding and subtracting numbers, it’s not my thing.”

Noor’s first entrepreneurial venture came soon after realizing that bank-ing and finance was not for her. She wanted something creative, some-thing that was her own. She started her first company at an early age which came in the form of an Interi-or Décor company. “I did something crazy. I wanted to sell a special type of tapestries which were not com-monly available at the time, but did not have the resources to invest in a big space. So, I decided that the best and most effective way to market my product was through mail order,” Says Noor. She sold her tapestries through a catalogue which she in-serted in Zahra Khaleej, an extreme-ly popular magazine at the time. “It was a huge success,” Noor says tri-umphantly. Nonetheless, Noor could see that her new business model was limited; it relied heavily on her sourcing personally the best and lat-est materials from around the world, something that a mother of two can-not afford to do. “I realized that my customers were buying my taste and style, not my products,” Noor says. “I put a lot of effort into sourcing the best materials which I knew my customers would love and I would

37


always have to be heavily involved to continue to succeed. I always knew I wanted my own business and I knew that I wanted a business that could go global. This was not the one.”

“A dear friend introduced the idea of opening a nail bar. The demand was higher than the supply in Abu Dhabi but I was hesitant to fall into a stereotypical female business wom-an role in the beauty industry, espe-cially after the successful passing of a law in 2000 for Emirati women to own businesses outside of the beau-ty and cosmetics industry.” She soon felt herself being drawn closer to the idea, especially as she considered the potential that such a business has to grow and succeed. Selecting partners was an easy task. At home, Noor easily saw the perfect partners in her sister Dana who had a knack for marketing and Budour who, like their father, was the finance wiz among the sisters. In 2008, Dashing Nails was born. “The idea was to cre-ate a dashing world, a great world, a world for customers, for employees, and for anybody who came into con-tact with it. The world is full of mis-ery and problems. I wanted to create a magical world where everyone is

respected and treated like royalty.” She then makes a clear point: “Don’t misunderstand me though. I am not as cool as I may sound. Most people know me to be very strict and some might even be afraid of me. At the end of the day, I do have a finance background and I pay close attention to the numbers. But in my heart, this is how I envision my business and this is what I work towards.”

Noor believes in paying employees well. She set up a fair and attractive commission structure for her em-ployees, a move that was fairly new in the local industry at the time. This structure has been a significant con-tributor to motivate Noor’s employ-ees to work harder and better, all the while being rewarded for any extra effort. “Who makes the clients hap-py?” Noor asks. “The employees do, and happy employees keep happy customers. We focused a lot on train-ing and practice at the beginning and continue to do so. If it is not ‘wow’ to me, then it shouldn’t be offered to the customer,” Noor says. However, Noor explains that while investing in training and development is vital for the provision of excellent services, this has recently become a double

edged sword. Previously, the Minis-try of Labor allowed for employers to claim back training and develop-ment costs from employees if they leave the business prematurely. The rules have since changed in favor of the employees, a move that has made such investments in talent de-velopment riskier than it once was. Noor gives us the example of a train-ing program that she invested in to reduce the time it took for an acrylic nails service. “I wasn’t satisfied with the time it took for this service,” Noor says. She hired one of the top beau-ticians in the world from America to come and train ten of her employees in the latest and best techniques in the field. The program resulted in the reduction of time for this service from two or three hours down to 45 minutes. “This was a big investment. My employees have received the best training in the field and have gained invaluable knowledge. But now, they are free to go to compet-itors with these new skills at no cost. This is a huge risk and will translate to low levels of service across indus-tries as employers become reluctant to invest in training.”

