We Are 25! Deloitte | a Middle East Point of View - Spring 2018 |

Middle East PPublished by oDeloitte & Toucihe (M.nE.) and distributet d to thoughto leaders across f the region | SVpring 2018 iew The disruption... …And how to deal Yours if you can Home delivery Regulating cryptocurrency with it afford it Potential for e-commerce Business Continuity Dubai’s housing market in the region Management We are 25! Deloitte | A Middle East Point of View - Spring 2018 | Spring 2018 Middle East Point of View Published by Deloitte & Touche (M.E.) www.deloitte.com/middleeast 2 Deloitte | A Middle East Point of View - Spring 2018 | Editorial A word from the editorial team It is, undeniably, the age of woman. appropriate talent solutions, not only to From their side, Nipun Srivastava maintain a motivated workforce internally and Saad Qureshi counsel that It has been over 45 years since Helen but also to address their citizens’ needs,” cryptocurrencies are still “highly volatile.” Reddy famously sang “I am woman, hear he continues. In their article Regulating cryptocurrencies , me roar.” Now women from all industries, they outline some of the challenges from the movie studios in Hollywood to Ziad Haddad takes the other viewpoint regarding the adoption of the boardrooms of the Arab world, have when it comes to Business Continuity cryptocurrencies and some of the done just that. And the world has had no Management i.e. the ability of an ways forward in regulating them. choice but to stand up and listen. organization to maintain essential functions during, and after a disaster has In my own article charting the last eight But as any woman will tell you, she could occurred, seeing it not only as a necessity years and celebrating our 25 th issue, I not fulfil her true potential without the but as a system that, “when properly mention that some of our perennial right partner. Sometimes this partner is implemented […] not only affects strategy features include the construction and the person you live with, sometimes it is but also protects all the processes of high property sector in Dubai and this issue your mentor, and sometimes it is your value to the organization.” Read more on is no exception. Martin Cooper, in his workplace, or even anyone in a position the subject in his article Business article The development of Dubai’s to offer you support. continuity: a different perspective . affordable housing sector , addresses We are proud, in this 25 th issue, to be some of the challenges facing this But sometimes what is called for is covering Deloitte’s own champions of vital yet troubled sector. not continuity, rather, disruption. women’s rights and gender equality. In a E-commerce has drastically changed the We are very proud to have come this special insert, Rana Salhab, David Sproul global retail market say Anish Mehta and far with you, dear reader, and hope that and Emma Codd, recipients of the 2017 Sachin Bhanvari in their article, Going you have been enjoying reading our Financial Times’ HERoes award for digital: the next frontier for Middle East magazine as much as we have enjoyed champions of women in business, weigh retail . “But this megatrend,” they say, producing it. Here’s to the next 25! in on what it takes to empower women “which has transformed the dynamics in the workplace: the differences in the of consumer behavior and business Middle East and Europe, and gender models in retail, remains untapped in ME PoV editorial team pay gap. the Middle East and offers huge There is no doubt that changes in the potential for industry players.” cultural landscape will eventually affect Who says disruption, says fintech, and changes in the workplace. That is who says fintech, says cryptocurrency. In precisely what Ghassan Turqieh says in the first of our two enlightening articles his article Agile in the public sector in which on this digital evolution, Rajeev Patel and he posits that change in the public sector Uthman Al-Basri caution that “failure to is not a choice, but a necessity. “Leaders address it early, can trounce even the need to consider modernizing their most dominant of companies […] The use approach to managing the day-to-day of blockchain technology has enabled the business,” he says. “Moreover, particularly rapid ascent of cryptocurrencies such as in Saudi Arabia, women are becoming Bitcoin into public discourse, igniting a increasingly involved, heavily encouraged frenzy of interest while creating and expected to participate in the fundamental challenges to regulators workforce. These dynamics will inevitably and money markets.” In their article on drive public sector leaders to modernize, fintech, they warn readers not to “remain embrace changes and deploy analogue in a digital world.” 