When asked about the major re-

LocalEnterprise

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branding initiative that the compa-ny recently underwent, Noor tells us the story of Bedashing. After the initial success at the flagship Dash-ing Nails bar on Delma Street and their second branch at Center Mar-ket, Noor and her sisters decided to go big. They applied for funding from the Khalifa Fund for Enter-prise Development for the estab-lishment of their third and biggest branch at the time in Khalifa City A. Soon afterwards, and following a successful expansion of their busi-ness, the sisters expressed their in-terest in the Khalifa Fund franchis-ing program and were shortlisted from among a list of candidates for funding. Soon after, the sisters teamed up with a renowned brand-ing consultancy to help them with their rebranding strategy. After a quick look at the company name, the consultants advised the team that the company name, Dashing Nails, did not have global appeal. After considering the options, the team agreed on a strategy to re-brand the company with a fresh and original new name, look, and feel. Initially, the company’s slo-gan was “Be Dashing!” This slowly evolved to become a catchy name that resonated with the sisters, and so Bedashing was born. Just as Noor is trying to conclude her story, one of Noor’s daughters enters the room, demanding mommy’s atten-tion. “I have five daughters by the way,” Noor interrupts. After quite a few utters of “Masha Allah” from my side, Noor adds with a laugh, “So I am in the right business!”

Today, Bedashing has five branches across the city with over 200 em-ployees. By 2025, Noor and her sis-ters aim to have 200 branches across the region delivering 1000 services per day between them. “Those 200 branches will be owned by women,” Noor says proudly. “Like I said earlier, my business has to mean something. Our purpose is to spread a piece of Bedashing to women everywhere. When a woman looks great, she

feels great, and when a woman feels great she spreads positivity and love in her household which translates to positivity all around.” Another important goal that Noor describes is supporting women to financial in-dependence. “We don’t look for rich franchisees, especially in Abu Dhabi. Bedashing is a profitable concept and Khalifa Fund will fund 90% of the franchise startup, so why should we give it to advantaged women? We have one franchisee already. She has found a location and fits perfect-ly with our selection criteria. Being the first franchisee, she will get extra support from us and share our suc-cess if we ever decide to go public.”

Bedashing has received awards every year for their nail designs from the Nail It Awards hosted in Dubai, and in 2014 they won

critical success factors required to successfully start up a business in Abu Dhabi. “The main obstacle is also the most critical success fac-tor!” says Noor. “The difficulty of maneuvering the constantly chang-ing laws for our specific industry is definitely the biggest obstacle, particularly the labor laws. But it is this difficulty that keeps competi-tors away and makes people think twice before entering our market!” Additionally, Noor comments that finding the right location in Abu Dhabi that is actually available and keeping up with rising hous-ing costs for employees are some of the other serious challenges to consider. Noor continues by telling us, “When you decide what you want to do, make sure your busi-ness is ‘franchisable.’ Be specific with your product or service offer-

IF YOU START WITH DOING WHAT YOU REALLY LOVE AND CAN BE GREAT AT, YOU CAN FIGURE OUT THE REST WITH THE HELP OF THE RIGHT PEOPLE AND, INSHA ALLAH, IT WILL ALL WORK OUT. BELIEVE IN YOUR VISION AND PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER.”the What’s On Award for the best hair saloon in Abu Dhabi. “We are usually the only Abu Dhabi based salon which participates in the Nail It Awards. When they see our technicians walking down the aisle, they are like: Dashing is back again!” Noor says with a laugh. “And every time we win an award, another technician disappears to the competition!”

We asked Noor what some of the biggest obstacles were and the

ing and perfect it. Read. Study your field and become the most knowl-edgeable specialist in that field. Fo-cus on getting the right people, and more importantly, choose those who have a winning attitude to join your team.” In summary, Noor con-cludes by stating, “If you start with doing what you really love and can be great at, you can figure out the rest with the help of the right peo-ple and, insha Allah, it will all work out. Believe in your vision and put the pieces together.”

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I DC STANDS FOR Internation-al Data Corporation, which is an American organization that specializes in consumer tech-

nology, information technology, and telecommunications. It was established in 1964 and is current-ly headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts.

During the IDC Big Data and Busi-ness Analytics Conference on 18 November 2013 at the Emirates Palace Hotel, it was agreed that the

Business Analytics, and Business Intelligence

what are the latest trends in busi-ness analytics in the public sector?

For the most part, social interac-tions, simulations, mobile devic-es, physical infrastructure, R&D equipment, and facilities contrib-ute to this stream of data and are part of the latest innovations and trends in business analytics. The term used to group all this infor-mation is “Big Data.” Often, peo-ple fail to understand what “Big Data” means, and confuse it with

UAE’s economy produces a stream of steadily monitored and analyzed data with room for continuous im-provements in data mining and an-alytical capabilities. IDC’s estimate, based on reliable sources, is that an approximate 1.8 zettabytes of data replication and creation took place in 2011 in the UAE. (A zetta-byte is 1021 bytes, equivalent to 1.8 trillion gigabytes)

What contributes to this much flow of information and data, and

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Idea Watch

other terms describing a type of business tool.

What is “Big Data”

The proper definition of Big Data, according to IDC, is “[a] new generation of technologies or tools, which aim to extract more value from a wide range of data via high velocity capture, anal-ysis, and discovery, and that is economically acceptable for busi-nesses to use to improve them-selves.”

Big Data plays a huge role in in-creasing business potential for businesses across every industry and for businesses of all sizes. It does not require a huge invest-ment in an in-house system as it can be utilized via the Cloud. (For

more information on Cloud Com-puting see our article in Issue 2, page 46.) Projections say that spending on acquiring Big Data capabilities will reach $16.9 bil-lion in 2015.

The UAE has remained at the forefront of business analytics and is one of the biggest investors in Big Data capabilities and technolo-gies in the Middle East. More than 40% of CIOs (Chief Information Officers) claim that they scoop in-vestments in the field of business analytics and Big Data, whereas 58% of CIOs claim that compliance requirements, governance, report-ing and regulation, and the de-mand for transparency contribute to forcing people to invest more into business analytics technology and Big Data. Based on this, a siz-

able growth of approximately 20% is predicted in business analytics tools and technologies over the next decade.

How Technology Helps Collect and Interpret Big Data

Business analytics (BA) and Business Intelligence are not in-terchangeable terms. Business analytics refers to the skills, tech-nologies, and practices for con-tinuous, iterative exploration and investigation of past business per-formance to gain insight into busi-ness performance and drive future planning. Business analytics focus-es on developing new insights and ways of understanding business performance based on data and statistical methods. Business intel-ligence, in contrast, traditionally focuses on using a consistent set of metrics to both measure past performance and guide business planning, which is also based on data and statistical methods.

Through advancements in tech-nology such as display technolo-gies, sensors and the like, compa-nies can collect data by monitoring the behavior of people, events, entities, and objects. They use the data collected to apply new statis-tical, analytical, and computational techniques to study and evaluate past trends and future possibil-ities. As new display technology and visualization applications are emerging, there have been drastic improvements in how companies process and visualize the informa-tion they collect. Decision makers can now have instant access to ac-curate and timely information that enables them to make informed business decisions. Conveniently, such applications are now accessi-ble through smart phone and tab-let devices, ensuring that decision makers are never in the dark.

By using business analytics, an increasing number of compa-

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Idea Watch

nies are starting to realize the business advantages associated with such technological advance-ments. Among the numerous ad-vantages and benefits of business analytics are the ability to en-hance customer experience and increase loyalty while lowering the cost of marketing.

With advancements in analytical technology, analysts are relieved from the burden and pain involved in performing tedious manual data analysis in order to deliv-er real-time information. Since everything is computerized and electronic, the speed of transition of information is faster, facilitating better decision making and quick action to ensure better business outcomes.

Types of Business Analytics

There are four types of analytics that companies can use to learn from and better engage with their customers. It’s from the second two types, Predictive and Pre-

scriptive Analytics, that one can really get the insights needed to drive a business forward.