03 Deloitte | A Middle East Point of View - Spring 2018 | Contents Contents 06 We are 25! Rana Hanna FT HERoes award 32 Rana Ghandour Salhab on gender equality in the Middle East Deloitte | A Middle East Point of View - Spring 2018 | Contents 10 16 20 26 Agile in the public sector Business continuity Going digital Fintech Ghassan Turqieh, A different perspective The next frontier for Don’t be analogue in Hanna Aoun and Elie Nasr Ziad El Haddad and Middle East retail a digital world Naji Zoghbi Anish Mehta and Rajeev Patel and Sachin Bhandari Uthman Al-Basri FT HERoes award FT HERoes award 38 42 48 52 David Sproul on Emma Codd on Regulating The development of gender equality gender pay gap cryptocurrencies Dubai’s affordable Nipun Srivastava and housing sector Saad Qureshi Martin Cooper 05 Deloitte | A Middle East Point of View - Spring 2018 | 25th issue 06 Deloitte | A Middle East Point of View - Spring 2018 | 25th issue We are 25! 07 Deloitte | A Middle East Point of View - Spring 2018 | 25th issue Since that first issue, the Eight years and twenty-five issues ago, Dubai 2020 was a decade away, the Middle East Point of View magazine borrowing money was probably easier world has done a triple was conceived. The mandate: to create and the Arab Spring had yet to bloom. somersault, flipped on a magazine that conveys “uninhibited and independent views and opinions” And the world probably seemed a lot its axis twice and was on the region’s issues of most concern, less scary. You probably still had to head spewed out of a financial especially as regards regulation, towards a brick-and-mortar building to vortex from which it is environment and sustainability, fiscal make a banking transaction. Today, as a reform and corporate governance. company, as an individual, as a bank or still reeling. even a public sector entity, you have to The first issue rolled hot off the press watch your every move, make sure your in the spring of 2010, entitled “On the present is compliant and your future is region’s burning issues.” These included mapped out and the ever-accelerating corporate restructuring, fraud, rise of rate of change accounted for. Big or the CFO, business intelligence, risk small, incorporated or family-owned, management in the construction you have to work harder to retain talent business, taxation, telecoms, corporate (these millennials are hard to please but responsibility and sustainability. they are talented!), your C-Suite has to keep up to speed with issues that may At the time, Facebook was only a virtual seem beyond their grasp and, assuming yearbook, Airbnb had just launched and you’re in the Gulf, you have to budget Uber had yet to be born. To many people, for VAT. the cloud was still a mass of condensed water vapor floating high in the sky. You’ve come a long way. Sometimes it would release raindrops. Smartphones were not yet a “necessity.” Since that first issue, what was then And we’re not even mentioning considered a disruption is now simply a Instagram. way of life. As a reader, chances are you are either on Facebook, have taken an We’ve come a long way. Uber at least once and stayed in an Airbnb listed property. If not, you’re Now and then resisting change quite well! But perhaps Since that first issue, the world has done most of your files are in the clouds a triple somersault, flipped on its axis without you even knowing. twice and was spewed out of a financial vortex from which it is still reeling. Through it all, Middle East Point of View Meanwhile in the Middle East, housing was present, shedding light and prices in Dubai soared, crude oil prices translating these changes with objectivity tanked, and political upheaval ran hand- and a poised, even manner, an insider in-hand with the imperative to compete look from the people directly implicated in, and conform to, a technological world in these changes. advancing at a rapidly alarming rate. Naturally, there are recurring themes: When we first launched, if you were living IFRS, risk and compliance, technology, in the Gulf you were paying no taxes, family business and real estate are some 08 Deloitte | A Middle East Point of View - Spring 2018 | 25th issue of our perennial features. Then there as verbs (“ping” anyone?) and of are those issues where we peak more acronyms turning into words—such as closely at issues dear to our hearts, like GIFify (Graphics Interchange Format, in education or Islamic finance. We also case you were wondering.) We now have country specials like Malta, Iraq accept disruption as a given, we just and Qatar. concentrate on how to deal with it. But challenge ourselves we must and Perhaps one of the things we will say rest on our laurels we must not. So about today is that we started talking sometimes we also delve into stories about succession.

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