Descriptive Analytics:

Also known as Business Intel-ligence (BI), this is what you get from your web server through tools like Google Analytics, Om-niture, or the like. You can quick-ly understand “what happened” during a given period in the past and verify whether a marketing campaign was successful based on simple parameters, such as web page views. About 35% of com-panies surveyed say they do this consistently.

The purpose of descriptive ana-lytics is to summarize past perfor-mance. It is estimated that more than 80% of business analytics, most notably social analytics, are descriptive. Business Intelligence tools are fast becoming an essen-tial and integral management tool in most organizations.

Business intelligence can be ap-plied to the following business

purposes in order to drive busi-ness value:

• Measurement – a program that creates a hierarchy of per-formance and benchmarking metrics that informs business leaders about progress to-wards business goals.

• Analytics – a program that builds quantitative processes for a business to arrive at opti-mal decisions and to perform business knowledge discovery. This type of program frequent-ly involves data mining, pro-cess mining, statistical analysis, predictive analytics, predictive modeling, business process modeling, data lineage, com-plex event processing, and prescriptive analytics.

• Reporting/enterprise report-ing – a program that builds infrastructure for strategic reporting to serve the high-lev-el strategic management of a business, as opposed to oper-

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ational reporting. It frequently involves data visualization, executive information system, and On-Line Analytical Process-ing (OLAP).

• Collaboration platform – a pro-gram that allows stakeholders inside and outside of the busi-ness to work together through data sharing and electronic data interchange.

• Knowledge management – a program to make the company data driven through strategies and practices to identify, cre-ate, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences that repre-sent valid business knowledge. Knowledge management leads to learning management and regulatory compliance.

In addition to the above, business intelligence can provide a pro-ac-tive approach, such as an alert function that immediately notifies the end user if certain conditions are met. For example, if some busi-ness metric exceeds a pre-defined threshold, the metric will be high-lighted in standard reports and the business analyst may be alerted via email or another monitoring service. This end-to-end process requires data governance, which should be designed by persons in-side the organization who are well-versed in the procedures and poli-cies of the organization.

Diagnostic Analytics:

If you want to go deeper into the data you have collected from users in order to understand the “caus-ative chain of events” leading up to a business situation, you can use business intelligence tools to gain insights. However, it is very labo-rious work that has limited ability to give you actionable insights, ba-sically providing a very good un-derstanding of only a limited piece

of the problem you want to solve. Less than 10% of companies sur-veyed do this on occasion and less than 5% do so consistently.

Predictive Analytics:

If you can collect contextual data and correlate it with other behav-ior datasets, as well as expand data beyond what you can get from your web servers, you en-ter a whole new area where you can get real insights. Essentially, you can predict what might hap-pen if all inputs remain constant, then manipulate various criteria and business factors to simulate potential scenarios and the out-comes associated with them. Less than 1% of companies surveyed utilize this tool, but with it they have found incredible results that have already made a significant difference in their businesses.

Prescriptive Analytics:

Once you get to the point where you can consistently analyze your data to predict future perfor-

mance, you are very close to be-ing able to understand what you should do in order to maximize good outcomes and prevent po-tentially bad outcomes. This is on the bleeding edge of innovation today, but it’s attainable!

Implementation

There are numerous factors that dictate the successful adoption of good business analytics practices in an organization. Among some of the key drivers of success are the level of commitment and sponsor-ship of such a project from senior management, the level of business need for creating a data driven business analytics/intelligence pro-gram within the organization, and the amount and quality of business data available.

Creating a data-driven organization is difficult. However, with appropriate strategic direction, executive commit-ment, and a well-considered execu-tion plan, companies can leverage the promise of Big Data to become more efficient, intelligent, and profitable.

Idea Watch

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Build Your Social Profile

T HE TIDE OF SOCIAL MEDIA which has swept the world has brought with it several platforms that have provid-

ed individuals, businesses, and gov-ernments a means of interacting and connecting in a new way. One such platform is LinkedIn, a social media tool aimed mainly at professionals to help them grow their networks and careers. Although built primarily for professional networking, LinkedIn is also largely used by organizations for online promotion, recruitment and hiring, and for generating dis-cussions and debates on the latest

news, trends, and breakthroughs.

Although Facebook and Twitter lead the use of social media internation-ally, LinkedIn seems to be catching up quite rapidly. From marketing and engagement activities to estab-lishing professional networks and recruiting, LinkedIn is being used by individuals, businesses, and even governments to broaden the reach and penetration within target seg-ments. The surprising thing about the growing usage of this particular social media site is that it is not limit-ed only to the Western world, which

has always been the frontrunner in embracing such changes. Rather, the Arab world, particularly the UAE, is seeing a meteoric rise in the number of LinkedIn users.

As pointed out above, Facebook and Twitter lead the rankings in terms of the most widely used social media tools, but LinkedIn follows closely. In fact, compared with other countries in the Arab region, the UAE ranks highest in LinkedIn usage.

As of October 2014 there were over 9.4 million LinkedIn users in the Arab world, up from 7.6 million users in

Use of LinkedIn bythe Public Sector in

Abu Dhabi44



January 2014. The UAE has, since early 2012, consistently been the country with the highest LinkedIn penetration in the Arab region with just over 25% of the population us-ing the social media platform today. The number of users has increased from over 860,000 in February 2012 to roughly 2.1 million in October 2014, a growth of 1.2 million users, representing a 142% increase during that period.

The majority of LinkedIn users in the UAE are male, between the ages of 18 and 35, and includes recent grad-uates and established profession-als. Only around 28% of users in the UAE are female, which is close to the regional average of 29% but signifi-cantly lower than the global average of roughly 46%. The percentage of young LinkedIn users (those under 35) has increased over the past year from 57% in February 2014 to 60% in October 2014. This is lower than the average percentage of young Linke-dIn users in the Arab region, which stands at 68%. Being one of the more balanced countries in terms of the age of its LinkedIn users, this indicates the increasing maturity of LinkedIn usage and its prevalence across all age brackets, not just recent gradu-ates and young professionals.

LinkedIn: International Good Practices

It can be easily said that there is still ample opportunity for growth in terms of the uses of LinkedIn. Speak-ing strictly with regards to the public sector, governments and semi gov-ernment entities can use LinkedIn for various purposes. Government agencies can use LinkedIn for ex-panding their reach and accessibility to the general public. Those govern-ments especially that are pursuing e-Government or smart government approaches can use this platform to help attain their objectives. Similar-ly, government-owned investment companies can use LinkedIn to so-

licit investment ideas, find potential investors, and to create awareness regarding development projects. If nothing else, LinkedIn, as with oth-er social media sites, offers a great way of simply connecting with more people and creating a large profes-sional network.

Public sector organizations around the world are making good use of LinkedIn. A few examples of good practices observed globally are high-lighted below:

• The US Government Account-ability Office maintains a Linke-dIn page that allows people to stay connected with and abreast of the latest develop-ments and announcements of that office. It currently has a total of 36,610 followers, and actively posts blogs relating to crucial accountability matters in the US. For example, the LinkedIn page of the Account-ability Office recently featured a blog on Healthcare Fraud Pre-vention. Users could view the blog, discuss and share their opinions, and also recommend ways to improve the effective-ness of the bureau.

• The digital communications team of the UK Government runs and maintains the official LinkedIn page of its current

prime minister, David Camer-on. The page is frequently used to feature the prime minister’s speeches, announcements, and articles, which can be viewed by the users, discussed, and com-mented upon.

• A very smart use of LinkedIn is being observed by several trade and investments groups globally. One such example is that of UK Trade and Invest-ment (UKTI). It uses its Linke-dIn page to bring together a diverse set of projects, in-vestment opportunities, and ventures, as well as offering comprehensive insight into and knowledge of the invest-ment world. It is a haven for investors; with 29,495 follow-ers currently, it is one of the major drivers of investment in the country.

Local Good PracticesWith the announcement of Vision

2030, and the e-government ini-tiative by the Government of Abu Dhabi, it is not surprising to note that the use of social media sites, in-cluding LinkedIn, is on the rise in the country. Most, if not all, government and semi government agencies are using LinkedIn for online promotion,

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citizen engagement, recruitment, and wider accessibility. Particularly, the use of LinkedIn for promotion of development projects and invest-ment in the country is seen as an integral tool in the achievement of the vision.

Some examples from within Abu Dhabi that demonstrate its effec-tive use are discussed below:

• Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s Future

has an extensive following of 13,972 followers on its Linke-dIn page, which it uses to pro-mote and coordinate the 18 brand channels that it runs in the country. Abu Dhabi Media is the fastest growing media platform in the entire Middle East, with its operations spread across multiple platforms, from digital media to broadcasting and publishing. Its use of Linke-

deavors it engages in.

•Mubadala Development Com-pany is yet another example of the productive use of LinkedIn by the public sector in Abu Dha-bi. It is the country’s leading development company with a well-diversified portfolio of investments and development projects. For Mubadala, Linke-dIn is a frequently used plat-

Energy Company has a huge following on LinkedIn. The page is frequently updated to include latest development projects and contracts that the company enters into. It also features latest breakthroughs in the area of future energy technology which provides a great platform for people to discuss and share their own perspectives on the issue. Be-ing an oil rich country itself, Abu Dhabi uses this energy company page to identify pro-spective investors and gener-ate as many potential opportu-nities and business ventures as possible.

• Abu Dhabi Media (ADM), the official media organization of the Government of Abu Dhabi

dIn is seen as a tool primarily for promotion and expansion of the company’s interests, as well as to attain greater penetration in a country where media is just gaining the kind of recognition that it has long enjoyed in the West.

• The Department of Finance of the Government of Abu Dhabi also maintains an official Linke-dIn page. The page features lat-est news and announcements on the financial front, including highlights of various govern-ment projects. The idea behind this is not only to enhance the government’s prominence among the public, but also to gauge their support and trust in the government by empha-sizing the frequent financial en-

form to view projects, discuss latest investment opportuni-ties, and for job searching and recruitment. The company, as well as its use of social media channels including LinkedIn, is considered a catalyst in gener-ating investors’ confidence and interest in Abu Dhabi.

With innumerable examples from the international arena as well as from within Abu Dhabi itself, it can be safely said that LinkedIn is proving to be much more than just a professional networking site. What is commendable is Abu Dha-bi’s proactive incorporation of this particular media in its promotional and engagement activities to spur the kind of interest and business that is conducive to the attainment of Vision 2030.


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Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Not to miss Culture andHeritage Attractions in

Abu DhabiAbu Dhabi is home to a rich collection of the Emirati culture and heritage. The modern museums offer visitors

a wonderful insight into the Arabian traditions and culture while they walk through the ancient forts, gardens, and palaces of the glorious Middle Eastern history. In this segment, we take a look at some of the amazing culture and heritage attractions in and around Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is a modern marvel. Its white marble structure is a sight to behold; often compared with the majestic Taj Ma-hal. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is ornamented with exquisite artefacts

such as the world’s largest chandelier and the world’s largest hand-knot-ted carpet. The 22,412 square meter monument can accommodate 40,960 worshippers. Barring Friday mornings, which is reserved for worshippers, ad-

mission is free and open to visitors. If you have not visited or prayed at this mosque yet, you are missing out on a truly inspiring experience.

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Abu Dhabi Heritage Village

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Zayed Centre

In 2009, Abu Dhabi dedicated the Zayed Centre to the Father of the Na-tion, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The center dedicated to Sheikh Zayed houses a photo gallery, a sampling of personal belongings, and a collection of his personal cars. It offers a unique experience for any-one interested in knowing the man who laid the foundations of the 21st century UAE.

Historically, many villages were concentrated around oases in UAE. At the Abu Dhabi Heritage Village the visitor will find a reconstruction of one of these tradi-tional oasis villages. On display are rarities such as goat hair tents. There are also traditional water wells, an irrigation system, and other engineering creations that made life in the desert possible. It is lauded areminder of the past and an insight-ful educational experience for persons of all ages.

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The Al Ain National Museum is the oldest museum in Al Ain and was built by the former President H.H the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The museum contains artifacts dedicated to both the ethnographical and archaeo-logical history of the region. Visitors will get an overall view of country’s 7500 years of tradition and culture.

On display are objects catering to the daily routine activities of the com-munity, such as traditional education and teaching, recreational pastimes, household equipment, and profession-al gear such as those used for weaving, fishing and medical procedures. Tra-ditional art forms and musical instru-

Al Ain Palace Museum

Al Ain National Museum

Al Ain Palace Museum, or Sheikh Zayed Palace Museum, was the pal-ace of H.H the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The palace, which was built in 1937 and has since been converted into a museum, strives to maintain the look and feel of the past and does considerable justice to the intention. AS this was the actual resi-

dence of the ruler and his family, the museum contains much information to educate us about his family tree and history.

The palace consists of many court-yards, each for specific purposes such as wards for guests, children’s hous-ing, and meeting rooms or ‘majlis’ for

ments are also present.The Archaeological section displays

objects from Stone Age to the Islamic period; definitely a treasure trove for the history buff. Several items are ex-

the local and foreign visitors to the palace. Thanks to both the construc-tion as well as the way of life on dis-play, a walk through the courtyards is bound to transport you into an al-together different world, very much in contrast with the bustling life you would have left behind at the gates.

hibited, including ancient tools made of flint and stone, and fine arrow-heads. The section also contains arti-facts from the grave at Hili and Umm an Nar, such as pottery, stone vessels, and copper objects.

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Al Maqtaa Fort

The 200-year-old Al Maqtaa Fort of-fers a wonderful historical backdrop to the modern Al Maqtaa Bridge

Muraijib Fort

Built in 1816, Muraijib Fort Abu Dhabi is one of the oldest forts in the garden city of Al Ain in Abu Dhabi. The mar-velous fort, surrounded by attractively landscaped gardens, was built by Sheikh Shakbut. It is divided into three sec-tions: the main fort, a watch tower, and a smaller fort. Muraijib Fort is reserved exclusively for women and children to enjoy in a comfortable and relaxing envi-ronment. Restored to its original glory, it is also illuminated at night.

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and adjacent Sheikh Zayed Bridge. It is an important part of the Emi-rati cultural history. The visitor in-formation center provides insights about the fort and the history of local area.

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Al Jahili Fort

The fort was first erected to protect the city and its precious palm groves. Built in 1891 the landmark histor-ic building served as a home to the Oman Trucial Scouts and the local governor until it was converted to a museum. The fort is known for its collection of the work of British ad-venturer Sir Wilfred Thesiger (popu-larly known as Mubarak Bin London).

Located at the back of the Maritime Museum, the Khalifa Park Maritime Museum time tunnel can be easily missed. But if you are able to find it, the time tunnel is one of Abu Dhabi’s true hidden curiosities—a subterra-nean ride that tells the story of the emirate via sound, speech, and a legion of smiling waxworks. The time tunnel takes visitors on a 20-minute rail ride through the country’s history and is a favorite among kids and parents. One

Time Tunnel at Khalifa Park Maritime Museum

of the highlights at the museum is the section that shows why it is important to retain age-old values and traditions while embracing the future.

The ocean, sandy beaches, and gleaming city are very popular with tourists and residents alike. But any-one who takes the time to visit these cultural and historical sites will find a dimension of the city that will add im-mensely to the experience of a short visit or making a home in Abu Dhabi.

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Whether you choose to stroll amongst the cafés of the Corniche, or savour the

hustle and bustle of the Central Market, a serene oasis awaits your return.

You will be captivated by Arabic splendour and tones and textures as warm as the

welcome you will receive.

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